Upamanyu Biswas
In Netflix’s ‘The Åre Murders,‘ police officer Hanna Ahlander finds herself in the middle of a whirlwind of events after moving to the mountain town of Åre, Sweden. When a local girl named Amanda Halvorsen goes missing, Hanna has to cancel her planned vacation and get straight back into crime-solving mode to discover Amanda’s whereabouts. With the help of local police officer Daniel Lindskog, she begins unraveling the secrets within the community that led to the mysterious disappearance of the high schooler, who never makes it home after a party at her friend’s house. As the narrative progresses, it becomes evident that there is more going on within the town, even within the walls of Amanda’s household. The anxiety becomes palpable when her family dog, Ludde, gets involved in the whole affair in an unforeseen and tragic way. SPOILERS AHEAD.
An Act of Retribution Costs the Life of Ludde the Dog
Ludde is the family pet of the Halvorsens. He is a beloved companion who lives his life playfully on Halvorsens’ property. However, after Amanda goes missing, chaos breaks out within the household as each family member starts to lose their grip over their mental state. This is particularly true for Amanda’s father, Harald, who has been having a secret affair with Mira, a work colleague. Unbeknownst to his wife, Harald receives a call from Amanda the night she goes missing. However, he ignores the call because he is in the middle of having sex with Mira in her car. He even forgets to pick up the phone when he returns home later that night. Subsequently, Mira’s husband, Friedrik, finds the phone in the car and realizes that his wife is sleeping with Harald. In a twist of fate, Harald’s infidelity ends up haunting the family when Ludde is killed a few days later.
Ludde is found dead behind the family house one night. Harald ends up burying the dog, which is an emotional moment. However, he realizes that the canine creature could not have died in a natural way and had been murdered by someone. He wonders if the same person who is responsible for Amanda’s disappearance is also behind Ludde’s death. After Amanda’s dead remains are discovered by the authorities on the ski lift, Harald becomes even more concerned that an unknown assailant is punishing his entire family for his personal sins. He suspects that the main culprit has to be Friedrik, especially because he learned the truth behind his and Mira’s extramarital affair. He makes the connection that Friedrik may have killed Amanda and Ludde as a way of exacting revenge against Harald.
Harald becomes increasingly unstable as the narrative progresses. Unable to bear the load anymore, he confronts Friedrik in his warehouse, asking him to confess to his daughter’s murder. However, Friedrik states that he has nothing to do with it and Harald should leave. The latter picks up a nail gun and threatens Friedrik with it. Hanna and Daniel arrive not long after and plead with Harald to drop the weapon. When they make it clear to him that Friedrik has nothing to do with Amanda’s death because he was not in Åre on the night of the murder, Harald finally lets go of the gun. In the aftermath, Friedrik tells Harald that he deserves the punishment even though he did not murder Amanda. However, he does reveal that he killed Ludde. Thus, the poor dog ended up losing his life because of the messy interpersonal affairs between the two families.
Read More: Where is Netflix’s The Åre Murders Filmed?
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