The Winners

Ana calls Maya and offers to pick her up from the train station, and the two banter until Maya plays her guitar for her in the train bathroom. As she returns to her seat, Maya wonders if Benji will return for the funeral. On his way to the airport, Benji gets drunk and starts a fight, wanting to feel physical pain to replace the emotional pain he believes waits for him in Beartown. Benji left because of the stigma he faced as a gay man, and he often thinks about Kevin, the first boy he was ever in love with. Benji grapples with his guilt for leaving the party the night Kevin assaulted Maya, believing that if he had stayed, he could have stopped it from happening.

Beartown loses power again. Leo spends some time with his mom while, across town, Matteo is alone. He wishes he could call his sister but cannot.

The citizens of Beartown and Hed try to put themselves back together following the storm’s devastation. Tails convinces local politicians to attend a meeting to prioritize cleanup areas and places the Beartown hockey rink at the top of the list for debris removal. The politicians also agree that Beartown will host Hed hockey practices until the Hed roof is repaired. In the future, these decisions will be regarded as a bad idea.

Following a tender moment with his mother the night before, Amat wakes up after the storm and goes running. He is out of shape and runs through the forest to hide from the prying eyes of neighbors. At the undertaker’s, Peter defends Teemu when the mortician is angry that Ramona is in the car. They schedule the funeral for Sunday even though there is already a funeral scheduled. Amat surveys the damage as he runs, repeating mantras that coaches have told him over the years. The year before, Amat started gaining positive attention from Beartown residents for his achievements in the hockey rink. That love gradually turned into pressure, which overwhelmed him. Teemu asks Peter for help deciphering Ramona’s bank information, and the two spend several hours trying to make sense of her finances.

In the Hed hospital, Hannah and Johnny struggle to balance their work as first responders with their obligations to their family. They argue after Johnny agrees to do extra work after his shift to make up for the fact that he had to stay home with the children during the storm. They reconcile, but Johnny gets irate over the fact that the children must practice in Beartown. Johnny departs with the rest of the firefighters, and Hannah listens to gossip about a potential merger between the Hed and Beartown hockey clubs.

On the train, Maya helps an older man lift his bag into the storage shelf, and the two talk about homecomings, hockey, and the ever-present tension between Hed and Beartown. The man begins reading annual reports, claiming that they can be interesting if people know where to look. At the Bearskin, Teemu responds to texts on his phone and cuts their work short, driving Peter home. They talk briefly about Amat.

Maya and the man make small talk for most of the train ride, and he offers to watch her guitar while she uses the restroom. He opens the case and goes through it, taking notes on its contents and writing down some quotes from Maya. He is a journalist who is traveling to Hed to help his newspaper-editor daughter uncover a story that is too large of a scandal to be covered by her journalists. He has discovered financial crimes in the Beartown and Hed hockey annual reports, and all the reports have been signed off on by Peter. He begins drafting the news story.

In the basement of his elderly neighbors, Matteo wakes up and drinks moonshine from the old man’s stash. He returns to his own home, where his parents are still away. His childhood was difficult because his parents used religion as both a balm and a weapon. Matteo’s sister fled the strict lifestyle. Matteo is angry at his father, believing that if he were a different man, his sister would have gotten help and would still be alive.

While he runs deeper into the forest, Amat is plagued by the different critiques he has received over the years. One night after weight training, he fell in the snow and hurt his wrist, an injury that was exacerbated by a later tackle during a game. He took painkillers and self-medicated with alcohol. Soon after, he became inundated with phone calls by men hoping to represent him at the NHL draft and became overwhelmed by the many people who seem intent on using him for their own benefit.

On the train, a group of young hockey players makes Maya uncomfortable. She and the old man debate hockey and the power of staying in groups rather than acting as an individual.

The previous spring, Peter went to Amat’s apartment and tried to talk to him about his condition and the draft. Amat, routed by people’s interference and his own pain, kicked him out.

Maya observes the hockey players and wonders if there is a Kevin among the group whose predatory nature has not yet become clear. She has a momentary trauma flashback and hopes that Kevin is still afraid of her, too.

Matteo has a picture of his sister hidden in his room that shows she had a butterfly tattoo. When leaving Beartown two and a half years prior, she pretended to be going to a church to try to strengthen her relationship with God. Instead, she fled to a foreign country and is being brought home in an urn. Matteo wonders if things would be different had they been born into the Andersson family.

In the spring, a man from the Hollow arrived to watch Amat play. Some people mocked him for his appearance, but one of the players shared that his name was Lev and he ran the scrapyard in Hed. He had a reputation for selling illegal items, and the locker-room talk quickly devolved into racist comments. Lev stopped people from selling painkillers and alcohol to Amat, leading him to confront Lev. When Lev spoke to Amat in his native language, the two slowly built up a rapport.

Teemu shares some of the rumors that are circulating with Peter, who tries to comfort him but is not hopeful about the outcome. At Peter’s house, Teemu expresses gratitude for the help.

In the past, Lev promised to help Amat, and Amat ultimately allowed Lev to start negotiating with NHL contractors on his behalf. Amat grew increasingly isolated from his teammates due to their differences in socioeconomic background.

Maya helps the old man with his suitcase as they arrive at the last stop. He is picked up from the station by his daughter, and the two discuss the scandal. His daughter emphasizes the need to write the story of fraud properly, especially as the town politicians are now discussing a merger.

Johnny arrives home late. Their oldest child and only daughter, Tess, takes over some chores so Hannah can have a moment of respite. Tobias, the eldest brother, bemoans having to train in the Beartown rink, but Ted, the next youngest, is just ecstatic to be playing again. The boys vent about how much they hate Beartown, and Johnny struggles to maintain an even temper. The children all receive text messages of a sign outside of Beartown that, with vulgarities, tells Hed players to “[…] GO HOME […]” (214).

Adri Ovich, one of Benji’s older sisters, lives outside of town and raises dogs because she hates people. When her dogs start barking in excitement, she emerges from her home to see Benji on a stolen bicycle and runs to greet him.

Maya gets a ride home from the train station and is awed by the damage the storm left behind. She lets herself into her house and forces herself not to think about Kevin. She goes upstairs and surprises her father, holding him until Kira arrives.

That night, Benji rides the bike into town and breaks into the hockey rink, skating for the first time in years. As he experiences nostalgia, he is surprised that he only feels tired. He leaves the rink and climbs up a tree.

Matteo goes searching for his bicycle, which he finds at the hockey rink. His rage at hockey players grows.

Benji goes to his father’s grave as the sun comes up; the narrator reflects on the relationships between fathers and sons.

The previous spring, Amat and another player had an explosive fight that ended with Amat lashing out verbally to Bobo. Amat followed Lev’s advice and sat out the following games to let his wrist heal, starting rumors that he was faking an injury. Amat ignored calls from Bobo, entering a dark headspace in which he no longer felt connected to the town or team. Peter tried to confront him about the draft, his injury, and Lev, but Amat’s anger at his treatment prevented him from seeing Peter’s perspective. Peter still gave Amat advice for dealing with the scouts before departing. The day after that conversation, Lev bought Fatima a new dishwasher.

Amat flew across the Atlantic, where he met a friend of Lev’s who was supposed to arrange interviews for him. However, it quickly became clear that the man sought bribes. Amat waited in the lobby for an interview, but the only one he got had been arranged by Peter as a favor. Amat did not get picked for the draft, and Peter’s friend recommended he return the next year with a proper agent. Amat confronted Lev over the phone and turned to alcohol to cope with his frustration. Peter’s friend found him drunk, ruining his chance of making it into a training camp. Amat returned home in shame.

Ever since, Amat has isolated himself, turning to alcohol and ignoring Bobo’s attempts to reconcile. It is not until the day after the storm that he texts Bobo for help. Bobo meets Amat in the woods, and, after some light teasing, the two begin to train. When they part ways, they both want Amat to return to the A-team but know he will have to confront head coach Zackell before that happens. They make plans to continue training.

Matteo plays video games to try to forget his sister.

Saturday morning, Peter tries to regain normalcy but is disturbed when he sees the remnants of the storm. As he takes out the trash, Lev emerges from a car waiting outside. Tensions rise when the two discuss Amat, but Lev turns the conversation to Ramona. Ramona owed him money, and he wants to settle the score by taking ownership of the Bearskin. Enraged, Peter snaps at him, only for Lev to suggest he talk to Kira instead. Peter shoves Lev and threatens him against coming near his family. When Lev leaves, Peter calls Teemu. Inside, Maya watches Teemu arrive and marvels at how much things have changed. Teemu reveals that Ramona owes Lev from bailing out one of the Pack and that Lev wants to use the pub as a money-laundering front. Teemu promises to take care of the problem for Peter.

Johnny waits for a coworker to pick him up to get the family van. Hannah thanks Tess for everything she does to help her brothers and warns her to be careful while at the rink in Beartown. Ana arrives with the family van but feels out of place when she sees Tess and decides to run home.

Bobo goes to Zackell’s house and talks to her about Amat, asking her to call him and offer encouragement. Zackell dismisses him immediately, claiming that her job is to train the team as a whole, not individual players.

Johnny gets his children into the van, and they all make sure the youngest child, Ture, does not see the profanity written on the sign outside Beartown. Meanwhile, Zackell watches hockey footage and internally emphasizes the importance of having the “right” player, not necessarily a “good” player.

At the Beartown rink, Johnny considers going inside with his children although he is late for work. Tess sends him away and promises to look after the boys; he feels guilty for how much she winds up taking over household tasks and is impressed with her intellect. Meanwhile, Amat watches the hockey drop-off and almost goes to Zackell but instead watches the younger kids excited about the sport. He gets his last bottle of alcohol from his room and carries it into the forest, where he sits with it on his lap and contemplates it.

Ana takes out the recycling and runs into Maya. The two quickly fall into their old banter until Maya sees the alcohol containers in the bags. The two exchange town gossip before Maya plays her guitar for Ana. Maya describes religious radicalization and compares it to Beartown before the two drift off to sleep.

Teemu goes to Hog’s garage. He and Teemu chat over coffee before Teemu asks him for a favor.

At Lev’s junkyard, he wakes up to find the Beartown undertaker outside, looking for his car. Lev walks out front to find that Teemu’s men have removed part of his fence and parked a hearse on his lawn.

The Beartown hockey rink is packed, and there is tension among the people there. A fight breaks out, and Tess is pushed to the ground, only to be picked back up by someone large. The man carries her, Ture, and her bags to safety, along with other young Hed players. The man, Bobo, makes sure that they are all right and promises to keep them safe. He is flustered by Tess, who admires how well he handles the stressful situation. They get through hockey training, but when Tess takes to the ice to coach figure skating, another fight breaks out.

The many different perspectives of the fight all intermingle, with a lot of people intentionally leaving out important details to preserve their own innocence. A woman grabs Tess as she goes out onto the ice, initiating the brawl. Bobo tries to break up the fighting, but the Pack arrives, and he worries they will intervene. He gets Tess and her brothers out of the rink, but Tess sends him back inside when she sees Johnny in the van. Tess diverts Johnny’s anger when he sees Tobias’s black eye, instead telling him that he must help the Hed kids get away. Bobo holds back the Beartown people while Johnny helps get kids into cars before he takes his children home. They pass by the Pack as they drive out of town.

Tails hears about the fight and cannot suppress his anxiety, which to the caretaker confirms that politicians are pushing for a club merger. Tails shares that because of “hooliganism,” the politicians are recommending closing both clubs and opening a new club under a new name. The caretaker and Tails talk about the team, particularly their exceptional goalie known affectionately as “Mumble” due to how little he speaks. Tails’s confidence is shaken, but he puts on a front and offers to drive Mumble home after practice.

Hannah and Johnny argue about the fight at the arena, and Hannah knows he has been plotting with his fellow firefighters. Finally, Johnny agrees to call his peers and tell them to remain calm.

Amat does not go to the A-team practice that night. Bobo receives a text from Tess, and they start talking at night. Ted goes into Tobias’s room to thank him, having initiated a fight with two Beartown boys. Tobias came to his aid, which is where he got his black eye. Tobias tells Ted how much he believes in him.