Land of Sin Episode 1 recap: A missing boy, a hostile town, and a deadly secret

Land of Sin Episode 1 is titled You’ve Been Warned. It dropped on Netflix on January 2, 2026.

The Swedish crime drama is originally titled Synden. The story centers on Detective Dani Anttila, a veteran cop from Malmö. While she is chasing the case, she has her own history with the missing teenager.

Dani heads back to the quiet, rural Bjäre community to dig into the boy’s disappearance, and soon, old secrets start bubbling up. The premiere dives into the tension: moody landscapes, a tight-lipped town, and Dani, an outsider, bumping heads with locals who don’t trust easily and have plenty to hide.

Land of Sin Episode 1 recap: You’ve Been Warned

Land of Sin Episode 1 begins with a disturbing flash-forward image: a woman is lying on the floor, choking, and a group of men is around her. This short scene is foreshadowing as it preconditions a story full of secrets, violence, and a society that does not welcome outsiders.

The story then goes back a week. Dani Anttila is an experienced detective of Malmö who gets an unexpected call from a dying man, Ivar, who resides in the far-off town of Bjäre. His son, Silas, has been missing for four days. Ivar hates the police, yet he is in such a desperate state that he turns to Dani, a person he has known in the past.

Silas was a foster child of Dani. He eventually lost his home because of domestic violence and alcohol abuse in the house, and was taken away by the social services. Dani later sent him away, a move that greatly disappointed her son, Oliver, who had grown close to Silas, and he could not understand why his mother allowed him to leave.

Dani first tells Ivar to call the local authorities, but the feeling of guilt, her personal background, and the anger of Oliver compel her to act. In Land of Sin Episode 1, she does not tell the truth to her bosses and drives to Bjäre with Malik, her new partner.

Dani behaves towards Malik as a rookie and keeps him in the dark, but soon it becomes obvious that he is competent and not fooled by her evasiveness. Bjäre itself is a suffocating town, a lonely town where resentment, alcohol, and old grudges stew in the air.

At the homes of Silas, Dani gets to meet his vile mother, Boel, who still resents her for “stealing” her son. Silas has a brother named Kimmen, who is more cooperative and gives out the password to Silas’s laptop: Nathalie. In the computer, Dani finds out that Silas had booked two single ferry tickets, implying that he had plans of leaving town, perhaps with someone.

Meanwhile, Silas has a seriously ill father, Ivar, who is on the verge of death. When he begins to fade, he hints at the fact that something is not okay with the blacksmith in the neighbourhood where Silas worked as an unpaid apprentice. In Land of Sin Episode 1, we also see that Ivar has a brother, Elis, who looks at Dani with scarcely concealed hostility.

Shortly after, the body of Silas is found in a river. The locals are quick to rule out the death as an accident: a drunken boy who fell in and drowned. However, the autopsy is telling otherwise. Saltwater snails and black seaweed were discovered in the mouth of Silas, which proves that he drowned elsewhere and was later dumped in the river. There is bruising in his neck, which confirms foul play.

Even after being asked by her boss, Chief Robban, to back off after learning about her personal relationship, Dani lies once again, saying that the family trusts her. Malik openly doubts her choices and increasing unfaithfulness.

In Land of Sin Episode 1, the focus shifts to Becka, Silas’s girlfriend, who had earlier in the story fought with him because she found out that he had another girlfriend. Witnesses recall that she even threatened to send men after him. Meanwhile, Dani recalls the name of one of her clients, Nathalie, and asks the police to find a local woman of that name.

The blacksmith is a prime suspect when it comes out that Silas had been blackmailing the blacksmith to give him money, which goes against arguments that Silas was compensated fairly. Later, when Dani and Malik go back to question him a second time, turns out he fell to his death through a window, the second victim of the case.

The crime scene is full of hostile locals. Men with weapons and dogs make it clear that the police are unwelcome. The town is waiting and watching.

When the situation gets out of control, Elis breaks the police tape and stands right in front of Dani. In Land of Sin Episode 1, he gives her a week to resolve the murders. Failure on her part will make the town take the law into its own hands. Foreigners, he warns, are unwelcome in Bjäre.

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Dani refuses to back down. She knows the danger, but takes the ultimatum as she is bound to find out the truth, at all costs.

Land of Sin Episode 1 ends by returning to the sinister picture in the beginning, and this indicates that Dani might soon find herself in the line of fire because of her rebellious actions.

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