I've just watched "Mastermind" after enjoying quite a few of the other Wallander series, and I was reduced to shouting at the TV towards the end. In the final moments, when Wallander and his partner save their daughters from hanging, instead of the two girls and the policewoman remaining with Wallander's partner (thus two armed police officers) while Wallander goes in pursuit of the psychopath, the policewoman takes Wallander's daughter Linda, who is bandaged so she cannot see, into the bowels of the building they are in, for no good reason. Naturally, the policewoman is attacked from behind, and Linda, after ripping the bandage off, then wanders around aimlessly with a gun, wondering where the psychopath is, constantly walking backwards (naturally). She is supposed to be a trained policewoman, but instead of backing into a secure corner (any corner), and retaining the gun to protect herself if the psycho attacks her from the front (the only possibility if she is backed into a corner), she keeps wandering around in panic among large building support columns, behind any one of which the psycho could be hiding, and from where he can surprise her. Of course, he does exactly that, which is made easier for him by the fact that Linda keeps walking around backwards. I have never seen a more stupid piece of plotting in a police drama. Making police officers behave in such an obviously idiotic fashion destroys all credibility in the show.
Review of Mastermind
