Review of Byfånen

The second episode of this series is if anything even better than the first. When Goran goes into the bank wearing war paint and with a feather in his hair nobody is afraid, they know him as the local idiot; he is eccentric but harmless. This changes when he shows them a bomb and demands that they transfer a specific amount of money to an account in Denmark. Stefan goes in and persuades Goran to release the hostages, the then comes out saying everything will be okay when he pulls the red wire; it is not however and the bomb detonates. It was clearly a very strange bank robbery, why would a robber only ask for a relatively small amount and why would he kill himself immediately afterwards? The money had been sent to a doctor's surgery in Denmark but he had sent it back remarkably quickly; before he had even been informed of the circumstances. As the investigation progresses we learn that Goran was connected to Doctor Leike but almost as soon as we learn he is a prime suspect he too is killed. Both bombs are marked with signs of the zodiac and a set of astrological charts leads to Kurt consulting a local astrologer who tells him they suggest that there will be a third event and that Goran may have a twin. Knowing when the next event is likely to be it is a race against time for the Ystad police to catch the bomber before he kills again.

This was a gripping episode where Kurt plays a larger role than the previous episode, that doesn't mean Linda doesn't also play a large role, in fact she transfers from uniform to CID. She is also getting closer to Stefan; they are moving in together although only to share a house, they will have separate bedrooms. The acting was top notch, especially from Krister Henriksson, Johanna Sällström and Ola Rapace who play Kurt and Linda Wallander and Stefan the leading police officers, I also like Mats Bergman's low key portrayal of Nyberg, the forensics expert.