Does Daniel survive the investigation, or is he caught in the web of The Åre murders?
Daniel Lindskog is not caught in either murder in The Are Murders. Season 1 ends with him choosing family over Hanna's call, and Season 2 is confirmed.
Spoiler note: This article discusses the resolution of both murder investigations in The Are Murders Season 1, including the outcomes for major characters in the finale.
Daniel Lindskog (Kardo Razzazi) is not implicated in either of the murders at the center of The Are Murders, and he closes Season 1 with his professional standing intact. The investigation does not catch him in any criminal sense. What it costs him is different: five episodes of compulsive work at the expense of home life end with a quiet choice. When Stockholm detective Hanna Ahlander (Carla Sehn) calls him in the series’ final minutes, he lets the phone ring and stays with his wife Ida (Cecilia von der Esch). According to Collider’s recap of the finale, this is the first time in the season Daniel has placed family ahead of a case.
Daniel Lindskog’s role in the Are investigation
Daniel serves as the resident detective at Are’s understaffed police station, a new father trying to balance limited department resources against the demands of an infant at home. The Are Murders premiered on Netflix on February 6, 2025. The five-episode series was adapted by screenwriters Karin Gidfors (The Lawyer) and Jimmy Lindgren (Gåsmamman) from two novels by Viveca Sten: Hidden in Snow, covering the first three episodes, and Hidden in the Shadows, covering the final two. Directors Joakim Eliasson and Alain Darborg handled the series under producer Brita Lundqvist at SF Studios, with Sten herself serving as executive producer.
His first encounter with Hanna is antagonistic: he pulls her over for driving a car that is not hers, without her license. When his supervisor Birgitta Grip (Pia Johansson) formally assigns Hanna to the unit on a temporary basis, Daniel accepts her as a partner reluctantly. SF Studios’ production notes describe him as a methodical, by-the-book officer, which puts him at odds with Hanna’s more instinct-driven approach throughout the season.
The Amanda Halvorsen case: Episodes 1 to 3
The first three episodes follow the disappearance of teenager Amanda Halvorsen (Freddie Mosten-Jacob) during the Lucia festival. Hanna and Daniel work through multiple suspects, including a teacher accused of grooming students and the affairs of Amanda’s father Harald Halvorsén (Henrik Norlén), before the case breaks on a connection between Amanda and a local housekeeper named Zuhra. Amanda had discovered that Bosse, husband of neighbor Annika Risberg (Moa Gammel), was running a human trafficking scheme that exploited Zuhra. After Amanda confronted him, Bosse strangled her and left her body at a ski lift.
When Hanna tracks Bosse down during the investigation, he forces her car off the road and attacks her with a crowbar. Daniel is alerted and reaches her location in time, staying with her until medics arrive before police take Bosse into custody. Both investigators face real physical exposure during the pursuit; the series is not the low-stakes procedural that some initial coverage implied.
The Johan Andersson murder: Episodes 4 and 5
The final two episodes turn to Johan Andersson (Viktor Åkerblom), a former competitive skier and co-owner of a local events company. His dismembered remains are found near railway tracks. Medical evidence establishes that he died from a blow to the head before the body was placed on the line.
Johan had planned to leave his wife Marion Andersson (Agnes Kittelsen) to be with Rebecka Nordhammar (Amalia Holm). Marion’s son Leo, Johan’s stepson, overheard the argument in which Johan made this clear, then struck Johan with a shovel. Marion and Leo’s biological father Jens Wernolf (Jon Øigarden) then disposed of the body on the tracks. Their alibi falls apart when Hanna establishes that the band they claimed to have seen that night never performed.
A parallel thread runs through the Johan case: Ole, a local pastor and Rebecka’s husband, has been abusing her throughout the series. After Hanna helps Rebecka flee, Ole tracks her to an isolated location and attempts to kill her. Daniel shoots Ole dead to stop him. The series shows no other named investigator using lethal force in Season 1, and no professional repercussions follow for Daniel in the episodes after the shooting.
Leo, overwhelmed by guilt, attempts to step in front of a train before Hanna intervenes. Marion, Jens, and Leo are all taken into custody. The series indicates Marion and Jens will face charges of conspiracy and covering up the death, while Leo, as a minor, faces juvenile proceedings.
How Daniel’s story ends
Daniel closes Season 1 at home, ignoring Hanna’s call in the finale’s final scene. Some early coverage of the finale described Daniel as the one left “standing alone, reflecting.” That reading belongs to Hanna: the closing image of Season 1 places Hanna on the balcony of her Are cabin, both cases resolved but her personal isolation unchanged.
After a season in which Ida complained that he was always working, Daniel chooses to stay home when Hanna calls. Collider’s analysis notes this moment as a signal that Daniel is choosing family over work in a way the series has not previously shown. The romantic tension between the two partners, which built through both investigations, reaches no resolution: neither Daniel nor Hanna receives a romantic outcome before Season 1 ends.
Season 2 and what Daniel’s return signals
Daniel returns in Season 2 with the boundary he set in the finale still untested, rejoining the same professional setup that strained his home life in Season 1. Netflix confirmed a second season in December 2025 via its Nordic social media accounts. According to What’s on Netflix, filming began in Are in February 2026, with on-location temperatures reported at minus 31 degrees Celsius, and Netflix Nordic confirmed Season 2 will bring two new cases for Hanna and Daniel, likely drawing on later Viveca Sten novels.
According to What’s on Netflix, citing Netflix’s published viewership data, Season 1 logged 93.6 million hours viewed across four weeks in Netflix’s Non-English TV Top 10 and appeared in charts in 84 countries. The series presents Daniel’s closing choice not as a settled conclusion but as a first attempt at maintaining a balance that the investigation repeatedly disrupted.
