Lennart Oscarsson—Martin Jacobson

Lennart Oscarsson and Martin Jacobson are colleagues, neighbors, and close friends whose long familiarity is put under pressure by an order concerning Piet Hoffmann. Their relationship is defined not by a settled break but by a painful division: Martin refuses to carry out an order he considers wrong, while Lennart proceeds toward Hoffmann’s cell to tell him he is being sent back. The episode places private loyalty inside the prison’s chain of command, where friendship cannot by itself halt an institutional decision.

A friendship built over time

Martin describes a relationship established across work and private life. He and Lennart have worked together at the prison for about twenty years and have been neighbors for almost as long. Lennart is Martin’s boss as well as his colleague, but the hierarchy does not exhaust their connection: Martin calls him one of his only friends both inside the institution and beyond it, and says that he is among the few people Martin invites over for a Sunday drink.

That combination makes their friendship unusually difficult to separate from their shared workplace. They know one another as neighbors and companions, but also through years of working together within the same prison. Martin’s appeal to that history is not a casual reminder of seniority or familiarity. He invokes a bond that has endured across professional and personal settings just as Lennart asks him to take part in a decision that conflicts with their stated principles.

The order concerning Hoffmann

The immediate strain arises after Piet Hoffmann has been moved from Block G to the voluntary isolation unit in Block C. The move follows a threat to his safety: a prison riot squad escorts him through the institution, while other officers remain behind to prevent further violence. In isolation, Hoffmann can move within a separate unit without encountering prisoners from other parts of the prison. The later order to send him back therefore concerns more than routine placement; it would return a vulnerable prisoner to the unit from which he had been removed.

Lennart summons Martin to the wardens’ room and asks the two temporary wardens to leave so they can speak privately. The request marks the conversation as a difficult one, but Martin quickly understands its substance. Lennart tells him that Hoffmann is to be moved back. Martin objects that the decision runs against everything they know, say, and do. His response invokes a shared professional ethic: the issue is not simply whether an instruction has been issued, but whether they can accept responsibility for carrying it out.

Martin’s refusal and Lennart’s response

Lennart insists that there is an order and tells Martin to do it. Martin asks whether Lennart’s decision is personal, but Lennart does not settle the question in those terms; he repeats that Martin should do as he is asked. Martin then refuses. If Hoffmann is to be moved back, he says, Lennart will have to do it himself. His refusal is direct, and it places the action—and its moral weight—back on the person issuing the instruction.

The exchange shows the limits of their friendship without establishing that the friendship has ended. Martin addresses Lennart as a friend and colleague, but does not allow that intimacy to become a reason for compliance. Nor does Lennart’s position as boss make Martin withdraw his objection. Their bond gives the disagreement its force: Martin is challenging someone he has known for decades, not an unknown supervisor whose authority carries no personal history.

Lennart leaves the room and walks toward Cell 9, with the temporary wardens following. The narrative presents him as carrying the order forward despite his own recent dismay at it. He thinks of Martin as a wise friend and experienced colleague, someone with the courage to speak up when a person who should know better is wrong. The image of two holes in his back conveys the emotional pressure of leaving that friend behind, but the scene does not say that Lennart turns around or explains himself. Instead, he reaches Hoffmann’s locked cell and tells him he is going back.

Friendship under institutional pressure

The episode makes the distinction between personal allegiance and professional conduct consequential. Martin’s long loyalty to Lennart does not mean automatic obedience; it enables him to confront Lennart plainly. Lennart, in turn, is both Martin’s friend and the superior who carries the order to Hoffmann. Their roles do not neatly align, and the conflict leaves Lennart moving forward while remaining acutely aware of the friend who has refused him.

The outcome shown is limited but pointed. Martin refuses to take part, and Lennart tells Hoffmann that he is to return; the scene does not establish whether the transfer is completed. Their relationship is therefore left under strain rather than resolved through reconciliation or a definitive rupture. The prison’s command structure makes the friendship visible precisely at the moment it cannot settle the larger question: Martin can refuse, Lennart can proceed, and the history between them remains present in both actions.