TORE follows a 27-year-old man who does everything he can to repress his feelings when he loses his father in an accident. The show is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Tore is 27 years old, but he still lives with his father, Bosse, and their dog, MJ. Bosse runs a funeral house, and Tore works there as an assistant. Bosse keeps trying to convince Tore to move out and do something better with his life, but to no avail.
One day, Bosse dies in an accident before Tore’s eyes, and Tore’s first reaction is to pretend that nothing has happened. Instead of allowing himself to process and grieve his father’s death, Tore tries to repress his feelings.
He spends his days working nonstop and his nights at a club. His best friend, Linn, who is more like family, tries to help him, but Tore pushes her away. He refuses to take anyone’s help.
Tore starts visiting a bar and getting drunk. The first night, he meets a man named Viggo and almost has sex with him. Tore realizes that he is not ready, and when Viggo does not stop, he pushes Viggo away before running away from there.
The next day, Tore comes to Bosse’s funeral very late and leaves before the ceremony is over. When he finally gets convinced to stay at Linn’s house and talk to her, he overhears her telling her son that Tore is scared and lonely, which leads to him shutting himself off once again.
Tore goes to the club and meets Viggo again. This time, the two of them do drugs, and Tore jumps off his balcony under the influence. Linn finds him bleeding the next day and takes care of his injuries, but Tore is still very much caught in his self-destructive spiral.
During this time, Tore starts liking Erik, a flower shop employee who is older than Tore. He also meets a drag artist, Shady Meat, at the club. Then there is Heidi, an old woman who is hurting like Tore, as she has just lost her husband.
Tore gets banned from the club after doing drugs with Viggo and losing control. He gets a chance to talk to Shady Meat about Erik when she allows him to enter the dressing room. Shady Meat advises him to ask Erik to teach him driving in order to spend more time with him.
A phone call from Heidi brings his evening with Shady Meat to an end. Heidi tried to kill herself for the second time, but she could not do it. She called Tore because she knows that Tore is going through something similar. Tore comforts her and takes her to her house.
The next day, he asks Erik to give him driving lessons, and while Erik initially refuses, he agrees later on. Meanwhile, Tore finds out that Bosse was planning to replace Tore with a new assistant at the funeral house.
The other employees at the funeral house keep trying to get Tore to take some time off, but he refuses. He even joins them for a conference. There, Tore meets a woman who turns out to be Bosse’s girlfriend.
Tore now knows that his father had plans to move in with his girlfriend. This makes him think that his father was trying to get rid of him. Tore then tries to get Viggo to have sex with him, but Viggo likes Tore now and wants to get to know him better. As Tore likes Erik, Tore and Viggo part ways.
Linn, who has been trying to get Tore to talk to her, pretends to be dead to make Tore understand what she went through when she saw him injured in his garden. This makes matters worse, and Tore ends up hurling hurtful insults at Linn.
He then tells Shady Meat and her friend that Linn is a homophobe and throws eggs at Linn’s house with them. Tore realizes that he has done something wrong when he sees Linn’s son, Alfred, who admires Tore a lot, watching Tore’s friends have a screaming match with Linn.
It does not take Shady Meat long to figure out that Tore lied to her about Linn being a homophobe, and even she leaves Tore. He then goes to Heidi’s house and shares the drugs that Viggo gave him with her.
MJ misses Bosse, and the dog’s sadness reminds Tore of his own, which he is trying to avoid, so he sells MJ. He spends time with Erik, who invites him to his house for dinner. Tore and Erik almost sleep together but are interrupted by Erik’s boyfriend.
It turns out that Erik and his boyfriend are on a break, but they were so serious about their relationship that they were going to have children together; they might still do that. A heartbroken Tore leaves Erik’s house and ends up injuring himself once again.
TORE ending explained in detail:
Do Tore and Linn reconcile?
Tore is in pain, physically and mentally. At a time like this, he goes to his best friend’s house. He apologizes to Linn and allows himself to cry on her shoulder. Linn comforts him, and the two of them make up.
Linn even takes Tore to visit his father’s grave. Linn knew about Bosse’s plans to replace Tore. She tells him that Bosse was not trying to get rid of him. Linn and Bosse wanted Tore to move out of Bosse’s house because they wanted him to see the world and have adventures of his own.
Bosse also wanted to tell Tore about his girlfriend, but he was nervous. Tore is still angry at his father because he believes that he did not want to live or work with him. To appease Tore, Linn insults Bosse, but it is very evident that neither of them wants that.
How does Tore grieve his father’s death?
A friend of Heidi’s visits Tore at the funeral house, looking to buy drugs. Tore goes to Heidi’s house to confront her about sharing their secret with someone else. He finds out that Heidi’s daughters convinced Heidi to move to a care home, so Tore cannot bring himself to be angry with her.
He then gathers the courage to face Erik. However, Erik is not interested in dating Tore. Tore also comes to know that his father had been telling other people that Tore was going to quit working at the funeral home and do something else.
On top of that, Heidi’s children find out that Tore gave their mother drugs and threaten to call the police on him, which leads to the funeral house employees asking Tore to leave and get help. All of these things make him lose his temper.
Angry and frustrated, Tore storms out of there and goes home. Tore has not set foot in his father’s room since the day he died. He had been avoiding it, but now he can no longer repress his emotions and goes to Bosse’s room. He screams and lets out his anger by wrecking the room.
He goes to the club as well and dances angrily. He then meets Shady Meat. Tore no longer avoids the subject of his father’s death and tells her about it. Shady Meat understands his situation and makes him perform a song in front of an audience.
The song is about home, and it reminds Tore of his father and MJ. Tore sees his father’s smiling face in the audience, but the sight does not make him angry or sad. It makes him feel better and encourages him to finish the song.
Does Tore get MJ back?
Tore had earlier admitted to Linn that he wants MJ back. He had even contacted the man who bought MJ, but the man refused to return MJ. When Tore imagines his father and MJ sitting in the audience, he sees MJ running away and realizes that he needs to get his dog back.
Tore asks for Linn’s help, and the two of them go to get MJ. While Linn distracts MJ’s new owners, Tore sneaks into their house and takes MJ with him. Tore, MJ, and Linn make a run for it just as owners realize what has been going on.
Tore and Linn escape with MJ in Linn’s car. For the first time since his father’s death, Tore smiles freely. He gets to be happy with Linn and MJ without feeling burdened by his father’s loss.
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