- Once more it's peaceful.
Through blood it was bound.
There is a meaning,
Deep beneath the ground.
Jordskott (literally Earth Shot, a Swedish term for cookie cutter phenomenon) is a 2015 Swedish crime and thriller series with supernatural elements. The story is centered on the police-officer Eva Thörnblad who, seven years ago, lost her young daughter Josefine near a forest lake near Silverhöjd, her town of birth. Despite intense police-investigations, Josefine's body was never found and the general consensus amongst the authorities is that she must have drowned. Eva, however, has been unable to let go, convinced that someone must have taken the girl. When Eva is summoned back to Silverhöjd to hear the testament of her estranged father Johan, a powerful local industrialist, reports come in of another missing child. Convinced that there is a connection between this case and her own daughter's disappearance, Eva starts digging into the numerous mysteries of Silverhöjd while moving into the old family mansion outside town.
This story involves a lot of rapidly unfolding secrets and is difficult to discuss without spoilers.
The show ran for two seasons.
This show provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Jörgen and Eddie's father is a violent alcoholic who hits his sons in public and constantly belittles them.
- Amoral Attorney: Tom's ex-wife's lawyer uses his job as a police detective against him, allowing him very little time to see his daughter.
- Ancient Conspiracy: Göran Wass is a member of a secret society, NE, tasked with protecting the few remaining non-humans in Sweden, by keeping their existence a secret from the public.
- Apocalyptic Log: Johan Thörnblad's videotapes.
- Arc Symbol: A wheel of lines written in an ancient language is seen on various trees in the forest, in the caves and on Ylva's front door. It is later revealed to be the symbol of the non-human creatures who once inhabited the Silverhöjd forest.
- The Atoner: In season 2 it's revealed that the reason Wass has gone out of his way to help and protect Eva is because he feels guilty about not stopping is collegue at NE from going over the line and brainwashing Eva's mother into hating Eva.
- Big Fancy House: The Thörnblad Estate.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Gerda. Introduced as a mild mannered secretary and single mother of a mentally handicapped man, she is later revealed to be one of the masterminds of the forests continued destruction, and the murderer of Johan Thörnblad.
- In season 2, Laila. While she isn't a warm person, and her job as a pathologist might be seen as slightly off-putting, she appears to be a level-headed professional until at the last minute she's revealed to be deeply involved with the conspiracy and capable of cold-blooded murder.
- Blood Oath: Eva's forefather Adolph Fredrik Thörnblad made one of these in the eighteenth century with the creatures in the forest, promising to leave them and their land alone. It all worked out great until the 1970s, when his decendant Johan Thörnblad choses to igonre it.
- The members of the EN conspiracy sign their names to a registry marked with their blood.
- Body Horror: What the Jordskott parasite does to its hosts. If it is not constantly fed with a specific fluid, it begins feasting on the host and transforms them into foliage and wood.
- Booby Trap: Harry Storm has a penchant for the explosive kind, rigging his hideout at the scrapyard and his car with tripwires connected to pipe bombs.
- Broken Pedestal: Göran Wass against NE in season 2 when he discovers that the jordskott-antidote is made from the blood of the magical creatures and is given great reason to suspect that NE is keeping magical creatures captive to harness their blood. This would in Wass opinion be against everything NE stands for. The Reveal is actually that this indeed is against the values of the highest authority in NE, but Laila has done this in secret because she thinks the ends justify the means.
- Cement Shoes: Harry Storm attempts to murder Eva by knocking her unconscious, and pushing her into a lake with an anchor tied to her feet.
- Cool Old Lady: Ylva.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Gustav Borén, who plans to mine and harvest the forest and kill the remaining creatures who get in his way.
- Eva's father Johan Thörnblad also used to be one of these, which was one of the main reasons why he and his daughter became estranged from one another.
- Corrupt Cop: Eva kidnaps a young girl to use as bait to try and catch the kidnapper.
- Cowboy Cop: Chief Sigvardsson calls Tom this, after he breaks protocol and interviews Esmeralda on his own and outside an interrogation room, which winds up nearly killing him.
- The Cassandra: "Crazy" Olof Gran
- Curse That Cures: The reason why Göran Wass choses to infect the mortally wounded Eva with the eponymous jordskott-parasite.
- Cursed with Awesome: The jordskott-parasite is either this or an example of Blessed with Suck, depending on who you ask. Sure, it does grant the infected regeneration and super-senses. But if it's not properly fed for the rest of your life, it will eat your mind and turn you into something monstruous and alien.
- Cute and Psycho: Esmeralda, but only because she doesn't know she is a non-human and thus has never been taught to control her abilities.
- Defective Detective: Eva is competent, but in her desperation to solve the mystery and find her daughter she sometimes makes serious mistakes.
- Detective Drama
- Detective Mole: Göran Wass is implied to be working with the kidnappers. It is later revealed that he is part of a secret organisation that aims to preserve the lives of the few non-human creatures left in Sweden.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Some truly terrifying things happen out there. On the other hand, staying out of the woods doesn't necessary protect you.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Storm clearly loves his dog. He does not react well when it is mortally wounded.
- In season 2, Gabriel and Laila have their family connection as a driving force and weakness.
- The Fair Folk: It is revealed that a separate race of ancient humanoid creatures once inhabited the woods of Silverhöjd, but were killed in 1978 by Eva's fathers actions. Now only one descendent remains, and wants revenge. Other creatures from Scandanavian folklore, such as Skogsrå (forest wife) are also revealed to exist.
- Family Business: Thörnblad Mineral & Cellulosa, the mining/logging company owned by Eva's family.
- Gaia's Vengeance: If only the local logging company could have stayed loyal to the old oaths and kept away from Silverhöjds northern woods, none of the terrible things would have happened.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Harry Storm.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Esmeralda's morality is almost as unclear to her as it is to the audience. At first she seems like a victim, then like she attacked Eddie and Tom intentionally, then it's revealed that her power was out of control. She learns to control herself, and in season 2, she disables a rapist without killing him, and chooses to save Jörgen's life... until she realises that he killed her friend, and then she deliberately kills him.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Some of the non-human creatures are virtually indistinguishable from humans, and even cut off their tails to further blend in.
- Hostage Situation: In the pre-titles sequence of episode one shows Eva negotiating with a man holding his ex-wife and daughter hostage in Stockholm. She difuses it by goading the man to shoot her in the vest instead of his family, which distracts him enough to allow a Piketen team to enter and arrest him.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: The traditional lullaby of the Thörnblad family.
- Kick the Dog: Esmeralda uses her psychic powers to make Harry stab and critically injure his own dog.
- Mama Bear: Gerda is incredibly protective of Nicklas, her mentally handicapped son. It is later revealed she is one of the masterminds behind the forests planned destruction, as the large amounts of silver ore in the caves beneath would make her rich enough to ensure Nicklas never has to be institutionalised once she dies of inoperable cancer. She is willing to let multiple children and police officers die to ensure this happens.
- Missing Child: One of the main plot points is children going missing.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Johan Thörnblad's reaction when he realizes that his use of an illegal defoliant has accidentally managed to kill of an entire tribe of forest people.
- No Communities Were Harmed: The series takes place in the fictional rural Swedish community of Silverhöjd. This did not prevent a politician from Bergslagen being upset how Bergslagen was portrayed.
- Paranormal Investigation
- Plot-Triggering Death: The death of Johan Thörnblad, Eva's father, is what prompts her to return to Silverhöjd and continue investigating her daughters disappearance.
- Police Are Useless: The Silverhöjd police receive nationwide criticism of their handling of the kidnappings, with many believing they do not have the experience to effectively run the investigation.
- Posthumous Character: Johan Thörnblad, who manages to have a lot of lines for a person who dies before the first episode.
- Power Incontinence: Esmeralda's powerful psychic powers keep making people around her hurt themselves when she gets upset or stressed. Sometimes this is intentional, but usually it is completely accidental.
- Psychic Nosebleed: Esmeralda tends to get these, combined with an Eye Colour Change, when she activates her abilities.
- Really 700 Years Old: Possibly all members of NE, due to the Jordskott parasite stopping the host from aging.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Even when Gustaf Boren, the Thörnblad Mineral & Cellulosa CEO, calls of the explosive mining in the forest due to local protest and the fact it is prompting Muns to kidnap the towns children, Gerda simply bribes the foreman to continue the detonations.
- Shout-Out: Silverhöjd turns out to be famous for making Sweden's best cloudberry pie.
- Title Drop: Jordskott is the name of the supernatural parasite that, if unfed, eventually transforms the host into wood and foliage.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Silverhöjd, in spades.
- The Unseen: Muns, the only surviving descendent of the forest people and the one who has been taking Silverhöjd's children.
- Oddly, in Season 2, the impression is given that Muns probably looks fairly normal, if he was of the same species as Leif.
- The water creature that Ylva feeds and later releases into the river to clear the water.
- Villainous Breakdown: Gustaf's last scene is him crying on his couch, after his wife leaves him and he realizes the full extent of how much Gerda was manipulating him.
