The sequel to the gloomy Polish drama series ‘The Mire,’ ‘The Mire ’97,’ takes us back to the Gronty Forest area and its deadly past. Although it has been more than a decade after the events of the previous mystery, the gloomy forest and its secrets remain. Now, with an unexpected flood exposing bones (both literal and metaphorical) that many of the town’s citizens would prefer to keep hidden, the intrepid journalists Piotr and Witold are forced into yet another dark and twisted conspiracy.
The show’s transition from the 1980s to the 1990s has resulted in substantial shifts in power dynamics, making it much more difficult to keep explosive secrets hidden. The mournful season finale provides a few answers, but we’ll have to keep digging for more clarity, much like the show’s characters. Let’s take a deeper look at the ending of ‘The Mire ’97’ and see what we can learn. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Mire Season 2 Recap
‘The Mire ’97’ begins with a severe flood that has inundated the lowest levels of most buildings in the town of Gronty. When a recently deceased body of a little kid is discovered amid the remains of the war victims, the woodland, which was proven to be a mass World War 2 burial the previous season, becomes the focus of a massive inquiry once again. Mika, a seasoned but bitter local cop, is assigned to the case, along with Anna, a Warsaw-based Sergeant. Soon after, the two come across a series of unsettling voice recordings made by the youngster, which leads them to Raptor, a junkie who confesses to the crime under Mika’s pressure.
Anna continues her investigation, believing that the boy’s killer is still at large. She also notices that despite being in the flood’s path, a new house development in the region known as the Oaza Estate has escaped damage, whereas the forest has been inundated due to collapsed levees. She initiates an investigation into the real estate developer who owns Oaza Estate, suspecting sabotage, and soon discovers that he was having an affair with the murdered boy’s mother.
Meanwhile, Piotr, who has recently been appointed to Editor-in-Chief of The Courier, is attempting to locate the missing son of one of his newspaper’s biggest beneficiaries— Kielak. His quest leads him to the thuggish associates of the kidnapped Waldek, who quickly overpower Piotr and kidnap him. Kazik, another of Piotr’s employees, is being held captive by thugs for investigating the forest’s destroyed levees. Soon, it appears that the boy’s death and the breached levees that flooded the forest and town were both carried out by the same crew.
The Mire Season 2 Ending: Who Killed Daniel Gwitt?
Anna and Mika finally hunt down the boy’s killer, who turns out to be the town prosecutor, who was also involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Kielak’s son Waldek. It was uncovered that he conspired with the property developer to destroy the forest levees in order to keep Oaza Estate from flooding. The government official allegedly received a house in the estate in exchange, and the boy’s murder was an unintended consequence of his discovery of the plot.
After escaping the captors, Piotr is seen recovering in the hospital in the season’s final scenes. When he and his wife Teresa eventually speak, they discover they are unhappy with each other, and Teresa admits that she is in love with a police officer. Witold, who eventually writes about the atrocities that occurred in the town just after World War 2, also mentions that he is still looking for a critical witness to the events.
And with that, the season comes to an end, leaving us with only a few suggestions as to what happened. Fortunately, the primary enigma behind Daniel’s death is resolved. As seen in the season finale, the little boy overhears the prosecutor and the property developer discussing a conspiracy to blow up the levees while hiding in the prosecutor’s house. Daniel emerges from his hiding place, believing the two men have finally departed, only to be confronted in the dark by the prosecutor, who smacks the defenseless kid into the wall, knocking him unconscious.
Despite the prosecutor’s appearance of sorrow, Daniel’s murderous intents are verified when he briefly regains consciousness but is violently and fatally held down in a tub of water by him. The fact that Daniel knew the prosecutor’s plans proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would never leave the small child alive. But why was Daniel at the prosecutor’s office in the first place, overhearing the dialogue that led to his death?
Daniel was spying on the house next door, which happened to be Piotr’s, from the prosecutor’s residence. We can very certainly claim that Piotr is Daniel’s father, even though it isn’t stated explicitly. The boy himself was able to find it out just before his death. Helena, the boy’s biological mother, had a brief romance with Piotr in 1984, as shown in season 1.
Despite having an affair with Anna, the prosecutor admits to her that he is powerless, implying that the dead boy’s father is Piotr. We also learn that Helena died during childbirth, which means she never got to notify Piotr about the baby. Significantly, the letter from Helena that prompts Piotr’s return to the town after a decade away is really written by his illegitimate son Daniel, whom Piotr is unaware of.
What Happened to Waldek?
Piotr is investigating the inexplicable disappearance of Kielak’s son Waldek, the newspaper’s patron. He ultimately discovers that the scheming son fakes his own kidnapping and compels his father to pay the enormous ransom that he wants to keep in order to go away with his lover while still having his affluent father support him. Unfortunately, Waldek enlists the support of the prosecutor and his thuggish associates to carry out his intentions, who betray him and brutally murder him, stealing the money for themselves. When questioned if he retained all of the ransom money, the nasty prosecutor smiles.
The assassination of Waldek almost certainly resulted in the assassination of Daniel. The prosecutor hid Waldek’s body in the cement foundation of his freshly built house in Oaza Estate after killing him. The foundation would have to be dug up if the estate was flooded, according to the property developer, which would lead to the discovery of the body and the prosecutor’s crime. As a result, the government official had a strong motivation to save the estate from flooding, which prompted him to orchestrate the destruction of flood levees in Gronty woodland, diverting the water away from the estate.
Will Piotr and Teresa Get a Divorce?
Piotr and Teresa appear to have called it quits on their romance the last time we see them. While Piotr finds that he is unhappy in his marriage while being held captive and facing near-certain death, Teresa rediscovers a side of herself that she had kept hidden since her undergraduate days. She is referring to Sergeant Anna, with whom she has been having a passionate affair, when she tells Piotr that she is involved with someone in the police force. Teresa is first repelled by the prospect of abandoning her teenage daughter and going to the city with Anna, but she changes her mind after Witold tells her about how, when he was younger, he made a poor decision out of fear and has regretted it ever since.
Of fact, the elderly journalist is most likely referring to the moment (in 1945) when he chose to remain in Poland rather than accompany Else and the other German POWs when they were taken away by the Russians. Teresa also says in passing that she’d rather live in a “shithole” in the city than in luxury in a tiny town like the one she’s in, which Anna echoes. The cop also seemed to be head over heels in love with Teresa. As a result, it appears that Anna will end up divorcing Piotr and relocating to Warsaw with Anna.
Does Witold Find Else Koepke?
Witold last saw his lover Else in 1945, when she was loading onto a truck with other German POWs and being transported out of Poland. He stayed back and did not board the crowded van with her, but he could not forget about her. For the most part, the Witold we see is an older, graying version of the man who is now preoccupied with locating Else. He studied German art journals for signs of her artistic style after discovering her sketches of the Gronty Forest in her jail camp bunk.
In season one, he finally discovers a picture depicting the woodland in the same eerie, ghostly light that Else painted it all those years before. Witold is convinced that she is alive and intends to travel to Berlin to begin searching for her, but he is interrupted. In season 2, he attempts to track for Else once more, even borrowing money from Nadia, a former prostitute with whom he has a romantic involvement.
However, the case of the deceased kid and the broken levees interrupts him once more, and he is unable to go. We now know more than ever how profoundly he loves Else and how guilty he still feels about letting her leave after seeing his heartbreaking love story with her. Despite the fact that Witold is once again prevented from going to look for her, there is one significant difference from his previous failed attempt.
He has finally written down the tale of what transpired in the Gronty area shortly after the war, including Else’s story, despite fiercely refusing to do so for many years. When he displays a draft of his piece to a newspaper employee, he informs him that he still needs to identify a key eye witness before he can submit the article. This witness is none other than Else, a character that appears frequently in Witold’s literature.
As a result, it appears that the veteran reporter is now coming to terms with his past and discussing his relationship with Else. Witold eventually beginning on his journey to Germany to hunt for his long-lost love, as evidenced by the fact that he tells his story with Nadia and that she supports his decision. Of course, it remains to be seen whether he will be successful in finding Else after more than 50 years apart (from 1945 to 1997)
