The first season was released in 2018. The second season was released in 2020, and the third season in 2021.
This series provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: The third season finale reveals that Peltola met Karppi's husband the night he was run over by a car in Germany. When he told her they weren't continuing their affair like she thought, she snapped and punched him, causing him to stumble on the road just as the car came over.
- Aggressive Categorism: A clip of Tulisuo's staffer Mikaela Lund in her teenage years engaging in a racist attack is used by an opposition politician to blackmail her into doing his bidding.
- Alone with the Psycho: Done a couple times.
- Nurmi gets captured by a Dr. Psych Patient. Amusingly, this is both Played for Drama and Played for Laughs, the latter at Nurmi's expense.
- Karppi with Jarkko Vaahtera in the last episode of Season 1 is a more straight example.
- Nurmi with Carl Sten in the Season 2 finale, and it's this time played completely straight.
- Anti-Villain: Andreas Wolf is of the Woobie type. His girlfriend died of being exposed to radiation when they discovered WeltKraft's secret experimental nuclear waste capsules. Believing himself to be dying of radiation as well, he kidnaps Alex Hoikkala and his wife Linda in an effort to make Alex tell the whole world about the capsules he believes Alex is involved with.
- Arms Dealer: Rudolf Hoikkala, the grandfather of Alex, Julia and Roope, became rich enough to found Tempo by selling weapons to Germany during World War II.
- Badass Adorable: In the last episode of the first season, Bergdahls' elder daughter Isla takes matters into her own hands to get herself and her younger sister Armi out of their captor's car and escape to the safety of the police.
- Badass Longcoat: Both Karppi and Nurmi.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- Season 1 ends with Anna's killer being caught, but Nurmi is exposed to radiation during his dive, becomes ill, and takes a leave of absence. Henna opts to stay in Germany. Tempo avoids bankruptcy even though their wind farm project crashes due to WeltKraft's aggravated environmental crimes being exposed. However, Alex's wife divorces him, and he quits Tempo after he learns that Julia was going to sell her share of Tempo to Rannikko.
- At the end of Season 2, Sten is arrested as a Serial Killer and Koskimäki's murderer. Jimi Aho is revealed to be alive, and he reunites with his stepfather. However, Nurmi turns Henna (whose boyfriend is one of Sten's murder victims) in for her involvement in drug dealing and killing Sasha, likely putting a strain on his and Karppi's relationship.
- Boyish Short Hair: Henna in the third season.
- Bridal Carry: Nurmi carries the intoxicated and broken Karppi to her bed like this.
- Cool Car:
- Nurmi drives a BMW E31 8-series coupe. He trusts it in Karppi's care during his leave between the first and second seasons.
- Alex owns a Lexus electric car until it's blown up at the end of the second episode.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early in Season 3, Nurmi and Peltola are both shot, and Peltola only survives because she was wearing a vest, something that both Nurmi and Karppi note that they never do. In the season finale, Karppi shoots Nurmi, who only survives because for once he chose to also wear a vest.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The janitor who saves Laura from Krister? Yes, that's Jouni Paarma/Korento, one of the killers of season 3.
- Continuity Nod:
- In the first season, Karppi and Nurmi raids Santeri's home and asks him where the former's stepdaughter Henna is. Come the third, Nurmi employs the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique on him after learning he trafficked his maybe-son Leo.
- Memfi executives Stella Merihaara and Sanna Sirén often mention mayor Sara Tulisuo as a big-name supporter of their drug Rehaxin. The mayor also gets arrested halfway through the third season for the murder of her erstwhile assistant Henri Kuusinen.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: When Koskimäki is fatally shot in the first episode of the second season, he manages to write the word "JIM" with his blood before dying. When Karppi and Nurmi find Jimi Aho's grave, they conclude that Koskimäki wasn't able to write all the letters in time. He was actually writing the registration number of Sten's car, JIM-173.
- Cowboy Cop: Karppi will ignore her superior's direct orders in order to solve the case.
- Crusading Widow:
- Played with; Usko Bergdahl tries to become one, but he's not very successful at it. He gets Alex at gunpoint, but he's unable to bring himself to shoot.
- Andreas Wolf lost his girlfriend to radiation that leaked out of the experimental nuclear waste capsules made of VCON-4. Believing Alex to be responsible, he attempts to force him to tell the whole world the truth he believes he's hiding.
- Alex himself becomes this when he holds Rannikko at gunpoint, believing him to be Anna's murderer.
- Da Chief: Being Karppi's boss has to be the most volatile position in the series.
- Koskimäki. Karppi even jokes that she's messing up his retirement.
- His successor Kulju is more of an Obstructive Bureaucrat, whereas his own successor Rautamaa has a much more hands-on style.
- Dark and Troubled Past: When Nurmi was thirteen years old, his parents were killed in 2003 during Congo's crises. His past has also something to do with drug trafficking.
- Deadpan Snarker: JP will not exit a scene without making a wisecrack over something around him.
- Defective Detective: Both Karppi and Nurmi have more than their fair share of personal problems, though this has yet to impact on their work.
- Driven to Suicide: The VTT researcher Veikkamo, bribed by Rannikko to give false test results on the VCON-4 composite material and pressured by Alex to tell the truth, commits suicide, apparently due to having nothing but his career in his life.
- Dr. Psych Patient: Nurmi spends most of an episode being "treated" by one.
- Emo Teen: Henna. Justified because her father died only two months before the first season, she misses back to Germany where all her friends are, and she becomes a victim of being recorded on a sex tape without her consent.
- Fair Cop: Karppi and Nurmi, unsurprisingly. Averted with JP and Koskimäki, who are both older men.
- Fake Static:
- Karppi in Episode 5 when Nurmi tries to tell her to leave Alex Hoikkala alone.
- Season 3 has Karppi use this excuse to disregard her boss's orders to not chase an armed suspect.
- Faking the Dead: Nea Paarma's presumably-dead uncle Jouni isn't, and is responsible for all but one of the symbol killings.
- Family Business: The construction company Tempo, founded in 1920s by Rudolf Hoikkala, is nowadays directed by his granddaughter Julia. Her brother Alex is the director of development, while the other brother Roope takes care of the headquarters' security. At one point, Julia makes Roope cooperate with her by reminding him that no other employer would overlook his behavior, drinking and gambling.
- Flower Motifs: Anna was buried with a bouquet of white calla lilies placed in her hands. Said flowers have been used both at funerals and weddings. Her murderer insists that he placed the bouquet in her dead hands because he loved her. He also used to send calla lilies to one of his previous targets of stalking.
- Freudian Trio: The Hoikkala siblings. Roope is the id, Alex is the superego, and Julia is the ego.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Nurmi is the Good Cop to Karppi's Bad Cop when they interrogate Janne Kiiski a second time.
- He Knows Too Much: After Rannikko learns from Alex that Andreas Wolf has discovered the experimental VCON-4 nuclear waste capsules, he tries to off the comatose man.
- Heroic BSoD: Karppi has one over a few days in episodes 9 and 10. On top of her lingering grief, she finds out that Henna blames her for her husband's death, she comes close to dying while poking around what turns out to be a steroid smuggling ring, and finally, her mother passes away suddenly. She ends up Drowning Her Sorrows and attempting to seduce Nurmi before breaking down.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Alex Hoikkala. While he's not above realpolitik, he's very idealistic for someone in his position.
- Hostage Situation: When Alex is holding Rannikko at gunpoint, Karppi and Nurmi's arrival allows Rannikko to whip out his knife and hold it against Alex's throat. He forgets that he's at the edge of a rooftop and falls to his death.
- Hypocrite: Fredrik Hoikkala tells his nephew Alex that the latter's father, Kristian, said he was ashamed that his and Fredrik's father, Rudolf, became rich by selling weapons to Germany during World War II. That didn't prevent Kristian from accepting Rudolf's money, leading to him and Fredrik cutting off ties with each other.
- Identifying the Body:
- Usko identifies Anna in the first episode.
- It turns out in the second season that Jimi Aho's stepfather was called to identify his stepson's body, but since he couldn't look at the young man's face, he failed to notice that the corpse wasn't that of Jimi. He realizes his error when he's told that Jimi had a tattoo on his chest, and he saw himself that the corpse had no such tattoo. When the corpse is exhumed, he confirms it isn't Jimi.
- Idiot Ball: Alex and Julia react like this regarding Roope In-Universe when they find out that Roope was arrested while trying to escape to Sweden on Alex's boat, even though Alex told him not to try to go hiding in Sweden.
- I Have Your Wife:
- Andreas Wolf kidnaps Alex Hoikkala's wife Linda in order to force him to come to him so that he can capture him.
- Jarkko Vaahtera kidnaps the Bergdahls' two daughters.
- Emil is kidnapped by Korento.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Andreas Wolf is shown constantly coughing. The reason is revealed to be exposure to radiation. Subverted since he doesn't die.
- I Warned You: After Tempo's VCON-4 composite material is deemed insufficiently weatherproof by VTT, one of the company's board members complains that he warned what a huge financial risk it was to petition for a planning permission while waiting for VTT's results.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Employed by Nurmi in the third season on a man who trafficked Leo into China.
- Karma Houdini: Tulisuo gets away with indirectly causing the events of season 2.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: ...until a news clip in mid-season 3 reports Tulisuo's arrest on light of security footage showing her killing Kuusinen surfaces.
- Killer Cop: Season 2's main killer is none other than the chief of the Helsinki police, Carl Sten.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Karppi's son Emil has such a long hair that he's easy to mistake for a girl.
- Mama Bear:
- When Karppi finds out that her stepdaughter Henna was humiliated by being secretly recorded on a sex tape by her classmate, her reaction is to violently force him to delete the WhatsApp group he posted the tape on and confiscate his laptop so that she can eradicate the tape entirely. In Season 2, after finding out that Henna stole a deceased drug dealer's package and killed the man who forced her to smuggle drugs from Estonia, Karppi opts to stay quiet about this so that Henna won't go to jail until Nurmi turns her in.
- Mayor Tulisuo from Season 2 is fiercely protective of her blind daughter Iida. In the first episode, she knocks down a guy who makes fun of Iida's blindness, and when the girl is kidnapped by Routa who wants to exchange her for the mayor, Tulisuo is willing to agree to that.
- Mari Routa, the estranged mother of Jimi Aho, takes it upon herself to deliver justice to the people who were involved in Jimi's death and prevented further investigations that could have brought the killers to justice.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: In Season 2, Laura shows Nurmi a boy named Leo, claiming that he's Nurmi's son. He takes a paternity test in Season 3, which reveals he isn't Leo's father, though it's implied he will adopt Leo anyway.
- Mean Boss: Henna's boss in the restaurant is a short-tempered, creepy asshole. She escapes his clutches with the help of Venni, another ex-convict who worked under him as well.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard:
- Koskimäki gets killed at the start of the second season.
- Koskimäki's successor Kulju becomes a corpse at the end of the same season. Subverted in that he's more obstructive than his predecessor.
- Misplaced Retribution: Andreas Wolf's girlfriend was exposed to radiation when they discovered the VCON-4 nuclear waste capsules, leading her to die of radiation poisoning. Believing Alex, the creator of VCON-4, to be responsible, Wolf kidnaps him and tries to force him to tell "the truth" on video for everyone to see. Little does he know that WeltKraft created the test capsules without Alex's consent or knowledge.
- New Meat: Played with; Nurmi isn't a newly-minted cop, but he is a new transfer from financial crimes to homicide, and his transition isn't without its problems.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Jarkko/Johannes recalls an incident in which his father tasked him with keeping watch while he had his way with Anna. When Anna started running, Pusenius ordered Johannes to stop her, but he let her go. His father slapped him for that, something that makes Johannes flinch as he recalls that.
- Papa Wolf: As much as Nurmi doesn't want the responsibility of being Leo's dad, the guy pulls all stops to rescue him once he learns the child was on his way to be sold off in China.
- Parents as People: Although it's clear that Karppi loves her children very much, it's also clear that she finds it incredibly difficult to balance them and her work. She confesses to Nurmi that she envies that he has the option to choose if he wants to be part of Leo's life. For his part, Nurmi struggles with the idea of someone being completely dependent on him.
- Parental Issues:
- Alex had a turbulent relationship with his father. After graduating, he travelled the world partly out of defiance towards his father who wanted to make Julia Tempo's CEO.
- Karppi has difficulties with both her children; her single-minded focus on her work tends to put victims first and her own family a rather distant second. As of Season 3, her stepdaughter has cut all contact with her, and social services are involved with her son, who explicitly states that he would rather live with his grandfather.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Anna Bergdahl was in 90s a top junior swimmer in Finnish Championship and made it onto the adult national team before quitting.
- Recovered Addict: Nurmi is one, based on Laura telling him that he knows how hard it is to give up on drugs. Season 3 reveals that he has begun using heroin again intermittently to help with chronic pain.
- Red Herring: After all that buildup around Tempo and WeltKraft, it ultimately turns out that Anna's killer has nothing to do with either. Only with Anna's own past.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Overall, the more straightforward Karppi is the Red Oni to Nurmi's more thoughtful Blue Oni.
- Riddle for the Ages: It's not revealed who's the man who gives Karppi the phone call which leads her to discover the truth about her husband's death. Karppi admits she doesn't care to find it out.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Nurmi and JP think that Karppi is too lenient on Anna's husband and should treat him as a primary suspect. They both appeal to the fact that the second most common type of homicide in Finland is a woman being killed by her partner or former partner. Turns out Usko has something imperative to confess: he confronted Anna about her infidelity on her night of death, injured her, and left her alone at home. This confession seems to make Usko's case sealed, but it ultimately turns out that after this incident, Anna went to their neighbor Jarkko who has obsessed about Anna since their childhood, and he ended up killing her when she resisted his advances.
- The Runaway: Episode 7 reveals that Anna ran away from home at the age of 15 after her best friend drowned (possibly due to their swimming coach coming on and impregnating her) and her parents didn't give her enough emotional support. She didn't return for twenty years, just came for a brief visit before dying.
- Running Gag: Karppi needs several times help in opening the door of Nurmi's car.
- Season Fluidity: The only plot points to make it past the first season were the mystery behind the death of Karppi's husband Jussi and the one-shot presence of Santeri. The third season is more fluid, with some scenes acting as a post-script to the events of the previous one.
- Shovel Strike: Jarkko attacks Karppi with a shovel in the first season's finale. He also killed Anna by striking her head with a shovel.
- Shower of Angst: In Episode 8, Karppi finds Henna taking a shower in her depression.
- Sibling Rivalry: A one-sided one at that with Sanna implied to dislike being at the shadow of the more affable and popular Tuuli.
- Sickbed Slaying:
- Rannikko tries to murder the comatose Andreas Wolf by turning off his ventilator. Fortunately, the nurses arrive on time to save him.
- Also attempted by Krister Merihaara on Laura, before a janitor foils that attempt.
- Sinister Minister: The preacher from Anna's home town is a real piece of work. Not only was he a sexual predator towards Anna and other girls, but he was also abusive towards his son who grew up to become a stalker as well as Anna's murderer.
- Sleazy Politician: Alex has this opinion about the councilman Erkki Louhivuori, the most vocal opponent of Tempo's plan to build a wind-powered residential area. When VTT gives negative results on the VCON-4 composite material, Alex accuses Louhivuori of sabotaging the results through bribery. Alex's uncle, however, is sure that Louhivuori is innocent, deeming him to be unusually honest for a politician. Louhivuori is indeed innocent.
- Stalker with a Crush: Jarkko Vaahtera, who turns out to be Anna's killer. There's mention of him stalking at least three women in the series, including Karppi, but his obsession with Anna is especially creepy.
- Start My Own: Tulisuo starts her own party after the Pro-Change party votes to have Mikaela Lund stand for the mayoral elections in place of her. She wins, given that Tulisuo remains mayor by the next season.
- Suicide by Cop: Venni chooses to die via SWAT team after Henna tips their warehouse to the police.
- SWAT Team: Several.
- One raids Roope Hoikkala's apartment when he becomes a suspect.
- Another saves Karppi's life when she's captured by the steroid smugglers.
- A third raids the drug warehouse thanks to Henna's tip-off, where they effortlessly take down the dealers.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Anna Bergdahl was quite attractive. Her husband Usko… isn't.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It turns out in the second season finale that when Jimi Aho was believed to have drowned, Mayor Tulisuo pulled strings to prevent further investigations because she didn't want her daughter's suicide attempt (which Jimi prevented) to leak to the media. This led to Mari Routa targeting and killing people she believed to be responsible for her son's murder and preventing justice from taking place. While Karppi doesn't rise charges against Tulisuo, she nonetheless tells her that by trying to protect her daughter, she caused people to die.
- Vigilante Man: Carl Sten starts their killing spree of junkies after failing to kill Koskimäki's daughter, who was one herself.
- Wham Line: At the end of Episode 7, an eyewitness tells Karppi and Nurmi that she absolutely last saw Anna alive later than what was estimated to be her approximate time of death.
- Wham Shot: At the end of the fifth episode of season 3, dashcam footage from the truck in Hamburg shows a blonde figure similar to Karppi's build and hairstyle standing near where the death took place.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Italian restaurant Nurmi frequents does not appear beyond the first season.
- Will They or Won't They?: The question is perhaps not so much if Karppi and Nurmi will get together, but rather if the world will stop getting in the way for long enough to allow them to do it.
- Wind Turbine Power: Tempo's business plan is to build a large housing development that generates its own power by using these.
- You Should Have Died Instead: Emil says in the second episode that his mother should have died instead of his father.
- Younger Than They Look: Nea Paarmi was only 17 when she died, something that greatly rattles Nurmi, who hooked up with her at a nightclub the day before. His defense is that she definitely looked older, and the nightclub was supposed to be adult-restricted.
