Well, this one may strike you as another dismal, dreary, downbeat episode, ridden with graphic carnage and that irritating, screeching theme song, but Kenneth Branagh and Saskia Reeves rise above the turmoil, to deliver the finest "Wallander" performances of the season, while David Warner also leaves his lasting impression.
This opens with a murder, a perpetrator's stalking an elderly gentleman in the woods near Ystad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden, shoving him onto a deck of sharp boards, leaving him to suffer. A second murder victim, is forced to hike barefoot into the woods, and strangled while tied to the trunk of a tree. A third victim is overtaken in the woods with chloroform, roped into an open body bag, and shoved from a pier into a lake to drown. A suspected fourth intended victim may be shoved onto the railroad tracks as a moving train approaches unless the Ystad Municipality Polis team arrives to thwart a fourth murder.
When Polis Chief Lisa Holgersson (Sadie Shimmin) insists Detective Kurt Wallander (Kenneth Branagh) to break from investigating this latest string of murders during his father's Povel Wallander (David Warner) illness, Kurt insists upon working despite the toll demanded upon his stamina. Fellow officers Anne-Britt Hoglund (Sarah Smart), Magnus Martinsson (Tom Hiddleston) and Nyberg (Richard McCabe) remain loyal to Kurt, continuing to alert him each time which someone discovers a body.
Some intended victims include Holger Eriksson (Howard Swinson), automobile salesman who dedicates poetry to Krista; Gosta Runfeldt (Stefan Karlsson), florist planning an airplane trip; Eugen Blomberg (Fredrik Dolk), entrepreneur of international business company; Gote Tandvall (Dudley Sutton), elderly gentlemen having dealings with others; and Max Lunnqvist (Patrik Karlson), younger gentleman working at railroad station.
Meanwhile Kurt visits Povel, who asks Nurse Gertrude (Polly Hemingway) to stay, to listen to his conversation. Povel asks Kurt to take him home to his studio because Povel doesn't want to die in the nursing home, with all meaning ending there. Kurt agrees to return Povel home, where Nurse Gertrude accompanies Povel, who tells Kurt to avoid remaining alone because no one handles life and death alone.
Linda Wallander (Jeany Spark) arrives by railroad with Inga Wallander (Phyllis Logan), her mother, who surprises Kurt with her visit to the church memorial service. Afterward, Inga asks Kurt why he continues to wear his wedding band because they cannot turn back. When Kurt asks Linda if she cares for anything from her grandfather's estate, she answers that he already gave her his poetry last summer.
Gertrude volunteers to see Inga and Linda to the depot, while Kurt continues the multi-homicide investigation. At Polis Station, driver Sven Tyren (John-Paul Hurley) reports Eriksson missing because he hasn't responded to deliveries. Sven accompanies Kurt, Magnus and Nyberg to the residence, where they discover first body.
Anne-Britt asks to meet Kurt at the florist, Manager Vanja Andersson (Saskia Reeves) shows them the back room, to discover blood stains, to report Florist Gosta Runfeldt missing, after not appearing for a flight. Vanja accompanies Anne-Britt and Kurt to Polis Station, to which she is often re-invited when evidence and additional bodies surface.
Magnus calls Kurt by morning to inform him that a jogger has found another body, tortured and strapped to a tree, a victim of strangulation. Polis Chief Lisa Holgersson offers Kurt a break to mourn, but he continues to investigate.
Daniel Gylling (William Scott-Masson), a Maitre d'hotel, introduces Kurt to Bo Runfeldt (Edward Hughes), son of Gosta, and meets with Kurt, saying that his sister and he had lost mother to suicide, after Gosta was abusive, and that Gosta and Vanja shared an intimate past. Vanja soon tells Kurt that Gosta was sometimes abusive, and she stayed on in his employ to support her young son, Peter Andersson (Albert Maris).
When Anne-Britt discovers a suitcase in a field, then taken to forensics, the Department again summons Vanja to identify the contents. Vanja reports that these articles of clothing definitely belong to Gosta, but they're too neatly folded to indicate that he has packed the suitcase. Plus they have a scent of perfume, indicating that a woman may have been involved.
At a local Maternity ward, an intruder interrupts a birthing by 20-year-old Katerina Taxall (Alice Mary), who is believed to have been involved with one of the victims, while Midwife Yiva Brink (Sanchia McCormack) pursues the intruder, who assaults her.
Soon, a jogger is abducted, chloroformed, bound into an open bag, and shoved from a pier and drowned. Nyberg, Magnus and Kurt arrive the next day to investigate the scene of the murder. Kurt questions Adela Blomberg (Beatie Edney), who has reported her husband missing that day, and she also reports Eugen's chasing after many women, but that he threatened to cut her funds if she were to leave him.
After Kurt holds a press conference to petition residents to identify a woman with cropped dark hair, Vanja reports to Kurt that she has participated in a former support group of abused women, having five regulars plus occasional guests. Yvonne (Claire Cox), the sister of Krista, has belonged to the group and had short dark hair, but Vanja recalls none of the members' surnames. Kurt notices on Vanja's wall a landscape painting by Povel, which begins to create a sense of understanding between Kurt and Vanja, before Peter Andersson, her son, enters the room.
Gote Tandvall (Dudley Sutton) is then questioned as someone who remembers the sisters Harverman (Krista and Yvonne) through his dealings. Elinor Grunden (Rebecca Thorn) is questioned about her husband's disappearance and conduct. Max Lunnqvist (Patrik Karlson) is running behind schedule for his shift at the railroad station, at which Polis scurry to attempt to prevent another murder and stage a compelling showdown. The cast is rounded out by Joanna Bacon as Neighbour, and Karen Gledhill as Nurse.
This opens with a murder, a perpetrator's stalking an elderly gentleman in the woods near Ystad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden, shoving him onto a deck of sharp boards, leaving him to suffer. A second murder victim, is forced to hike barefoot into the woods, and strangled while tied to the trunk of a tree. A third victim is overtaken in the woods with chloroform, roped into an open body bag, and shoved from a pier into a lake to drown. A suspected fourth intended victim may be shoved onto the railroad tracks as a moving train approaches unless the Ystad Municipality Polis team arrives to thwart a fourth murder.
When Polis Chief Lisa Holgersson (Sadie Shimmin) insists Detective Kurt Wallander (Kenneth Branagh) to break from investigating this latest string of murders during his father's Povel Wallander (David Warner) illness, Kurt insists upon working despite the toll demanded upon his stamina. Fellow officers Anne-Britt Hoglund (Sarah Smart), Magnus Martinsson (Tom Hiddleston) and Nyberg (Richard McCabe) remain loyal to Kurt, continuing to alert him each time which someone discovers a body.
Some intended victims include Holger Eriksson (Howard Swinson), automobile salesman who dedicates poetry to Krista; Gosta Runfeldt (Stefan Karlsson), florist planning an airplane trip; Eugen Blomberg (Fredrik Dolk), entrepreneur of international business company; Gote Tandvall (Dudley Sutton), elderly gentlemen having dealings with others; and Max Lunnqvist (Patrik Karlson), younger gentleman working at railroad station.
Meanwhile Kurt visits Povel, who asks Nurse Gertrude (Polly Hemingway) to stay, to listen to his conversation. Povel asks Kurt to take him home to his studio because Povel doesn't want to die in the nursing home, with all meaning ending there. Kurt agrees to return Povel home, where Nurse Gertrude accompanies Povel, who tells Kurt to avoid remaining alone because no one handles life and death alone.
Linda Wallander (Jeany Spark) arrives by railroad with Inga Wallander (Phyllis Logan), her mother, who surprises Kurt with her visit to the church memorial service. Afterward, Inga asks Kurt why he continues to wear his wedding band because they cannot turn back. When Kurt asks Linda if she cares for anything from her grandfather's estate, she answers that he already gave her his poetry last summer.
Gertrude volunteers to see Inga and Linda to the depot, while Kurt continues the multi-homicide investigation. At Polis Station, driver Sven Tyren (John-Paul Hurley) reports Eriksson missing because he hasn't responded to deliveries. Sven accompanies Kurt, Magnus and Nyberg to the residence, where they discover first body.
Anne-Britt asks to meet Kurt at the florist, Manager Vanja Andersson (Saskia Reeves) shows them the back room, to discover blood stains, to report Florist Gosta Runfeldt missing, after not appearing for a flight. Vanja accompanies Anne-Britt and Kurt to Polis Station, to which she is often re-invited when evidence and additional bodies surface.
Magnus calls Kurt by morning to inform him that a jogger has found another body, tortured and strapped to a tree, a victim of strangulation. Polis Chief Lisa Holgersson offers Kurt a break to mourn, but he continues to investigate.
Daniel Gylling (William Scott-Masson), a Maitre d'hotel, introduces Kurt to Bo Runfeldt (Edward Hughes), son of Gosta, and meets with Kurt, saying that his sister and he had lost mother to suicide, after Gosta was abusive, and that Gosta and Vanja shared an intimate past. Vanja soon tells Kurt that Gosta was sometimes abusive, and she stayed on in his employ to support her young son, Peter Andersson (Albert Maris).
When Anne-Britt discovers a suitcase in a field, then taken to forensics, the Department again summons Vanja to identify the contents. Vanja reports that these articles of clothing definitely belong to Gosta, but they're too neatly folded to indicate that he has packed the suitcase. Plus they have a scent of perfume, indicating that a woman may have been involved.
At a local Maternity ward, an intruder interrupts a birthing by 20-year-old Katerina Taxall (Alice Mary), who is believed to have been involved with one of the victims, while Midwife Yiva Brink (Sanchia McCormack) pursues the intruder, who assaults her.
Soon, a jogger is abducted, chloroformed, bound into an open bag, and shoved from a pier and drowned. Nyberg, Magnus and Kurt arrive the next day to investigate the scene of the murder. Kurt questions Adela Blomberg (Beatie Edney), who has reported her husband missing that day, and she also reports Eugen's chasing after many women, but that he threatened to cut her funds if she were to leave him.
After Kurt holds a press conference to petition residents to identify a woman with cropped dark hair, Vanja reports to Kurt that she has participated in a former support group of abused women, having five regulars plus occasional guests. Yvonne (Claire Cox), the sister of Krista, has belonged to the group and had short dark hair, but Vanja recalls none of the members' surnames. Kurt notices on Vanja's wall a landscape painting by Povel, which begins to create a sense of understanding between Kurt and Vanja, before Peter Andersson, her son, enters the room.
Gote Tandvall (Dudley Sutton) is then questioned as someone who remembers the sisters Harverman (Krista and Yvonne) through his dealings. Elinor Grunden (Rebecca Thorn) is questioned about her husband's disappearance and conduct. Max Lunnqvist (Patrik Karlson) is running behind schedule for his shift at the railroad station, at which Polis scurry to attempt to prevent another murder and stage a compelling showdown. The cast is rounded out by Joanna Bacon as Neighbour, and Karen Gledhill as Nurse.