The Chestnut Man on Netflix's ending explained (2024)

The Chestnut Man spoilers follow – including its ending.

Netflix's Scandi noir series The Chestnut Man, also titled Kastanjemanden, follows detectives Naia Thulin (Danica Curcic) and Mark Hess (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) who have teamed up to try and get to the bottom of a grisly mystery: there's a serial killer on the loose, who leaves behind eerie models of people made out of chestnuts (hence the name).

Trying to unmask the culprit and unpick an intricate web of twists and turns before another victim is claimed, the investigators start to draw links between the original crime and a number of other victims. Running simultaneously is the missing persons case of one Kristine Hartung (Celine Mortensen).

The teenage daughter of a politician, her mother is Rosa – the Minister of Social Affairs. Kristine had previously been reported dead, but no body was ever found. Could her disappearance have been part of a revenge plot against her mother, who was responsible for passing legislation that impacted a lot of mothers and families? Is she another victim of the so-called Chestnut Man?

When Kristine's fingerprints were discovered on a chestnut figurine found close to the body of Laura Kjaer (beaten to death and with a limb removed, Laura is assumed to be another victim of the Chestnut Man), there's renewed hope that Kristine may be alive after all.

The mystery of what exactly happened to Kristine continues to bubble under the surface throughout the six-part crime thriller, but her fate is finally revealed at the very end when she's discovered alive.

In another fairly big twist, the Chestnut Man is revealed to be none other than Simon Genz (David Dencik) – the head of the forensic department, who had been part of the police investigation.

Detective Hess had discovered that the foster son who was potentially involved in a historic 1987 family killing may have grown up to become the Chestnut Man. His name was Toke Bering, and a school reunion photo confirmed this to be Genz (who changed his identity at the age of 18).

He had a personal vendetta against Rosa, whose parents had taken him in as a child. He blamed her, despite her having been a child at that time, for his being taken away from them, with the next home that he was sent to turning out to be an abusive one.

It was this motive that spurred on his actions against Kristine – who he did not kill, because she didn't fit the same criteria of his other victims – as well as other mothers who abandoned or neglected their children.

Genz is killed after a run-in with a tree, which brings the reign of terror of the Chestnut Man to a close.

The Chestnut Man season 2 – Will the show return for more episodes?

There's no official word on whether or not The Chestnut Man will return for a second season and, if so, what the release date might be.

It does seem quite unlikely though. The thriller was a self-contained whodunnit story, with most of the threads tied up rather neatly by the end. With the titular killer done away with, and the mystery surrounding Kristine solved, there wouldn't be too much to carry over to a second run – unless we wanted to see Hess and Thulin reuniting to solve another case.

The show is based on the novel of the same name by Søren Sveistrup, so if you're hooked and wanting more you could always check out the source material instead.

The Chestnut Man is available on Netflix.