Young Wallander Season 1, Episode 4 recap: How are Isak and Gustav connected?

Young Wallander Episode 4 recap: Who shot Zemar?

Rickard shot Zemar, as is revealed in the opening chase sequence of Young Wallander Episode 4. I should have realized that when he was yammering on about never finding justice last week and his multiple racist remarks. A grieving father yes, but something tells me his rage has been brewing for a long time.

Kurt felt the same, hence why he flagged the Lundgren home. The main concern is how Rickard knew they had Zemar. He had a friend in SAPO, but how would they know?

The detectives bring Yara in for questioning, as if she doesn’t have enough problems. She tells Hemberg and Kurt that she and Zemar were desperate until one day he found a job as a driver. For two months, things improved, they had money and hope for the future.

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Then one day, Zemar said the job changed. He was instructed to pick up a man from a nightclub and deliver him to a warehouse — Hugo Lundgren. Once there, he received new instructuons, and was told to follow them or be deported.

Considering Kurt’s suspicions of a larger conspiracy, he is eager to believe her, Hemberg isn’t. Yara is already accepting fate. She sees the destructive power of the system and Zemar makes for a good villain to those who are anti-immigration.

Kurt wants to continue investigating and gives Hemberg an impassioned plea as to why they should. He shuts him down, suspecting Zemar may have lied to his wife. There isn’t anything more than guesswork to go on and Kurt is too emotionally invested. Hemberg dismisses him, tells him to go home for a few days and get some perspective.

Well that “perspective” includes falling into bed with Mona, which was bound to happen. In the greater Wallander mythos, Kurt has an ex-wife named Mona. It’s likely this is the shows homage to that.

Now that Reza is awake and under Jasmine’s care at home, Kurt visits to take over his “shift.” Everything that happened that day at the protest is water under the bridge for the old friends. And Reza, who is eager to do something productive out from his wife’s cautious watchful eye, is happy for the distraction of Kurt’s theories regarding Munck.

Kurt and Reza both come up empty and Reza tuckers himself out. As his pal sleeps, Kurt takes a final peek through the scattered case documents and notices a photo of Gustav with an arm around his shoulder, one that happens to spot a tattoo identical to Isak’s.

Young Wallander Episode 4 recap: Kurt continues searching for answers.

His next stop is the teen’s house, but his father knows next to nothing about his son, going so far as to say he hasn’t see him days, maybe even a week. A search of his room turns up dozens of sneaker boxes and what appears to be drugs. Kurt is working on a new theory and he asks Isak’s dad to contact him immediately if he learns anything new. Could Isak become another victim like Hugo?

At his apartment, Kurt runs into a depressed Mariam. Ibra’s contract was revoked after all. Even though the charges were dropped, “where there’s smoke there’s fire.” Even worse, Kurt learns he got things wrong about Bash when he saw the two together earlier. Bash has been helping Mariam by trying to persuade Ibra not to hook up with a gang from a rival estate. Without his contract, Ibra seems more taken by their recruiting tactics.

Kurt apologizes to Bash for his earlier assumption and pleads with him to find out more about this rival gang. According to him, Ibra will be asked to do some violent initiation process and then he’ll belong to them. Kurt wants to stop him before that can happen.

The next stop on Kurt’s apology tour is Rask. He offers her a sticky bun truce being a jerk the other day, then shows her the Gustav photo and asks her to help him track Isaac’s phone. Rask reminds him of all the work he’s ignoring while obsessing over this case.

Undeterred, Kurt simply asks if she’s going to help him or not. Unable to resist his pretty boy demeanor, she phones in a favor to a contact. But there’s two people in that picture and while they wait for a location, they know where to find Gustav.

At the Munck Foundation headquarters, while waiting for Mr. Munck, we learn a bit more about Kurt, or his family, to be exact. In the foyer a colorful landscape painting with a grouse hangs. It’s by Kurt’s father. He says his dad never paints anything else except that image, although sometimes he does versions without the bird. The obsessive trait seems go have been passed down.

When Munck finally greets the duo, it’s his brother Karl-Axel. He takes them into a meeting room and says his brother received a death threat, written note on his windshield. Is it credible? Before divulging more details, Gustav interrupts.

He’s not happy with his brother for troubling the police with their dirty laundry. Yet Karl-Axel thinks Gustav might be under a real threat from a far-right group who dislike his progressive politics, of which he has been extremely outspoken.

Young Wallander Episode 4 recap: What’s the connection between Gustav and Isak?

Rask barely has time to ask Gustav about Isak Bjork before their assistant arrives to inform them their father is in the building. The brothers rush the detectives out the door, but both noticed Gustav had a noticeable reaction to Isak’s picture. He’s hiding something from them. Fate intervenes just in time, Rask’s contact sends her Isak’s location while they’re exiting the building. Now they can simply ask him.

Kurt finds Isak hiding at a rundown, graffitied building with tarps billowing over the windows and peeling paint in every corridor. It’s a place for runaways, junkies, and people who fall between the cracks of society. Isak now fits in among the crowd as he fears he’s being hunted by drug dealers he owes money too.

He thinks they killed Hugo, and his pet dog, too, since poor Doobie was also killed with a grenade. But the more interesting reveal here is the host of these parties Isak and Hugo were frequently attending, none other than Gustav Munck.

Odds & Ends from Young Wallander Episode 4

• Hemberg struggling to get up the stairs as fast as Kurt? Relatable.
• “What are you a f**king robot!?” I loved seeing Kurt lose his cool for a moment.

Season 1 of Young Wallander is now streaming on Netflix.