Back to the main page
open/close all folders
Season 1
Gavling
- Episode: White Nights, Guesthouse Pearl, The Money Man
Also known as the "Money Man"...
Beck and Gunvald's archenemy, and one of the few recurring villains in the series. He was once an assassin, and after escaping justice by blackmailing the only witness left, he became a successful businessman, albeit a very corrupt one.- Asshole Victim: He spends his last moments trying to kill a witness he previously had blackmailed just because she was planning on witnessing again, and he gets shot later. No one feels even slightly bad, and he just looks like an idiot while being killed.
- Big Bad: Of season 1.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He mentions himself that he likes being an enemy to Martin in a discussion they have, and when Martin asks how it feels like throwing a baby out of a balcony, he just grins and walks away.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Gavling is involved in a fair share of economic crimes.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He uses a syringe to kill a witness, which would cause an overdose and slowly kill her. Luckily, the police come just in time to stop him.
- Deadpan Snarker: He's surprisingly good at being an asshole despite being a sophisticated businessman.
- Dirty Coward: Despite being powerful and almost impossible to catch, when Gunvald confronts him while he's taking a shower, he panicks and sounds like a scared chihuahua.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has a much deeper voice than for say his mercenary and is way eviler than him.
- Faux Affably Evil: Always very polite and kind to everyone he meets, which just makes him even more of a scumbag. He kind of drops it in the episode "The Money Man", but not for the better.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Subverted. Gavling wants other people to perceive him as this, but he is really just a cruel psychopath disguising as a sophisticated businessman.
- The Sociopath: He pretty much only lives for his own desires and sees everyone else as either pawns or obstacles.
- Would Hurt a Child: In a flashback scene, Gavling is shown murdering the baby of a drug addict.
Oleg Vasilev
- Episode: The Man with the Icons
Also known as the titular Man with the Icons, he first appears as an innocent if strange man who is the victim... not really.
- Affably Evil: He's still polite in the end despite being a cold-blooded murderer and a lying bastard.
- Asshole Victim: It's hard to feel bad for him despite being tragic and affable. Then again, his punishment is minor compared to everything he does.
- Karma Houdini: As mentioned before, him being arrested is small potatoes due to everything he has done.
- Lack of Empathy: When he kills a minion who was talking back, he shows absolutely no emotion at all nor remorse.
- Manipulative Bastard: He looks like the nicest guy in the entire universe in the first ten minutes. Doesn't last long until it's all revealed to be a lie.
Karin Lofjärd
- Episode: Eye for an Eye
A serial killer of her former classmates.
- Serial Killer: A wound-collector, in fact.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Which is why no one suspects her as the killer at first.
- Tragic Villain: Karin was raped as a teenager in front of multiple classmates. No one decided to walk in and save her, everyone just coldly watched. Some even laughed and made fun of her. It is understandable that she wants revenge for what happened.
Gorzi
Gert Ahlgren
- Episode: The Monster
A charming taxi driver who has a personal agenda against the bomb group-worker Sture Andersson.
- Abusive Dad: Not really "abusive", but he definitely didn't have a good dad. He would convince Gert as a kid that his true mission in life is to destroy Sture's life, going as far as to committing suicide just to convince him.
- Archenemy: Sees himself as this to Sture.
- Beauty Is Bad: He is handsome and wealthy, and is apparently well-known in-universe to have a good private life.
- Create Your Own Villain: His dad made him evil.
- Freudian Excuse: Gert's mother cheated on Gert's father. The person who she later began a relationship with was Sture. Gert's father was a manipulative man who blamed everything bad that would happen in his life later on Sture. He later committed suicide. All to convince Gert to go after Sture.
- Would Hurt a Child: He places a baby in a briefcase that is supposed to have a bomb in it, so that Sture and the bomb group would shoot the briefcase, kill the baby, and get fired.
The Mercenary
- Episode: Beck (1997), The Money Man
Gavling's right-hand man.
- The Dragon: To Gavling.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He gets arrested by Gunvald and never reappears.
Season 2
Dag Sjöberg
- Episode: The Price of Revenge
"I'M INVINCIBLE!"
Arguably the most Ax-Crazy villain of the entire series and one of the evilest, Dag is a six-time cop killer who does everything he does for fun, even shocking his two associates Victor and Santos with his cruelty.- Archenemy: Despite only appearing in one of the episodes, Dag establishes himself as the true archenemy to Gunvald, and arguably his most personal foe ever.
- Ax-Crazy: He kills and tortures for fun, blows up an entire building because he thinks that the explosion will be fun to look at, and believes himself to be invincible.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Always wearing a white blazer.
- Bad Boss: During the middle of the episode, when his associate Santos starts realizing that Dag is an absolute maniac, he starts talking back to Dag. Dag doesn't like this, and threatens to kill him.
- …But He Sounds Handsome: When Gunvald is looking for Dag in his house, Dag has just come home. Gunvald says that the house is pretty fancy, which is before he knows that the person he is talking to is in fact Dag. Once he does realizes it, he grabs Dag and throws him down the stairs.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: He plays Russian Roulette with Gunvald, while also having an innocent little girl locked inside a wardrobe, torturing both of them.
- Control Freak: He is the most controlling and tyrannical of the trio.
- Cop Killer: He really does seem to enjoy murdering police officers.
- Crazy-Prepared: Always ready to kill somebody if it's necessary.
- Faux Affably Evil: Dag is perceived as a charming yuppie by strangers, but he is obviously quite the opposite.
- Freudian Excuse: A minor one considering the horrible acts he commits, but it is true that Leif, the cop who Dag murders at the start of the episode, had brutally beaten Dag in a previous interrogation.
- Karmic Death: He kills a total of six cops in the episode. How he dies? He gets killed by a cop, of course!
- Kick the Dog: Early on when he kills Leif.
- Lack of Empathy: Absolutely none.
- Serial Killer: He's a professional criminal who kills more people than the standalone serial killers themselves do.
- The Sociopath: Quite possibly the most realistic depiction of sociopathy in the series. He has no empathy for anyone, commits murder and torture like it's second-nature, hides behind a mask of civility, and seems to have no sense of fear.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Almost never raises his voice.
- Straw Nihilist: He states that he doesn't care about whether or not he dies, and at the end, when the police are cornering him while he's in a barn house that he used in order to escape from the policenote , he walks around in the house and begs them to kill him, just to see if they would do it.
Victor Bengtson
- Episode: The Price of Revenge
One of Dag's two main associates.
- Affably Evil: He constantly tries making the deal between the trio as professional as possible.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar on his face.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He is arrested, but is never seen after that.
Santos Golenza
- Episode: The Price of Revenge
The third of the trio, and arguably the black sheep.
- Affably Evil: By far the most moral and kind of the three. He seems to have had a normal life before doing business with Dag considering that he has a clean criminal record.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Apparently he is completely fine with blowing up a building full of people, but he is absolutely terrified when Dag kills Leif.
- For the Evulz: His and Dag's reason for blowing up the building.Santos: Yeah, it'll be one hell of an explosion!
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Much like Victor, he is arrested, but is never seen after that.
Jesper Wennqvist
- Episode: The Ad
- Alas, Poor Villain: He greets his mother a final time before committing suicide. Jesper was a horrible person, but he is portrayed as a sympathetically horrible person in his final moments.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Before raping his victims, he puts them through torture.
- Freudian Excuse: He was born when serial rapist Rune Fjällgård raped his mom. He was raised by his single mother and never had an actual father figure. This is what causes him to become a serial rapist himself.
- Faux Affably Evil: Uses a charming facade in order to lure victims. He sells expensive objects for cheap prices online, just to kidnap and rape his buyers.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Very unstable, behaves like a child.
Rune Fjällgård
- Episode: The Ad
- Badass Longcoat: Wears a yellow trenchcoat.
- Evil Old Folks: Apparently he was in his 50s during his last rape.
- Not Me This Time: Gunvald insults and abuses him during interrogation due to being a former serial rapist, despite being innocent.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Has a mere two minutes of screentime, but his presence is shown in his son Jesper who also ended up as a serial rapist.
Season 3
Ylva Johanson
- Episode: The Girl in the Cellar
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She genuinely cares for the girl she kidnapped, treating her like a biological daughter.
- Faux Affably Evil: Her tone of voice noticeably changes when Beck realizes that she is behind the kidnapping.
Frank Boder
- Episode: The Vulture
The CEO of a sleazy game club.
- Affably Evil: Frank is charming and charismatic, but also largely indifferent when it comes to murdering people.
- Badass Longcoat: Wears a black wool coat at the end of the episode.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Always wears glasses.
- The Conspiracy: One of Frank's main clients was Sports Minister of Sweden John Vedén. Vedén was a skilled player and most of the money that went into Sweden's sports budget was in fact money that Vedén had won by playing at Frank's game club.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Frank orders game addict Sebastian Manell to murder John Vedén. Manell owed debt to Frank and if he murdered Vedén then the debt would be removed and forgotten. Vedén had previously worked as an errand boy for Frank for the same reasons as Manell, but his debt had become too big for Frank to ignore.
Ernst Levendahl
- Episode: The Japanese Painting
An elderly, sophisticated, wealthy artist and Serial Killer.
- Ax-Crazy: Quite an unstable individual who masks his insanity with a good-mannered facade.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Not really corporate executive, but he is a wealthy artist.
- Diabolical Mastermind: He nearly gets away with his murders due to having huge amounts of resources.
- Serial Killer: Despite being quite old, he does all of the eight attempted murders directly.
- Oh, Crap!: Once he stops talking like a Nice Guy, Sterling knows that he isn't in a very good situation.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Somewhere down in Levendahls sick brain, he does genuinely see his murders as justified.
The Rapists
- Episode: The Weak Link
A trio of teenagers (Mehmet Askari, Lasse Dahlgren, Stefan Radzik) who compete on who can rape the most people.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mehmet. During his first interrogation, he says "no" six times or so in a row, probably not even listening to the questions.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Mehmet is by no means a nice guy, but he is pissed at Stefan for accidentally murdering one of his victims.
- Kick the Dog: All of their rapes are this, only raping and killing innocent young girls who they know through parties.
- Serial Killer: When the police first find the girl who was raped and murdered at the beginning of the episode, they believe that they are dealing with a person who will keep on raping and murdering girls. But as it turns out, the murder part wasn't intentional.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Stefan has no dialogue at all as he is murdered in his first scene by the parents of a girl who he accidentally murdered when raping.
Fabian Bonér
- Episode: The Silent Scream
The bad boy of the school two girls who were found dead went to.
- Hate Sink: A nasty bully who destroyed the life of Jiyan, a completely innocent teenage girl, by spreading nude photos of her that made her a victim of overwhelming physical and psychological abuse.
Anders Larsson
- Episode: The Silent Scream
An ephebophile who poses as a photographer online in order to groom girls.
- Manipulative Bastard: His entire character consists of this. He grooms underage girls by giving them false promises of a glamorous and lavish lifestyle, only to have them drugged and most likely raped.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Looks and talks like a completely ordinary person.
Kjell Strömbrink
- Episode: The Silent Scream
A gymnastics teacher with a dark secret.
- Affably Evil: He is genuinely humble and soft-spoken, which is probably why he so easily charms underage girls.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: An ephebophile who takes advantage of the weak mental state that some of his pupils carry.
Season 4
George Robinson
- Episode: Eye of the Storm
The leader of EJM, a group of eco-terrorists.
- Affably Evil: A very professional man who only kills when he really has to.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Has a different motive than most other criminals in the series.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: His former associate Kim Reeshaug tells him that she doesn't want to be involved in the group anymore. George answers by saying that she isn't one to say that as she came up with the plan to begin with.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: George wants to commit a terrorist attack in Sweden in order to show how bad their security is. They also want to show the effects of explosives and why it should be banned all over the world.
Erik Stark/The Figure
- Episode: Buried Alive
A serial killer who buries his victims after murdering them.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To George. George is the leader of a powerful terrorist organization, while Stark is just a regular serial killer with some intelligence.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In one scene he visits his mother and holds her hand.
- Freudian Excuse: Was sentenced and convicted for the murder of a girl who he loved and would never hurt. He sat sixteen years in prison before being acquitted. But those sixteen years has made Erik pissed. Eriks motive is to murder those who were involved in convicting him.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Erik kills the man who was hiring him the apartment where Erik would bury the bodies of his victims. He makes it look like a suicide and frames all of the murders on him.
- Serial Killer: One of the only true serial killers in the series with no other alignments (such as being a gangster who kills lots of people).
- Softspoken Sadist: Never raises his voice, and quite a vicious killer. Subverted in that Erik's motive is genuinely understandable.
Season 5-6
Tomas Engberg
- Episode: The Invasion
A businessman employed at a big company.
- Leave No Witnesses: His company uses illegal immigrants.
Risto Kangas
- Episode: Gunvald
A notorious Finnish gangster and pimp, who is being victimized by another gang.
- Affably Evil: Part of him caring for his son, and he would also never hurt innocents.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely cares and tries protecting his son from the other gangsters.
- Downplayed, but it is implied he cares for his wife, who is a prostitute and stripper.
Jonas Karpinger
- Episode: Gunvald
A gangster who is targetting Risto.
- Faux Affably Evil: He can try being cool, but everytime he tries you can just see his arrogance shine through more than anything else.
- Hate Sink: Very much so. He's callous, disrespectful, and has no problems killing Risto's son.
Mats Sylvander
- Episode: End of the Road
A traitorous former friend of Steinard's who is the true Big Bad of season 5.
- Asshole Victim: Everything he has done is just hateable, and the way Steinar arrests him; poisoning the alcohol he offers him so that he becomes sleepy, is genius.
- Big Bad: Of season 5.
- Evil Former Friend: Before the events of the season, Mats was a good friend of Steinard's, but at the end of the episode, it's clear Steinard means nothing to him.
- Faux Affably Evil: Was once a friend of Steinar's.
- Hate Sink: An utterly egotistical asshole, even before he was revealed as the villain.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: There's no doubt about that Mats would have gotten away with everything, hadn't he been a jerkass to Steinar.
Stefan Mattson
- Episode: The Last Day
The final villain of season 6, a mysterious and shy man who seems to have a tragic motivation, although it is unknown what it is.
- Alas, Poor Villain: It is very hard not to feel bad for him when he shoots the person who ruined his life and decides to spare the other innocent people, and when Martin and the police confront him and try making him drop his gun, he slowly drops it, before revealing that he had another gun behind him which he picks up and committs suicide with, all while sad music plays. Martin himself acknowledges this.
- Faux Affably Evil: He speaks in a calm and polite tone, but is an emotionless murderer.
- Kick the Dog: He visits an old friend to talk about an incident that apparently happened which she was involved in, see Tragic Villain below for details, and seems affable enough to her. She hears on the radio about a wanted serial killer, until she realizes by the description that it is Mattson who is the killer. It's not that Mattson didn't give her a choice; he definitely did by requesting to spare her in return that she says nothing to the police. When he steps into his car, however, she does call the police, which Mattson instantly sees. So he chases her in her home and brutally shoots her, which is definitely a kick the dog moment due to how viciously it is done.
- Serial Killer: And a particularly dangerous one in that he simply doesn't care. Ultimately revealed to target those who ruined his life.
- The Sociopath: He won't even flinch as he's murdering people in cold blood.
- Tragic Villain: Although he's still a sociopath who seems to have no qualms killing and has definitely crossed the line when he shoots his own former friend, Mattson wasn't always like this. He used to be a kind teacher, but had his life ruined when students started making up lies about Mattson peeking into the women's dressing room, which eventually got him fired. When seeking a new job, he seemed perfect for it, until the recruiters saw his past, so he was rejected. All of this, and you kind of understand the poor guy.
Season 7
Kasam Ashrawi
- Episode: Your Own Blood
- Cain and Abel: While he's a terrorist, his brother is about as bright as someone can get. Before Kasam kills him, of course...
- Freudian Excuse: It is true that he was brainwashed by another fanatic, and that he actually did have a future before being so, although at the end it means almost nothing.
- Serial Killer: Subverted, but not for the better. In fact, he is one of the few criminals in the series to reach (attempted) mass murder, others include the criminal trio in The Price of Revenge and George Robinson in Eye of the Storm.
Lars Olofsson
- Episode: On Thin Ice
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Always wears an expensive blazer, although "Badass" would be an overstatement.
- Berserk Button: In order to evade authorities, he pretends to get angry at anyone even slightly mentioning that he is responsible for the death of Simon.
- Dark Is Evil: Probably accidental, but Simon, the beloved hockey trainer he orchestrates the death of, wears a white suit, while our murderer always has a black blazer.
- Serial Killer
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Moreso on the fact that his name is among the most common names in Sweden, since his actor is mostly associated with strange or sociopathic characters.
William Jensen
- Episode: The Devil's Attorney
Danish hardboiled gangster who kills a restaurant owner, and thus how the episode starts.
- Antagonist Title: The Devil's Attorney. As in, he is the devil. And boy does he live up to that title.
- Faux Affably Evil: During the first minutes he comes across as pretty charismatic, but then you realize what a megalomaniac this guy is, and he simply becomes hateable.
- Hate Sink: This guy is an utter asshole. He kills everyone, has no loved ones, greed as his primary motivation, and that's about everything you need to know.
- It's All About Me: A very self-absorbed crook.
- Karma Houdini: An interesting example. After spending the entire episode manipulating and killing everyone who comes close to him, he isn't killed. However, he is arrested, but the problem is that the police don't have any concrete evidence and considering Jensen's power, it can be presumed he got away. Some people have speculated that Jensen will become the show's first recurring villain due to this (since Gavling anyway), and it is actually a possible theory.
- Lack of Empathy: He doesn't care at all when he kills his right-hand enforcer, or for that matter anyone else.
- Serial Killer: He's a gangster who kills anyone who comes in his way.
- Smug Snake: Of the variety who could have easily passed as a magnificent bastard had he not been so cocky.
