In the third season of the Danish/Swedish "Nordic Noir" series THE BRIDGE (BRON/BROEN) - seasons one and two covered here - Swedish detective Saga Noren (Sofia Helin, ARN: THE KNIGHT TEMPLAR) must conduct a Swedish/Danish joint investigation without regular partner Martin when the body of Danish gender theorist Helle Acker with her heart removed and arranged at a dinner table with mannequins of a male and two children (a seeming swipe at her lesbian marriage and parenting style) who was set to open up a series of gender-neutral schools in both countries. Her new Danish partner Hanne (Kirsten Olesen, ACCUSED) has already taken a disliking to her and requested from Danish chief Lilian (Sarah Boberg, UNIT ONE) to be reassigned, only to lose a leg in an explosive booby trap set by Acker's shell-shocked Afghanistan veteran son Morten (Asbjørn Krogh Nissen). Hanne is replaced with pill-popping Henrik Sabroe (Thure Lindhardt, INTO THE WILD) who has a strangely open marriage with wife Alice (Katrine Rosenthal). They discover that Acker had plenty of threats, but it is with the subsequent murder of Fabian Christiansen (Anders Hove, SUBSPECIES) that the police seem to find a link in the hate speech videos of conservative vlogger Lisa Anderson (Sonja Richter, OPEN HEARTS), especially when it is discovered that Acker was first murdered at the transport company belonging to Lise's husband Lars (Olaf Johannessen, 1864) before being moved to where she was discovered. When Saga's mentor and superior Hans (Dag Malmberg, EASY MONEY) - who has just revealed to her that he has been secretly married to Lilian for three months - disappears under violent circumstances, it at first appears as if he has been abducted by recently released convict Aleks (Boris Glibusic) but the investigators soon realize that he may be in the hands of their killer. Saga starts to crack under the pressure of Hans' disappearance, the probing inquiries of his replacement Linn (Maria Kulle), the return of grudge-carrying Rasmus Larsson (Henrik Lundström, EVIL) whose incompetence nearly blew the season two case, and the unwelcome return of her mother (Ann Petrén) who seems to be seeking revenge for her imprisonment on Saga's accusations of abuse of her and her sister (who subsequently committed suicide). As the murders continue, the motive seems less and less like an extremist conservative statement and the links between the victims more byzantine.

Malevolent maternal figures are a recurring theme throughout this season including those of Saga's mother, Anna's mother (who is more concerned with the reputation of the family business and manages the fallout from her daughter's affair accordingly). The positive maternal figures (living and dead) here are overshadowed by the living ones and the power still exerted by the dead ones on the psyches of characters on both sides of the investigation (as loathsome as Saga's mother is throughout, that subplot is actually the least interesting one even though it is left open-ended for a possible fourth series plotline or opening wrap-up). The third season is nevertheless a fine return to form after a second season that felt less urgent despite repeating the approach of subsequent murders and an ever-expanding cast of suspects with individual stories that took their time to come together. Henrik makes an interesting replacement for Martin, with a backstory that at first seems contrived to make him an angsty kindred spirit to Saga. The trajectory of the case this time around is as gripping as the first one even as viewers known that each subsequent development is going to be derailed with the next body. Not all of the suspects and peripheral characters are as interesting but, as usual, they end up tied to the case in interesting and unpredictable ways. This time around, we have Lise's infatuated and possibly obsessed house cleaner Rikard (Anton Lundqvist), gallerist Emil (Adam Pålsson) who notices similarities between the macabre crimes and artwork in the collection of ruthless investor Freddie Holst (Nicolas Bro, NYMPHOMANIAC), Holst's pregnant wife Åsa (Anna Björk, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO), her motivational speaker ex-husband Claes (Reuben Sallmander, IRENE HUSS) and his stalker fan Annika (Louise Peterhoff), Morten's fellow vet turned local gangster Lukas (Christopher Læssø), heavily pregnant Jeanette (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) and her thief boyfriend Marc (Michael Slebsager) who at one point ends up with the killer's tablet, ex-model-turned-CEO Anna (Melinda Kinnaman), her seventeen year old lover Benjamin (Henrik Söderlind) and cuckolded husband Håkan (Joakim Gräns), and disgraced paparazza Tina (Ida Engvoll) who becomes a vital link between the killer and the detectives through her relationship with police technical expert John (Rafael Pettersson, FOUR WEEKS IN JUNE).