“Young Wallander” is back with another season of murder, mystery, and suspense. What seemed like a hit-and-run case at first glance led to the revelation of deep-seeded secrets. Kurt Wallander, in Season 1, had decided to quit the police force after the death of Hemberg. In “Young Wallander Season 2: Killer’s Shadow,” Rusk informs Wallander that she did not submit his resignation. Rusk believed in Kurt’s ability and wanted him to join the force. Kurt missed his job as a detective and concluded that he would take back the job. With Rusk, Kurt learned about the hit-and-run case. She felt that there were some missing links in the case and wanted Kurt to study it. The hit-and-run case would bring back the past and its mistakes that are far from pleasant.
See More: ‘Young Wallander’ Season 1: Ending, Explained – Who Killed Hugo Lundgren? & Why?
‘Young Wallander’ Season 2: Killer’s Shadow Plot Summary
The few red flags in the case followed in “Young Wallander” Season 2 were the absence of any tire marks and the unavailability of the victim’s ID. The victim’s face was destroyed beyond recognition. Kurt started asking around about the victim, and this was when he met Katja Nilsson, a young girl who worked at a restaurant. The moment Kurt tried to interrogate Katja, she ran away from him. But eventually, she informed him about the night’s incident.
That night, Katja met the victim, Anton, who had borrowed a cigarette from him. The two planned to grab a drink and walked towards a club through a narrow alley. This was when a fast-approaching car ran over Anton as he pushed Katja to the side and saved her life. Since it was dark, she could not identify the killer, but she did remember the car he was driving. It was an old, dark-colored sedan. The tech team was able to retrieve the victim’s phone and managed to gather a few crucial pieces of information. The victim’s name was Anton Nyberg. He was born in 1997, was unmarried and lived on welfare. They provided Kurt with his address, and he reached the victim’s place to find a man who was in search of Anton as well. The man ran away as soon as he realized that Kurt was a policeman. The case got further complicated when the Ministry unveiled Anton’s real identity. Anton was living under an assumed identity; his real name was Elias Fager.
This took the police force, particularly Rusk, by surprise. Her first major crime case was the Fager-Brother Case. The two brothers, Elias and Soren, were proven guilty of the murder of their teacher, Jorgen Moberg. They physically assaulted him and later locked his battered body inside a burning hot sauna, where he melted to death. This sort of brutality was considered unimaginable by boys who were barely 14 and 16. They were tagged as pure evil for their unemotional approach. Elias had confessed to the murder and testified against his brother. But now the question is, who might have wanted to get rid of Elias?
Who Was The Prime Suspect For The Stolen Old Sedan?
The old sedan was one of the most crucial elements of the hit-and-run/murder case investigated in “Young Wallander” Season 2. The number plate indicated that the sedan belonged to someone from the police force itself, despite the fact that the car’s owner was in Spain at the time of the incident. When Officer Abd Al-Rahman joined the investigation team as a detective with Kurt, he concluded that the car was taken away from the police garage within four minutes. This meant that the person who stole the car was aware of how things worked at the garage.
Officer Abd Al-Rahman started to take a look at the data of those who worked at the station with past criminal records. This was when he came across the profile of Joel Petterson, a police mechanic who worked at the Malmö garage and was warned for being drunk and hostile at work. Petterson was questioned by the officer regarding the timeline of the incident. Petterson had confirmed that he usually went home at 9.30 every day, but the CCTV footage revealed that on the night of the murder, his jeep was parked outside the station the whole night and was picked up the day after.
Petterson also had a motive. He had applied thrice to the police academy but was rejected each time. He was a reservist who served in Afghanistan. The only question was what might be the reason for murdering Elias in particular. The connection was established only after re-evaluating the old Fager brothers’ case.
Who Was Amelia Holmgren?
The Internal Affairs office was reassessing the way Rusk had dealt with the Fager brothers’ case. They warned Kurt of her bias by showing him interrogation videos in which she screamed aloud her opinion. Kurt watched as young Rusk manipulated the teenagers into confessing their crimes. Soren maintained that he did assault the teacher after he had insulted him in front of the class, but he did not lock him inside the sauna. Rusk begged Elias to testify against his brother, as that would ease their punishment. Kurt realized that the Fager case was not analyzed objectively, and he started to study the case once again.
When Kurt went to the school, he discovered that the door had an automatic lock and was impossible to open. This meant that someone else might have provided the boys with the keys. Moberg had two sets of keys: one was for his daughter, and the other was for another seventh-grade student. He used to provide them with private classes. Moberg’s daughter denied any involvement in the case, but she did reveal that her father was a monster. He assaulted his daughter in the name of private classes, and she kept it a secret from her mother for her well-being. This meant that the seventh-grade student might have faced a similar fate.
They soon learned that the girl in question was Amelia Holmgren, the daughter of the brothers’ defense lawyer, Edwin Holmgren. Kurt knew Amelia as Mia. She worked with his lover, Mona. He now realized that she took the pro bono case for Mona as a way to be closer to Kurt and the case.
“Young Wallander” Season 2: Ending Explained
The man Kurt met when he visited Anton’s house was Soren. Soren was released from juvenile prison after serving eight years for the crime. He met Anton on the day of the murder. He remembered that Anton wanted to say something but could not in the chaos. Soren and Kurt first met when Kurt went to look around Anton’s house. Soren visited his brother’s place once again, but this time he found something concrete. There were love letters that his brother kept secretly. The letters indicated that the woman was grateful to Elias for keeping a secret. Soren knew that the murderer and the person who wrote the letter had a connection. Soren paid a visit to Rusk, and while Rusk was afraid that he might seek revenge from her, it turned out that he simply wanted the police to find the murderer. He submitted the letters to Rusk to help speed up the investigation.
As the police tapped Petterson’s phone, they recorded a phone call in which Amelia expressed concern about Soren and how things were ugly. Petterson comforted her and promised to come up with a plan. The two prime suspects had a connection. Upon further investigation, it was found that Amelia knew Petterson from the time they spent together at a residential psychiatric program.
Kurt decided to follow Petterson, and Abd Al-Rahman followed Amelia. As Petterson drove out of town into the countryside, Kurt kept an eye on him from a distance. Meanwhile, Amelia spotted Soren in the parking lot and ran away from him, later texting him to meet at a specific location. And Soren drove to the location; Rusk followed the instructions of Abd Al-Rahman to reach the spot. Soren reached the location; it was the same farmhouse that Petterson had entered a while back. Just as soon as Soren tried to leave his car, a shot was fired by Petterson. Soren realized that it was a trap to get rid of him. He ran as fast as he could. Petterson followed his target. Kurt and Abd Al-Rahman tried to close in on Petterson from two ends, but Abd Al-Rahman was struck by a panic attack. He collapsed on the ground. Petterson was about to shoot him when Rask and Kurt pointed their guns at him. He surrendered his weapon and was arrested on the spot.
Amelia later confessed at Elias’s funeral that she was the one who had provided the keys to the brothers. After assaulting Moberg, Soren had a blackout. Amelia and Elias carried him out of the room. It was at this moment that Amelia saw Moberg cry for help from the sauna. She locked the sauna door to make him suffer and pay for his wrongdoing. Elias protected her as he was attracted to her, and her father paid for his monthly expenses. Although Attorney General Edwin Holmgren had bought Elias’s testament, he did not feel guilty about it as he believed he had saved the lives of three children. Amelia was saved from public shaming, Soren got another chance at juvenile prison as he was on the verge of being a drug addict, and Elias did not have to live a life of poverty.
Since he was not punished by the court of law, Kurt exposed the truth to the media. Kurt believed it was because of the father that the lives of three children were destroyed. Amelia felt guilty for what happened to the brothers her entire life. She carried the secret with her from her teenage years, and it made her suffer psychologically. Elias lost his life the moment he expressed the wish to tell Soren the truth, and Soren had lost his only family, his brother. He had to spend eight years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Along with that, an innocent college student, Katja Nilsson, was murdered to keep Petterson’s identity hidden. As the truth was exposed by the media, Edwin Holmgren was forced to resign. Justice was served in its own way this time. Kurt and Mona shared a drink at the end of “Young Wallander” Season 2 as they spoke about their exhausting day. When Mona spoke about the uncomfortable truth of the justice system, Kurt comforted her by saying that it is okay to take a break, but it is also important to go back and fight inside the ring. The road to justice is a never-ending one, and Kurt Wallander surely hopes to see it through.
“Young Wallander Season 2: Killer’s Shadow” is a six-episode series that will keep you hooked throughout! It is currently streaming on Netflix.
