01x02 - Impasto

[bunniefuu]

Emma, are you ready?

Very good, Annika. Impressive.

My office tomorrow. 8:00 a.m.

Codeword "Cobalt Blue" for backup.

It's an office. I doubt he'll stab me

next to the photocopier.

You're not the first one

going after Blanko.

You wouldn't be the first

to disappear without a trace.

-Thanks, Mum.

-Find out what he wants from you.

Annika. Annika.

Annika Stormare.

-Hello?

-Annika Stormare for Rasmus Ståhlgren.

-Thank you.

-Come in, Annika. Hi, welcome.

-Thank you.

-Mikael Rask, my Nordic art evaluator.

Mikael, hi.

Annika Stormare. Nice to meet you.

-Please, sit.

-Thank you.

Water?

Yes, please.

So, my Schjerfbeck was a fake?

She died six years before painters

started using that titanium white.

An easy mistake to make.

Son of a g*n.

I told Sven we should run

an X-ray fluorescence test, but he

My turn, thanks.

Annika, talk me through

your evaluation process.

-It's this one?

-It is.

I always look at the painting first.

I'm not an expert on Ellen Thesleff.

An expert on Finnish masters,

but you don't consider Thesleff a master?

Of course, but I know what I know

and especially what I don't know.

Art is not just about

what's on the surface,

but the layers underneath as well.

The curve of the charcoal sketch.

The layer of blue below the black,

making it deeper than black.

The impasto that was slathered on,

then scraped off.

Took me seven years to feel whether all

was right by looking at a Schjerfbeck.

I'm only starting with Thesleff.

Feel? You evaluate art based on a feeling?

And facts.

Okay, current owner.

I'd call the estate and

see if the story holds. It's sketchy.

License to export. Doublecheck that

the museum has signed off on this.

A stamp is easy to forge.

Chemical analysis.

Do the pigments match

the ones Thesleff used,

or even the paints of the era?

Shall I check the energy dispersive

X-ray fluorescence results now, or

-Whatever.

-This is what I think.

Consultation, sub-contractor,

for our Nordic Classics Auction.

-When is that?

-In three weeks.

Can you start tomorrow?

CODENAME:

ANNIKA

You won't have time to miss me.

I'll be back and forth all the time.

It's just a silly work thing.

You don't do silly things.

I'm doing you, aren't I?

You kinda missed

our first-date anniversary.

What?

Has it already been

25 years of this misery?

Let's go.

But the flight's not leaving for hours.

Come on.

This way.

Happy fifth anniversary.

Surprise!

Five years ago, I was doing

the absolute worst gig of my life.

-I was dying on that stage.

-Zero laughs! Zero!

-But there was this one woman

-There was.

who'd been smiling

throughout the whole

-Throughout the t*rture!

-Thanks, Ricky.

I was watching her face

to find some sense of safety.

It was She

was like this buoy

in the middle of the sea of my failure.

So

Emma, you asked me the other day

how do you make sure someone you love

never leaves?

So, I thought,

instead of locking you in the basement,

I'd just ask.

Emma Haka.

You

are my home.

You are my light in the darkness.

Will you be with me?

-I am with you.

-Yes, you are.

Yes, Sherlock, but I mean,

with me for good.

Until we're old and wrinkly and

I start to smell like Swiss cheese.

Dude, you already do.

I know you hate rings.

No rings.

This belonged to my grandfather.

I want you to open it, Emma.

I love you like crazy, sillyface.

Will you marry me?

Yes.

-Yes!

-Yeah, of course.

-Hey

-Hey!

-Hey

-I'll be maid of honor!

You need to see this before you go.

They didn't think it's a good idea.

-Who?

-The Swedes.

But I want you to know who you're after.

This was in Paris a year ago.

The tampon you got from the French

woman, they got a fingerprint off it.

Europol found a match. The French

woman's prints were on that helmet.

Okay.

-Any ID?

-No.

No one's seen her since.

Until the auction.

The Carpentier network. Ring a bell?

The container full of burnt bodies

in the Brussels harbor?

-That Carpentier network.

-Human trafficking?

And drugs and black market g*ns.

All covered up

in a legitimate family business.

Europol thinks the French woman

works for Carpentier.

This guy was investigating it. Undercover.

He tried to infiltrate the network.

They met a few times at a boxing gym.

Then he was caught

and his story didn't hold up.

He bled to death on that street.

So,

that's that.

I'm getting married.

Good for you.

Your excitement is overwhelming.

It makes sense. Of course.

Would you maybe like to

walk me down the aisle?

-That was out of the blue.

-Okay, forget about it.

It would be an honor, but

shouldn't you ask your actual father?

-When did you last see him?

-Okay, do you want to go there?

-No

-Let's go there!

Hey, let's get the whole squad together.

Let's get Lahtinen, Kokko,

let's get f*cking Ryynänen.

-Everyone in a room,

-Okay.

-let's talk about our emotions.

-Understood.

And our daddy issues,

Lahtinen has plenty of them.

I've heard him crying

while jerking off in the toilet.

-They don't use their mother as a cover.

-It's just a name!

Your mother wasn't "just a name."

Have a nice flight.

-Exits?

-The main door, attic and basement.

-A fire ladder outside the window.

-Cameras?

Behind the lamp in the corner.

We won't meet here?

No. I'll send you coordinates each time.

So, we're after the Carpentier network.

Raimo showed me

the surveillance tape from Paris.

You are after Ståhlgren.

The French can deal with the network.

Blanko is bigger than that.

We believe that Carpentier

is just one of his clients.

What you saw in the auction

is how Blanko launders money.

His fronts hike up the price. Someone

walks away with a worthless painting,

and a truckload of dirty money

moves through the accounts.

You never know. That's it.

It sounds like you already have

enough evidence against Ståhlgren.

-Only circumstantial.

-Then trace the money.

We've tried and failed.

Sampo

I love you

-So, Ståhlgren is Blanko?

-We don't know.

We need someone who can

stay up close to Ståhlgren.

Find out who the French woman is.

Who Ståhlgren's other fronts are.

Who he trusts, who he dislikes.

How he takes his coffee in the morning.

But be careful, Haka.

One thing is for certain,

he's not just an art dealer.

I've already done the groundwork

and there are just a couple

that need a proper check-up.

Here.

So, there!

-UV-light?

-Natural light, UV, infra-red.

-X-rays?

-Done externally. It's in the files.

Okay, client database?

For provenance checks.

Classified. What you need

is all in the files.

-Okay?

-That figures.

What?

Rasmus told me you'd be

overprotective of the data.

I once spent a whole afternoon

discussing Édouard Manet with him,

how his water lilies shaped

the birth of Impressionism.

Get it?

If a man can't tell Manet and Monet apart,

he doesn't deserve

any say in my evaluations.

He doesn't understand our world.

See if you find anything.

Mum

+3367891593 The French lady?

You've reached the voicemail

for Paris Art Exchange.

Please leave a message after the beep.

Thanks for today.

Hi.

-Thanks.

-I will buy you dinner.

Annika, absolutely no one, no one

should be able to

waltz into a Ståhlgren's auction

and point at a painting

claiming it's fake.

Did I waltz in?

-You don't trust Micke's appraisals?

-I don't work with trust.

I work with competency.

All of our appraisals

have to be b*llet-proof.

Micke is an artist.

He goes on these tirades about

"the value of absolute beauty"

in this "violent world,"

but I know it's still about money for him.

And for you?

Only about money.

I think you have an eye for beauty, too.

-You think so?

-You checked her out.

Her?

Water resistant to 300 meters.

The diver's watch on her wrist.

Why don't you exist?

-Meaning?

-Your credentials.

There's Vertigo Art,

and nothing before that.

Perhaps I was someone else before that.

-Perhaps I don't want people to find me.

-Why?

Some things are private.

You're Finnish,

but you speak Swedish with your mum?

-She's Swedish. I'm Finnish-Swedish.

-Where from?

This is starting to feel

like an interrogation.

-Or a date?

-I don't date.

Are you happily in a relationship?

"Happily in a relationship"?

That's an oxymoron.

And you?

You hired me to do a job.

I will do that job.

I will excel in that job.

If I don't, fire me.

Everything else,

is just noise.

I don't need noise.

Thanks for dinner.

The number is active.

She's here, in the city.

Ståhlgren's.

Béatrice.

We tracked her through a mall.

Lost her in the lifts.

-Her phone?

-Switched off.

I could try sending a message.

No, don't push it. She's on to you.

-Don't burn the trail. Go get some sleep.

-Yes, Mum.

Emma

-Olander.

-Intruder in Ringvägen.

Raimo.

-Hey.

-Hi.

-Did I wake you?

-You know I'm a night owl.

Tell me what Mum looked like that night.

-Are you sure you want to know?

-Yes.

Beautiful.

She was just

She was just there. Calm.

Like she'd just woken from a nap.

Did she look like she had been in pain?

No.

She was gone in an instant.

Mum

Come on

I should have been there.

I could've stopped her.

Emma, don't reopen old wounds.

Wait.

I've got another call.

-Emma.

-Bye.

-Hello?

-Don't react to this. Don't move or speak.

She's in the apartment.

Listen and do as I say.

First, you are going to laugh.

Then you're going to say,

Take your keys, your phones,

and get out. Straight to the door.

Bathroom.

The target is out.

Follow her.

It was just Ståhlgren's papers.

And in there? In the bathroom?

-Personal items?

-No.

Are you sure you haven't been compromised?

Okay.

We followed her.

She's staying at Hotel Sienna

using the name Béatrice Joly.

J-O-L-Y. No hits on any databases.

Anything on Paris Art Exchange?

Small scale art trade, seems legit.

No detectable connections

to Carpentier, except for

Béatrice Joly.

I'll keep digging.

Okay.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-Monet?

-Copper acetate triarsenite.

-Also known as

-Paris green.

Beauty over pain.

Exactly.

I was wondering

I found this number on an account.

-Okay.

-It's password protected.

Why are you looking at the Schjerfbeck

that's already sold?

The Ellen Thesleff

has the same previous owner.

I need to list all previous owners

to complete the provenance.

The provenance is complete.

Okay.

Let me guess. Paris Art Exchange

will buy this painting, too?

God works in mysterious ways.

Are you familiar with

the concept of "good faith"?

What I don't know

will protect me in court.

Exactly.

Okay. Thank you.

Mum

Find out about Micke Rask.

You've reached the voicemail

for Paris Art Exchange.

Please leave a message. Thank you.

-Ms. Stormare?

-Yes.

This way, please.

Good evening.

Easy, Haka.

You're okay. Everything is fine.

Ready. Ready!

Emma.

Remember, you wanna drink,

you drink with Mummy.

Cheers!

If you want it, you take it. Don't let

anyone stop you and never apologize.

Ready?

Ready?

Ready?

If you want it, take it!

-Holmström, follow, but stay back.

-Copy that.

Holmström?

I lost them.

sh*t!

Ready?

Ready?

Now!

Hands up where I can see them!

Hands up where I can see them!

Get out of the car!

On the ground!

Stay still!

Stop resisting!

Go f*ck yourself!