The Breakthrough episode 1 recap: A shocking double murder

The Breakthrough episode 1 on Netflix sees detective John Sundin investigate a double murder in the Swedish city of Linköping.

The mini-series is based on the nonfiction book of the same name, about Sweden's second-largest murder investigation to date. The plot, which is fictional but inspired by actual events, sees a double murder go unsolved for 16 years. Please note the opening episode contains distressing scenes. Here's what happened...

Tragic double murder

The episode opens with the words: "On Tuesday 19th October 2004 a murder investigation began. It would become the second-largest criminal investigation in Swedish history."

We see a father, Saad (Bahador Foladi), explaining how a watch works to his young son, Adnan. He kisses the boy goodnight. Elsewhere, a shadowy figure types into his computer: "MUST KILL". The following morning we have a shot of the city skyline of Linköping. A man called John, who we later find out is our cop, power walks past some men playing football, who are heard saying: "Looking good, John, getting ready for your third Olympics?"

Adnan's mother tells him and his sister, Maya, to wake up. She says they've overslept and will be late for school. Elsewhere, a couple wake up and the man goes to make some coffee.

At the breakfast table, the dad plays with Adnan's toy dinosaur and they laugh. Maya tells Adnan to go ahead as she's not ready yet. The boy leaves the house alone. We see a man with a blue hat walking along and taking a knife from his coat pocket. We then see the man near Adnan, a woman on a bike and the woman we saw earlier wake up with her husband. She hears screams. She sees the man kneeling over Adnan, she calls out: “What are you doing? Stop! Stop it!" He's stabbing Adnan. She looks very frightened as the killer turns his attention to her. The woman on the bike then hears screams. She sees the other woman being stabbed and she also sees Adnan's body.

John takes the case

John Sundin returns home with food for his pregnant wife. He rubs her tummy.
Maya, Adnan's sister, walks along the street and sees the crime scene. She looks in horror as she sees Adnan's toy dinosaur on the ground. She rushes into school. She goes to his class and sees his chair empty.

John gets a phone call breaking the news of what’s happened and says he's on his way. He arrives at the crime scene. A cop fills him in that there's been two stabbings. The woman, conscious, has been rushed to hospital, while the boy is dead. John's told there's one witness, the woman on the bike. He tells the cop to start knocking on doors to get information.

Another cop tells him she thinks they've found the murder weapon and shows him a bloodied knife. He says to send it straight to forensics. We very briefly see a man in the distance looking at the scene and then walking away, who is he? The police knock at the door of the man whose wife has been attacked. He says he's not seen anything and adds his wife, Gunilla, left for work a while ago and might have seen something. The cop then realizes he's the husband of the victim.

Maya's parents reach the school and find her in tears.

John is on the phone with his wife. He says they have an eye witness and the murder weapon so he's confident of arresting the killer quickly. She's not happy he's leading a murder investigation as they're about to have a baby. But he says not to worry, it will be all over quickly.

John addresses his team and tells them that Gunilla has now also died making it a double murder case. John says he doesn't believe the victims knew each other. He says the next few hours are critical to whether they succeed in catching the killer. John interviews the chief witness, Karin (Annika Halin). She describes seeing a man punching a woman in the stomach and then he sprang around towards her. She says he wore dark clothes and a hat. She's having trouble recalling his face despite the fact he stared right at her. Frustratingly, she appears to have blocked out the killer's face and can't describe it. Gunilla's husband returns to an empty home, picks up the phone, and calls his son Samuel.

Cops Francy Arnesson (Jessica Liedberg) and Lollo Jansson (Karin De Frumerie) are seen taking calls at the police station. John calls at Adnan’s house to talk to his devastated parents. John asks them if he went the same way to school every morning and they say he did. They don't recognize Gunilla when John shows them the photo.

John goes to speak to Gunilla's husband. He says no one has threatened them. John says Gunilla taught Swedish to immigrants could it be someone there, but the husband says she was popular and liked.

The next day John is up very early. He goes for a power walk and someone tells him they’re glad an Olympic athlete is in charge of the case. John arrives at work and hears a report about the case on the radio. He hears his own statement to the press: "We have prepared ourselves for all possible scenarios, but in my opinion, we are close to an arrest."

At a team meeting, Lollo says the knife is a butterfly knife, which is sold in a lot of places but mostly online. She hasn't been able to trace the purchase and thinks it was bought abroad. She says the blue hat was found in a rubbish bin two blocks away and it had a small, leather label that reads: "Fashion Wear Points". The hat is sold in petrol stations. The blood of the killer on the murder weapon has been sent off for DNA analysis. John has a folder with all the tips from the public in it and says he's convinced the murderer is in there somewhere.

We see a game of football and the coach is frustrated with the performance of someone called Ante. Ante gets angry about all the criticism and storms off the pitch. Later in the changing room, the coach talks to Ante but he brushes him off and says he has to get home to study. The woman on the bike, our witness, returns to the scene of the crime and she plays out the attack again in her mind.
Later she's talking to John, but says again her mind has blocked out the killer's face. She says it's all she’s thinking about, but she can't remember any details of his face.

They've analyzed the attacker and believe him to be a man who struggles with their mental health. Aged between 15 and 30, familiar with the local area. The victims appear random and the killer probably suffers from severe anxiety. John's told the killer is likely to strike again. At home, John pours over a map and notes about the case.

The next day John addresses the team and says he believes the killer lives near the crime scene. John says they're looking to see if any young man has committed a similar attack. He says there's no DNA match for the blood on the knife. John suggests they make a public appeal asking for men aged between 15 and 30 to come in voluntarily and give a swab. In the next scene, we see the station packed with young men who are voluntarily giving a swab.

John interviews a string of young men with a history of violence but doesn’t get anywhere. A lot of young men have been swabbed but John points out there are thousands who haven't. John gets a text from his wife Anna asking him if he's forgotten the midwife appointment. John, ignoring the text, is then given a list of all the young men who've sought help from the physiatric clinic and it's a long list. We see him working late into the night while his wife is alone at home.

A month gone and no suspects...

John is in his car and the radio says that almost a month after the murders, there's still no suspect. Ante is in a shop and seems to recognize our witness. And it looks like she might recognize him. She starts looking around the shop and then looks outside, but he's gone.

John goes back to see Adnan's parents to ask them more questions. John asks if they think there's a religious aspect to the attack but they don't believe there is. He says he has no more questions and returns some of Adnan’s belongings, including his toy dinosaur. As John goes to leave, the dad cries and pleads for help and John swears he will catch the killer.

John later searches witness hypnosis on the web and finds an article about a witness remembering under hypnosis. He goes to to see Karin, the witness. He asks her to try hypnosis, to help her remember. He says there's someone in Stockholm who can help. She agrees.

Under hypnosis, Karin begins to describe what she saw. "I'm cycling a different route," she recalls. "A steep hill. Had a hot shower before. It is cold as I ride. And then I hear it. A cry. I get out of the saddle and start walking forward and I turn the corner to the next street. I follow the scream. And then I see them. The back of a man pounding his arm deep into the stomach of this poor woman again and again." She then begins to get deeply distressed by the fact she didn’t go over and help.

The hypnotist manages to relax her. She goes back to the crime scene. "He is wearing a hat. It is a small hat, a beanie. It's dark. Black, I think. Blue? His eyes. I can see his face now…"