Saga Norén

Saga Norén is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Swedish/Danish TV Series The Bridge (Bron/Broen). She is played by Swedish actress Sofia Helin. Saga is introduced as a member of the Malmö County Police Department in the first episode of the series. Suggested, but never stated, to have Asperger's syndrome she is portrayed as completely oblivious to social norms, but a brilliant and devoted police investigator. In the first two series, she develops an unlikely friendship with Danish cop Martin Rohde (played by Kim Bodnia), who is in many ways her complete opposite. In the third series she has another Danish detective Henrik Sabroe (played by Thure Lindhardt), as her partner.^[1]

Concept and creation

Saga Norén was initially created to be a counterpart to the Danish character Martin Rohde, himself intended to be the opposite of the standard lead male detective in the crime genre. So as Rohde was envisioned as very extroverted and friendly, Saga was written to be a woman completely lacking in social skills. Lead writer Hans Rosenfeldt has said that it was not the specific intention of the writers to create a character with Asperger's, but that this is how many viewers have come to interpret the character.^[2]

While she is often seen as insensitive or rude to the characters around her, this is shown as unintentional. She approaches everything directly and logically, and often is oblivious to the fact that her blunt demeanour sometimes offends others, while her inability to empathise with people around her makes her somewhat unsuited to questioning the recently bereaved relatives of victims, but she usually attempts to make amends when it is explained to her and is generally not a malicious person. She is shown to have emotions and does care about those close to her, like Martin or her boss Hans, but she expresses them differently. She rarely smiles - in fact, the only time she is seen to express any outward emotion is when the obviously painful subject of her sister, Jennifer, comes up - she reacts with a violent rage when Martin mentions his research to her, and with hostility when she sees her mother. Although she rarely cries, she is occasionally seen to be on the verge of doing so when she becomes frustrated or upset. She does not like physical contact, and noticeably stiffens whenever someone shows her physical affection or simply touches her. She drives a vintage green 1977 Porsche 911.

The role earned Sofia Helin considerable fame, both at home and abroad.^[3] Her new investigation partner Henrik Sabroe, introduced in the third series of The Bridge, appears to develop an emotional bond with her. Actor Thure Lindhart, who plays Sabroe, says that: "Henrik is a man who has lost everything and he needs somebody like her who does not judge him."^[4]

Character background

Little is known about Saga's background at first, although in the second series, Martin looks into her family history, discovering that her sister Jennifer committed suicide.^[5] In the third series, her mother appears at her apartment, telling her that her father is on his deathbed, and wishes to see her. Saga refuses, but Marie-Louise persists in trying to rebuild their relationship. She later turns up at the police station with medical documents in tow which, upon inspection by the police mortician, appear to absolve Marie-Louise of blame in Jennifer's health problems (the mortician states that though Jennifer was often sick, no clear pattern of abuse is visible). Saga is skeptical, and continues to insist that as children she and her sister were both always getting sick as a result of her mother's Munchausen by Proxy. When Saga was financially able to live independently of her parents, she had them jailed on false sexual assault charges in order to get Jennifer away from them. Sometime later, when Jennifer was 14-years old, she killed herself by leaping in front of an oncoming train. It is unclear whether Jennifer's death was the direct result of Marie-Louise's abuse or - as Marie-Louise suggests - if it was Saga's inability to connect with the emotionally vulnerable teen which ultimately drove her to suicide. Nevertheless, it is clear that Saga loved her sister deeply, and her death continues to haunt her.

Due to Saga's devotion to police work, she does not have many relationships, preferring one-night stands. In the second series, she developed a relationship with a man named Jakob, who moved in with her. However, her difficulty in sharing her space and lack of experience in relationships proves a strain, and he eventually breaks up with her by the end of the second series. Throughout the third series, however, she develops a close bond with her new Danish partner, Henrik. While this initially consisted of casual sex, it grew deeper and more emotional when he began to seek her company in order to cope with his insomnia and loneliness, and in turn allowing her to stay at his house with him and providing her with emotional support when her beloved boss, Hans died, her manipulative mother returned to her life and her new, somewhat inexperienced boss proved to make her work harder.

References