The Best Episodes of Wallander
Every episode of Wallander ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Wallander!
Wallander is a Swedish television series adapted from Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and starring Krister Henriksson in the title role. The 1st series of 13 films was produced in 2005 and 2006, with one taken directly from a novel and the remainder with new storylines suggested by Mankell. The 2nd series of 13 films was shown between 2009 and 2010. The stories are set in Ystad near the southern tip of Sweden. The three films Before the Frost, Mastermind, and The Secret were premiered in cinemas, with the rest first released as direct-to-DVD movies. The first episode of the second series, Hämnden, was released in Swedish cinemas in January 2009; the rest of the series was made for television. The BBC aired all 26 episodes of the Swedish television versions on BBC Four. A third and final season, containing six 90 minute episodes, will air in 2013 with Charlotta Jonsson as Linda Wallander. The first episode, adapted from the novel The Troubled Man, was released in cinemas in January 2013.
Top Episode Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Wallander" is "Mastermind", rated 7/10 from 1687 user votes. It was directed by Peter Flinth and written by N/A. "Mastermind" aired on 12/13/2005 and is rated 0.1 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "The Secret".
7.0/10 1,687 votes#1 - Mastermind
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 12/13/2005
Kurt and his men tries to find the connection between a horrible murder taken place in Ystad and the kidnapping of the daugher of a memeber of the police force. It also seems someone has infiltrated the police and controls every move the police make.
Director: Peter Flinth
Writer: N/A
6.9/10 927 votes#2 - The Secret
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 11/10/2006
Eleven year old Johannes is found dead in a crevice. The postmortem shows that the boy has been sexually abused and beaten to death. Detectiv Stefan Lindman is a member of the same shooting club as the victims father and they are also friends. Therefore he becomes the one that has to tell the father what has happened to his son (Johannes). When the father finally understands what has happened he demands that Stefan personally gets the one responsible. Stefan is since a previous case being accused for abuse, because the internal investigation Stefan has to go on paid vacation, and he is not allowed to continue his investigation. But because of personal issues he continues the investigation anyway. He has a dark secret, a secret that has the answer to why he came to Ysta in the first place.
Director: Stephan Apelgren
Writer: N/A
6.6/10 716 votes#3 - The Missing
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 6/19/2013
Kurt returns to work after a temporarly suspention. At the same time a girl disappeares which draws in the entire Ystad police and military looking frantically for her. When Kurt starts to work on the case, he begins to see similarities to a case he worked on ten years earlier, which hit him very personally.
Director: Leif Magnusson
Writer: N/A
6.6/10 560 votes#4 - The Man Who Wept
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 10/23/2013
It's almost Christmas and Kurt is troubled by his memory disease. He realizes that it will soon be necessary to tell his colleagues and the rest of the world that he is sick. But he finds it difficult to give up his job, his only identity. In Ystad, there is a brutal kidnapping of a famous restaurateur, Paolo Salino. Kurt takes on the case but is forced to enlist the help of his colleague Jenny from the police in Malmö.
Director: Lisa Ohlin
Writer: N/A
6.5/10 728 votes#5 - The Sniper
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 12/16/2009
A sniper is Ystad in horror and his victims are persons connected to a jewel heist. Wallander soon understand that there are links to a criminal organization. In a failed attempt to shoot the last two that are linked to each other's coup Wallander's colleague, Pontus into a race to the death. Wallander is now forced to conduct an investigation in which the shooter list has been expanded with a name - Pontus Young.
Director: Agneta Fagerström-Olsson
Writer: N/A
6.5/10 659 votes#6 - The Collector
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 5/16/2010
Isabelle and Pontus pass out as police officers but he is dismayed when she says she wants to put their affair on hold in order to travel.Her plans are cut short when she joins the investigation into the death of her friend from the gym,Therese,murdered by burglars. Therese's loser ex-boyfriend Fabian is in debt to very heavy people and offers them her jewels but is he the killer? Violent boxer and ex-con Patrik Lippowski,a former lover of Isabelle,who fled from him and changed her name from Rebecka to Isabelle to escape him,is another suspect,but he is murdered with Isabelle's gun. In finding the killer Pontus's love for Isabelle is put to the test whilst Wallander advises Katarina when her bitchy teen-aged daughter starts stealing.
Director: Kathrine Windfeld
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 1,054 votes#7 - The Overdose
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/12/2005
A blue car is parked by a side road in the beautiful landscape of Skåne in southern Sweden. A child sits alone without an adult in sight. The child's father has been reported as missing, while the mother is in a psychiatric institution, unresponsive and apathetic. Kurt Wallander's failing health sees Linda take the lead in the case. It will touch her deeply as she discovers that the child has been unscrupulously tricked, exploited and humiliated.
Director: Stephan Apelgren
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 925 votes#8 - The Revenge
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 1/9/2009
An explosion in one of Ystad's power grids shuts down the electricity in the whole city. Wallander (Krister Henriksson), who is in the middle of a crayfish party at his newly bought house with his colleagues, are called in in the middle of the night. At the same time, the municipal commissioner of Ystad, who has just approved and inaugurated an exhibition showing pictures of Muhammed, the muslim prophet, at the city hall, is being murdered in his house. With less policemen than usual due to various reasons, Wallander and his men are having a hard time taking care of both cases. It gets even worse when several cars placed on various roads outside Ystad explodes, the security service (SäPo) are asking questions, and the police commisioner calles in the army to keep Ystad safe. As to make things even more complicated for Wallander's (From IMDB)
Director: Charlotte Brändström
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 745 votes#9 - The Thief
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 8/18/2009
A wave of burglaries sweep through Ystad. A group of neighbours in the affected area decide to take matters into their own hands and start a neighbourhood watch. During one of their night shifts they spot a suspicious man and give him a serious beating. The next day both the man and his car are missing. The Ystad police get contacted by a desperate Polish woman reporting her husband missing. The case is given low priority, but Wallander decides to take a closer look at the case and soon sees a potential solution as the clues lead him to a tghtly knit group of neighbours. The missing man’s body has still not been found, but Wallander finds a series of pictures of a dead woman on the missing man’s phone .....
Director: Stephan Apelgren
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 1,127 votes#10 - The Brothers
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/7/2005
The dead couple Olof and Carolina Wachman are found murdered in their magnificent estate. The investigation finds that she has been tortured and raped in front of her husband before they were both killed. A death that must have been a relief after the torture they both went through. Kurt Wallanders daughter Linda and DI Stefan Lindman now have to show that they are as good a pair of investigators as Kurt Wallander himself. Slowly but surely we see that the murder is about revenge, a revenge that can be traced back 20 years.
Director: Jørn Faurschou
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 915 votes#11 - The Castle Ruins
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 8/23/2006
A old man goes to his bank to cash in 20 million kr, with him is his 3 dogs. The man is found dead a few days later and so is his 3 dogs. The money is no where to be found and the police suspect his neighbour to be the murderer, but nothing is as its seems to be. A few days later the neighbour and his family are also found dead, and Wallander and his colleges have to be sharp to find out who the murderer is. The small town of Soldala is waiting for Wallander to find out why the old man and his 3 dogs and the old mans neighbor and his family must die. And where is the missing 20 mill. Kr is.
Director: Anders Engström
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 836 votes#12 - The Forger
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 11/1/2006
Carina Olsson provides the Malmo police information on drug deals comitted at her restaurant. She does this after being promissed anonymity for the Police. 2 days later Carina is found shot. The execution is witnesed by Carina's 7 year old daughter Cleo. Cleo manages to escape and is in hospital in a state off shock. The murder happens on the ourscirts of Ystad, and is thus asigned to Kurt Walander and his collegaues. With the connections to Malmo the Ystad polie recieves help from Frank Bork (Malmo Police). For PSI Stefan Lindman, who allready displayed signs of mental instability, working with Frank Borkg leads to a round trip to hell. Frank teaches Stefan what it means to stand up for your collegueas, no matter what.
Director: Stephan Apelgren
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 756 votes#13 - The Guilt
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 6/17/2009
6 year old Albin Landberg disappears without a trace from his kindergarten, and all of Ystad get involved in the family's and the police's ever more desperate search for the boy. The clues lead Kurt Wallander and his colleagues to a convicted paedophile, newly released from prison after finishing serving his jail term. But also towards a series of revelations that turn out to be more horrible and complicated than any of them could ever imagine.
Director: Leif Magnusson
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 746 votes#14 - The Cellist
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 9/19/2009
A Russian concerto Cello player is the victim of a bomb attack after a performance in Ystad. The woman turns out to be a lead witness in a murder charge against a member of the Russian mafia, the son of one of their leaders, Leb Munchin. Wallander and his colleagues find themselves in the middle of a war against a powerful international opponent with ruthless methods. But Walalnder suspects that Leb Munchin’s motives aren’t about money and a quick profit, rather they relate to something much deeper. Eventually Walander stands eye to eye with an aged criminal who is ready to fight his last fight with all the means at his disposal.
Director: Stephan Apelgren
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 707 votes#15 - The Leak
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/18/2009
Ystad is experiencing a rapid increase in high profile robberies against armored transports. Where cars are set on fire, highways are blocked and large sums of money disappears. Isabel and Pontus, the trainee police officers, happens to be in the right place e at the right time and enter into a high speed Car chase that ends with Pontus benefiting hostage.
Director: Henrik Georgsson
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 627 votes#16 - The Witness
Season 2 Episode 13 - Aired 5/23/2010
Corrupt businessman Filip Pasolic stands trial for bringing illegal workers into Sweden and using them as slave labour. Wallander is injured by a car bomb intended for Kristina,who is prosecuting Pasolic and she is given police protection. At the same time pressure on the illegal Lithuanian work force to re-build Ystad's recycling centre in time for it to get an E.U. grant results in two men being killed,one of whose little sister,Natalia,sees construction manager Zoran bury the corpses. She goes to the police and implicates Zoran but takes off again with Zoran in pursuit. Wallander can link Zoran to Pasilic and needs to find him before he gets to Natalia in order to strong-arm him into testifying against Passilic. He also has to dissuade Katarina from resigning as,due to witness intimidation,the case is going against her.
Director: Kathrine Windfeld
Writer: N/A
6.1/10 1,889 votes#17 - Before the Frost
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/14/2005
Tracking a sadistic killer, detective Kurt Wallander follows a string of incidents -- attacks on domestic animals, ritualistic murders of humans -- with help from his daughter, Linda, a new member of the Ystad police force.
Director: Kjell-Åke Andersson
Writer: Stefan Ahnhem, Per Berglund
6.1/10 814 votes#18 - The Black King
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 10/25/2006
The Ystad Police finds a boat in Ystad harbour resembling a slaughter house. There is blood everywhere, but no bodies. Soon there after a dead woman’s body floats ashore. One of the clues in the investigation leads to Oskar Ung, an old love of Linda Wallander. Their previous relationship hinders Linda's work with the case, and Kurt demands that she leaves the investigation But that turns out to be easier said than done. Old love never rusts.
Director: Stephan Apelgren
Writer: N/A
6.1/10 762 votes#19 - The Courier
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 7/15/2009
A motorcycle rider is found murdered by the police, and the trail leads them to a local MC Club. The Club uses other riders to smuggle drugs across the Öresund bridge. Wallander believes that players outside of the MC club are trying to claim the local drug market when all clues indicate that the victim was one of the couriers. Only when Wallander's colleague Isabel gets violently assaulted in her home does he understand the lengths they will go to to achieve their goal.
Director: Leif Magnusson
Writer: N/A
6.1/10 562 votes#20 - The Loss
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 8/21/2013
A young woman is found dead in Ystad. When the police begin the case, they are told that the woman came from Moldova and that she worked as a prostitute in Sweden. Kurt, who leads the case, decides to seek out the woman's family in Moldova. When he returns to Sweden, he is involved in a car accident and takes a leave of absence from work. Around the same time Kurt finds where is forgetfulness comes from.
Director: Agneta Fagerström-Olsson
Writer: N/A
6.1/10 550 votes#21 - The Arsonist
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 9/25/2013
Kurt Wallander has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, but has a hard time accepting it and are therefore trying to keep it a secret for the surroundings. At the same time an arsonist who has served his sentence is freed from prison.
Director: Charlotte Brändström
Writer: N/A
6.0/10 928 votes#22 - The Photographer
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 5/10/2006
An American woman is found murdered in Ystad. She has visited an internationally renowned photographer in Ystad, and her husband suspects her of infidelity. Kurt Wallander digs deeper into the woman’s background and her husband, as he believes that there is more to the case than meets the eye. The solution turns out to come from far outside of Sweden.
Director: Jonas Grimås
Writer: N/A
6.0/10 844 votes#23 - The Container Lorry
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 7/12/2006
A lorry has been parked outside of Ystad for several days, and when PC Linda Wallander investigates the lorry she finds it full of dead people. The only survivor is a small child. The Dead have no ID's or documentation and the lorry is stolen. The police start a difficult case to try to find the people behind the crime.
Director: Anders Engström
Writer: Rolf Börjlind, Cecilia Börjlind
6.0/10 699 votes#24 - The Ghost
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 3/24/2010
Arson is suspected when a house burns to the ground following a gas explosion and a man and a woman are found dead. Wallander and the Ystad police investigate and uncover an intricate web of lies, betrayal and secret love affairs.
Director: Mikael Marcimain
Writer: N/A
6.0/10 837 votes#25 - The Troubled Man
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 1/11/2013
Wallander has become a grandfather and is trying to seize the role as good as it goes, because he wants to be closer to his daughter Linda and her family. When Linda's father in law mysteriously disappears, Wallander is drawn into the case that takes him back in time to the Cold War and the submarine violations in the Stockholm archipelago. At the same time he's starting to suspect that something is not right with him...
Director: Agneta Fagerström-Olsson
Writer: N/A