The BEST episodes of Wallander season 1

Every episode of Wallander season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Wallander season 1!

Wallander is a Swedish television series adapted from Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and starring Krister Henriksson in the title role. It follows Wallander, a troubled detective, who lives and works in Ystad near the southern tip of Sweden.

Last Updated: 3/8/2024Network: SVTStatus: Ended
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The Darkness
star
8.45
88 votes

#1 - The Darkness

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/12/2005

A white car is parked by a side road in the beautiful landscape of Scania 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. Alternativ name: / The Overdose

Directors: Stephan Apelgren
Watch Now:Amazon
Mastermind
star
8.33
87 votes

#2 - 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.

Directors: Jonas Grimås
Watch Now:Amazon
The Secret
star
8.24
51 votes

#3 - 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. Detective Stefan Lindman is a member of the same shooting club as the victim's 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 Ystad in the first place.

Directors: Stephan Apelgren
Watch Now:Amazon
The Joker / The Forger
star
8.22
51 votes

#4 - The Joker / 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 promised anonymity by the police. Two days later Carina is found shot. The execution is witnessed by Carina's seven-year old daughter Cleo. Cleo manages to escape and is hospitalized in a state off shock. The murder happens on the outskirts of Ystad and is thus, assigned to Kurt Walander and his colleagues. With the connections to Malmo the Ystad police receives help from Frank Bork (Malmo Police). For PSI Stefan Lindman, who has already displayed signs of mental instability, working with Frank Bork leads to a round-trip to hell. Frank teaches Stefan what it means to stand up for your colleagues, no matter what.

Directors: Stephan Apelgren
The Container Lorry
star
8.18
49 votes

#5 - 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.

Directors: Anders Engström
Watch Now:Amazon
The African
star
8.05
88 votes

#6 - The African

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/16/2005

The national election is approaching, and the Ystad town square is plastered with election posters with local labour party candidate Kenneth Nillson, a politician fighting the fear of immigrants as his electoral focal point. He sees it as his duty to clean Skane's reputation as being racist. At the same time a train rolls into the train station in Gdansk, Poland. On the train the police find a African male with most of his face shoot away. As the man was murdered in Ystad, the starting point of the train journey this becomes a case for Kurt Wallander and the Ystad police. For Kurt Wallander the case takes an unexpected turn as the murder weapon has ties to a childhood friend.

Directors: Stephan Apelgren
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The Castle Ruins
star
7.98
54 votes

#7 - 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.

Directors: Anders Engström
Watch Now:Amazon
The Brothers
star
7.97
156 votes

#8 - 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.

Directors: Jørn Faurschou
Watch Now:Amazon
The Tricksters / The Weak Point
star
7.96
57 votes

#9 - The Tricksters / The Weak Point

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/15/2006

A horse feeder is found dead, and almost everything proves that he is been kicked by his horse. But the post-mortem shows the opposite, the horse feeder had been hit to death and that is a case for Kurt Wallander. The neighbors confirms that he lived alone, but he had visits from a mysterious woman several times. An amazing thing on the farm shows a hole new side of the horse feeder and somewhere, in the beautiful state of Skåne, there's a dark world that didn't want to see the daylight.

Directors: Peter Flinth
The Black King / Bound by Blood
star
7.94
51 votes

#10 - The Black King / Bound by Blood

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.

Directors: Stephan Apelgren
Watch Now:Amazon
The Photographer
star
7.88
50 votes

#11 - 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.

Directors: Jonas Grimås
Watch Now:Amazon
The Village Idiot
star
7.82
273 votes

#12 - The Village Idiot

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/3/2005

A man enters the bank with something resembling a bomb around his neck. He demands that money is transferred into an account, or he will blow up the bank. The man is known as the village idiot, and claims that Sitting Bull is his father. No one take the case to seriously until they find that the bomb is real. Is the village idiot acting on his own, or are there more people involved? A long and complicated investigation is started by Kurt Wallander and his colleagues.

Directors: Jørn Faurschou
Watch Now:Amazon
Before the Frost
star
7.43
290 votes

#13 - 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.

Watch Now:Amazon