The Bridge series 4 episode 7 recap: A killer is unmasked and an emotional reunion paves the way for the final ever episode
In the penultimate episode of the stunning Scandi Noir drama there are tears aplenty and a seeming solution. But will Saga survive to solve the case?
The Bridge series four has prepared the way for the final episode in style – unmasking the apparent serial killer and at last reuniting Henrik with one of his daughters.
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT THE BRIDGE SERIES 4 EPISODE 7
It was an action-packed and emotional hour of television as Sofia Helin's Saga eventually made amends for aborting Henrik’s child without telling him earlier in the series the only way she knew how: cracking the case of his missing children.
As eagle-eyed Bridgophiles may have suspected all along, Astrid, the spiky teenager living in the village was one of the kidnapped daughters, the other being the child buried in the grave we saw her visiting in previous episodes. The kidnapper was creepy Frank, who seems responsible for the deaths of Henrik’s wife and other child.
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This being The Bridge however, viewers had to endure a nail-biting last-minute scene before the reunion could happen. As the police gathered outside Frank's house, the creepy narcissist decided to make it a hostage situation, with Astrid only narrowly escaping.
Creator Hans Rosenfeldt is always adept at changing pace with skill and surety, and the long slow look Henrik (Thure Lindhardt) and Astrid gave each other was mesmerising: it's one Bridge fans will remember for a long time.
In keeping with this change of pace, many of the later scenes saw Henrik adjusting to life with his new-found child, only for us to realise that the serial killer is inching ever nearer.
Because of course, the assassin is bumping off people who have let down former gangster informant Tomas, and Henrik is top of that list, being the handler who left him to his fate four years previously.
Before the discovery of Astrid it was Saga who was going to be bumped off; now his daughter is clearly the most precious thing to Henrik, making her an obvious target given the killer’s modus operandi. This methodology was chillingly witnessed by poor Lillian, the police boss, who had the unwelcome gift of the dug-up head of her former love Hans delivered to her. What a typically grisly Bridge touch.
Nothing has befallen Astrid yet, which seems a little eerie. But the serial killer has been unmasked: it is – or appears to be – Susanne, Niels' personal assistant, for motives which haven’t yet become clear.
The sleuthing was done by the unlikely pairing of teenage runaways Julia and Ida, who noticed the trinket on Susanne’s bag as she and Niels Thormood took the troubled pair to the cinema.
That triggered the memory of the street robbery, when they took the mobile phone of the person the police know made the call that despatched the first victim. And it was Susanne. Blimey.
Julia and Ida fled the car, leaving Susanne to realise she had been rumbled, and leaving all sorts of questions before the last ever episode of this brilliant series.
Will Susanne be caught? Was she acting alone? Was Niels involved? Will Astrid survive?
And, most important of all, what will happen to Saga? In her last ever TV adventure, she can’t be killed off... can she?
The last ever episode of The Bridge is on BBC2 at 9pm on Friday 29 June