‘The New Force,’ originally titled ‘Skiftet,’ is a Swedish period drama, set in the year 1958, when Klara, Stockholm, introduces a new initiative and includes female constables to the force. However, while the idea remains noble, the reality of being a female cop, or “skirts,” as they’re eventually called, presents a far more complicated reality. Friends and roommates, Carin, Siv, and Ingrid, begin to realize the same as they’re welcomed into the local police station, only to be met with their male colleagues’ reluctance, ridicule, and dismissal. Nonetheless, the three women stay steadfast in their aspirations even in the bleakest of hours. However, things begin to take a turn when Carin stumbles across a bigger mystery involving the death of a young prostitute, Monica. The latter’s possible connections to the infamous criminal, Jack Hellman, who in turn seems to have an inside man in the force, promise to lead Carin to the center of a greater conspiracy. Yet, with her and the other female cops’ jobs hanging in a precarious balance, it’s only a matter of time before her secret investigation gets her in serious trouble. SPOILERS AHEAD!
The New Force Recap
Klara, Stockholm, stands on the precipice of great change when Head Chief Gunnar Svärd introduces a new experiment: capitalizing on the yet untapped labor of female police officers. Thus, a small batch of women is allowed to go into training and join the local precinct as constables. On their first day, they are paired up with male officers as partners on a shared patrol over the duration of the evaluation period. Nonetheless, despite the fact that these women received the same jiu-jitsu training as the men, most of the male cops are bothered by their presence. In fact, many of them refuse to even speak to or acknowledge their female partners during the patrol. Carin’s partner, Johan Reimer, though polite, initially seems to be the same sort.
On their first patrol together, the duo goes after some sex workers soliciting illicit business. While the bust remains in vain, it also leads to Carin losing her badge, an offence that she fears would get her sacked on the first day. For the same reason, Carin decides to take matters into her own hands and goes out looking for Monica, the sex worker, under the impression that she must have stolen her badge. As a result, she finds herself infiltrating a brothel under the pretense of being one of the workers. This brings her face-to-face with Jack, the establishment’s owner, who happens to be a deadly criminal. Although she’s also able to find Monica, the woman, who seems to be undergoing a medical crisis, insists that she had nothing to do with Carin’s missing badge. If anything, she appears scared of the latter’s presence, convinced it would get her killed. In the end, the constable manages to flee from the seedy place with her life. However, on her next day of patrolling, when she and Reimer discover a dead body in the lake, she realizes the same can’t be said for Monica. Even though Carin remains convinced that the sex worker’s death has something to do with Jack Hellman, the Detective on the case, Fischer, refuses to consider her theories. As a result, Carin ends up breaking a few rules to snoop around the Monica case, desperate to bring justice for the young woman. Meanwhile, in an attempt to get in the good books of Detective Oscar, with the intention of gaining a mentor, Siv passes her friend’s story off as her own. Soon enough, the department pulls a raid on the brothel, making multiple arrests. Yet, Jack manages to slip away thanks to his undercover informant, Svärd. Around the same time, one of Monica’s friends compels Carin to help her by escorting her during her fleeing attempt.
Unbeknownst to her, the cop ends up helping the woman run away with some of Jack’s money. Consequently, the criminal ends up targeting Carin, forcing her to pay off Katina’s debt. Eventually, he gets sloppy in his pursuit and ends up attacking the cop’s boyfriend, Aren, which inevitably gets him arrested. Still, Jack’s threat over Carin’s life remains. For the same reason, Reimer advises her to go to Svärd with the entire truth. However, once the constable learns about the Chief’s involvement in prematurely closing Monica’s case, she realizes the senior officer cannot be trusted. Consequently, she ends up falling back into old habits, investigating the circumstances behind the victim’s death. In the end, she ends up digging up a menacing connection between Monica, her pimp Jack, and the Police Chief, Svärd.
The New Force Ending: How Did Monica Die?
The mystery behind Monica’s death remains at the center of Carin’s narrative since her first day on the job. In some ways, she blames herself for the fate of the sex worker because of their interaction on the night before her death. From the moment that her dead body is discovered, the police constable seems convinced that Jack Hellman must have had something to do with her murder. After all, the woman had insisted that Jack would kill her if he found that she had led a cop to discover his operations. Therefore, throughout her sleuthy investigation, she operates under the assumption that she will find Jack at the center of the case. However, everything changes once she finds a lead on Monica’s whereabouts at the shady establishment Solveigs Salon, hours before her death.
After some detective work, Carin manages to book an after-hours appointment for herself at the salon. During her visit, under the guise of being a customer, she realizes that the establishment runs an illegal abortion operation. Furthermore, she manages to steal a book of records from the place, which provides her with proof about the sex worker visiting the Salon days before her demise. Yet, the most interesting information she finds comes from the emergency contact the woman had enlisted during the visit. Upon calling the number, Carin is led to the house number of none other than Head Chief Svärd. When she shares her findings with her partner, Reimer, he insists on reporting everything to the Detective on Monica’s closed case, Fischer. After the constable reluctantly follows through with his advice, things unsurprisingly lead nowhere as the Detective deems the cold, hard proof insufficient evidence. Thus, Carin realizes that she has to take matters into her own hands if she wants Monica’s case to reach a conclusive end. From there, she ups the ante, becoming more reckless in her pursuit to collect evidence. In the nick of time, she manages to secure a witness who can confirm that the Police Chief had collected Monica from the salon when she was in severe need of medical attention. Afterward, when the time comes for Carin to appear before the department heads alongside Svärd for an evaluation that would determine the future of the female officer experiment, she reveals everything about the man to his superiors. This corners Svärd into an emotionally compromised position, which in turn leads him to confess the truth about the night of the woman’s death. Monica had indeed sought out medical help from the illegal abortion clinic. However, a few days after the procedure, she underwent a
complication, one that needed attention from an actual hospital rather than a medical speakeasy. For the same reason, the clinic’s owner called her emergency contact, Svärd, Monica’s father. Despite the differences between the father-daughter duo, likely due to the latter’s profession, Svärd tried his best to save her. Unfortunately, Monica ended up passing away in the backseat of his car. For the same reason, in order to distance himself from the incident, the Police Chief chose to cover up the woman’s death.
Does Carin Report Svärd? What Happens to Him?
Svärd plays a complicated role in the narrative. He’s one driving the initiative that allows Carin and the other women to enter the police force. Therefore, any threat to his reputation runs the risk of dismantling the entire experiment. This means that by reporting her superior, the female constable would have to make her peace with the very real possibility of sacking her own dreams. Still, unable to allow injustice to brew any longer, she ends up spilling the beans during the evaluation interview. Previously, she had managed to secure the testimony of the woman running the abortion clinic, who could recognize Svärd as the man who came to pick Monica up on the night of her death. Additionally, if given the opportunity, she can also compel Fischer to submit the ledger as part of the evidence.
Yet, while Carin is entirely prepared to move against Svärd, regardless of the repercussions it has on her career, the same cannot be said for the police department. Exposing the police chief’s connection to Monica, both as her father and the man who abused his power to bury her case, would open the department up for widespread criticism. His superior, Thullin, is aware of the same. As such, he ends up providing the female constable with a choice. Carin can either move forward with her case against Svärd and ruin his reputation, and thus tarnish his female officer initiative, or she can keep quiet and pave the way for a new batch of officers to be allowed into the precinct. Ultimately, the choice is a bribe offered to buy Carin’s silence, letting
her know that she and the other women can’t actualize their dreams in law enforcement without being a “team player,” complicit in other officers’ crimes. In the end, Carin makes the decision that is in her favor, keeping quiet about Svärd’s involvement in Monica’s death. A number of elements at play bring the woman to this decision. On one hand, she believes the experiment is detrimental to the progression of women in professional fields. She doesn’t wish to single-handedly rob her colleagues and future female officers of the chance to prove their worth. Additionally, there’s no denying that there’s a self-serving edge ot her philosophy. Yet, the decision she makes ends up being a double-edged sword. While the experiment is allowed to continue, bringing a new batch of female officers to the police station, Thullin also transfers Svärd out of the precinct, replacing Fischer as his successor. Consequently, the women of the precinct are left under the leadership of a sexist, traditionalist Chief, who has no real interest in progressing their careers.
Does Ingrid Report Wallin?
Much like Carin, her friend and fellow constable, Ingrid also finds herself in a tough spot where she has to choose between her morality and her career in the police. From her first day on the job, she gets paired up with Wallin, an old-school officer who is filled with racial and xenophobic prejudices. He’s also all too happy to abuse his power as a police officer to abuse and discriminate against those he deems beneath him. Thus, it goes without saying that he’s strictly against Svärd’s co-ed initiatives. During the first few days of her training, he steadfastly ignores Ingrid or goes as far as to antagonize her at times. In turn, the latter continues to grit her teeth and bear it all as an unfortunate reality of her job. However, things take a turn after a late-night bust at a location where adult films are being illicitly screened. While corralling the men from the premises, the female constable ends up pulling her gun at one of the men.
Although her actions had been fuelled by her own paranoia and fear, Wallin mistakes it for her willingness to abuse her power as a law enforcement agent. This makes him warm up to Ingrid, inviting her for shooting breaks during their patrols and after-work hangouts with other officers. As a result, slowly but surely, he ends up recruiting the woman into his group of dirty cops, who routinely misuse their power by torturing and possibly killing individuals from minority groups. By the time Ingrid realizes what is happening, it’s already too late, and she finds herself in front of a bound man, expected to dole out a punch or two. In the moment, she complies with Wallin’s orders, too scared of invoking his wrath against her. Yet, later she gravely regrets her actions and considers quitting her job as penance. Nevertheless, her grandma helps her realize that she needs to make things right by not running away but rather making a stand. As such, the next morning, Ingrid decides to report Wallin and his group to Berg. Still, both women know where this course of action would lead. As a woman in a precinct full of men, the constable’s word already holds little worth. Therefore, her sole witness testimony would never be enough to implicate the station’s racist group. Instead, it would only end up labelling her a snitch, destroying her future at the job. Even so, after keeping quiet for far too long,
Ingrid decides to work toward achieving real change. For the same reason, she decides to continue her partnership with Wallin to earn his trust and gather more information about his subversive group. With Berg in her corner, she decides to play the long game, possibly putting her own life at risk for a chance at justice.
Is Carin Pregnant?
In the story, pregnancy remains a crucial topic that most female officers have to be vigilant about when thinking of their futures. Early on, a constable’s pregnancy sends her to desk duty. Shortly afterward, she’s fired from the force altogether under the meaningless claim of her incompetence at the job. Naturally, her fate becomes a cautionary tale for Carin, who is in a serious relationship with Aren at the start of the show. As such, she books herself for a pregnancy test, eager to find out if her and her boyfriend’s birth control methods are safe enough. Over the course of the next few weeks, her life turns drastically upside down—her relationship with Aren ends, largely due to the volatility that her job brings into her life.
In fact, the final straw in their relationship comes as a result of Carin deciding to play ball with the department and protect Svärd’s reputation in exchange for her and the other female officers’ jobs. Consequently, when the clinic calls with a positive affirmation of her pregnancy, it’s the last thing Carin needs. A pregnancy would mean the termination of her job and an added complication in her relationship with Aren, which technically no longer exists. Ironically enough, she’s directly responsible for the shutdown of an illegal abortion clinic, which could have helped her make a different choice for her future if she were so inclined. Ultimately, the news puts her future on a precarious stage. Read More: Steve Ending Explained: Why Does Steve Go Into His Attic?
