The Bridge presents itself as a murder mystery. That is the vehicle that is used to illustrate a bad habit we have in the West. That habit is infidelity, and our proclivity to play marriage-go-round. Too many Westerners really do not have a clue when it comes to playing fast and loose with people’s affections. So if you watch The Bridge, pay close attention to those undercurrents in the plot line. They are the theme of this Greek style tragedy.
The Bridge, is a Swedish, Danish TV production. It begins when a woman’s body is dumped on the Øresund Bridge, that stretches over the Øresund Straight between Sweden and Denmark. Since the body is found on the border of Sweden and Denmark, both Malmo and Copenhagen police departments must cooperate in this investigation.
I said, “…a body,” however, it so happens that the body has been cut in half, with the torso belonging to one person, and the legs to another. Where the other halves are is just one of the mysteries the lead detectives, Martin Rohde and Saga Norén, must solve.
Martin is from the Copenhagen PD and Saga is from Malmo PD. They make quite the team, with Martin, a rather odious character; and Saga, a woman with PSTD, nonetheless, she is an excellent, intuitive detective.
Without ruining the ending for those of you who have not seen this first season, let’s just say these two departments are after an extremely smart psycho who has made a plan, and follows it to the bitter end. He is on a mission, has set goals, and achieves them. This serial killer would make an excellent CEO. However, that would make him a constructive guy, not the destroyer he has chosen to be. The spoiler alert is that he once was a very good detective. And now he has planned a most elaborate revenge. The why of this revenge is all about his being a cop, and a husband.
Cops do have a quite different perspective on life. Cops have seen most of the foibles that humans can get themselves tied up in. Detectives go though their working life hearing every sort of lie out there. Judges have the same deal going. The entire justice system is a madhouse, that witnesses every archetype out there. And has every type of human being working within it. Take Martin as exhibit A. Here’s a guy who cannot keep his pants zipped. Saga is exhibit B. She is an emotionally wounded bird who is so detached, many times you will have feeling that she is really a zombie. The serial killer, let’s just call him the Killer, is also emotionally wounded. And by whom? Martin.
The reason the Killer has chosen the Øresund Bridge to announce his presence is that years back, his wife, Micaela, and their child, died on that bridge, in a hit and run car accident. The boy’s body was never recovered. It has been guessed that the impact caused the boy to be thrown out of the car and into the water below. That scenario becomes suspicious the more one gets into the background story. Did the boy drown, or was his body taken away by a person or persons unknown?
I ask that question because what gets revealed later on is that Martin, and the Killer, have a shared past. It is a small detail that unfolds, and leads Saga to the answers later. If Martin would have fessed up sooner, that he knew the Killer, and they were friends, well, there would not be 10 episodes in this first season.
The Killer is an interesting character in that his archetype is guardian angel gone bad, AKA, avenging angel.My observation has been that the typical cop is an individual that wants to make a difference in this world. They really do want to catch the bad guys, and save us from them. In order to catch bad guys, or gals, cops must cross paths with many evil individuals. This has to rub off, and rub into their psyches at some point. I mean, how much lying can a person take before they want to start burning stuff to the ground themselves.
Judges have the same perspective. Lies, lies, and more lies. But their archetype is more Atheneum, in that they are knowledgeable of the law, with an analytic brain that can sift through much information and make sense of it. In short, they remain objective, whereas a cop must get down to the street level, and be subjective, as their lives can be in danger.
Cops must trust one another. Like any organization that is confronted by violence, cops have to know their teammates have their backs. However, in this plot line, one cop, Martin, has slept with a fellow cop’s wife. And, as a true philanderer would do, he tries to justify his actions.
Men who cannot keep their pants zipped, and women that say yes to them, make a mess of the world they inhabit. When an individual is unhappy with their relationship, the last thing they need is to begin a new relationship whilst remaining entangled in the first. But it is so au current in today’s world, as people whiz around, like a fly, looking for new food to settle on, they are in search of a new honey. What really hurts are the children, who must put up with their parent’s irresponsible behavior. Because we live in this day and age wherein we think of our relationships as interchangeable. If person 1 doesn’t instantly work out, let’s look over at person 2.
Such couples leave a lot of debris along their way. Especially when children are involved. Martin, the Erotic archetype in this story, has 4 kids with three women. He’s about to have two more. It’s his first born, August, who is to be the center of this tragic tale. Because that is what murder is, a tragedy; for the person killed, and for all those that love the dead one.
Ipso facto, a serial killer is the author of many tragedies. And that is what this series is really about. The tragedies we humans set up for ourselves.
The Bridge has a compelling plot twist on the serial killer types. This one is out for revenge in a broad way. He has causes that he has taken up, a la the Unabomber. The first cause is killing the homeless with poisoned wine, because he insists no one will really care. From there he instigates a protest, and then he kills a corrupt cop. He next kidnaps, via a school bus, 5 kids. He will let them go once 5 factories have been burned. To get this message spread around, he uses a journalist, who, later, he murders, because he no longer needs him.
Nice guy, eh, this wicked narcissist turned full on psycho. Who, supposedly, kills for the love of humanity, but then, we find out, he’s another individual whacked out with the emotional trauma of his wife and son dying in that hit/run. Except the wife was on her way to her parents house because she was leaving her husband, who is the supposedly good guy cop. How good was he that she would no longer tolerate him as her husband? Of course, she had the little affair, and thought, in her head, she would begin annew.
New guy, new life?
Ain’t no such thing as beginning anew. At some point, unresolved issues from the past, catch up to us. Indeed, the script is quite good at keeping Martin’s misdeeds as an undercurrent to pay attention to. Several times, when Martin was excusing his behavior, I wanted to reach in and slap him good and hard. Especially when he has sex with one of the victims the Killer is extorting money from. Classy guy, eh? And then his wife finds out.
Martin may be a good detective, but for certain, Martin is a dumb shit. He doesn’t get it, that his personal conduct is so wrong. He has issues with that first born son, which is another undercurrent you have to pay attention to. Martin doesn’t see it coming, that August, at 19, is what the Killer is after. Because the Killer’s entire mission has been that Martin must suffer as he has. August is the sacrificial lamb to his father’s excesses.
It is Saga, who, from her demeanor, we recognize as someone battling trauma in her own life, it is she who figures out that August is the target. Like many a good woman, it is she that cleans up Martin’s mess by shooting the Killer. Try as she did, she could not save August. But she can live with that. Saga is the stoic.
I must caution you, The Bridge can be downright brutal at times. It ends on a somewhat bright note, when Saga decides to have dinner with her “sexmate,” as I dubbed him. The two of them usually have a good roll in the hay. But the guy wants more than that. He asks her out for dinner, because he wants a relationship. Saga decides, finally, to accept that invitation. I chalk that up to a hopeful outcome for her, at the end of this cold-blooded tale of revenge.
The lesson of this story? I think you get it, that there is a very good reason why fidelity is a virtue.