Directed by Jan Holoubek and Kamil Misztal, The Mire is an intense crime thriller that is able to keep you on the edge of your seat through its compelling narrative and excellent execution. The first two seasons amalgamate real historical events with fictional plots and take you back in time to a small settlement in Poland. So, let’s find out briefly what happened in the first two seasons and the various things one needs to know before watching the third season of the franchise.
Spoiler Alert
Did Justyna and Karol commit suicide?
Witold Wanycz, one of the most respected journalists at The Courier, met Piotr Zarzycki for the very first time when the latter came to the small town, aspiring to do some meaningful work. Witold saw the enthusiasm in Piotr, and time and again, he told him to tread carefully, as for a long time, one had to abide by the rules set by the system. Both of them were investigating two cases side by side: the first case was the murder of a female escort named Lidia, who was found together with chairman Grochowiak, and the second case, which was given much less importance, was the suicide of two teenagers named Justyna and Karol. Though in the beginning, both journalists weren’t aware that both cases could be related, with time, they realized that there was probably more to it than met the eye. Chairman Grochowiak was a respected man, and we saw that everybody assumed that it was Lydia’s jealous boyfriend, Wozniak, who was behind the murder.
Piotr had a feeling that it was not true, and so after Wozniak was arrested, he went to the prison where he was kept to check on him. That’s when Piotr got to know that Wozniak had been forced by the authorities to confess to his crimes. He kept on repeating that he was not a left-hander, and after a bit of research, Piotr found out that the murderer had used his left hand to stab both Lidia and the chairman. The biggest revelation in The Mire season 1 is made when Piotr went to the sports complex, and after interrogating Justyna’s colleagues, he got to know that Chairman Grochowiak was a pervert of the highest order. He used to molest girls from the sports academy, and Justyna, back in the day, had voluntarily gone to him because he was in need of money. Justyna was bullied by her colleagues so brutally that the poor girl just lost her will to live. She went to the cliff to take her life, and Karol also held her hands and decided to jump with her, as he, too, didn’t have anything to look forward to in his life. Where Justyna was doing brilliantly academically, Karol was a prolific artist. Their circumstances and the people around them pushed them to the edge, and they just couldn’t bear the pain in the end.
Who killed Chairman Grochowiak?
At first, in The Mire Season 1, Wozniak was accused of murdering Lidia and the Chairman, and when he confessed to his crimes, the case was closed. But Piotr didn’t give up, and he found out where Lidia was staying, and he went there under the pretext of wanting a house to stay in. He met a swineherd named Jozef Hasnik, who, back in the day, was a champion boxer. He had a very promising future in front of him, but destiny had other plans. Piotr found a knife at Haznik’s place, and he was convinced that he was the one who had murdered both Lidia and the chairman. He tracked Haznik’s movements, and it was then that he found out that police officer Kulik was the one who had killed both Lidia and Chairman for some unknown reason. Kulik killed Haznik, and he took his prints on another knife so that he could frame him in court. At one point in the middle of season 1, Witold thought that it was Kazik Drewicz who was behind the murders, since Justyna was his daughter, but Kazik confessed that though he wanted to be the one who took their lives, they were already dead when he reached the crime scene. At the end of season 1, we got to know that it was Helena, Grochowiak’s wife, who had plotted to kill her husband together with Prosecutor Andrzej Warecki. Why Kulik got ready to take such a risk was still not very clear, and it could be possible that he had some enmity with the chairman or maybe he was getting some monetary benefits from the prosecutor.
Why did Piotr come back?
It was said that there were hundreds of people buried beneath the cursed land of the Gronty Forest. The small town was based near a concentration camp, and the history of the town was marred by the blood of those poor and innocent victims who had been killed during World War 2. In The Mire season 2, there was a flood in the area, and the dead bodies that were hidden beneath the earth came to the surface. It was rumored that the flood was not an accident, but somebody had intentionally broken the levee, which had caused the water to flow through the forest. Piotr once again came back to work at the Courier, and this time he was made editor-in-chief. He met Witold, who had retired a few years ago, and the former asked him why he had once again come back to the town when he knew the consequences of his actions. But Piotr had received a letter from Helena in which she told him to come back urgently. Piotr got to know that Helena had died 12 years ago, so there was no way she could have sent the letter to him. But now Piotr was at the helm of affairs, and apart from the flooding, he found out that the son of the main benefactor of the Courier had gone missing. Josef Kielak was an influential man, but even after the entire police force was trying to find his son, nobody had gotten any sort of lead that could solve their mystery. Piotr started his investigation, and that’s when certain truths came out in the open that had some association with his own past.
What happened between Teresa and Jass?
A rift had come between Teresa and Piotr since the former had learned about his affair with Helena back in The Mire Season 1. Things were never the same after that, and though Teresa and Piotr both tried very hard to mend their marriage, they were just not happy with each other. Piotr had fallen for Helena back in the day, and Teresa knew about it. Had it been only a physical relationship, Teresa still would have been able to cope, but she saw how much her husband loved Helena. There was something about those fleeting moments that Piotr had spent in Helena’s company, and he just couldn’t forget those memories. Helena had passed away after giving birth to her baby in 1985, and Piotr went to the cemetery to pay her homage. Jass came as a surprise in Teresa’s life, and both of them got very close together. Again, Teresa felt an emotional connection with Jass, and she realized that she had been suppressing her own emotions and not giving herself the liberty to be happy. At the end of season 2, Teresa decided that she would part ways with Piotr, as she realized that it was not only unfair for the couple but also for their child. Most probably, Teresa is going to go with Jass, though, at the end of The Mire season 2, she didn’t tell Piotr that she was in love with a woman and not a man.
Did Prosecutor Andrzej Warecki kill Waldek?
Prosecutor Andrzej, together with Jacek Dobrowolski, had tampered with the levee so that the flood water didn’t come to the Oaza housing estate, as he knew that if the foundation of the property was destroyed, then his ugly truths would come to light. Waldek had planned his own kidnapping because he wanted to live with his girlfriend, and additionally, he decided that he could use the money his father would give as a ransom for his own purpose. But Waldek forgot the kind of people he was conspiring with. Andrzej, Jacek, Dora, decided to trick the latter and take all the ransom and divide it between Bete. Andrzej bought an expensive villa in the Oaza housing estate with that money, and after killing Waldek, he encased the dead body in concrete and put it beneath the foundation of his house. The prosecutor knew that if flood water came onto the property, then the foundation would get damaged, and the dead body would come out. Josef Kielak and Piotr went together with Dora, who had already made plans to kill them both. Kielak was murdered, but somehow, Piotr was able to escape from there.
Who was Daniel’s real father?
We got to know in The Mire season 2 that Ewa and Miroslaw Gwitt were not the real parents of Daniel. For the longest time, Anna Jass believed that it was prosecutor Andrzej who was Daniel’s real father. Botjass and Mike joined the dots, and they realized that Helena was Daniel’s real mother, and she died the day she gave birth to him. Because Helena had an affair with prosecutor Andrzej back in the day, it was assumed by both police officers that he was the real father of the boy. But that was not true, as we got to know that Andrzej couldn’t have babies since he became impotent after he was severely beaten by a bunch of bullies in his childhood. The biggest revelation came when we got to know that Daniel was Piotr’s son, and till the very end, the latter had no clue about that fact. Only Witold knew about it, and he had figured it out back in the day when he wrote an article about Helena after she had passed away.
Andrzej didn’t have a vendetta against Daniel, and he never planned on killing the boy. Daniel was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and he came there because he found out that Piotr was his father. Andrzej also came there by chance, and he was taken aback when he found the boy there. Andrzej drowned him in the bathtub and then later placed his body near the levee, as he had prior knowledge that it was going to break, and it would make it look like it was an accident. But in the end, Andrzej’s crimes came to light, and he was sent behind bars after it was found in the autopsy that Daniel was already dead before the flood came, and additionally, he had no motive behind being there in the forest at that hour. In the third season of the show titled The Mire Millennium, we would get to witness yet another mystery that probably would have some links to the past of the characters. We would see Anna Jass, Piotr, Mike, and other familiar characters at the helm of affairs, where the ghosts of their past lives would come to haunt them once again.
