If you haven't seen all of series 2 move on and don't moan if you see something you shouldn't.
I probably enjoyed this series a tad more as it moved at a quicker pace, all of the cast additions were a great, especially Dennis Quaid. I loved the weird spiritualist vibe to it, was genuinely shocked when they killed off Hildur half-way through, although I was expecting a few more people to go.
Downside was I feel like there were more plot holes than the last series and some character motivations were hard to understand. I also missed a few of the old cast and felt that Markus could have been used more somehow.
Soooo, Russian Zombies for series 3? That guy in the tent scared the sh't out of me.
I just finished watching the second series on Sky box sets last night (where i assume you also watched it, or on a similar service), and i've several thoughts that i was musing over, which i was thinking of starting a new thread over, but this thread is as good as any to post in... :) .
Overall i really enjoyed the series, but several of the editing choices, logical leaps we were left having to make when certain scenes weren't shown, several forgotten or abandoned plots points and several "wtf?!" moments have stuck with me.
Firstly, while i know everybody in the show, particularly the police, seem very quick to go for their guns because, like in the Wild West, most of the people there carry guns themsleves, but in the first episode i believe, it's pretty ridiculous when we see PC Ingrid pulling her gun on two kids shoplifting, but it's even more ridiculous when we find out in the next episode, that the kid that stood up to her was her brother!
Of course there are several things in the show that are in there to create laughs, but, while we see that in the first series the entire police department of the town is four officers and with Dan missing, then out of action, they were down to three and often only two, when Eric swans off.
But even in those circumstances, they often make bad use of their limited numbers, like when all three officers left the station empty the night the serial killer attacks the taxidermist. But during daytime hours we see several civilian workers in the building, but were none of them really not a better choice than the (clearly included for gags) ten or so year old kid to try and hack the hitman's phones? :) .
Skipping forward to Governor Odegard's killing by the new governor, her dropped phone initially seemed like it was going to be the thing that led to his comeuppance, but whether it was an intentional red herring, a forgotten plot point or the writers decided just to not use it in the end, it's eventual non discovery seemed strange.
Initially when her body is found, one of the police tries calling it and when keeps ringing, they say that it still exists/is working, so it isn't in the water, but when Ingrid and her father go looking for the Governor's car at the factory and eventually find it, they don't try to call the phone there. I was thinking then that the digger operator might show up with it, but no.
On Vincent's sudden blindness, it was very strange, he didn't seem to be faking it as he didn't react to the eyeless guy that showed up at the tent, but then unless Natalie throwing the jar of flies at him, "scared the sight" back into him, he caught it no problem and then he could suddenly see again, which suggests that he was faking it, but if so why?
Of all the things we see Dan do, killing the guy like a werewolf or vampire was possibly the most ridiculous... :) .
The point at which Eric disappeared for an episode or two after his wife's death, but then he shows up out of nowhere to save Michael from the mercenary - sure we've to assume that he heard on the radio about them ramming Petra's car and maybe someone reported seeing strange men with guns, but a 30 second scene of him listening to the radio and grabbing a rifle would have been nice :) .
And lastly the bit of the flare making the helicopter explode was completely ridiculous - i'd have believed it if the flare had made the pilot crash, like in one of the Bond films, but i guess that helicopter was made out of explodium! :) .
Slight spoiler on Edvin's character,.... .... .... ....
...Unless i missed it, he's still kicking by the end of the series and i don't remember him being in any real danger (aside from when he had his sister pointing a gun and him in the first episode :) ), though he does get his father angry enough to fire a shot in the air near him (mostly to show that guns aren't toys, something the twelve or so year old girl in the first series seemed to know) :).
But on Robert's character, are you sure you want that big a spoiler? - You'll surely see for yourself soon :) .
tannerie: like you I just binge watched season 2 over the last 3 days. I agree with all the points you make. the plot and editing was incredibly disjointed to the point I felt like the producers or set coordinators or those in charge of keeping consistency were really amateurs. It's a shame because the show was really let down by a huge number of inconsistencies, there were times where I was thinking why did this person decide to go to this location, why did this person turn up out of the blue, how did this person know this, I felt like I must of kept falling asleep through the show and missing vital scenes that made sense of my questions.
the ending fo the show was a huge disappointment - it was a WTF moment. to have watched 10 hours and to be given the ending which was really a nothing ending was a huge disappointment, I had to check to see if there was another episode I had not downloaded.
BIG SPOILERS--- ------- -------------------------- ----------------------------- I thought the ending was ok as all the lose ties were resolved. Shaman dead, Monk dead, Hilda dead, experimenting Dr dead, Drugs company mercenaries dead, Freya dead, Eleyna dead. The only thing left open are whether Natalie will be cured by the reindeer juice (I think she will be) and Dan's current state of mind - (he seems to have all but turned into the "demon", but keeps the aggressive tendencies partially under control, but for how much longer he can maintain a facade, we don't know).
I agree that there are several plot holes- I think the mobile phone may have been an intentional red herring, you expect them to find it when they go to the ice hole and find Hilda's car, but they work out what happened to her anyway.
Vincent wasn't faking the blindness, it was some kind of severe physchological stress reaction, but there wasn't anything medically wrong with his eyes. His female colleage knew he was terrified of the wasps, so threw the jar at him to instantly snap him out of his perceived blindness with a kind of shock treatment. Fortunately, it worked.
I agree, the exploding helicopter was a joke- I think budget and special effects limitations showed up there- more believable if she had shot, or threatened to shoot the mercenary women in the face with the flare, then pushed her out and ordered the pilot to take her safely back to Oslo, (or something like that). But the explosion just ties off the lose story thread neatly.
I wondered if she had actually infected Monk with the virus before he was killed, rather than given him the antidote as she said? They weren't leaving him there to sort out the mess, they were leaving him to die.
She just seems to be a random girl taking drugs in the first dead guys' house. While we know that the barman/hitman killed her in a copycat attack, it was never explained why - was he planning to kill Rune and Yeva too later for just being there, or did he just pick a random target so that the police wouldn't know what the hell was going on?... :) .
Who knows where this show will go in likely future series... :) .
Another question I had was why the mercenray guy who Eric shoots at the end was trying to kill Dennis Quaid? The guy had Dan already (or so he thought) but why go out of his way to kill Quaid when he had what he had gone there for already?
Neil, I think they had to kill Micheal because he knew about the research. Both Munk and Dr. Khatri had told him about the regenerating tissue stuff. They had to kill him to tie up any loose ends.
That is the reason they wanted to kill Quaid but how in the hell did that guy know Quaid was out there in that tent? That was ridiculous if you ask me. Then the cop is out there also, WTF?
Bianca's death was definitely a strange one given they cast Jessica Henwick of Game of Thrones / Iron Fist yet all she did was show up in one episode and then get killed off-screen.
Was cool seeing Liverpudlian / Chinese actor David Yip turn up as her dad though.
I thoroughly enjoyed Fortitude S2, even though (as previously mentioned) there is some flawed logic in the script. Hopefully there will be a season 3, as Dan's story needs to be resolved, as does Natalie's. But I agree that the biggest mystery is why Bianca was killed. There appears to be some thought/plotting behind it, as Munk and the barman discussed it as a premeditated act. But for the life of me I don't know what purpose it served. Perhaps it was designed to unsettle the town further so that Munk could unseat Hildur as governor?
Still can't see how Vincent saw the jar coming though if he was psychologically blind without seeing the eyeless man in his tent, cause that man was creepy as hell.
And Petra did an autopsy in season 1, but was suddenly terrified of dead bodies. When did she fall for deranged Dan anyway ?
So Freya believed in the shaman all along only to burn his work down at the last minute when she is about to see the results.
Just finished watching ep 10 - what? Is there more episodes?? It's been a bit confusing, and definitely feels like perhaps some storylines were shot but edited out - Bianca; Hildur's phone; Vincent blindness; the shaman's castration!! Why did he castrate himself?? Where did he put his genitals?? If he was going to find Dan anyway what was it's point?? I liked Dennis Quaid in it but his jaw seemed to be sloping in the last few episodes and I couldn't tell if he was trying to act drunk or if he'd had a stroke? I liked the odd comedic bits of the little computer boy, and the weird conversation Petra and Ingrid had about Hildur's handbags! I don't really get why people kept saying Eric couldn't be a good Sheriff (or what difference it made to Munk etc for Eric to be the Sheriff??), and I don't really know why Dan killed Elena. I guess just to show how different he is now to before. But the finished series overall I have enjoyed (because I decided not to take it seriously) but it feels like there was a problem with the storylines, and maybe planned storylines had to be changed. If some of the oddities were red herrings I'm not sure I know what the red herrings distracted us from? It felt like it intentionally 'jumped the shark' lots of times - or polar bears! I don't know what direction a third series would go. More Twin Peaks? Or perhaps the red aurora was to do with aliens!
I still don't understand why the shaman castrated himself (or what he did with his penis after)?? I cauterised himself so he obviously didn't want to die (or get an infection!).
Lots of the plot points on this forum I agree with, so many it the twists seem a bit misjudged or undeveloped.
I just finished binge watching season 2. I believe he castrated himself because, as he told Dan, he ran away from being castrated when he was 12. Maybe he believes that this is the reason that Dan got away from him and the whole situation/ritual fell apart with the fire etc. Maybe he believes if he was castrated like he was fated to be as a shaman, that it would work the next time.