Jeanette Kihlberg—Sofia Zetterlund

Jeanette Kihlberg and Sofia Zetterlund’s relationship develops through acts of care and professional trust into a mutual attraction neither treats as simple or secure. Jeanette is drawn to Sofia’s warmth and way of moving between seriousness and humor; Sofia, in turn, feels respected and safe with Jeanette, who also seems to perceive the darkness she cannot yet explain. Their growing closeness is shadowed by what Sofia has not disclosed about herself and, later, by a striking gap in her memory of their conversations.

From professional trust to personal interest

Jeanette initially knows Sofia as a psychologist who is easy to talk to. When they meet again at Karolinska Hospital, Sofia arrives in uncertain spirits and looks anxiously toward Johan, who is recovering. Jeanette greets her with a hug, and Sofia returns it. Their exchange is grounded in the immediate crisis: Jeanette tells her that Johan’s condition looks promising and that his eyes are moving beneath his eyelids. The moment establishes a familiar tenderness between them, but it also brings Sofia into Jeanette’s family life at a time of fear and relief.

Their conversation at the hospital gives Jeanette a glimpse beyond Sofia’s professional composure. Speaking about having Johan with her during danger, Sofia describes how becoming a parent made the possibility of death—and the meaning of life—feel newly real. Jeanette recognizes that Sofia is not only a psychologist who listens well. She senses that Sofia is carrying a loss, longing, or sorrow of her own, and that she has experiences still to work through. This recognition complicates the earlier imbalance between a professional helper and the person who turns to her: Jeanette begins to understand that Sofia, too, has private wounds and unanswered questions.

That knowledge does not mean Jeanette feels she knows Sofia. After a phone call, she is struck by how little she understands about the woman she likes. Attraction may arise quickly, she reflects, while knowing another person takes years. Jeanette wants to get closer, but the prospect feels difficult; she nevertheless decides to try. The hesitation matters: her interest is not presented as effortless certainty, but as a willingness to approach someone whose inward life remains obscure.

Care, work, and domestic intimacy

At Jeanette’s home in Gamla Enskede, their closeness takes shape alongside ordinary domestic gestures. Before opening the door, Jeanette checks her hair in the mirror and wonders whether make-up would look unnatural on her. When Sofia arrives, Jeanette gives her a light hug, conscious of not holding on too long or making her feelings too obvious. Sofia answers with a small smile and says she has missed Jeanette. The greeting makes explicit a mutual attachment that each has so far approached cautiously.

Their evening also demonstrates how professional concern remains part of their bond. Jeanette asks Sofia to meet a girl she knows, acknowledging that she may have been presumptuous in offering Sofia’s help. She describes the girl as deeply troubled and unable to manage alone. Sofia agrees to check her appointments and respond the next day. Jeanette’s appreciation is tied to a characteristic she sees in Sofia: when someone needs help, Sofia does not hesitate. Sofia’s readiness to take on the case reinforces Jeanette’s admiration, even as it complicates the boundary between a personal relationship and Sofia’s work as a psychologist.

The conversation moves between that practical request and Jeanette’s police case. Sofia asks whether Lundström is still suspected of being the killer; Jeanette replies that he is dead and that she believes he was essentially a scapegoat, then asks about sexually motivated killers. Their ability to shift from difficult subject matter to laughter is part of what draws Jeanette to her. Jeanette values Sofia’s abrupt turns between seriousness and humor, and contrasts this ease with the bitterness she associates with Åke. Her attention becomes physical as well as emotional: she follows the contours of Sofia’s face, noticing her neck, cheekbones, and lips. The scene registers an attraction Jeanette has not yet openly acted upon.

Mutual attraction and concealed identity

Sofia’s perspective confirms that the attraction runs both ways. Sitting beside Jeanette on the sofa, she knows she is increasingly drawn to her and recognizes a physical element in that pull. She also feels that Jeanette has noticed her inner darkness. Rather than making Jeanette feel unsafe, this perception sits alongside a sense of security: Sofia feels safe with her even while unable to come to terms with who she is or what she wants. She is attracted not only to Jeanette’s presence but to the way Jeanette surprises and challenges her while seeming genuinely to respect her. Respect, challenge, and safety become the foundation Sofia identifies for her feelings.

That foundation is unsettled by Sofia’s uncertainty about her own identity. She knows she will eventually have to tell Jeanette who she really is and explain that she used to be ill but is now well; she does not know whether a simple explanation will be enough or how Jeanette will respond. This concealed truth gives their emerging intimacy an asymmetry. Jeanette is trying to know the person she likes, while Sofia anticipates a disclosure that may alter Jeanette’s understanding of her. Sofia’s attraction is therefore accompanied by apprehension, not by confidence that closeness will resolve her uncertainty.

The professional connection is also affected by that hidden history. When Sofia helped Jeanette assemble a perpetrator profile, she was in fact speaking about herself without sentiment or emotion. She had not needed to read the crime-scene descriptions because she already knew what they looked like—or what they should have looked like. The work they shared thus carried a concealed personal meaning for Sofia that Jeanette did not know. What appeared to Jeanette as expert assistance was also, from Sofia’s side, an oblique encounter with her own knowledge and past.

Longing, distance, and an uncertain future

Later, Jeanette’s need for Sofia becomes especially clear amid her worries about Johan. Concerned that her son has too little stability after the separation and recent upheaval, Jeanette forces herself to eat and then reaches for the phone. She needs someone to talk to, and Sofia is the person she turns to. Their exchange is brief but reciprocal: Jeanette says she misses Sofia, and Sofia says she misses her too. Jeanette describes feeling lonely; Sofia answers that she is lonely as well and wants to see Jeanette soon. The relationship now offers emotional support across distance, though the conversation does not resolve the difficulties separating them.

Jeanette imagines Sofia beside her as she closes her eyes and leans back in her chair. Sofia tells her that she dreamed of drowning and being rescued by Jeanette. The image gives the call an intimate, vulnerable shape: Sofia casts Jeanette as the person who saves her, while Jeanette receives the words in a moment of longing. Yet the novel immediately places a limit on this apparent closeness. After ending the call, Sofia sinks to the floor and does not know what she and Jeanette had been talking about. The memory lapse makes their intimacy real but precarious: the longing and desire to meet are present, while Sofia’s ability to retain the conversation is not assured.

The relationship remains an unfinished movement toward closeness rather than a settled union. Jeanette wants to know Sofia and is willing to try despite her uncertainty; Sofia feels drawn to Jeanette and safe with her, but has not yet told her the truth she believes she must disclose. Their exchanges join affection to care, professional trust to hidden personal knowledge, and mutual desire to the possibility of disconnection. That tension gives the relationship its significance: intimacy grows, but neither attraction nor kindness can by itself make Sofia’s identity, memory, or future with Jeanette secure.