Really, if you look at the end, this could be argued.
The members of the town pushed him towards Ingerlise (like the doctor making him take her after he doped her up). They covered everything up. Then blackmailed him (for what reason? really? it was literally so he would stay and play cards, weirdest blackmail ever) to play cards.
As ridiculous as it may sound, you're actually not too far off the mark there. From an interview with the director, Henrik Ruben Genz:
Good Prattle:
Throughout the movie it seemed almost as if Robert was becoming one of the townspeople, with the exception of course of his getting involved with Ingerlise and Dorthe’s family. With the exception of that, he became more like the other members of the town, which gave me the impression that maybe the old marshal wasn’t from the town either. Kind of like repeating the story of the old marshal.
Henrik Ruben Genz:
The old marshal was from the town in my interpretation, but my interpretation is that the old sheriff was part of a private [aspect of the] town. Someone who was not part of the private town is Zerleng, the doctor. So I think Zerleng has a lot to do with what he wants in this story because he’s actually the puppet master. He’s the one coming from Copenhagen, as Robert does, so he’s the guy who is social and the most reflecting prophet. So he is the one who is not laughing the most and is the puppet master of this story; he wants to have a soulmate or a guy whom he can commiserate with to stay there, so it’s not the local citizens. It’s not the local police. It’s Robert. That’s the guy who is reminding him mostly of himself.
http://www.goodprattle.com/2010/02/terribly-happy-director-henrik-ruben.html
Provehito in Altum
There's a reason they're called "card sharks".
"The night was sultry."
They were all adamant they didn't want any outside law enforcement that might interfere with the way they ran things. They set Robert up so they could control him. Notice how the police chief from Tonder had set his nephew up in the bicycle shop so he wouldn't go to prison on a drug charge.
The new marshall finds the shop empty with a radio plsying and no one would talk about it. Then he spots a pickup sunk in a bog but gets called back before he could investigate.
Later when the police chief comes to town and leads Robert out to the bog they find the nephew's body and the chief says "I didn't do him any favors sending him out here." I guess the newphew realized some of the things going on there and was silenced.
I knew that was going to happen the minute I saw the other three playing cards. I kept waiting for it to be revealed he was in Purgatory.
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