Joel Kinnaman's Tom looking judgingly down at Tobias Santelmann's Harry in Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole
Warning: Major SPOILERS lie ahead for Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole season 1 finale,"Duke Ellington's Piano"!After a very tense game of cat-and-mouse between them, Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole season 1 has given Joel Kinnaman's Tom Waaler quite a send-off.
Created by the eponymous author, and based on his 2003 novel The Devil's Star, the Netflix series introduces Tobias Santelmann as the beloved Norwegian detective, previously the focus of Michael Fassbender's The Snowman, whose investigation into an unsolved series of bank robberies and a new string of murders pits him against Kinnaman's corrupt fellow officer, Waaler. However, Waaler also slowly begins recruiting Hole into his weapons smuggling ring, which Tobias Santelmann's detective considers both for the money and to bring his archenemy down. This all culminates in Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole season 1 ending, in which Harry realizes the initiation task given to him by Waaler is to kill a witness who can actually prove the latter's corruption. Realizing he's backed into a corner, Waaler kidnaps Oleg, the son of Harry's girlfriend, Rakel, and offers to make an exchange. The titular detective realizes this to be a ruse and attempts to help them all escape in the elevator of a student residence hall, with Waaler's arm being torn off as he attempted to grab Oleg, and subsequently dies of blood loss while attempting to chase them downstairs. Ahead of the show's premiere, ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns interviewed Joel Kinnaman to discuss Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole. When looking at Waaler's initial decision to target Rakel and Oleg rather than go directly at the eponymous protagonist, the star began by explaining his character is"throwing caution into the wind" in the hopes of protecting himself, and is ready to"let it all burn down." However, Kinnaman also denotes that"this is still strategy," as Waaler kidnapping Oleg was just one step in his efforts to"kill them all and make the problem go away." Ultimately, though,"it just didn't work out," with his character being sent off in a"very brutal fashion" with his arm being torn off in the elevator. Kinnaman acknowledged that one has to"give it to Jo to go out with a bang," while also praising the author for finding a way to make such a send-off memorable: Joel Kinnaman: This is something that I love about Jo's writing, that he takes it to the extreme. There's something that happens when you do that, and it's a lot more than the shock value of each incident. I think it just makes the audience unable to lean back, because of the potential that something really hard is going to hit you is there. As for the actual nature of filming his death scene, Kinnaman expressed that"those kinds of things are a lot worse to watch than to play," with the trickier nature of his final scene being how it was"a little bit tough on the vocal cords" with Waaler screaming both in anger and pain towards Harry, Oleg and Martin. Further describing said sequence as being"a little uncomfortable and weird" to shoot, he went on to praise the practical method of capturing his arm severance: Joel Kinnaman: They did a great job with physical prosthetics as sort of a border layer that they then will do the VFX around. So you have this layering of real prosthetic and visual effects. With the author himself penning the show, Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole stays true to its source material in the way it kills off Waaler, as he met a similar fate by the end of The Devil's Star. However, with the Netflix series skipping ahead to the fifth book in the source franchise, and adapting elements of the previous installments, Rødstrupe and Sorgenfri , Waaler and Hole's cat-and-mouse game isn't nearly as extensive as it was in the novels. That being said, while Kinnaman's antagonist was given the same brutal ending as his novel counterpart, that doesn't mean Waaler can't return for a future season of Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole. The season 1 finale came with a post-credits tag that saw the titular detective heading to Waaler's hometown and looking into his past, learning that Tom's abusive father had a sudden and mysterious death, potentially hinting at Kinnaman's character being behind it. As such, should Harry dig deeper, there could be flashbacks involving this, which would likely feature a younger actor. Related Harry Hole's Book Return & New Plot Details Revealed By Author Ahead Of Netflix's 9-Part Adaptation Exclusive: Author Jo Nesbø confirms fan-favorite detective Harry Hole is returning for a new book and shares new plot details for the next case. Posts By Grant Hermanns For Kinnaman, he could also appear in flashbacks after Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole season 1 ended with the reveal that the Deputy Chief of Police was also a high-ranking part of the smuggling ring that Waaler was a part of. With her being established as a potential overarching villain, flashbacks could unveil how she and Kinnaman's character previously ran the organization, and raise the stakes for the sheer extent she'll go to keep her involvement under wraps. Subscribe for Detective Hole insights and streaming analysis Get the newsletter for deep-dive coverage of Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole—scene dissections, cast interviews, adaptation comparisons and spoiler-ready analysis—plus similar crime and streaming drama coverage to expand your show knowledge. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole season 1 is available to stream in its entirety on Netflix. Jo Nesbo's Detective Hole follows the brilliant yet troubled detective Harry Hole as he pursues a serial killer and contends with the corrupt Tom Waaler. Powered by Expand Collapse Jo Nesbo's Detective Hole - Season 1 Mystery Crime Drama Thriller 6/10 Release Date March 26, 2026 Network Netflix Series Joe Nesbø's Detective Hole Episodes 9 Powered by Expand Collapse
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