Sky Original Production ‘Fortitude’ has returned to TV screens everywhere... with more edge-of-your-seat action than ever before.
It’s getting colder out there. And the elements are getting... even more elemental. This episode sees the return of polar bears, and they’re nothing like the sweet-looking, fuzzy ones you see at the zoo. They’re lurking, prowling, eating things they’re not supposed to... Something’s gone horribly wrong with these animals, and one polar bear even breaks into the school and threatens the children.
Thanks goodness a drunken - and armed - Michael (Dennis Quaid) is in the area to save the day. He’s gone on a bender because it turns out his pal Lamont sabotaged his boat Muriel, starting the electrical fire that’s kept Michael stuck in Fortitude, while the rest of the fleet is cashing in big time on king crab.
OK, back to the bears. Since bears normally only enter buildings in broad daylight in extreme circumstances, this bear must be starving. Although his bright red, inflamed eyes feel like an ominous sign.
When Vincent (Luke Treadaway) and Natalie (Sienna Guillory) cut the bear open, they discover he’s completely full. Looks like “atypical predator behaviour” is threatening the inhabitants of Fortitude yet again. The only way to find out what’s going on is to find a live bear. And hope it doesn’t devour anyone before the scientists find out what’s going on...
In other bad news for Michael, his son Rune (Lars Ulvenaune) is involved in something sketchy: his belt was found at the murdered man’s home (remember someone was beheaded last episode?), and his sister, PC Ingrid (Mia Jexen) is trying to find out what he’s up to by confronting his girlfriend, Yeva, whom she saw stealing carrots at the supermarket. Who were they for?
Cryptically, Yeva replies: “Bad things come at night. You need to be ready and to see what’s coming.”
In Fortitude, bad things come in the day, too. The decapitated man has been identified as geologist Laszlo Hindemith, a man who’s witnessed some horrors in his life, from mass executions to cannibalism. Perhaps unsurprisingly, strange things are found in his home: pictures of decapitated men, spices and condiments in the cupboard with no other food, animal sedatives, and, most ominously, reindeer juice, which can cause nightmares, horrors and “unnameable dread.”
Meanwhile, Hildur (Sofie Gråbøl) is in a for a shocker: she’s been sacked (She really shouldn’t have released that fuel to those ships without permission from the higher-ups). There’s a new governor in town. Enter Governor Munk (Ken Stott).
So, what about Dan (Richard Dormer)? He’s suffering from acute alcohol poisoning, and is on dialysis. It’s a miracle he was found - and able to walk - frankly. Only when Hildur tells him that Elena (Verónica Echegui) is still alive, a Snow White in a glass coffin on life support, does Dan start to make sounds, before having a seizure, convulsing and bleeding from the mouth.
The comatose Elena gets a visit from the mysterious hooded stranger we saw in last week’s episode. And then all power suddenly goes off in the lab. Spooky. Elena wakes from her coma in an agitated state, and Dr. Khatri (Parminder Nagra) puts her back to sleep. Which is strange. What’s Dr. Khatri’s agenda here?
After Hildur tells Dan she’s been fired, he wakes up too. Now we get to find out what happened to him.
Hildur’s marriage still seems a little shaky, considering she doesn’t tell Eric (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) she’s been fired. She does confess the news to a comatose Dan instead.
Eric goes off to confront Tavrani the taxidermist, asking him if he sold the murdered man reindeer juice.
As he opens up the fridge to see if there’s a stash of reindeer juice hidden inside, we see something far worse: Hindemith’s severed head.
And then Tavrani strikes Eric over the head with a gun, knocking him out. Is his head going to end up in the fridge next?
Things just got a lot creepier in Fortitude.
Fortitude series 2 is on Sky Atlantic Thursdays at 9pm, or watch every episode ever before anyone else only on Sky Box Sets.