The Mother
Episode 3 of Katla Season 1 begins with two girls playing around the house. Their Mother, however, is distraught and clearly shocked. She heads out the house with the stove bubbling over, as the two girls are left confused. This, as we soon come to learn, is the past timeline for Asa and Grima. Back in the present, one of the cows winds up dying on the farm. Einar buries it, but remains dead-set on keep production going for the milk. After all, if anyone caught wind of this, it could be the end of them. Elsewhere, Darri brings a plate full of food to his ash-covered son, Mikael. He’s been keeping this a secret from the others and tells the boy to stay in this room. In fact, he’s not even allowed bathroom breaks either. While Darri makes excuses to stay back, doing experiments on Mikael to figure out who he is, Leifur and the team head to the glacier and begin drilling. With the other researchers gone, Darri starts to freak out and winds up locking Mikael in a shed out the back. Elsewhere, Asa and Grima come to blows as Asa questions Grima’s integrity and willingness to find her. This eventually results in Asa leaving. Grima tries desperately to find her though, with Asa acting weirdly and heading out for a walk. Bergrun senses this too, watching from afar as Asa walks past her window and to the swings. There, she sits somberly looking at the horizon. Grima is worried that her sister is pulling away from her again, and she’s desperate to cling to what they had. When she eventually catches up to Asa, they decide to head out together for some much-needed healing. This sees them head up to the hot springs together and begin swimming. Only, other bodies seem to be inside the water. It freaks Grima out enough that she tells her sister they need to leave. At thee same time, older Gunhild arrives to see her younger counterpart while she’s getting a baby scan. Gunhild is convinced she’s not her doppelganger, pointing out that Tor’s wife has actually died. Well, eventually the trio wind up talking together, airing everything out when Tor shows up at the hospital. After their chat, older Gunhild decides to leave. Just before she does, she implores Tor to stay away from this strange version of herself, believing this returned woman is actually an imposter. As the episode closes out, Mikael manages to get hold of a phone and rings his Mother, asking for help and pleading with her to come and pick him up.
The Episode Review
Katla slows the pace down completely this time, with its longest chapter that works to develop each of the different characters. Specifically, we see Asa and Mikael start to grow accustomed to their new surroundings. There are a few suspicious characters dotted around though, including Bergrun and Gisli, but for now we don’t get many answers to these big mysteries we’re playing with this season. Instead, this chapter feels a lot more laborious than it needs to be, as Asa goes walkabouts and Mikael is trapped in a shed. For slow burn enthusiasts, Katla definitely hits the right notes but one can’t help but feel sometimes this show is a little too slow for its own good. Still, we march on.
