Jeanette Kihlberg—Åke

Jeanette Kihlberg and Åke’s relationship is shown in the unsettled aftermath of their separation: they are no longer living as a household, but remain bound by their shared responsibility for Johan. Their connection survives through calls, handovers, and decisions about their son, while a new relationship in Åke’s life and Jeanette’s demanding police work complicate the effort to give Johan stability. The strain is not expressed as a single rupture so much as a series of ordinary arrangements that keep reopening the question of what their family has become.

Separation and the shared family

By the time these scenes unfold, Åke has moved out. Jeanette’s home in Gamla Enskede feels different in his absence, and she recognizes that she misses the smell of the oil paint, linseed oil, and turpentine associated with him. That response complicates any simple account of the separation: she considers whether she had been too intolerant, or had failed to encourage him when he doubted his talent. But she also concludes that the question may no longer change anything. The marriage may be over, and what Åke does is no longer dependent on her.

The distinction between the end of their marriage and the continuation of their family is central to their relationship. Johan moves between his parents’ arrangements, including a weekend with his grandparents and a night in the city with Åke and Alexandra Kowalska. Jeanette experiences his absence not simply as a practical change of address, but as the absence of a family. Meanwhile, work makes her availability uncertain: plans with Åke have to remain provisional while she waits for authorization to search houses. Their separation therefore persists in logistical details as well as in the emotional life of the household.

Johan caught between his parents

Johan’s response makes the separation more than a private matter between adults. When Sofia Zetterlund asks where he is, Jeanette explains that Åke’s mother has picked him up and that Johan barely said goodbye. Jeanette reads his silence as directed specifically at her. Her concern is not relieved by the suggestion of an appointment with Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry; she expects that he would resent it and believes he needs normality, including a mother who is home when he returns from school.

Sofia proposes that Johan may be attaching blame to Jeanette because she is closest to him. She suggests that he may experience Jeanette and Åke as a single parental unit, so that Åke’s betrayal becomes a shared failure by both parents. Jeanette responds by asking whether Johan thinks she has let him down. The conversation gives the separation a painful double meaning: even if the adult conflict belongs to Åke and Jeanette, their son may not distinguish between them in that way. Sofia’s reassurance does not undo the hurt. When Jeanette asks how anyone moves on from betrayal, Sofia answers that betrayal is not forgiven but can be lived with. The exchange leaves the relationship’s damage present without suggesting that a neat resolution is available.

Alexandra and the changing parental arrangement

Åke’s relationship with Alexandra Kowalska intensifies Johan’s difficulty in accepting the new arrangement. After Jeanette has spoken to Åke, she tells Jens Hurtig that Johan has called Alexandra a whore and that the insult caused a major confrontation. The episode shows that Johan’s resistance is not an abstract dislike of change: it has become an open conflict around the person now sharing Åke’s life. Hurtig reacts with amusement at the boy’s nerve, but Jeanette’s account also places the adults’ new circumstances inside the difficult work of parenting a teenager.

Åke’s later plan to take Johan to London for a football match gives their relationship a different aspect. He presents the trip as time for the two of them and as a chance to be a father. Jeanette agrees, while checking whether Johan wants to go; Åke says that he does. The proposed outing offers a concrete form of father-son contact, but it does not erase the instability around it. Jeanette cannot confirm the timing because of the pending search arrangements, and Åke asks her to tell him when she can. The trip remains a plan, not a settled event, and its scheduling depends on the same divided responsibilities that shape their separation.

Jeanette’s perspective on Åke

Jeanette’s feelings toward Åke are mixed rather than settled into either longing or rejection. She misses the familiar traces of his presence at home and wonders whether she failed to support his confidence in his artistic ability. At the same time, she recognizes that the marriage may be finished and that she cannot determine his choices for him. The thought does not make the separation painless; it marks her awareness that regret and attachment do not necessarily restore a shared life.

Her moral response to another man’s sense of rejection also clarifies a boundary in how she understands their own situation. After hearing that the man will face charges for rape, assault, and deprivation of liberty, Jeanette has little sympathy for him and thinks that feeling rejected is no excuse. She associates the thought with Åke and Alexandra, but does not treat rejection as permission to harm someone. The comparison is brief, yet it places the emotional injuries of separation alongside a clear distinction between hurt and violence.

Contact, uncertainty, and aftermath

Their communication continues in practical fragments. At one point, Jeanette has to end a call from Åke because Annette Lundström has called and work requires her attention. Åke’s weary response leaves Jeanette close to tears. The interruption captures how professional duty and the personal relationship compete for space: she cannot give the call her attention at that moment, but the exchange still affects her after it ends.

Later, alone at home, Jeanette hears the phone ring and assumes it is Åke. His request to take Johan to London is an attempt to arrange time with their son, but the call also confirms how much of their relationship now proceeds by negotiation rather than shared routine. Jeanette worries that Johan is being shuttled between parents who do not know what they will be doing even two days ahead. She is aware that the separation, the events at Gröna Lund, and her limited time with him have all contributed to a lack of stability. Still, she agrees to consider the trip and continues coordinating with Åke. Their relationship is left unresolved: the household has broken apart, affection and regret remain, and co-parenting requires them to keep making arrangements despite uncertainty.