(Warning: this article contains spoilers about Season One of ABC’s Alaska Daily)

Gabriel’s phone is ringing. It’s Eileen. She’s outside his house holding an airport welcome sign, like the one he welcomed her to Alaska with, waiting to give him a ride to work. Only one problem: he hasn’t felt safe going back to the office since being taken hostage less than a week ago, and officially quit. Per usual, Eileen isn’t taking no for an answer. She gives him a pep talk in the car saying, if he continues with the craft he’s going to be a great journalist. If he shows up…

Show up he does. Gabriel hesitantly walks into the doors of the Daily Alaskan, and the gang is finally back together. Yuna, Austin and Claire all go in for a hug. Eileen joins Roz in the back room dedicated to Gloria Nanmac’s murder. Toby Crenshaw’s photo is front and center on their case mapping board. Just a few weeks after initially interviewed by Eileen and Roz, Toby was in a bar fight and charged with aggravated assault. His DNA was collected. When they ran the DNA associated with Gloria’s case, it hit. Lucky break.

As they discuss the case, Eileen received word that Toby’s going to be arraigned in thirty minutes. This is breaking news to them. The governor specifically didn’t inform the Daily Alaskan. “Thacker’s icing us,” grumbles Eileen as they rush out the door to make the arraignment. “Story on my desk at 6:00 pm,” warns Stanley. Neither Eileen nor Roz are happy about having such a short a deadline.

Toby’s perp walk is covered by dozens of journalists and photogs. He walks disbelievingly into the courthouse in a yellow jumpsuit and handcuffs. Inside the courtroom, Dennis Gibson with the Daily Eagle approaches Eileen and says, journalist to journalist, he’s sorry for everything that happened to her. “Thanks,” Eileen responds, “but you’re not a real journalist. You’re a hack blogger who peddles hate and you almost got me killed. So maybe just go to hell.” Woah. The judge asks Toby how he pleads to first degree murder, sexual assault, and aggravated assault of Gloria Nanmac. “Not guilty, your Honor,” Toby whispers. Bail is denied.

During his interrogation, Toby signed a written confession admitting that he assaulted Gloria, drove her out onto the tundra and dumped her body. The DNA they found was semen. Eileen and Roz discuss Toby’s not guilty plea on the heels of his written confession and figure it’s to try and secure a plea deal. Roz mentions that Alaska law mandates all confessions must be videotaped.

Stanley assigns Claire and Austin to head north to cover Conrad Pritchard’s secret road he’s attempting to build on federally protected land. Stanley trades nine months of free ads for a helicopter so they can get closer to the action. On the flight to Fairbanks Claire and Austin talk about their “escape hatch” plans if the newspaper is sold. “There’s always PR,” Clair laments. Austin shares that his ex-wife is planning a move to Chicago. He wonders if trying to get a job there himself might be easier with joint custody of their child. They uncover Conrad Pritchard is partnering with Katoa Resource, a rare earth mining operation. They rush back to Anchorage to inform Stanley.

Governor Thacker and Public Safety Commissioner Haynes hold a press conference about Gloria and their efforts to end Alaska’s missing and murdered indigenous peoples crisis. Again, the Daily Alaskan isn’t notified. (Hmmm this sounds familiar…) Eileen and Roz make it in the nick of time. Thacker proudly announces that Toby, a violent killer, has been taken into custody. The governor takes all the credit for solving Glorias murder, with no mention that it took years for the DNA to be tested and only after extreme pressure from Eileen. The governor takes media questions but continues to skip over the Daily Alaskan duo. When Eileen and Roz continue to press him, he walks off stage. Stanley reminds them the 6:00 pm deadline is firm. Resigned, the duo gets to work on putting to paper the breaking news that doesn’t sit quite right with either of them. They make the deadline by the skin of their teeth and go to the local watering hole to unwind. The story posts online. Eileen and Roz are dismayed to see Toby’s perp-walk photo paired with their story. “Cements the idea he’s guilty before he even goes to trial,” laments Eileen. Roz feels they just played a part in the rush to judgement.

Eileen and Roz score an interview with Toby in jail without his lawyer. Everyone acts like this is completely normal. Toby admits to having a consensual relationship with Gloria and says they loved each other. He reveals the confession was coerced; he was kept up for an entire day without food or sleep, with officers saying they had DNA evidence that proved he killed Gloria. If he didn’t confess, law enforcement threatened he’d go away for the rest of his life. So, he signed it. But he didn’t kill Gloria. Even though he didn’t kill her, Toby feels responsible for Gloria’s death because they had a fight that night and he didn’t go with her to Skeeter’s house.

Eileen and Roz confront the arresting state trooper. She admits, off the record, that she was uncomfortable with the methods used to obtain Toby’s confession and that APD had him in the box for 24 hours. As the reporters try to get their hands on the video tape of the confession, they find out there’s been a convenient equipment failure and the video doesn’t exist. Toby’s lawyer announces he’s cut a deal with the prosecutor and instead of thirty years to life Toby could be out in fifteen. The lawyer feels a plea deal is Toby’s best option, even if he didn’t commit the crime. Eileen and Roz are incensed and vow to do everything they can to prove Toby’s innocence. They write up a story on the coerced confession and wait for it to blow up. Only one problem: it doesn’t even register. Bob’s fat bear story is beating them by over a thousand readers. Ouch. Austin is right, Alaskans do have a weird obsession about fat bears.

Austin reaches out to former senate candidate Frank Moses. Austin knee-capped his campaign uncovering his cozy relationship with the mining industry, and Moses still hasn’t forgiven him. But Moses is also angry with Conrad Pritchard, who dropped him like a hot potato when he lost the race. Austin stresses Alaska resource issues aren’t black and white, and while the state needs industry, it also needs environmental protections. Protections Conrad is trying to weasel around. But how?  Moses exposes that newly elected Senator Brewster is about to sponsor legislation that will ease mining restrictions on federally protected areas. Conrad is a top donor. Stanley lets Aaron Pritchard know the Daily Alaskan is planning on publishing a story tomorrow about the scandal. Aaron is torn between loyalty to his father, who ironically cut him out of the family business just days ago, and a potential environmental catastrophe. The story will run as planned. Hours after it drops Senator Brewster announces he’s dropping the legislation. The road is dead. The newsroom is filled with the cheers of totally non-political journalists celebrating how their story saved the environment. Conrad vows to go to war with his son Aaron.

There’s an entire subplot involving Yuna and Gabriel and alleviating their work-related anxiety. Yuna’s from the death of Jordan Teller back in episode one, and Gabriel’s from the hostage situation.  I’ll spare you the details, but it culminates with them sneaking into an abandoned construction site and heaving heavy concrete blocks over the ledge of a roof top to a musical montage. It wouldn’t be Alaska Daily without at least one major cringe moment.

Eileen and Roz plead with Commissioner Haynes to revisit Gloria’s case, but she refuses. “You may not like it, but the system is working the way it’s supposed to.” “It seems damn convenient he’s Native,” Roz remarks bitterly. Roz is having a difficult time processing that she might be playing a part in the broken system that is about to falsely imprison Toby. The duo goes back to an incarcerated Toby and ask him to walk them through step-by-step what happened the night Gloria died. Why they didn’t do this the last time they interviewed him I have no idea. Gloria’s frostbitten feet were hurting badly, so she decided to go to Skeeter’s to score some oxy. Toby didn’t think that was a good idea and refused to go with her. She called and Toby didn’t pick up. That doesn’t jive with her phone records. Roz presses Toby – are you sure she called? Then the smoking gun: Gloria left Toby a voicemail the night she died. His phone is at his uncle Ned’s house in Anchorage.

The voicemail plays: “Toby, answer your phone. I’m sorry for what I said. You know I love you. You were right. This place is bad. I’m scared, seriously. Please come get me. I don’t want to be here anymore.” The number is different from the one Gloria’s mom gave them. That’s why this call didn’t show up in her phone records. Roz calls the mysterious number and its disconnected. There’s less than two weeks until Toby accepts the plea deal. Time is running out.

This was another serious episode without a lot of the goof factor of many previous ones. Some of my favorites, like the restaurant arson episode or the Alaska State Fair episode were heavy on the authentically Alaska moments and cheese factor. While some of that was attempted in this episode — the fat bear reference, the Dennis Gibson rebuff, and Eileen’s airport pickup sign at Gabriel’s — it felt clunky and forced. Now that we know the killer isn’t Toby (and, for the record I knew it wouldn’t be him) our suspect list is pretty short. The only remaining white cis male characters are Skeeter, Pastor Gallagher, Ezra Fisher (who was previously eliminated as a suspect) and Pilot Poet. I suppose you could add Conrad and Aaron Pritchard to the list, but they’re already villains in another subplot. I think we can clear Stanley, too. He’s my favorite. What do you think happened to Gloria? Leave your guesses in the comments and tune in this Thursday for the penultimate episode.

Allison Hovanec was born and raised in Alaska. She and her husband are raising three young children in South Anchorage. She is a co-owner of the Alaska Landmine, writer for the Alaska Political Report and generally competent.