Previously, in The Mire seasons 1 and 2, we were introduced to a seasoned reporter, Witold, and his fellow journalist, Piotr, who dealt with two horrifying murders taking place in the ominous forest of Gronty. Not only were the murder cases tangled up, but both Witold and Piotr’s personal lives were dragged into this mess, making their journey complicated and filled with difficulties. In this latest season of the franchise, The Mire: Millennium, we got to know more about the aftermath of what happened in season 2. Both Witold and Piotr had still been dealing with their personal troubles while also unraveling a puzzling murder mystery.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Filip Kill Kociolek?
In the first episode of the series, we saw a man named Filip kill his own father, Kociolek, in his hotel to take revenge for his mother’s death. Kociolek used to be a local pimp who had opened a business with the chairman, Grochowiak, who used to be a swimming instructor back then. From the very beginning of his career, Grochowiak was a womanizer who used to kidnap young women and force them into prostitution, and Kociolek used to be his partner-in-crime. Kociolek was such a bad guy that he didn’t even spare his own wife and forced her to sleep with random customers. Filip was very young when one day, Kociolek killed his wife after she killed one of the customers who tried to assault her. When Kociolek was about to pull a trigger to kill his wife, Viola revealed that Filip wasn’t even Kociolek’s son, which further angered him.
Filip didn’t know where his mother was gone, so decades after when he heard about the princess necklace found in the Gronty forest, he realized that his father had killed his mother that night. Filip came back only to avenge his mother’s death. Back then, Anna Jass, the inspector with whom Teresa had a relationship in the previous season, was also a kid, and her father Stefan used to be well acquainted with Kociolek. Stefan didn’t have any idea that Kociolek was a sick maniac involved in pimping. When Kociolek realized that he might not be able to give his son a secured future given the risks he had to face in this business, he asked Stefan, his trusted friend, for the responsibility of taking care of his son. Stefan was out of town for a long time, and he came back when he learned that Kociolek was murdered. He remembered the promise he had once made to Kociolek and to value that, he came back to town, but he found that Anna had been looking into the murder mystery, which was interconnected with the series of other unfortunate events taking place in Gronty.
In the present timeline, we saw that some officers had been able to uncover a skeleton buried in the forest of Gronty. The skeleton belonged to a woman, and there was a necklace on its neck. The current prosecutor of the town and the other investigators considered the skeleton to belong to one of those who were killed by the Nazis in 1945, but Kinga believed that the skeleton wasn’t even that old. She concluded that the woman with the necklace was not one of those victims killed by the Nazis, but there was something more to the story. Anna Jass finally looked into the matter, and she recognized that the necklace belonged to Kociolek’s deceased wife. She soon realized that Filip might have had a hand in his father’s death, so she soon began to look for him along with her father, Stefan.
How Did Filip Get Caught?
Kociolek had married a woman named Donata Muszynska, who had a great connection with Filip. Both of them were well aware of Kociolek’s real identity, so after his death, they teamed up and began to operate a human trafficking ring. Filip was vindictive towards his father, but he wasn’t doing anything different than following in his footsteps. But at the same time, it was apparent that he was guilty of getting involved in such criminal activities, so he decided to turn himself in. Meanwhile, Anna was able to come up with a solution to find Filip. She recalled her childhood days when Filip used to take her to a place, so she decided to go there and find the criminal. As Anna reached there, she found Filip already waiting for her. Filip confessed his crime to Anna and turned himself in, as he knew he deserved the punishment. Simultaneously, Anna’s investigative partner, Mika, helped her by arresting Donata, who was associated with Filip in the human trafficking and also kidnapped Piotr’s daughter Wanda.
What Happened To Wanda?
In the previous season of The Mire, we saw Anna having an affair Teresa, Piotr’s wife, which prompted Teresa to leave her family and settle down with her lover elsewhere. Ever since, Piotr had been trying to cope with the separation and taking care of his daughter Wanda, who felt her mother’s absence all the time. Piotr began to live with Joanna, Kazik’s daughter, as the two of them had chemistry, which was also seen in the previous season. However, after Teresa moved away with Anna, a tragedy took place in their lives. Teresa lost her life in a car accident, and Anna was the one who was driving the car. Being unable to save her lover’s life, Anna couldn’t forgive herself, so she was unable to face both Piotr and Wanda.
Meanwhile, Wanda was unable to cope with the loss of her mother, and she was left traumatized. She couldn’t even tolerate another woman trying to take the place of her mother in her house, so she tried to maintain a distance from her own family and began to spend most of her time outside. It gravely concerned Piotr, who was worried about the safety of his daughter. Piotr realized that Wanda was growing up, so he couldn’t even stop her from doing what she wanted, so he had to let her go whenever she desired to go out. Wanda was actually looking for a job, as she wanted to move out of the house and stay away from her family. She wanted to be a model and got involved with a guy who pretended to be a modeling agent. Actually, this guy was none other than a member of the human trafficking gang run by Donata and Filip. They targeted Wanda, and through this man, they managed to kidnap her from a station. But CCTV footage on the platform captured Wanda with the kidnapper. Piotr lost his mind as the officers who showed him the footage believed that Wanda had simply run away with her lover, while he knew that Wanda wasn’t that type of girl. He was extremely hesitant to ask Anna’s help, but he also knew that there was no one else in law enforcement who’d help him find his daughter. In the meantime, when Anna was looking into Filip’s case, she learned about Wanda’s kidnapping, and her heart ached for Piotr. She had been avoiding their contact for a long time, but now she desperately wanted to help them out, as she believed she could only make amends for her mistake if she could find Wanda safe and alive. As Anna and Mika were able to find and arrest Filip, they also learned about the human trafficking ring that kidnapped Wanda. Wanda was found by Anna, who finally got closure from her deep-seated trauma. Piotr finally reunited with his daughter and let out a sigh of relief.
However, at the end of the series, we learned that Donata and Filip were not the head of the ring, but there was a puppeteer who was yet to be found. Probably, in the upcoming season of this saga, we will get to see how Anna and her team will be able to find the main bad guy and bring him to justice.
What Happened To Else Koepke?
In this season of The Mire, we finally learned what happened to Else Koepke, the long-lost love of Witold’s life. Witold found that Else had sent him a letter, and it had been in Kociolek’s possession for a long time. One of the customers, who was killed by Kociolek’s wife, had given him this letter back then, when they were young. Kociolek could have given this letter to Witold, but the former was so opportunistic that he thought he might use this letter as a way to gain something from Witold. However, the day before his murder, Kociolek made sure that the letter would reach Witold’s hands. After Witold finally got his hands on the letter, he believed he might have had hope to reunite with his lover, but the truth was heartbreaking for him. When he went to the address written on the letter, he was devastated to find that his beloved, Else Kopeke, had passed away years ago. Witold’s lengthy journey of finding out his lover ended with a tragedy that robbed him of all his hope in life. However, a heartbroken Witold managed to cope with the loss of his lover and realized that he couldn’t go back in time to fix everything that had been messed up. So, now all he could do was accept the truth and move ahead with his life.
The Mire: Millennium ended on a tragic note, and we can speculate that the upcoming season of this saga may bring another gripping story of a new murder mystery while focusing on these characters’ personal journeys, which we are already familiar with.
