Land of Sin’s ending was centered around the reveal of the identity of the person that had murdered Silas. Silas was Ivar and Boel’s son, and he had two siblings, Kimmen and Vera. They were a family of farmers, and they lived adjacent to the land that belonged to Elis, Ivar’s brother. Elis was married to Katty, and they had two sons, Jon and Harald. Now, Elis’ land was arable, and hence he received a hefty grant from the government; Ivar’s wasn’t, and that was why he and his family were struggling to make ends meet. This led to a lot of arguments, and that was when Silas was sent to the foster home hosted by police investigator Dani and her son, Oliver. However, due to Silas and Oliver’s drug addiction, Silas was sent to a juvenile center while Oliver drifted away from Dani. One day, Ivar called Dani from his deathbed to say that Silas had gone missing and she needed to find him. Dani, along with her partner, Malik, reached the village where the brothers hailed from, and it didn’t take too long for them to be hit with the revelation that Silas had died. Soon after that, Ivar died too. Ivar’s dying wish to Elis was for him to find the one who had killed Silas. Now, Oliver had been jailed because Silas’ DNA was found under his fingernails, but everyone knew that he wasn’t the perpetrator. Silas and Oliver were peddling drugs for a gangster named Jarven, though. Therefore, he became the top suspect. So, was Jarven the actual killer or just a red herring? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Jarven Was A Red Herring
Yeah, the whole Jarven angle was a big old red herring, and he didn’t have anything to do with Silas’ death. Well, at least not directly. Gangsters like Jarven take advantage of the unstable situation of a village, town, city, state, or country to further their nefarious endeavors. They move insane amounts of money by peddling drugs, but then they don’t use that money for the betterment of society. Back in the day, anti-social elements like him used to have a moral code. They used to do all kinds of dirty work, but they’d then inject the money they earned through unethical means back into the community so as to ensure that youngsters wouldn’t have to resort to such immoral methods to make a living. So that the future would be so bright that nobody would have to sell, buy, or do drugs. Jarven didn’t care about the future. He wanted to make money as quickly as possible without thinking about the lives he was destroying in that process. When he took things too far, Silas, who was one of Jarven’s errand boys, was taken in for a police interrogation, and that’s where he blurted out Jarven’s name.
Hence, the popular theory was that Jarven had Silas killed, or he killed Silas himself, for exposing his identity to the authorities. Even though Oliver’s fate was on the line, Dani didn’t jump to any conclusions, because she needed to figure out all the plot holes in that narrative. However, Elis was too desperate to avenge Silas and honor Ivar’s dying wish. Therefore, he not only welcomed Jarven’s gang into his warehouse so that they could use it as their drug-packaging factory, but at the opportune moment, Elis beat Jarven to a pulp. It wasn’t exactly confirmed whether Jarven had died because of Elis’ assault or not, but did it really matter? Jarven was a plague. If he were dead, that’d allow the village to heal. If he were alive, he’d have to endure the pain of getting pummeled by Elis, and when Jarven would recover, he’d have no one to take revenge against because Elis would be dead by then. I’d say that the thrashing would knock some sense into him and dissuade him from peddling drugs anymore. But looking at those scars on his face, I don’t think Jarven was the kind of person who could learn to be good.
Jon killed Silas
In Land of Sin’s ending, it was revealed that Jon was the one who had killed Silas. Silas was desperate to pay off the debt that he owed Jarven because of Oliver. Hence, he came to Elis’ house and harassed Katty. In a moment of rage, Katty instigated Jon, who took Silas for a ride and then killed him when he began insulting Jon’s family. When Jon confided in Katty, she helped him dispose of Silas’ body and burnt Jon’s belongings, which included Silas’ bracelet. She even sent the pickup truck that Silas was driving that day to the scrapyard. Since that pickup truck was registered in Harald’s name, Katty was okay with throwing him under the proverbial bus. She knew that Jon would be able to take care of the farm and the family legacy, while Harald would never be able to do the same because he was intellectually disabled. Hence, she had convinced Harald to take the fall for Silas’ death, thereby clearing Jon’s name. Harald was such an innocent boy that he delivered a false confession in front of Elis and Dani, but then he ran away into the swamp on his family land, maybe because he was unable to deal with the complexity of this whole situation that he was being thrust into. While chasing after Harald, Jon confessed his sins to Elis, and he told Jon that he’d have to go away with Harald to his brother Ragnar’s place so he could sort things out with the authorities. Dani, who was joined by Malik after his discovery of Harald’s pickup truck at the scrapyard, caught up to the father and the sons. Also present at the swamp was Kimmen, with his hunting rifle.
Kimmen had found Silas’ bracelet in the dustbin where Jon’s belongings had been burnt, and he had heard about the police finding evidence that Silas was in Harald’s pickup truck. He put two and two together and decided to kill Harald. Elis said that his deduction was wrong, and manipulated the child into shooting him, which allowed Jon and Harald to run away. Boel and her extended family also took matters into their own hands and lynched Katty to death. Was any of that right? Well, Elis was dying of cancer anyway. As explained by Dani, by taking a bullet for his family, he had liberated Harald and Jon. Jon clearly regretted what he had done, and Harald needed to live somewhere that was much more sensible. If Dani and Malik arrested Jon, Elis’ death would be in vain, and Harald would be left completely alone in this world. Therefore, it was better to further Elis’ narrative and let Harald and Jon chart their own future. Also, Elis was sort of responsible for Ivar’s death because he had deprived him and his family of resources for decades. So, maybe Elis did deserve to die by Kimmen’s hands. While you can debate that, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Katty surely deserved to die, because she was the one who had Silas killed. She had traumatized Jon, and she was prepared to cast Harald into a pit of horrors. Sure, it would have been preferable if Katty had been tried properly, but I will say that she got what she deserved. Hopefully, with both Elis and Katty gone, Jon and Harald will be able to move on from this familial war and heal.
Oliver and Dani Reconciled
Malik was a stickler for rules, and he really wanted to nab Jon and have Kimmen arrested for killing Elis. Malik had a relatively stable family, and maybe that was why he didn’t understand how families come undone, or what happens to children when they are placed in juvenile centers. Dani had seen all that firsthand, and she was carrying the guilt of failing her own son. So, maybe she didn’t want to be responsible for the destruction of the futures of three sons. Yes, Jon and Kimmen had resorted to murder, but that was largely because of the manipulation of elders and the fraught circumstances they had grown up in. With time, they’d get better, and Dani wanted to give those kids that time. Now, I’m not very sure if Malik took the fall for Elis’ death, or if he let the authorities hold Kimmen responsible for killing Elis, because we saw a police officer taking Kimmen away from the scene of the crime. At the same time, we saw Malik claiming that he was the one who heard Elis’ confession and acted accordingly. I am going to assume that Malik claimed that he was the one who had killed Elis when he was trying to run away after admitting that he had killed Silas, thereby giving Kimmen a free pass. If you think otherwise, please, let me know in the comments.
As for Oliver, Elis’ confession allowed him to walk out of jail, but it wasn’t until Dani reached out to him and hugged him that he was truly liberated from all the pain that he was feeling. In the final scene of the limited series, we saw Oliver joining Dani at the bee farm to harvest honey, because Dani forgiving Oliver for everything that he had done allowed him to forgive himself for being partly responsible for Silas’ death. I know that’s a grave allegation, but think about it for a second. The reason why Silas had a mountain of debt over his head was because of Oliver. If Oliver wouldn’t have spent all the money that he owed to Jarven, then his share, along with the money that Silas and Nathalie had earned, would have kept them in Jarven’s good books. Since Oliver didn’t care what happened to his friends, Silas got desperate, harassed Katty, and then pushed Jon to commit murder. I mean, that’s why Oliver was ready to be punished for Silas’ death even though he hadn’t directly killed him. Thankfully, due to Dani’s quick thinking and her observational skills, the truth came to light. What Oliver will do with the second chance that he has gotten is completely up to him and Dani. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the ending of Land of Sin. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments below.
