‘The Nurse’ Ending Explained: Does Pernille Confronts Christina About Her Crimes?

Welcome to the Ending Explained for The Nurse, a new Danish drama series releasing this week on Netflix. Kasper Barfoed created the series, and Fanny Louise Bernth and Josephine Park in the main roles. The series tells the story of Pernille, a young mother who is starting a new job at the Nykobing Falster Hospital. However, as she starts getting more used to how things work in the hospital, she starts seeing that maybe some of the things that are happening shouldn’t be, and she starts suspecting one of her colleagues might be responsible.

The series shares a very similar title and premise with The Good Nurse, a film Netflix released last year. Both premises might be weirdly similar, but it becomes even more weird and scary when you take the fact that these two stories are based on real-life events. The cast is excellent, with Bernth and Park doing some of the best work as opposites in the same profession. The series might become a bit predictable, as each episode telegraphs some of the most important developments from a mile away. Still, with only four episodes, the show is easy to watch.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for The Nurse. Read at your own risk.

Why Does Pernille Start Suspecting Christina?

The series begins with the introduction of our main character, Pernille. She is a single mother who just moved to a new city. She is a nurse, and this will be her first job as one. Pernille is excited but also quite nervous. She wants to be her best to carve herself a place in the hospital. She is trying to do the best for her child, and she even maintains a friendly relationship with her previous romantic partner, who, outside of that, is completely out of the picture. Things are tough, but Pernille has a good attitude. It is easy to root for her.

Pernille gets on her first shift at the hospital. She meets all the other nurses and is given a crash course on how things are done. It is a lot to take in, but Pernille leans on her training, and things seem to be going well. It is here, on her first night shift, that she meets with Christina. They become partners on the night shift. Christina is considered the best nurse in the entire hospital, she knows what she is doing, and everybody loves her. Pernille is intimidated at first, but they become pals very quickly.

Pernille also begins a romantic relationship with Niels, a doctor at the hospital. They look good together; even a couple of patients point it out. As Pernille continues to work the night shift with Christina, she notices that at this time, there are many alarms, and they are mostly regarding patients having cardiac arrests. These events mostly end up with the patients dying, but sometimes they manage to save a couple of them. The consistency of the alarms warns Pernille that something bad is happening. There shouldn’t be so many.

Christina is always first when it comes to attending to the alarms. One day, she sees Christina applying CPR to a dying patient, and it seems like Christina is having an orgasm while doing it. It is not a normal sight. From this point onwards, Pernille starts seeing Christina in a different light. She shares her concerns, but no one wants to talk badly about Christina. She is the best, and Pernille is the new one. From the outside, it looks like Pernille is being difficult to work with. However, Katja, another nurse, also shares her concerns regarding Christina’s behavior.

Does Pernille Confront Christina About Her Crimes?

Pernille begins to get more and more suspicious. She sees that perfectly healthy patients end up dying for very strange reasons. For example, a patient with problems peeing has a heart attack and dies. It makes no sense to her. Pernille gets away from the night shift for a while and works only during the day. However, she definitely feels that something must be done, especially when no one else notices this happening, which baffles her and the viewer. Pernille decides to take action, even if no one will believe her.

Pernille and Niels’s relationship is becoming quite serious. She prints one of the patient charts from one of the dead patients and, later that day, shows it to Niels. She shares her suspicions with him, but Niels cannot believe it. Niels remarks that he has worked with Christina for three years at the hospital and that Christina works in his ward. If there was someone who would have noticed something weird about her work, it should have been him. Niels rejects Pernille’s accusations and leaves the house.

However, on his way home, he realizes that there is definitely something weird if the patient dies from a heart attack when his problems lay somewhere else. Niels begins his own research and comes up with the same conclusion. Christina must be doing something to kill these patients. Pernille wants to talk to management or the police, but Niels suggests they need proof that Christina is doing this. Without proof, her word will be against hers, which never goes well. They make a plan and run for it.

Pernille returns to the night shifts, and on one fateful night, they lose three patients, with Christina targeting a fourth one. However, thanks to Pernille’s actions, they save that patient. Christina is caught in the act, and Pernille saves one of the injectors Christina used, which has her fingerprints on it. Pernille and Niels go to the police with the evidence, and Christina is sentenced to twelve years in prison, as there is not enough evidence to connect her with other deaths. The series and the case concluded that Christina was making the killings in search of attention and approval from others when she actually managed to save the patients.