The School Dance
Episode 2 of Ragnarok begins with an introduction to Thor and who he is before Magne tries his best to get back to normal following Isolde’s death. That’s easier said than done though, as the brothers return to school and find a memorial for her at her desk. Erik arrives at school to teach but as Magne saw the incident with Isolde occur, he pulls the police officer aside and talks to her about the death, convincing her that this wasn’t an accident. As we cut to Magne that evening, he pulls up Isolde’s YouTube channel and watches videos of her trying to get a comment from Vidar at his work-place, with the latter visibly annoyed at the intrusion. Enough for him to kill her? We don’t have long to find out but for now, it turns out the sledgehammer Magne threw the previous night ended up straight through Vidar’s car windshield, which he works out is over 1500 metres away. While Vidar handles the sledgehammer, he admits to killing Isolde. His motive for doing so lies around hiding the bunker underground she uncovered. Quite what’s inside though, remains a mystery for now. Magne meanwhile, begins to learn the true nature of his powers, throwing another sledgehammer and this time reaching over 500 meters. At school, Magne and Gry continue to work on their assignment together. As she leaves for the evening, she invites him to her party, which he decides against. Instead he wallows in his own sadness and honours Isolde’s memory while his brother Laurits arrives at the party and tries to impress the other students. Midway through a speech honouring Isolde, Magne shows up and talks to his brother, while looking longingly at Gry in the distance. Fjor speaks to Laurits about Magne and attempts to learn more about him before interrupting his attempts to woo Gry, asking her for a dance instead. She accepts and as a romantic song starts, Magne finds himself unable to watch the two dance and runs away. Outside, he stumbles upon a boy called Oscar and tries to convince him not to drink the water. As he tells a story about the wind changing, Magne realizes the police have changed their story around how Isolde died. Magne talks to Eric about what he’s discovered but Isolde’s Father is having none of it, telling him to take it easy. Angry and frustrated, Magne heads out and moves Eric’s car with his bare hands. Upon seeing this, Eric invites him back inside where he shows more of the evil corporation Vidar is in charge of and how it’s destroying the world with pollution. Meanwhile, Oscar, Fjor and Laurits head out together and ridicule the memorial left for Isolde at the scene of her death. Fjor urinates all over the tribute while Oscar snaps a video of it. Vidar learns of the incident thanks to remotely hacking Oscar’s phone and promises to take care of it. When Fjor heads home, Vidar talks to him about the old ways and how the humans used to worship them. Unfortunately his stunt causes Vidar to savagely beat his son. Only, Gry happens to be upstairs on a sleepover with Saxa and sees the entire incident play out. After Isolde’s funeral the next day, Magne and the family return home to find their house completely trashed where the episode ends. With more content involving corporations and toxic waste, the juxtaposing shots of the beautiful fjords against the choking atmosphere is a nice touch but a little on the nose. The intense musical montage at the school disco does absolutely nothing for the series though and those expecting more superpower shenanigans after the previous episode are certainly going to be left disappointed. Beyond a couple of early scenes the show essentially devolves into a teen melodrama and seeing Magne run away in jealousy over Gry does nothing for his character either. Laurits teaming up with Fjor and Oscar also damages his character’s potential, with very light characterisation and barely any narrative progression for him. Beyond a couple of close-up shots or teasing glimpses of him acting like the trickster Loki, there just isn’t enough to get excited about with his character. Hopefully things improve from here but Ragnarok’s second episode is pretty disappointing and certainly a step in the wrong direction.
