Young Wallander – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Real Suspect

Investigating Gustav

After learning more about Gustav, episode 5 of Young Wallander begins with Wallander meeting Hemberg and discussing the case.

Given Gustav knew Hugo before he was killed and Isak’s dog was offed with the same heinous grenade method, he certainly seems suspiciously involved.

Wallander wants to bring Gustav in for questioning but Hemberg is not so sure. He instead tasks him with some good old fashioned espionage work to get close to Gustav. Or, preferably, someone close to him. Someone like…Mona perhaps?

Conflicted over what to do, Wallander meets up with Mona and steers the conversation toward Gustav. It turns out the pair had a romantic fling in the past.

The Birthday Celebration

That evening they drive down to a party at the Munck Estate celebrating Gustav’s Father, Leopold’s birthday.

Inside Gustav takes Mona aside while Wallander admires the paintings on the wall. As he returns to the party, he spies Mona and Gustav getting pretty hands-on with each other.

Approaching her, Leopold gives a rousing speech about his brothers, and in particular how impressed he’s been with Gustav recently. Hmm.

On the back of this, Wallander seizes his opportunity and confronts Gustav outside. Only, this is less than an ideal time and Mona soon figures out why he’s tagged along with her. She berates him for using her and soon drives off, leaving him stranded at the estate and forced to get a taxi home.

On the way, he spies Ibra with his new gang. Grabbing Bash, the pair head out together to track down Ibra. It’s just as well too, as they head underground and find the boy beaten and bruised on the ground.

It turns out he failed his initiation and refused to follow through. Wallander brandishes his gun and tells the others he’s a cop. As things get heated, Bash heads in and manages to diffuse the situation.

The Munck Family

After bringing Ibra home, Wallander starts digging into the Muncks. It turns out the inheritance has been switched over in favour of Gustav.

Given Leopold spoke about his son’s resolution and character, this definitely fits with the narrative that Gustav is the one responsible.

With Isak back in the station for questioning, Wallander shows him a picture of Marcus Lindholm. He’s the same bouncer that threw Wallander out of the car and worse, also has ties to Dodovich too. This is all starting to tie together now and it seems like Dodo is front and centre of this operation.

He may well be the ringleader surrounding Zemar getting involved and the one pulling the strings for this whole operation. Wallander remains convinced that Gustav is part of this story but right now it’s not clear how.

Dodo and the Munck’s

Wallander continues to dig and finds pictures confirming Dodo entering the Munck Building for some sort of deal. Alongside this are some pretty nasty photos of beatings that weren’t reported to the school.

This eventually brings Hemberg and Wallander to Dodo in a bid to get the truth. He confirms that he was at Munck for “business” but promises to throw them a bone. He was actually there to finalize a shipping contract.

Not long after, Wallander heads out and tracks down Von-Rosen, one of the boys beaten at the boarding school. As he relives his ordeal, one boy was left behind with a crowbar.

He was sadistic and watched Von-Rosen suffer. That man? Karl-Axel Munck. So it was a red herring after all!

The Episode Review

So it looks like the Munck family were involved from the very start. However, the lovely bait and switch with the brothers is a really nice twist that’s cleverly disguised throughout the episodes.

While the show doesn’t really do anything different or outstanding compared to other crime dramas, Young Wallander does enough to keep things enjoyable.

With the finale up next, all eyes now turn to see exactly how this one is going to be resolved. With tensions high, this easy to watch series is gearing up for an explosive finale.