Let the Right One In

Morgan and Larry meet by chance one morning, and though they try to avoid talking about Jocke’s disappearance, bring up how only Gösta can do something. Near the underpass where Jocke disappeared, they watch a gym class walk by and laugh at how militant the teacher is (presumably Mr. Ávila). 

Oskar walks with his teacher, Marie-Louise, trying his best to avoid Jonny and Micke as the two seem to be planning something. He has been dating Eli for several days, so asks his teacher about love, and what love between two males entails. The question catches his teacher off guard, but she promises to return to the subject later. Oskar also asks if someone can be both a boy and a girl, though his teacher suggests that only animals can do this. When the female students overtake him and the teacher, they monopolize the teacher’s attention and walk away with her.

Suddenly, Jonny grabs Oskar and tells him they’re going to make him take a bath. Oskar is afraid of falling through the ice, and though he yells for help, there’s no one around to hear him. Once the boys get to the portion of the pond where the ice is melting, Oskar wrestles free, grabs the ice hockey stick, and hits Jonny hard with it on the ear. Jonny doubles over in pain and throws up, while Micke backs away. Seeing Jonny in pain, Oskar immediately regrets harming him. A grown-up skates toward them, until a group of students near the hospital begins screaming, and the man doubles back.

Mr. Ávila, having spotted Oskar and his bullies on the ice (he doesn’t initially know who the kids are), rushes toward them after seeing one of them injured. When he hears one of his own kids scream, however, he rushes to the sound, fearing the worst. He directs the kids away, and sees a frozen head visible under the ice.

Håkan receives another visit from the police, who have been trying to get him to communicate despite him not being able to talk yet (he’s having many surgeries to try and reconstruct his face). While Håkan ponders what circle in Dante’s Hell he deserves to be in, he hears devastating news: the body he placed in the lake has surfaced.

Oskar’s school informs his mother of the fight, and she makes him speak to his father. His father suggests they spend some time together that weekend, which excites Oskar. They make plans to meet up, and then Oskar cries while on his way to strength training.

Meanwhile, the group from the Chinese restaurant visit Gösta. No one wants to enter his apartment because it smells horribly. They muster up courage and enter, trying not to puke. The group informs Gösta that not only has Jocke’s body surfaced but that he’s a victim of foul play. They implore him to go to the police, but he adamantly refuses. While getting sloppy drunk with him, they assure him that they’ll all make things right.

Eli appears when Oskar leaves the pool after his strength training. She’s back to looking sickly, but Oskar asks her if she wants to hang out anyway. They return to their apartment complex and sneak into the basement. Oskar tells Eli about hitting Jonny. Though proud, when he flicks on the lights he notices how cat-like Eli’s eyes look before they suddenly adjust to the light. As they walk through the connected basements, Oskar tells her about Jonny’s hideout and the glue-sniffing, and he notices Eli messing with the lock on the door before they head back out and return to his basement section. Someone hears them and they hide, and then Eli finds a plastic sword and knights Oskar with it for his bravery.

Oskar suddenly produces a real knife and cuts himself, wanting to form a blood bond with Eli. She says she’ll infect him if they mix blood. When Eli notices his blood oozing out, her countenance changes: “A ghost flew into Eli’s face, distorting it into something so different from the girl he knew that he completely forgot about catching the blood that dropped from his hand” (213). Oskar is visibly scared and thinks Eli looks like a monster. She only reinforces this by moving back on all fours, trembling, and begging him to leave immediately. He backs away in fright, but watches as Eli crawls to his fallen blood and licks it up. She then implores him again to leave, but rushes from the basement herself. Oskar looks at the blood on the floor, tastes it, and spits it out.

Håkan contemplates yet another surgery he’ll soon have, amazed at how much time and money the police are spending on someone “worthless.” He then remembers his pre-Eli life, how the public found out about his pedophilia via magazines he used to get in the mail. The school he worked for fired him, and one night someone firebombed his house. He began drinking incessantly after that in an attempt to kill himself. Other self-destructive acts included fondling little boys in public, actions that of course got him beaten by parents and/or citizens. While drinking at a playground one day, Eli sat next to him. She informed Håkan that he would stop drinking and start working for her. At the time, “He had done everything [for Eli] without wondering if Eli was ‘evil’ or ‘good’ or anything else. Eli was beautiful and Eli had given him back his dignity” (215-16). While thinking about Eli, Håkan suddenly realizes that he left her pink top with the body found in the lake in Blackeberg.

Elsewhere, Eli watches women exercising at the pool. She then grows claws on her hands and feet, and jumps into a tree to wait for prey. At the same time, Virginia leaves Gösta’s apartment. She’s tired of listening to Lacke talk about Jocke. Lacke finally feels bad, and upon mentioning this, the guys tell him to go and tell Virginia how he feels. He rushes drunkenly outside to apologize. As Virginia cries about Lacke’s seemingly uncaring nature, Eli jumps onto her back and Virginia falls. Virginia feels blood sucked from her body while struggling to make sense of what’s going on. Lacke sees Eli attack Virginia (though he doesn’t know who or what the “attacker” is) and rushes to her aid. He kicks at the “blob” on Virginia’s back until it detaches, and he sees that it’s a child. Eli flinches from pain and rushes off.