Spoiler alert: This blog contains spoilers for episode two of Sky Atlantic’s Fortitude
This week we have our first proper meeting with Markus (Darren Boyd), Frank and Jules’ nosy neighbour, who introduces himself to DCI Morton along with his personable girlfriend Shirley. They both seem nice so they’re probably the killers. I am going to say this about every new character we meet to cover my back.
In a handy piece of exposition, Markus clarifies the earlier assertion that “You cannot die here” by explaining that the permafrost in Fortitude prevents the usual post-death decay of a body. He says that there are corpses buried in Fortitude’s now disused cemetery that still contain plague. Cut to the mysterious mammoth which is presumably still harbouring whatever nasty bug killed it all those millions of years ago.
Celia is Jason’s wife and probably the killer. OK, I’ll stop now. But she seems to have been unaware of her husband’s “research” with Natalie up at their love cabin on the glacier. When Natalie is challenged on their tryst back at the cop shop, she scoffs at the idea of an affair and says they were just keeping each other warm. By the end of this episode we find out that quite a few different couples have been secretly “keeping each other warm” behind their spouse’s back. This requires its own separate spreadsheet: see notes and queries.
Trish Stoddart tells Morton he owes her for the way he broke it to her that her husband was dead. He says he was determining, by her reaction, whether she had anything to do with it and now he knows she didn’t. So that’s all right then. Is it fair to assume that, even if Morton is a real policeman, he’s probably a raging sociopath?
Sheriff Dan Anderssen continues his hostility towards Morton until the end of the episode when he defrosts slightly and buys his arch enemy a drink. Is this another ploy or does he finally acknowledge that he could do with some help?
Meanwhile, the mysterious Ronnie Morgan and his daughter make a run for it in their boat, but he won’t tell her why. Is it because he thinks Jason murdered Stoddart? He can be heard begging someone to lend him a sea plane so he clearly wants to put a lot of ocean between him and whatever he thinks has gone on.
In a stroke of pure genius, back at the crime scene, Morton deduces that Stoddart paused his TV to let the killer in, thinking that they wouldn’t stay long. The pause counter on the screen tells us it’s been like that for 35 hours or more, giving a strong indication of the time he was killed.
Governor Odegard’s attempt to bribe information out of Henry falls on deaf ears and she leaves in anger, much to his delight. Gambon looks like he’s having a whale of a time and is one of the highlights of every episode for me. They’d better not kill him off before the end.
Henry goes to visit Liam and Jules at the hyperbaric unit and she tells him they bought one of his books when they knew they were moving to Fortitude. Literally every detail feels like it could be significant. Is this significant? And why does this seeming stranger go to visit a kid he doesn’t know?
Natalie is tasked by Governor Odegard and Morton with investigating the mammoth’s tooth – we know it’s a tooth now, but is it real or fake? They both tell her separately that she is only to reveal the results to them and no one else. If it is a real mammoth tooth and that gnarled corpse we keep seeing actually is the owner of said tooth, Odegard’s hotel dreams may come crashing down.
So, to summarise, everyone is sleeping with everyone else, most people in Fortitude have a secret, and the demented polar bears are acting as some kind of conduit for everyone’s latent passions. I’m like a pig in muck here. What on earth will happen next week?
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