Pernille Kurzmann Larsen is the focus of the Netflix Danish series “The Nurse,” which is based on Kristian Corfixen’s book “The Nurse: Inside Denmark’s Most Shocking Criminal Trial.” She joins the emergency department of the Nykbing Falster Hospital. Christina Aistrup Hansen, Pernille’s coworker, welcomes her and assists the former in settling into her new place of employment. The Kasper Barfoed-created crime drama moves further as Pernille tries to solve the riddle of the startling number of fatalities that occur in her department, which makes her suspect Christina. The gripping true story-based series comes to a close with a number of terrifying revelations. Let us offer our enlarged perspective on the series’ climax if you’re curious about it. Spoilers follow.
The Nurse Recap
A recap of “The Nurse” Arne Herskov is brought to Nykbing Falster Hospital in 2012 at the start of the film. Arne’s family is informed by the doctor who examines him that he is fine and shouldn’t be worried just now. The same night, Arne receives an injection of a liquid from an unidentified person, which quickly results in his demise. ER nurse Christina Aistrup Hansen is in the room when the doctor pronounces Arne dead. A few years later, Pernille Kurzmann Larsen is getting ready to start her nursing career in the emergency room of the same hospital. Christina mentors Pernille and helps her learn how to interact with patients.
When unexpected codes occur, Pernille and Christina scramble to save the patients. The newly hired nurse observes how committed and dedicated her colleague is to her work as she does everything in her power to save the patients. Christina’s efforts are applauded by the doctors and head nurses, who also congrats Pernille for having such a wonderful “teacher.” One night, Pernille visits a patient by the name of Janni. After leaving her room, she hastily returns when Janni’s heartbeat abruptly stops. Janni passes away despite Christina and others’ best efforts to save her, which causes Pernille to doubt her suitability to be a nurse. Christina praises her for being able to uplift her.
Pernille discovers a syringe with a small amount of diazepam still within it in the room’s trash can after preparing Janni’s body for her family. Janni is perplexed as to why diazepam is in her room’s waste bin given that she wasn’t given any. Kenny Herskov, Arne’s brother, sets out to discover the truth about his brother’s death in 2012 since he doesn’t accept the official account that the latter overdosed and killed himself. Pernille is curious about the drug in 2015 when she discovers an empty diazepam box in the store room. Additionally, she begins dating Niels Lundén, a doctor employed by the same hospital. At the ER, deaths keep happening, especially when Christina is around.
When Pernille looks through the records, she discovers that Christina has recorded an astounding twenty-two deaths, which leads her to believe that Christina may have been involved in those deaths. Doctor Niels, who is also her partner, dismisses her worries because Christina is one of the greatest nurses at the facility. But he shows a particular interest in the case of John Dalgaard, who passed away suddenly and for no apparent reason. Niels concurs with his partner since he recognises that something very improper is taking on at the hospital. They review the death rate that was kept at Christina’s previous place of employment and see that it dropped by 40 deaths after she left.
The Nurse Ending: Is Christina Caught? How?
When Niels notices that the deaths occurring in his ER aren’t typical, he joins forces with Pernille to investigate Christina’s possible involvement. They can nearly be positive that Christina has killed multiple patients based on the fatality rates at her previous place of employment. They understand that they cannot attribute their deaths on Christina and the chemicals she most certainly had injected into them because by that point, nearly all of them have been cremated. Pernille and Niels are faced with the challenge of having to capture Christina in the act in order to have a solid argument to bring her to the authorities for justice. They therefore wait until the next occasion that Pernille and Christina both work the night shift.
Pernille monitors the medications kept in the storeroom throughout the following night shift in order to determine whether Christina improperly obtained them and used them to kill patients. When a patient called Viggo Holm Petersen, who finally passes away, has an opaque white substance left in his IV catheter, the nurse notices that Christina has begun to terminate patients. Pernille watched helplessly as Svend Aage Petersen and Anna Lise Poulsen died after his passing. When she discovers a used syringe in the patient’s room identified Maggi Margrethe Rasmussen, her “research” makes a breakthrough.
Maggi is Christina’s next target, and Pernille knows it, so she keeps an eye on the elderly woman. Pernille rushes to her room as the alarm goes off and finds Christina inside holding a couple of syringes, making her a key witness to Maggi’s attempted murder. Pernille and Niels call the police after administering an antidote that saves Maggi’s life and raising suspicions. The evidence used by the authorities to apprehend Christina included Pernille’s statement and the fingerprints found on the syringe she found in Maggi’s room. The evidence against Christina becomes even stronger because Pernille witnesses her injecting narcotics into Maggi.
Why Does Christina Try to Kill the Patients? Does She Get Convicted?
In an effort to prevent their respective deaths, Christina attempts to murder the ER patients. She hurts people in order to save them because she wants to be admired and noticed by her coworkers and bosses. After the diazepam injection, when the patients’ lives are on the line, Christina makes a “heroic effort” to save them. Christina receives praise from her bosses for giving the patients at the hospital her all, regardless of the results of her efforts. The hospital staff members believe she is the best nurse there because of the praise and attention she receives for doing the same.
Christina manipulates the lives of her patients to win their respect, but in the case of Maggi, she is proven to be mistaken. Maggi’s heart continued to beat after the medicine was given, invalidating her diagnosis in front of her supervisors. Instead of receiving praise for finding a diazepam countermeasure that saved Maggi, Christina suffers a serious injury when she learns that her colleague received the attention she had been vying for. Because of this, Christina becomes sad upon seeing Pernille after the latter had rescued Maggi. In actuality, Michael Boolsen, a witness in Christina’s trial, provided an explanation of Christina’s motivation.
“After undergoing psychiatric testing, the patient [Christina] was found to be emotion-driven with poor self-control, despite showing some degree of calculation. Her level of reflection and self-awareness is lacking. Overall, she looks to have a histrionic personality disorder, according to Boolsen, who testified throughout the trial. In his testimony, the man claimed that the disorder was characterised by “superficial and fragile contact with others, a tendency to dramatise, distinct susceptibility to the influence of others, egocentricity, vanity, lack of compassion, abnormal vulnerability, and chronic seeking of thrills, acknowledgment, and attention in their lives.”
Christina was found guilty of the attempted murder of Maggi, the murders of Arne Herskov, Viggo Holm Petersen, and Anna Lise Poulsen, among other counts, and was given a life sentence after being apprehended. The Danish Supreme Court, however, reduced Christina’s sentence to twelve years because it did not believe that Christina’s injections of medications were the only factor in the patients’ deaths. “[…] the Supreme Court did not go so far as to rule that the drug [that Christina provided] was a factor in Arne, Viggo, and Anna Lise’s demise. The High Court decided that the drug had not been properly established to be the death’s only cause,” Kristian Corfixen wrote in the series’ original source material.
What Happens to Pernille? Does She End Up With Niels?
Pernille’s coworkers begin to treat Christina like the person who stabbed her colleague in the back following Christina’s incarceration. “During a training with other casualty nurses, Pernille found herself in an embarrassing situation when conversation during the breaks drifted to “that poor girl from Nykbing Falster, who was knifed in the back by a colleague.” Her A&E Department coworkers at the hospital also showed reluctance to collaborate with her out of concern that she may accuse them of something they hadn’t done, according to Corfixen’s account in his book. Some colleagues even suggested that Pernille might have been the one to administer the medication that served as the case’s foundation, he continued.
Pernille, who is currently employed at the Nykbing Falster Hospital, carried on with her work despite this. She did end up with Niels, and they did get married, as the television show depicts. Niels, however, left the hospital as a result of disagreements with the administrative board about how Christina’s situation was handled. They protested the system that allowed someone like Christina to perpetrate crimes over a period of years after her arrest.
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