Spoiler alert: This blog contains spoilers for episode ten of Sky Atlantic’s Fortitude
And now, the end is near and so we face the final round of vicious abdominal intrusions by psychotic members of the public, frothing at the mouth and seemingly parted from all reason.
Will Sheriff Dan Anderssen save DCI Morton or let him freeze/bleed to death out on the glacier? Talk about a cliffhanger … well, glacier-hanger. Sure enough, his moral core must be intact because the police helicopter swoops into the scene and Dan is distraught to see his dad, Henry, with his brains splattered all over the snow. He rushes to a barely conscious Morton who mutters: “You came.” Adding: “I hate this place.” You can’t blame him. Wherever he lives in London could never be as bad as this – even Lewisham.
Meanwhile, Dan is handily flashing back to that festive night at the hotel where a drunken Pettigrew, sporting comedy reindeer antlers, colludes secretly, but quite loudly, with Yuri. They both snarl unpleasantly at Eric who appears to be in on their plot. The next thing we know, a wounded Pettigrew is in his hotel room demanding ice, which Elena dutifully brings.
Then it turns nasty. Pettigrew’s attack on Elena and her subsequent self-defence with a knife explains the big secret between Elena and Dan. He didn’t just cover up her status as a former convict when she arrived in Fortitude. He helped her out of a sticky situation with Pettigrew and we can now confidently guess how that ended.
This is where it all gets a bit Fight Club. Because Pettigrew and Dan both wanted Elena, but only one of them actually broke from his moral confines and tried to have her by force. Pettigrew goads Dan about this until there is only one possible outcome. He drags the vile Scot across the ice where he handcuffs him to that now infamous pylon and there he leaves him.
A shot rings out and this is where we came in. Henry, the dying man with nothing to lose, killed the dying man who would probably have been grateful for the early release as a polar bear had made light work of his torso.
We’ll never know if Dan said all of this out loud or just thought it as Morton quietly breathes his last. Yes, Stanley Tucci is added to the eminent roll call of incredible actors callously killed off by Fortitude writer Simon Donald.
And while this bombshell is quietly dropped, you’ve probably quite forgotten about all the flesh-tearing zombie gut-pukers gradually falling ill one by one and then going all glassy-eyed before turning into unstoppable killers. I know I had.
A foolhardy Max and Yuri steal the ice drill and head to the mammoth graveyard for a piece of the ivory action, little knowing that bad things await them there.
And back at the lab, Natalie is listening to PJ Harvey and inspecting something through a microscope when Jason surprises her from behind. Luckily Vincent and the cops aren’t far behind him and she is spared the same fate as Dr Allardyce and Prof Stoddart. This disease is no respecter of academia.
Elena comes to ask Dan if he’d like to join Carrie and her for pizza. He snarls a refusal and walks away to deal with the seven kinds of shit that is kicking off on his patch. Stolen ice drill, dead Met detective, dead secret dad, rabid miner: I mean, it’s a pretty long list.
Back in the isolation ward, Dr Allardyce lies on life support as the boils on her face pulsate noticeably. Have none of the medical staff noticed this unnerving development, because I’m pretty sure that’s a bad sign? It becomes clear she is a living host for whatever is incubating inside her.
It’s too late for Vincent as hundreds of the flying horrors shoot out of Dr Allardyce’s every orifice and he and Natalie both realise that the door must remain shut to contain them. Is this the end for our intrepid young scientist? And what are the disgusting creepy crawlies attacking him? But the biggest question left unanswered is: can Fortitude make us squirm any more in the final episode?
