Borgen: Divide and Rule

"Who'll be Prime Minister while you do all our jobs?"

Well, we might as well start by talking about that moment. But, for the record, this was a bloody brilliant bit of drama, just one slightly dodgy Scottish accent away from perfection, and I think we can forgive that in a programme from Denmark.

Blimey. I know I ended last episode's review by observing that Philip asserting himself by taking the job was ultimately just storing up conflict for the future, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon or so literally. Philip's been a sympathetic character so far in spite of his faults, and someone we can identify with. But in making him hit his wife the writers have decided to place him beyond the pale. Whatever his motives- and they are, of course, genuine and even understandable- there's no possible way that him doing this can ever be defended. The moment hits the viewer like a bomb. It's great drama, especially as it feels "earned" by a long set-up, but even so I'm a bit uneasy by what it says about masculinity.

The episode title is, yet again, really rather clever. This episode sees people divided from each other- Birgitte from Philip and Katrine from her boss, Torsten, both of them partly because of a stubborn refusal to delegate- a rather obvious big theme- but also lots of conflict about power- both of those same examples, again- but also within Cabinet and between government and media.

With all that going on, the political issue this episode- which fighter jet should be bought by the Danish air force- is fairly ho-hum, thus allowing us to focus on these kinds of power relationships. Certainly, it's become very clear that Birgitte's personal life is impinging on her premiership. She's devastated by the total breakdown in her marriage, much as she tries to show it. She's still capable of being magnificent (her response to Katrine's naughty question at the end is a fairly clear parallel to her similar act of off-message genius in the debate before the election), but her inability to delegate is a worrying sign. She's overreacting to the Hox's actions last episode, and given her domestic circumstances she's possibly headed for a nervous breakdown. The way she humiliates herself by barging into Freja's flat is a very worrying sign. Her open government initiative is certainly going to stir up a hornet's nest, too. I certainly wouldn't want her job.

Katrine's problem of being unable to delegate is superficially similar but there's a big difference; she's not the boss. She spends the whole episode defying Torsten and getting away with it because she's successful, but when she finally oversteps the line there are consequences. Her relationship with Kasper is getting interesting too. They're close again, but he still won't discuss his demons with her, except for the one shocking outburst. This is building up to something. Everything's building up to something. And the BBC 4 announcer referred to the last episode as a "season finale" over the closing titles. Should I be excited?