The Arm Wrestle
Episode 3 of Ragnarok begins with Magne and Laurits cornering the sketchy guy who lives nearby and asking him about the break-in. As Magne holds him up by the scruff of the neck, he mentions a shady fellow showing up with a dog – Vidar. Following the break-in, the boys’ Mum decides to redecorate while Magne tells her the police won’t be able to do anything to help. After they talk, Magne gets hold of Isolde’s laptop and begins investigating the water while Vidar, who is of course in charge of the factory, realizes Magne is more trouble than he first appears. Magne speaks to the police officer again but gets nowhere, as she simply asks him how he managed to get back to town so quickly. Meanwhile, Laurits tags along with his teenage friends and there’s a slight hint of a double date going on here – as Laurits flirts with Fjor. While he does, Magne tests his running speed at school as he races through the hallways and clocks in at 6.98 seconds. While Vidar watches on from afar, Magne is struck down by a snowplow in the middle of the road and presumes he’s now dead. As the family toast to his death back home, they talk about the tunnel and how Isolde dying was a necessity. Despite Magne being hit, he actually seems to be fine and hasn’t broken a single bone in his body, making him nigh on invincible. As he returns home that evening, he records his thoughts on his dictaphone again and questions whether he’s invincible. The next day Magne asks Solveig for help regarding Isolde’s case and asks her about dried blood tests. She agrees to help, while at home Gry heads over to study and asks Magne about the jacket he has. Soon after, she heads out with the other students who tease her about being a virgin and she hurries off, upset about their accusations. That evening, Vidar speaks to Ran and questions just who or what Magne is. As a sacrificial lamb, they invite him over to their house along with his brother Laurits for dinner. After polishing off a whole plate of red meat, they continue to dance around the situation until Vidar gives Magne some mead from ancient times. Drinking out of a horn, he polishes off the whole thing and this causes him to start exhibiting some pretty ridiculous dance moves before slamming an axe into the wall. As he drops to his knees, he tells Ran that he’s super strong. She decides to put this to the test and arm wrestles with him, trying hard to prove him wrong. After utilizing his full strength, he looks up and sees an ancient, shriveled demon in Ran’s place. Presumably seeing her true form he loses focus (and the subsequent arm wrestle) but excuses himself to gather his composure in the bathroom. As he looks up, he sees himself as an older man and presumably the vision of himself as Thor. As we reach the halfway point of this drama, Ragnarok continues to weave its teen drama in with the more supernatural Norse mythology to mixed results. The final scenes involving the arm wrestle and ensuing chaos that take place at Vidar’s house are really well constructed (aside from the crazy dancing) and overall felt like the right direction for the show. To contrast that though, the sudden hints that Laurits is a homosexual feels completely unnecessary (especially given it’s never brought up again) and the generic love triangle alongside the teen drama really doesn’t do an awful lot for this series.
