Opening with another epigraph from Machiavelli's "The Prince", "Count to 90" finds Moderate Party leader Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen), still buoyed by the Moderates' surprise success in Denmark's elections and practically anointed prime minister by the media, plunged into bare-knuckle power politics with pretenders to the throne as Borgen, in only its second episode, flexes considerable muscle in both skullduggery and character study. Director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen maintains a brisk, sharp pace to drive a multifaceted yet streamlined and cohesive narrative that lays bare the machinations, confidences, and betrayals Birgitte must navigate as she also weathers the emotional buffeting they engender.
After muted, though hardly encouraging, blessing from the Queen, Birgitte begins building a left-leaning coalition government but is quickly derailed by Labour Party leader Michael Laugesen (Peter Mygind), angling for the prime ministry himself, who offers her token ministries in his coalition. Shaken, she considers the right-wing coalition proposed by lame-duck Prime Minister Lars Hesselboe (Søren Spanning), having dodged his personal scandal, but when Laugesen deputy Troels Höxenhaven (Lars Brygmann) offers her dirt on Laugesen, Brigitte must decide whether to go Machiavellian in her quest to become Denmark's first female prime minister, particularly when Labour's new leader Bjørn Marrot (Flemming Sørensen) makes a power grab of his own.
As her à la Machiavelli advisor Bent Sejrø, industry veteran Lars Knutzon takes a star turn as the rumpled but wily sage whose tough love guides and educates Birgitte through her baptism of fire, with understanding husband Phillip Christensen (Mikael Birkkjær) also gaining dimension. With story development help from Jeppe Gjervig Gram and Adam Price, Tobias Lindholm delivers a taut, crackling script not afraid of casual obscenity, tart humor, or emotional rawness as television journalist Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) battles personal issues while Birgitte gets schooled in realpolitik in this compelling installment.