If this series were summed up in a single noise, it would have to be the strange cackle-cry Marcus lets out in the penultimate episode. He’s admitted that it was he who set in motion the contract killings of Isabella, Elisabeth, Niclas, Robin and Harwe. While Rolf listens in bland horror, wearing yet another absurdly big-necked jumper, Marcus grapples with a plethora of emotions. And that’s when he emits this rollercoaster of a noise – just strange enough to keep you listening, and yet comically overdone; all you can do is buckle up for the ride. That, I realised, as the series came to its frenzied yet feeble conclusion, is what Modus has been – a jarring ride with just enough hairpins to keep you entertained.
If only the acting had been less hammy, the plot less daft and the American accents less rubbish, it could have been great. But as it is, it will have to settle for being the strange black sheep sibling of the Scandi-noir family.
So, as the series drew to a close we got to the crux of the killings, and the killer: one Richard Forrester, or, as Inger would have us think, Satan, the fallen angel whose tattooed black wings signify his evil. He’s a supremacist who’s been known, according to his FBI file, to be homophobic, related to his religious beliefs, and to have been in psychiatric treatment as a teen. Oh, and he’s also an outdoorsman … which of course means Ingver connects him to the burnt-out car and caravan that’s been discovered in the woods.
Richard’s aunt, the woman hanging up laundry in the pastel American world we catch another glimpse of this week, was married to Jacob Lindstrum, the inflammatory preacher who we saw die in a raid by the Feds. His file also confirms what we already knew about the killer formerly known as Caravan Man: he’s prone to violent outbursts, especially when his meticulous plans go out of the window. Which is why, as the Ings close in on him and he struggles to complete his task, we see him rapidly unravelling, desperately trying to cling to the course.
They identify him by finally tracking down Fanny – the painter girl living in the tunnels with the last victim, Hawre – who had scratched the killer’s face in a fight. Inger’s description of the altercation is worth noting: “He comes from a conservative background in which gender roles have remained fixed. He underestimated her, her strength and her will to live.” Sure enough, she still has his DNA under her fingernails.
But back a few steps first: Marcus unwittingly contracted this man to start this Scandinavian killing spree. Why? Well, in a roundabout way because Niclas Rosén was his half brother. Niclas had apparently only found out he was the illegitimate son of bad egg shipping magnate Lars Olaf Ståhl recently, when his mother spilled the beans before she died. And although things were hunky dory for a while between Marcus and his new sibling, it didn’t last. Niclas’ mother had told him he was the sole heir to the Ståhl fortune, if only he could locate the fancy law firm that had the will. (Cue a scene in a law firm where the lawyers who had only just found said will in the lawyer’s grandpa’s things, where it had been gathering dust, shred it on hearing of Marcus’ death to avoid looking incompetent). So Marcus’ father was, we learn, just evil enough, and just unhappy enough with his son’s “lifestyle” as a gay man to bequeath everything to “the bastard”. One of the cruel ironies that makes Marcus so emotionally confounded he emits The Noise: Lars had not known Niclas was gay too.
Anyway, as he did his Christmas shopping, Marcus got in touch with a man who suggested a solution to stop this new half-brother from taking everything away from him. Only problem: the solution seems to have been for an extremist anti-gay group based in Texas to send an unhinged discharged US marine to kill six gay people in Sweden, rather than just targeting the one Marcus intended. I would say these things happen, but …
And so to this week’s big mystery: who was to be the final victim, the +1? Was it Marcus? He ruled himself out when he killed himself – in a beautifully shot scene, where Scandinavia’s classic lack of curtains came into its blood-spattered own. And while there was some confusion, even from people within the organisation doing the killing, as to whether that counted, our killer was adamant it didn’t: “different score” he snarled.
And so to a tense 20 or so minutes where we thought poor little Stina and/or Linnea were in trouble, though when you think about the score that needs settling – to kill one more gay person – that never made any sense. But with Linnea now in cahoots with Stina, unsafe in the knowledge that her sister witnessed a murder and knows who the culprit is, and with the pair unable to get in touch with their mum, Inger, as she grapples with dying phone batteries, an intense work schedule, a steamy new love affair – finally! – and a jealous ex-husband (who has a penchant for odd necklines; did you notice this week’s side-zipped funnel-necked number?), there was just enough to make you think the killer might be after Stina.
So the girls make their way under cover of dark back through the woods, intent on getting home to their mother. Meanwhile the killer is struggling to control his impulses again and, in a fit of rage, has just strangled Marianne, catalysed by her pressuring him to return home ASAP, leaving the task -1 victim. “Why don’t you just shut the fuck uupppppp?!”, he screams at her. We see him driving away from the scene in a rage, through forested landscape. And as a pair of headlights dawn on Stina and Linnea by the side of the road … is it him?!
Thank goodness not. And, despite some trickery to make you think the stern-looking woman who picks the girls up might be also evil, likely in cahoots with 5+1, she’s actually just playing along with a game to see who could keep a stern face longer. Phew. But with the girls now safely ensconced back with granny, who is the killer’s final victim?
He’s been doing a lot of sussing out of a particular bridge. And a lot of looking through his binoculars at Patricia and Sophie, the lesbian couple who are co-parents to Noah, along with Marcus and Rolf. He brings out his tool kit in full daylight and takes a headlamp bulb out of a car outside their house. But it’s not till later that it becomes clear who he’s after. As Patricia sets out to a concert, the killer readies himself under the bridge. As she heads on to it the killer, recognising the car with only one working headlamp, speeds towards her, on the wrong side of the road, presumably hoping she will swerve and plunge to her death.
But wait – the killer’s been left reeling from a phone call. Inger got his number with the help of Karen in the US, and calls him just as he’s about to drive fast and furiously at (the pregnant) Patricia. She thanked him for his “moment of goodness” in saving Stina from the truck, and talked about how he sensed Stina’s difference (he himself, we learn, had an autistic child). And so the killer swerves at the last minute, his better self apparently shining through after Inger’s pep talk.
Given what happens next, though, Inger should have kept her thoughts to herself. She’s looking over her case files at home when Stina’s police car toy rolls across the floor. The killer has come for her instead! But, here he goes underestimating women again … Inger screams, gouges at his eyes, whacks him with a pan and eventually stabs him multiple times. There’s a very brash, unsubtle satisfaction, having been fed so many lines about how he’s used to women submitting out of fear, to seeing him beaten this way.
And so we have it, a bit of an emergency brake to a very bumpy ride. And we watch as he’s wheeled off on a stretcher, apparently miraculously still alive, leaving Inger and Ingvar a well-earned moment to share a look of love, lit up by blue flashing ambulance lights.
