The Winners

Outside, the crowd quickly calms and starts to break up. Johnny reflects on the two-year-long truce that the towns have held following Vidar’s death and worries this fight will lead to something bigger. Tess worries that because of Lev, Beartown people will start carrying pistols, too.

Members of the Pack and Peter go to the Hed hospital to have their injuries addressed. As Peter leaves, Teemu gives him flowers for Kira as an appreciation for her helping the club; this is the first time Peter has heard of her intervention. Kira sits in the car outside, surrounded by members of the Pack who protect her from Hed fighters. Her colleague calls and suggests they say that someone forged Peter’s signature as a legal defense. Peter gets into the car, and they have a moment of transparency, calling each other out for their recent lies. Kira finally lays out the events of the last week, including the fraud. Peter has a panic attack, and it becomes clear that he did not know what he was signing when he signed the papers for the training facility. Kira, for the first time, becomes convinced that Peter is innocent. They reconcile and promise to do what is necessary to take care of their family.

Johnny and Hannah drink in their kitchen while Ted stays up late, firing pucks at their garage. They argue about Lev’s involvement; Hannah does not believe that he and Johnny do not know each other. Johnny goes upstairs while Hannah goes outside to shoot pucks with Ted.

The editor’s father finds further evidence of fraud and corruption that exceeds Beartown hockey, and he begins to focus on this story instead. The editor goes to work and finds that men from Hed are protecting the building. Richard waits for her inside. He warns her against printing news about Peter Andersson after he has been injured, then informs her that the company that owns the newspaper has started to sponsor Hed hockey. As he leaves, Richard reveals that he was the one who gave her father the documents describing broader political corruption. When the editor confronts her father, he describes how dangerous Richard is. He accepted Richard’s documents to protect her from making an enemy that could ruin her life, choosing to focus on the council instead of Peter. The editor slumps, defeated.

Benji goes out into the woods and sits with Aleksandr by the lake. They talk about the difficulty they have had belonging, the upcoming game against Hed, and Benji’s travels.

Richard calls Tails to tell him that the journalist issue has been resolved, then tells him to get Kira involved in a torchlit procession to protest the hockey-club merger. Richard then instructs Tails that he will help pick scapegoats for the political fraud he has revealed. Tails visits Kira to share the good news, then gives her Hannah’s contact information to participate in the procession.

Kira visits Hannah, who is immediately on edge at her arrival. Although they struggle to connect, when they talk about Tess, tensions ease between them. Kira details the procession plans. Hannah offers to teach Ana about midwifery.

Amat, Mumble, Bobo, Ana, and Maya join Aleksandr and Benji at the campervan. The group parties and exchange tender words. Matteo watches from deeper in the forest and sees Mumble laugh, which enrages him. He breaks into his neighbors’ house and correctly guesses the code to their gun cabinet.

Hannah and Kira each start to gossip, spreading news about the potential merger and expressing their desire to protest. Richard waits in his office even though everyone else has gone home, intending to be the one politician present to make a statement. The procession begins and goes straight to his office, where he claims that he respects the right of the towns to choose their alliances.

Meanwhile, the editor and her father finish writing a story about corruption that will result in several notable politicians going to jail. The group in the woods get news about the procession and all head back to town to join. After, Peter opens the Bearskin and the Ovich siblings help run it for the night. When the bar closes, Tails approaches the Oviches with a business proposal.

That night, Adri goes to Lev’s scrapyard to drink and discuss the Bearskin. Adri gifts Lev two puppies and money from Tails; he agrees to relinquish his claim to the bar.

Years ago, in Hed, a boy named Rodri made friends with a boy he called Mumble. Rodri was thrown out of the hockey club for fighting the coach, but they maintained their friendship. Rodri used drugs and became obsessed with girls. Ruth struggled in school because her peers thought she was in a religious cult, and her mother had compulsions Ruth did not understand. She made friends with a local girl, and they rebelled together until their parents discovered their secret stash of alcohol and birth control.

Rodri and Mumble were driving to Beartown one night when they saw bullies forcing Matteo out onto a partially frozen lake. They took Matteo home, and that was how Rodri met Ruth.

The editor stops by Peter’s house and gives him everything she has on her investigation into the hockey-rink fraud to assure him they will not write about him. Peter asks how he can earn forgiveness and repent for his crimes; she pushes him to be humble and earn it.

Rodri and Ruth began to spend time together. He gave her drugs and tried to initiate physical intimacy, but she rejected him. He texted her persistently. One night, they joined Mumble at a Hed hockey party, and Rodri sexually assaulted her, then threatened her into silence by saying he would kill Matteo. When she left the room, she saw Mumble outside. In her diary, Ruth wrote about the injustice of sex and femininity. When Rodri texted her and asked to meet up again, Ruth threatened to tell the police. He sent her pictures he took of her naked while unconscious, threatening to post them online if she did not comply with his demands. He used the pictures to blackmail her, repeatedly assaulting her and giving her drugs. Ruth finally went to the police, but her history of partying made them disbelieve her. Her parents called her a liar and took her home, worrying that Rodri would sue if he heard Ruth’s claims. Months later, Maya was assaulted by Kevin and reported it to the police. Ruth decided to flee Beartown.

Maya brings a picnic to Kira’s work, and they talk about the future. Maya thanks her for working so hard and for taking care of her after Kevin, describing her admiration for her mother’s willingness to fight.

In the past, Mumble knew of Rodri’s crimes but was threatened into silence. Mumble experienced suicidal ideation. He ran into Ruth one night, and she asked him to intervene with Rodri; two days later, she decided to leave. Ruth found community in a different country but died abruptly of a drug overdose. Matteo viewed Ruth’s death as a murder and endeavored to kill Rodri, Mumble, and himself. Rodri decided to leave town and threatened Mumble at knifepoint before departing. Mumble joined Beartown hockey and found a place to belong but still doubts whether he deserves it.

The night of the procession, Matteo steals hunting rifles from his neighbors and takes them to Lev’s scrapyard. Lev refuses to do business with him, but one of his employees trades three hunting rifles, Matteo’s computer, and cash for a pistol. He steals a moped and drives to the town where Rodri lives, shooting Rodri three times. The moped breaks down halfway back to Beartown, so Matteo hitches a ride with a truck driver who goes out of his way to make sure he gets to town safely. He disposes of his sister’s diary in the lake, then blends in with the crowd walking to the rink.

Amat, on his way to the rink, is intercepted by Peter. Peter takes him to a gravel lot in the Hollow and tells Amat he wants to build a small ice rink there to give the kids a place to play real hockey. He hopes that this will make it easier for future generations to learn to skate and open the door to more Hollow hockey players. Amat proudly agrees with Peter’s proposal.

Kira’s colleague comes into the office with wine. She and Maya drink some before Kira tells them about Tess and her dream to help the victims of sexual assault. Kira tells them that she wants to open a small firm to fight sexual injustice. Her colleague vows to join her. Maya calls Ana to drive them to the hockey game.

Johnny cleans out the family van as Tess and Hannah have a tender conversation about Tess’s future. Adri, Alicia, and Benji pick up Aleksandr, and Benji invites Alicia to the locker room to meet the A-team players. Aleksandr thanks Zackell for her faith. Hog and Johnny shake hands in the stands, making plans for a family dinner. The boys in the locker room joke as Benji brings Alicia inside. Ana’s father realizes that he has left his hunting rifle in his unlocked truck and goes outside to lock the vehicle.

The narrator opines that people will always wonder if they could have done something differently to prevent events from unfolding. The narrator concludes that, in the end, they are all culpable.

Lev sits in his home and reflects on his own loneliness, hoping to one day build a big house for his nieces and their children to live in. He also thinks about his regrets, including how things went for Amat’s first NHL draft. One of his employees interrupts his reflections to tell him about Matteo and the pistol and that Matteo was seen entering the hockey rink. Lev drives to the rink as fast as he can. In the parking lot, Ana’s dad sees Matteo run through an emergency exit with a pistol in his hand; he grabs his rifle and chases him.

Alicia is standing between Mumble and the door when Matteo enters the locker room and starts firing. He misses his first shot. Benji throws himself in front of Matteo, tackling him but taking two bullets to the heart. Ana’s father shoots Matteo in an act of marksmanship that would be impossible for anyone else. Ana, having rushed to the locker room after the first gunshot, witnesses Benji’s and Matteo’s deaths. Maya runs with Ana and sees Alicia screaming; she carries the young girl into the forest, shielding her with her body. Other women from inside the rink join them to shelter the child.

Lev finds Ana’s dad and waves Ana over. He takes them to the lake, where they dump the hunting rifle beneath the ice to hide evidence. Then they return to Ana’s house, where Lev forces her father to drink to provide an alibi.

Maya will spend the rest of her life living to make Benji proud. All her songs will be written and performed in his honor.

At Benji’s funeral, the children of Hed and Beartown plant trees around his headstone. Maya comforts Alicia, then sings her first song written for Benji. Hed and Beartown communities come together, collaborating on projects and healing through hockey. Johnny asks Peter for advice when Hed coaches warn him that Ted is going to be a star.

Zackell becomes an exceptional coach with hundreds of winning games on her record. The first game Alicia plays at the national level, Zackell breaks her one rule and allows her to wear Benji’s jersey number. The police never identify the gun that killed Matteo, nor do they find where Matteo’s pistol came from. Richard approaches Tails and tells him that someone connected to hockey must be held accountable for some minor frauds; Tails volunteers himself, saying he can forge Peter’s signature. He goes to jail for a few months and returns in time to help build the ice rink in the Hollow. Only Peter, Tails, and Richard know of his sacrifice.

Years down the line, the editor will work at a much larger paper and use her connections to reveal Richard’s crimes. Amat makes it to the NHL. A young bass player at a party sees Maya performing and joins her band when he tells her about the relationship he once had with Benji. Mumble plays for Beartown until he is 30, then travels to the graveyard where Matteo has been laid to rest and dies by suicide. Alicia lives with Adri and Sune; Adri gifts her a puppy that lives at Sune’s house.

For Ana’s birthday, Hannah gives her a voucher for driving lessons and takes her to a college that offers nursing classes. Ana ultimately becomes an emergency helicopter pilot and takes Maya on a ride the day she gets her license. In the far future, Maya sees Kevin as she walks into one of her concerts; Kevin confesses everything to his pregnant wife. One day, Alicia will be the best hockey player who ever existed, and she only exists because of the people and events that preceded her.