Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole on Netflix begins with a dark sequence that highlights Harry Hole’s addiction to alcohol and obsession with his job. After learning about a bank robbery, Harry Hole hops into a car to rush to the crime scene despite being intoxicated. One of his younger colleagues also joins him before he crashes his car and gets his colleague killed.
With what follows, the Netflix crime thriller jumps a few years ahead, where Harry Hole seems to be on his path to redemption. He stays sober and tries to solve the bank robbery case that ruined his life. However, soon, a new series of murders haunt his town, forcing him to use his self-destructive crime-solving abilities while finding himself at odds with Detective Tom Waaler.
How Detective Hole Realized Willy Was The Killer
Detective Harry Hole initially reveals that, according to statistics, the husband is almost always the killer if his wife ends up getting murdered. Despite this, Willy does not seem like the suspect after his wife, Lisabeth, is found dead. He genuinely seems devastated by her demise and does not even seem capable of killing someone. Owing to this, no one really suspects him.
Towards the end of Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, however, Harry Hole connects the dots after learning that fennel seeds were found under the nail of Lisabeth’s finger, which was later couriered to the police by the killer. Recalling that he earlier saw Willy consuming fennel seeds, Hole deduces that, after killing his wife, he must have cut her finger and hid it in a rather “unconventional place.”
Willy confirms that Detective Hole is absolutely right. He even reveals he hid the finger that way because he realized the police would bring sniffer dogs. This proves that Hole’s theory about connecting fecal matter and fennel seeds found under Lisabeth’s nail to Willy was spot on.
Why Willy Committed The Murders
After realizing that Detective Hole has finally solved the case, Willy reveals the reason why he killed his wife. He recalls catching his wife having an affair with a man named Martin. The same man had once previously met them during a vacation and tried to sell them star-shaped diamonds.
When Willy learned about the affair and realized that his wife did not love him, he decided to orchestrate a series of crimes to frame Martin and exact revenge on his wife.
He first got in touch with him and asked him to discreetly deliver him weapons and star-shaped diamonds without getting any middle-men involved. This ensured that every time Willy asked him to, Martin showed up in town to make the deliveries. Willy timed each murder with Martin’s arrival in town to ensure that investigators later noticed this pattern and suspected Martin of the crimes.
He also dropped the star-shaped diamonds that Martin sold at each crime scene and recorded cassettes with a fake accent to further mislead the investigation and cement Martin as the prime suspect in the eyes of the police. His plan worked well, but he made a big mistake by sending his wife’s finger to the police and making it obvious that he was directing them to a killer.
The Deputy Chief Of Police’s Twist In Detective Hole’s Ending Explained
After solving the murder mystery and exposing Tom Waaler’s involvement in a weapon smuggling ring, Hole meets the Deputy Chief of Police in the show’s final arc. She asks him to further investigate the weapon smuggling case and identify who else from the police department is involved in it. Surprisingly, a final twist reveals that even the Deputy Chief is a part of the bigger operation.
She asks one of her men to cease the operation for a while until things cool down in their city. This reveal confirms that she only hired Harry Hole to continue his investigation surrounding the weapon smuggling ring because she wanted to keep him close to her. She realized that he could be a major threat to the operation, so it would be wiser to closely keep an eye on him instead of going against him.
Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole’s Post-Credits Scene Explained
Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole Season 1 also features a post-credits scene in which the titular detective visits Tom Waaler’s hometown and investigates his past. He meets a shop owner who knew Waaler when he was younger. The owner not only reveals that Waaler was a strange and troubled child but also recalls how his abusive father mysteriously ended up dead. This seems to hint that Waaler might have killed his father.
If the show’s season 2 sees the light of day, it might explore Waaler’s past and also reveal how learning more about him leads Detective Hole to the people running the weapons smuggling business.
Why Tom Waaler Wanted Harry Hole To Kill Martin
In an interesting turn of events, Tom Waaler is shocked when he learns that Martin could be the killer. His reaction suggests that he knows him very well. Waaler even attempts to kill Martin, but Beate shows up in the nick of time to stop him.
Towards the final arc of Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, Tom Waaler tries to convince Harry Hole to kill Martin, claiming that it is the morally right thing to do. Hole realizes that something is wrong and forces Martin to reveal all his secrets. With this, Martin confesses that he was a weapons runner for Tom Waaler in the smuggling business.
Since he knew about Tom Waaler’s involvement in the illegal weapons trade, he believed he could secure a deal with the police to reduce his sentence for the murder by telling them the truth about Waaler. Owing to this, Waaler saw him as a threat and wanted to kill him before he spilled his secrets.
Why Tom Waller Killed Ellen & Olsen
Harry Hole studies the footage of an unsolved old bank robbery case in the show’s opening moments, in which a female worker is shot dead. The gun used by the bank robber leads Hole to a local weapons dealer named Olsen. However, before he can question Olsen, Olsen realizes he is being tracked by the police. As a result, he goes into hiding.
In the meantime, at the police department, a new recruit named Beate recognizes Waaler in a blurry piece of CCTV footage, which reveals Waaler had visited Olsen. Since Beate proves that her recognition ability is far superior to that of an average human, Ellen and Harry believe her and set out to interrogate Olsen and ask him why Waaler had visited him.
Waaler tries to stay one step ahead of them by visiting Olsen’s hideout with the plan to kill him. Ellen follows him to the location but eventually gets caught. To protect himself and to ensure that his involvement in the weapons smuggling ring remains a secret, Waaler kills Ellen and frames Olsen for the crime before murdering him as well.
Why Harry Hole Breaks Up With Rakel
Harry Hole’s story, at its core, is about his addiction. His addition to alcohol serves as a parallel to his addition to his job as a detective. Even when he sleeps at night, he cannot help but think about the criminal cases he could not solve. In the show’s opening moments, it is this combination of his two addictions that ultimately leads him to crash his car in an accident which kills one of his juniors.
Towards the show’s final chapter, Hole realizes that he might have a shot at staying away from alcohol. However, his job is something he will never be able to move away from. He also feels guilty about Rakel and his son having to suffer because of his profession. Therefore, he decides that they are better off without him.
Rakel tells him that he does not get to decide what is right or wrong for them, but Hole still chooses to keep his distance. He later tries calling her again but realizes that she has completely cut him off.
How Willy’s Case Helps Harry Solve Another Murder Mystery
After solving the central serial killer case, Hole circles back to the bank robbery murder. He even dreams about it and recalls how the robber had said something to the female bank worker before killing her. Recalling his words about the husband usually being the perpetrator, he connects the dots and realizes that, like Willy, even the bank robber might have used the robbery as a cover for a deeply personal crime.
Studying the robbery’s footage buries his doubt and helps him conclude that the female worker’s husband only staged the robbery to murder her. This explains why the robber even mumbled something in her ear and left her surprised before he killed her.
How Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole Season 1 Sets Up Season 2
Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole on Netflix is based on the fifth novel, The Devil’s Star, from Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole book series. Since there are over 10 Harry Hole novels, Netflix seems to have an abundance of source material for follow-up seasons.
The Netflix crime thriller also sets the stage for another installment by establishing the new Deputy Chief of Police as the overarching antagonist. This story setup suggests the show’s season 2 will likely pick up the sixth book, The Redeemer, instead of taking the same approach as Prime Video’s Reacher and adapting random books from the original series.
Since Joel Kinnaman’s character, Tom Waaler, dies in Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole‘s season 1. His return seems unlikely in season 2. The Netflix show could still feature him in flashbacks as Harry Hole learns more about his complicated past.