Blink and you miss it: Noora’s phone battery is mentioned as being crap, again. It’s because her phone died later in the episode that she decided to go to William’s place, if it hadn’t, she probably wouldn’t have ended up at Nico’s party.



Culture: Actually, Norway did not become a sovereign country by fighting wars. In 1397, Denmark, Sweden and Norway entered into the Kalmar Union where the three kingdoms were ruled by a single Danish monarch. Sweden seceded in 1523, but Norway was stuck being ruled by the Danes for about 300 more years. In the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800′s, Denmark-Norway was allied with France, while Sweden was allied with the Coalition. Since Sweden was on the winning side, Denmark was forced to hand over Norway as a prize in 1814. The Norwegians weren’t happy about this, declared independence, wrote a new constitution which was approved and signed on May 17th, but then promptly lost to invading Swedish forces. The United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway lasted until 1905 when a referendum was held in Norway where 99.95% of the population approved of the dissolution of the union.



Subtext: The marching band is playing Gammel Jegermarsj, Old Rangers March, a traditional Norwegian military march, which is meant to bring home William’s point that war is good.



Subtext: Noora is torn between what her brain says and what her heart says. She knows William is an egoistic fuckboy, but she can’t help being attracted to him. That she can’t “think properly” when she’s with him is because her heart is actually screaming in delight, going against her self-image, against what she thinks she ought to feel about him.



Subtext: Noora is projecting quite a lot, she’s the one who actually wants to get drunk and hook up with guys, but she can’t because of her baggage and her low tolerance for alcohol.



Subtext: Vilde asking if Noora wants to join her for lunch, indicates that she isn’t struggling with her eating disorder any longer, because she is no longer obsessing over William.



Cinematography: The slow open of the door and the camera angle makes it take a long while for us viewers to see who is behind the door, and we get to see Noora react to the person before we get the same chance.



Subtext: Everything Nico is saying about William is actually true about himself instead. So when he’s saying that William is afraid of being exposed, it is in actuality Nico who is afraid of being exposed as the sociopathic fuckboy that he is.



Subtext: The essence of the Good Girl/Bad Boy trope is that the girl eventually manages to change the boy through the power of love and rainbow unicorn farts. Noora is a smart girl and knows how cliché her relationship with William is, so when Nico directly calls her out on this, tells her that she’s just one girl in a long line of girls who have tried to change William, she believes him.



Culture: At the end of the blackout montage, the background music starts playing the same piece that we heard in the trailer; Morning Mood by famous Norwegian composer:

A) Ole Bull

B) Henrik Ibsen

C) Edvard Grieg

D) Arne Nordheim



I hope you took notes, I told you there was going to be a test!

