Netflix’s Swedish series, The Glass Dome, makes us realize how difficult it could be to face your trauma, deal with your past, and not let it dictate terms to you. The Netflix series follows the life of a girl named Lejla, who got abducted when she was just 12 years old. The most disturbing fact was that her abductor was never caught by the authorities, and so she could never find out what his motive was behind keeping her captive. But then one day, something unprecedented happened, and she had to face her worst fears once again. So let’s find out what happened with Lejla and if she was ever able to find her abductor at the end of The Glass Dome.
Spoiler Alert
What happened to Lejla in her childhood?
There was a reason why Lejla had chosen to study psychology, and why she had done in-depth research on the behaviors and traits of child abductors. She had herself been a victim, and that traumatic experience had motivated her to learn more about these criminals and understand what went through their minds. Lejla had moved to the US, I believe for further studies, and she had started working there too because she didn’t want to go back to her hometown in Sweden. But once again the ghost of her past came knocking at her door. Lejla got a call from her adoptive father, Valter, informing her that Ann-Marie, Valter’s wife, had passed away. Lejla realized that Valter was not doing well, and she decided to immediately book a flight to Granas and be there for him. Lejla’s mother had met her fateful end after she’d been kidnapped, following which Valter had adopted her. He loved Lejla more than anything in the world, and she too had a lot of affection for him. Had it not been for Valter, I don’t think that Lejla would have gone back to Granas. She still felt suffocated in that town, and there were a lot of unresolved conflicts within her that made her feel restless. Lejla had been abducted by an unknown man, who kept her in a glass dome for many days. Surprisingly, that abductor didn’t have any lecherous motivations, and Lejla believed that his actions stemmed from a deep-rooted, untreated trauma that probably even he wasn’t aware of.
Lejla, to date, didn’t have any clue why that man abducted her, and it’s likely she didn’t even want to know about it. Valter knew how difficult it was for his daughter to come to the town, but he was happy that he got to see her face after so long.
Was Martin the child abductor?
Lejla attended the funeral of Ann-Marie, and she met a lot of old friends during the service. One of those friends was Louise, who was now married into the Vanadin family, who owned the mining corporation operating in the area. Lejla saw Louise and her husband, Said, arguing about something during the ceremony. And then, just a day later, the news came that Louise had been murdered and her daughter, Alicia, was missing. Louise was found in her bathtub, and nobody had any clue where Alicia had gone. Tomas, Valter’s brother, was in charge of the investigation, and he organized a search party to look for the missing girl. Tomas was made the police chief after his elder brother had retired, and I felt that the former felt the pressure to prove that he was better than Valter. There was this competitive spirit inside him, probably because of something that had happened in his childhood. Tomas made it very clear to Valter that it was his investigation, and he didn’t want anybody snooping around and interfering in his work. Said obviously became the first suspect, but eventually it came to be known that he was not in town when his wife was murdered.
Meanwhile, Lejla was conducting her own investigation, as she felt that Alicia’s abductor was the same man who had kidnapped her back when she herself was a kid. Lejla’s speculation led her to a builder named Maksim, who back in the day had worked at Said’s house. That man had been very friendly with Alicia and took a lot of videos of her back in the day. Though Maksim was innocent, Lejla saw that in one of the videos that he had, Louise was seen with another man in the background. It came to be known that Tomas was having an affair with Louise, and he very honestly confessed to it but requested Lejla and Valter to not tell anybody about it. While the entire town was busy looking for the little girl, there came news that due to a leak in the mines, the underground water had been polluted. The leak was not an accident, and somebody had paid a man named Adde to do it. Tomas had a hunch that it was the same man behind the kidnapping, the murder, and the leak at the mine. Before anybody could make a breakthrough, another girl named Elma went missing. The town dwellers got worried, because it was as if the abductor was challenging the authorities this time around, and he wasn’t scared of being caught. Lejla met a man named Martin who had come from another town to be a part of the search party. The man said that his sister had been abducted back in the day, which was why he traveled to places looking for missing persons. This man got quite close to Lejla and invited her to hang out at his place. In a shocking turn of events, he drugged Lejla, but fortunately she was rescued and admitted to the hospital. Martin had abducted Elma, the second girl who had gone missing, but Alicia was not in his captivity. Days later, Martin’s body was found hanging near a construction site, and the police realized that he was merely a copycat killer who was fascinated by these sociopaths. So basically the real abductor was still out there, and nobody had any clue about his identity yet.
Why did Lejla doubt Tomas’ intentions?
Had Martin not been found, then I believe that the blame of him being the real child abductor would have fallen on him. It felt as if the real abductor felt a bit annoyed when his thunder was stolen by his copycat. I mean, the real one could have just assaulted Martin and left him. But he killed him mercilessly as if he wanted to make an example of him. Throughout the series, Lejla got these visions where she saw her mother talking to her. She knew that there was some crucial information that she was not able to remember. Her trauma had made her forget things, and she tried very hard to recall what had happened to her. She often saw this big fire in her vision, and when she went through the recordings of her mother’s testimony, she realized that on Walpurgis Night, her mother had rented a cabin and stayed there for 3 nights. Lejla went to meet the owner of those cabins, and while going through her entry logs, she saw that even Tomas had stayed there at the same time. As stated before, Tomas was having an affair with Louise, and after Lejla found out that he had rented a cabin at the same spot and time when Lejla was staying there with her mother, she felt pretty sure that he was the one who was abducting the girls. Also, we saw how Tomas had a problem with authority when Valter took over the investigation and started leading the team. The final nail in the coffin was when Louise’s mobile was found by Lejla at Tomas’ place. Lejla gave a call to Said and asked him to meet her immediately. She left a voice message asking him not to say anything to the police, as she was pretty sure that if Tomas came to know about it, he would make sure that the truth didn’t come out in the open. Lejla tried escaping from town after this revelation. But she was caught by somebody, who sedated her and put her in the same glass dome where she was held captive in her childhood.
Who kidnapped Alicia? And why?
Lejla had certain theories about the abductor that led her to believe that apart from the four girls (including her), there was another unknown victim, who probably was the first one who went missing. The reason why Lejla felt that way was because the modus operandi of the criminal was near perfect. She believed that a first-time offender couldn’t be so precise with his planning.
In The Glass Dome’s ending, where the abductor took off his mask, we came to know that the criminal was none other than Valter. Alicia, Said’s girl, was also trapped in the same cage, and Lejla tried her level best to convince Valter not to harm the little girl. But it seemed that he had made up his mind. Luckily, Tomas found Bjorn, his junior’s body, was in Valter’s house, and he came searching for Lejla. Had that not happened, Alicia would have definitely been murdered by Valter. Tomas shot at his brother but made sure that he didn’t die. Valter was arrested by the authorities and sent to prison. Valter’s mind was like a maze, and it was not easy to understand his motivations. Yes, it was an undeniable fact that certain things that happened in his childhood shaped his personality and turned him into a sociopath. I believe that Tomas and Valter’s father was an abusive man, and he did certain things that wrecked the two young boys from within. Where Tomas suffered from a deep-rooted inferiority complex, Valter had grown to become a sadistic person who liked exercising authority. The man was a totalitarian, and it was the small things he did that proved how much he liked being in power.
There was a scene in The Glass Dome when Valter went to the police station, and he picked up the phone at the reception desk without asking the officer in charge for his permission. Now, it is to be taken into consideration that though Valter had worked there for years, he was no longer a part of the force. Ideally he should have asked before picking up the phone, but he acted as if he was in charge. Moreover, he absolutely cherished the fact that he had taken charge of the investigation from his brother. He liked controlling the girl, but the weird thing was that he killed all of them apart from Lejla. Why he did so was a mystery to some, but the answer was hidden in his words when he described Lejla. He said that he saw a flair in Lejla that he hadn’t seen in anybody else. He knew that there was a wild, untamed side to her that attracted him to her way too much. He kept her to get that sadistic validation that one got after taming a wild beast. For days before kidnapping Lejla, Valter stalked her. The fire in her eyes, which maybe came due to an inherent survival instinct, really made Valter feel drawn to her in a very paternal manner. Valter loved Lejla in his own twisted way, and he never wanted her to leave him. I believe that is why he decided to send her her hair after she had made up her mind to go back to the US. Valter knew that if he made Lejla feel that she was very near to catching the abductor, then she wouldn’t go back to the States. His trick worked, and Lejla did stay back. More than Lejla profiling him, I believe that Valter had profiled her for years. He knew how she was going to react and what was going through her mind at any particular moment.
Why Did Valter Sabotage Said’s Mine?
In The Glass Dome’s ending, Valter told Lejla, in his own twisted manner, that he had thrown all the bodies of the victims in the river. He felt a very strong connection with the body of water, as it was the same place he took Lejla fishing. Also, the reason why Valter went against Said’s family and the mining corporation was that he didn’t want the river to dry up and his secret to be exposed. At the beginning it was mentioned the river was getting depleted because of the extensive mining in the region, and if that would have happened then the authorities would have come to know about the dead bodies. There was a group of people who protested against the mining corporation as they believed that the mining operations hampered the environment and put their lives at risk, but Valter’s actions stemmed from a very personal motive. The police recovered all the bodies at the end, and Lejla got the closure that she deserved. That said, I don’t think she would ever be able to forget what had happened in her past. She would have to learn to cohabit with that facet of her life. She will have to find an easy way to not let her traumas govern her. The road ahead will not be easy for Lejla, but I think she will be able to keep her fears at bay and live a fulfilling life.
