Post Mortem – Season 1 Episode 4 “A Wake” Recap & Review

A Wake

Episode 4 of Post Mortem begins with Live and Odd both going about their very different morning routines. Live hurries outside, trying her best to act rationally, while Odd takes up business advice from Jettland and decides to hit the Gundersen family with a discount.

While it seems to work, Odd is understandably frazzled, especially given the late payments he owes. With less money coming in and deaths in short supply, Odd’s problems continue to stack up.

Judith is called to a car accident involving a tipped over van, where she ends up finding drugs stashed in the books.

Live meanwhile, grabs gear from the funeral parlor to use in clearing up Reinert and the blood around the apartment. She even manages to hack into the detective’s phone too, sending a message claiming he’s ill and won’t be at work.

While that in itself seems like the perfect plan, Judith showing up at Reinert’s and throws a serious spanner in the works. In fact, in her hastiness she leaves behind an empty blood bag with spatters of red on the wall.

Live somehow manages to avoid suspicion, dragging the body of Reinert into the funeral parlor while wrapped up. Realizing how big the coffin is, she decides to use Reinert’s dead body as a way of “filling in” Mrs Gundersen’s over-large casket. And would you know it, Odd falls for it too!

A warm embrace from Live and hastily grabbing the lid does the trick, as Live learns that this casket is going straight to the crematorium. It seems she’s in the clear for now.

Odd shows up to Martin Jettland’s lecture, determined to turn the fortunes of the funeral parlor around. Unfortunately it all goes awry when Odd is asked to mention the woes of his company. “Nobody in Skarnes f*cking dies!” He screams before heading out the front door. Although his prospects with the parlor look grim, Odd learns that he’s going to be a Father, as Rose shows up with the good news. Silver linings and all that!

Live overhears this news from the front door but decides against intervening. Instead, she heads home and waits for Odd to show up and reveal all. Unfortunately this revelation spells massive problems for Live, especially when she finds out the casket isn’t heading straight to the crematorium after all. In fact, it’s being viewed by the Gundersen boys first.

When Live shows up, things take a turn for the worst. Reinert suddenly wakes up and charges out the parlor, leaving Mrs Gundersen a complete state. As Reinert runs stark naked through the woods, Live gives chase. Unfortunately, Odd is left with the unenviable task of presenting poor Mrs Gundersen to her sons. They’re not happy and in the end force him to refund this entire funeral too.

Out in the wilderness, Live and Reinert fight. Eventually though this is broken up by Live, who smashes a rock over the man’s head. Live heads straight to the police station and claims she head over to Reinert’s place and found him naked with a bag over his head.

Judith believes this is a kinky sex game but doesn’t let go of her suspicions regarding Live’s part to play in all this. In fact, they’re going to wait for Reinert to wake up so they can hear his side of the story.

So naturally Live heads into his room and suffocates the man to death. Or so she thinks. As Dr Hanson arrives, they both bear witness to Reinert returning from the dead!

The Episode Review

So it seems like Dr Hanson is part of this whole conspiracy and the plot thickens when it’s revealed that Reinert is now one of the undead too. Quite how this will tie into the rest of the season and the story however, remains to be seen. It’s certainly an interesting twist and one that keeps things very interesting indeed.

Poor Odd though, he’s had some rotten luck across this season and the end of this episode is pretty heartbreaking. It seems like he’s going to lose the funeral business now too unless something very major happens to change his fortunes… like a town massacre at the hands of a vampire maybe?

Either way, Post Mortem has been a quirky ride but also somewhat of an acquired taste too. However, the humour is still on-point and the twists are enough to keep things engaging for the time being. With two episodes to go, Post Mortem leaves things on a tantalizing cliffhanger for the final act of this season.