The Winners

Tess spends the night in Bobo’s house, takes the bus to school, then returns home at dinnertime with Bobo in tow. Bobo cooks them dinner and carries on a conversation with Hannah despite the tension in the room. Johnny goes to the garage as Bobo and Ture clean up. When Hannah tells Bobo to compliment his mom for raising him, he shares that she has died. Hannah goes outside to yell at Johnny, telling him to be supportive of Tess.

When Bobo exits the house, he and Johnny talk cars, and he offers to fix the family van. Johnny warns him that Tess is smart and that Bobo cannot hold her back; Bobo instead promises to support her however he can.

Peter, Maya, and Aleksandr go to the hockey rink for his first practice. Kira goes to work and enlists her partner to help unravel the financial problems. Benji drives to the hockey rink, smokes weed, then drives to the Hollow where he finds Amat waiting with his hockey gear. He tells Amat how amazing a player he is and how he doesn’t want to see him give up. Amat tosses his gear in the van and runs to the rink.

Tails calls Teemu and local politician Richard Theo, aiming to save the Hed and Beartown hockey rinks and avoid a merger. Tails tells Richard that he knows he will control the council by the next election and that if he emerges as the sole politician against the merger, he will win more votes. Richard taunts Tails about both his vandalized car and the nonexistent training facility, revealing he knows about the embezzlement. Tails implores Richard to help him buy some time to get the training facility built, which would hide the fraud, and promises that if Richard secures funding to rebuild the Hed rink he will spread the rumor that Richard saved both clubs. Richard asks for photographs at Beartown Business Park and one other favor, to be called on in the future.

Tails and Teemu talk. Tails explains that the politicians want to shut down both clubs and says that Peter is now the subject of a journalistic investigation. He asks the Pack to remain calm in the face of adversity and mentions that the editor is digging through the club’s accounts. Teemu will help only if Tails will help save the Bearskin from Lev. That afternoon, the editor notices that members of the Pack are following her when she goes grocery shopping.

Since the two hockey clubs started sharing one rink, Zackell pushed the A-team practice to the last of the day to test their limits. She brings in the juniors to play against the A-team, a rite of passage for both groups. Amat arrives and asks if he can play; Zackell puts him on the junior team. When he joins the juniors, he cuts the name off the back of his jersey and tries to give a motivational speech about the importance of challenge.

When they play, the juniors play the best they ever have because they want to make Amat proud. Amat and Aleksandr go head-to-head repeatedly. Although the A-team wins, they signal their respect to the juniors. During the game, Bobo moved Amat’s things to the A-team locker room; he tells Amat that he is expected to play in the game against Hed in one week. The other A-team members cut their names of their jerseys while he showers.

In the stands, Fatima sneaks in to watch training alongside Maya, Peter, Sune, his dog, and the caretaker. Partway through, Benji arrives; he and Zackell share a meaningful glance across the rink. Zackell will never let anyone except Benji play with jersey 16. He and Maya talk at the top of the stands about the strangeness of homecoming, then embrace and say how proud they are of each other. Ana arrives.

Amat, Mumble, and Aleksandr stay at the rink after the A-team players have left to do some extra practice. Amat notices the watchers and mocks Benji until he joins them on the ice. Zackell gives Bobo permission to join them, and Peter is cajoled into playing to even up the teams. The players’ shenanigans drive them all to laughter.

The narrator highlights the joys of playing hockey and describes why it is so hard to be a different child. Matteo walks through the forest by the hockey rink, remembering three years prior when school bullies made him walk out onto the partially frozen lake. He began crying out of fear until two teenagers chased off the bullies and coaxed Matteo to safety. They took him home to Ruth and introduced themselves; their red jackets proved they were from Hed.

Amat and Mumble return to their respective homes, and Bobo calls Tess. Benji, Aleksandr, Ana, and Maya decide to go camping in Benji’s campervan. They smoke weed and drink beer, staying up late. Ana and Maya fall asleep first, leaving Benji and Aleksandr to talk. Aleksandr shares that he has had six concussions and hates being combative because of how bad his symptoms are; he has been branded as uncoachable for this. The two discuss the differences between desire and talent before they go to bed.

Mumble goes to Ruth’s headstone, where he sees someone has scratched a butterfly into it. He kneels and apologizes to the stone.

Matteo watches the hockey players disperse and follows Mumble to his sister’s grave. He hates Mumble for grieving Ruth and is filled with the desire to kill him.

At Sune’s house, Alicia fires hockey pucks in the yard while his dog misbehaves. The chaos reminds Sune of 35 years prior, when he also sheltered Peter Andersson. Alicia’s home life is abusive, making hockey and Sune’s home her refuge.

Wednesday morning, Benji calls his sister because his campervan is stuck in the snow. Adri drives the teenagers to her home for cleanup and breakfast. Maya and Ana take to the woods while Aleksandr heads to practice. Adri and Benji drive around town, enjoying each other’s company.

Richard waits for the editor at the news office. They debate politics and patriarchy before Richard says he wants to ease frustrations between the two towns. He wants to make sure that the financial fraud story is not a witch hunt, suggesting that timing is as important as the story itself. When she rejects his stance, he warns her that it is important to be connected to the community when living in a place where nature is so dangerous. He leaves as he compliments Peter, claiming that fights would not have broken out if he were still general manager.

Adri and Benji go to Sune’s house to pick up practice jerseys for the girls’ team. Benji falls asleep while Adri and Sune discuss politics and hockey. Sune calls for his dog, who does not come. Adri and Benji help him look. Sune finds him lying in bushes by his favorite tree, dead.

Adri and Benji wait until Alicia gets out of school to share the news about the dog. She cries and refuses to come inside from the dog’s favorite tree until Benji takes her to play hockey. They lie down on the ice, and Benji helps coax her through some of her emotions, then gives her advice to decrease her nerves before a game. When she falls asleep, Benji carries her to Sune’s and sleeps on the ground beside her. The vet finds rat poison and liver pâté outside of Sune’s house.

Matteo watches Mumble until he leaves, filled with the desire to kill him but knowing he is too small and weak. He drags his bike across town and watches Sune calling for his dog. Matteo steals rat poison from his elderly neighbors and plants the poisoned pâté behind Sune’s house.

Thursday, one week after the storm, tensions are high between the towns. The narrator provides an overview of the political, social, and economic factors creating animosity. Sune grieves the death of his dog, which is largely misunderstood by the people who know him. Teemu and several members of the Pack arrive with a flower wreath and tearfully mourn with Sune. Sune asks them not to take revenge but can see in Teemu’s face that someone is going to be held responsible. Benji and Adri work out in the gym she has in one of her barns.

Peter waits for Kira to call and ask why he isn’t at work, but she doesn’t. He goes to the 13-year-olds’ hockey game. Kira and her colleague work on their legal defense on Peter’s behalf, discussing how they do not think Peter is innocent because the wrongdoing is too blatant.

Peter goes with the caretaker to repair the zipper of his jacket and finds Amat standing outside the storeroom, needing to sharpen his skates. Peter offers to sharpen them, and while he does Amat apologizes for his behavior in the spring and thanks Peter for everything he has done for the club. Peter spends the next several hours helping the caretaker. Amat and Mumble leave the rink to see if the lake is frozen, watched by Matteo.

Hannah and Johnny prepare their children for Ted’s hockey game. They are both emotional after the factory incident but have not had a moment to decompress. They take Ture to a neighbor’s house and drive to Beartown, where the rink is packed. Despite the tension, there is an air of festivity. The family separates to do various activities.

Maya and Ana convince Aleksandr and Leo to go to the game with them. Maya invites her mother along, and Kira is so surprised she accepts.

Johnny walks to a hot-dog stand, where four Beartown men are arguing with the owner of the stand, who is one of Lev’s employees. Johnny intercedes when the argument includes racist language, intimidating the men. Lev’s man thanks him with a free hot dog.

Maya’s group arrives at the rink, and Anna finds beer for them to drink. Kira finds them volunteering, selling hot dogs and chocolate balls inside the stadium. She joins them, unable to find it in herself to be angry at them for drinking. Tess and Bobo enter the cafeteria, and Tess is starstruck by Kira because of her dream to be a lawyer. Bobo introduces them, and Kira gives her a business card, offering to help her get into law. A fight breaks out as they talk.

Beartown fans fill the locker room of the Hed players with rotten things to make it smell, and the crowd chants insults so loud that they cannot hear their coach. Tobias comforts Ted before joining other Hed crowd members. The Hed players are forced to change in their parents’ cars, and when they return, their fathers follow them to the rink to yell at the Beartown boys. Beartown fathers rush to defend their sons.

Benji and Adri arrive at the rink as the two towns are yelling at each other. Adri sees Teemu, calm, and Teemu promises that the Pack will be calm. When the Hed visitors start to bark to mock Sune’s dead dog, Teemu breaks his promise and sends the Pack to attack. Tobias runs onto the ice to get Ted; Bobo finds Johnny in the crowd and gives him escape instructions. Hannah is elbowed in the head by two fighting fathers; in his haste to get his loved ones out of the crowd, Johnny runs headfirst into Peter, cracking open his skull.

Families and children take refuge in the cafeteria as Maya, Ana, and Kira guard the entrance from those who would do violence. Johnny stoops over to help Peter, but Teemu sees them from a distance and thinks that Johnny has attacked him. Benji finds Alicia in the chaos and helps Adri carry her to safety, finding sanctuary at Sune’s. Peter shouts a warning as Teemu comes at Johnny with a metal pipe; Lev steps between Teemu and Johnny, showing Teemu that he has a pistol. The fight gradually stops around them, and Johnny’s family is led to safety. When Peter’s family arrives, panicking at his bloodied appearance, he lies to soothe them.