‘Bäckström’ Recap: ‘Episode 5’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Five of ‘Bäckström’.
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Something that each and every one of us out there would prefer to avoid during our travels in life, is being forced out of our dream job. Because having that happen, would devastate us, and leave us listless and understandably so. After all, we worked our tails off to achieve our dream gig and being removed from it forcefully… leaves us believing that we are nothing more than a grand failure and that really is hard to reconcile, and it is a terrifying prospect for certain. Since it also denotes the need to start over and find a new path in life. But in reality, such a surprise is more often than not… a wakeup call. One that speaks to the fact that we became complacent in our dream job and let our drive for it slip away and well, perhaps losing it all means that the time is right to fight for what we’ve earned like never before.

If anything, this is relevant to our discussion today, simply because that latter epiphany is one that came to Evert Bäckström in the next episode of Bäckström. For our intrepid detective came to realize that what he enjoys the most about being an investigator is helping people and giving them closure, and it was the rescue of Edvin that helped him to understand that… and motivate him to fight hard to get back in the game and reclaim his title as the finest investigator in Sweden so he could continue to help people. A feat that he laid the groundwork for by laying it on the line with Hwass and coming to a common ground where she and he could respect one another and work together, and that honesty brought forth a mutual agreement between them. One where Bäckström would be able to work on the case at his own pace without reprisal and receive and give updates on anything new that popped up from either side of the investigation.

Which in turn allowed for him to follow up on the photographs that Edvin managed to get backup pictures of, before losing his backpack, by going right after Haqvin and confronting him about his involvement in this matter and how exactly he knew Jaidee. And while he didn’t have much to offer in the moment, since Bäckström did use his lack of official standing to have a little fun with him, confronting him did bring about quite the unexpected reveal. In that Haqvin was thick as thieves with Daniel and Tomas Eriksson when they were kids, a reality that suddenly made Hwass rethink all of her steps to this point. For Bäckström proved himself to be genuine and dedicated to justice and he was indeed fighting hard to prove that to her and the department and well, that left her wondering why Eriksson would see and paint Evert as a crook, and after a little digging and a quiet reveal to the audience, it became clear that Eriksson has some kind of involvement in this matter and that might explain why he’s come so hard after Bäckström… so that he can cover his tracks.

However, before Hwass and Bäckström could dig deeper into this surprise… the Russians made things far more difficult for our intrepid detective. For they believed that Bäckström was the one responsible for the push to expose Boris’ involvement in the robbery and that in order to go about their business without any further problems… they needed to add Sweden’s finest to their payroll and the best way to make that happen, was within the confines of Bäckström’s apartment and in order to access that fortress, they needed an in. Which meant the Russians paid off Tina to give them access, a revelation that shattered Bäckström’s heart and to make matters worse, his sanctuary was violated with violence… since Evert was forced to fight them off with every bullet in his gun and well, all this will do is delay the case and potentially leave Bäckström in a funk, because heartbreak and betrayal are always difficult to deal with.

But while we wait to see how quickly he recovers from his hurt and how exactly Eriksson is involved in the death of Jaidee, we can bask in one surprisingly inspirational tale. Because watching Bäckström stand tall with his career on the line was quite uplifting and it definitely served to remind us to never give up in the face of adversity and fight for what’s ours when a maelstrom of drama jeopardizes our future and that, combined with the fact that this episode was filled to the brim with epic revelations about Jaidee’s murder… made this one engrossing and fulfilling tale. One that really did a wonderful job of setting the stage for this case to come to a head and it will be quite interesting to see how exactly Evert Bäckström is going to solve the toughest case of his career when we dive into the season one finale of this phenomenal new show. Until next time.

‘Bäckström’ is available to stream now on AcornTV.  ​

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