“Ride the camel in the fifth way”

Assad’s camel saying turns an absurd image into a practical rule for investigation: when the usual ways forward fail, apply an unconventional push. The joke acquires a second use when Hardy Henningsen invokes its fifth method as Carl Mørck and his colleagues consider how June Habersaat came to repeat a song associated with someone from her past.

The Saying and Its Fifth Method

Assad introduces the saying as advice from where he comes from: “if you can’t do anything else, then you have to ride your camel in the fifth way.” Hardy Henningsen recognizes the supposed first four approaches as riding “at the front, in the middle, at the back, or on the humps.” Assad supplies the punchline: “And the fifth is with your foot firmly in its backside. Makes the animal run like crazy.” The sequence makes the fifth way less a genuine riding technique than a comically forceful last resort.

From Joke to Investigative Tactic

The saying first appears while the investigation seems stuck. Carl Mørck briefly loses track of the exchange, then redirects the conversation to what June Habersaat recited on the road in Aakirkeby. He has only managed to record an uncertain version in his notebook, but the recollection brings the discussion back to a possible clue.

Hardy Henningsen observes that the song is poetic and ambiguous, and reasons that if June would not ordinarily listen to that kind of music, someone else may have introduced it to her. He connects that possibility with the man’s interest in bygone days, Bronze Age sites, sunstones, round churches, the Knights Templar, and the hippie years. When asked what to do with the possibility, Hardy answers, “I’d try to ride the camel with the foot in number five.” The joke now means pressing the lead rather than accepting the apparent deadlock.

A Shared Cue

Assad responds to Hardy’s adaptation with a thumbs-up, extending the camel joke into a sign of agreement. The expression links the scene’s comic banter to the detectives’ working method: an eccentric image becomes shorthand for making the next move when a case has stalled. It does not itself resolve the clue; it marks the decision to pursue an unexpected connection.