The Snow Girl (La chica de nieve) doesn't waste any time plunging us headfirst into another captivating mystery, opening with a dark scene showing Miren (Milena Smit) running from someone on the beach in an eerie callback to the night Miren was drugged and sexually assaulted during a party.
What happened in The Snow Girl season 1? A refresher
We pivot to a few days earlier, specifically the night of Miren's book signing event. If you recall, the show skipped two years ahead at the end of the first season after Miren helped solve Amaya's case. She's now a professional journalist and published author. Her first book, The Snow Girl, is based on Amaya's case.
During one of her many book tour events, Miren receives a mysterious envelope from an unknown source. Inside the envelope, on which someone has scrawled, "Wanna play?" is a photograph of a bound and gagged woman, supposedly Laura Valdivia, who went missing in 2012. Miren worked on that case back then, but it was never solved.
An unknown person films Miren's reaction to seeing the photograph. Later, we see someone obsessively watching Miren's book tour appearances, like a podcast interview where she discusses her assault. Nothing else is revealed about this person, but these two scenes indicate that someone is watching Miren, maybe even stalking her.
Elsewhere, Detectives Belén Millán (Aixa Villagrán) and her partner Chaparro (Marco Cáceres) are called in to investigate the death of a teenage girl named Allison Hernandez, whose body was found crucified in an abandoned hotel building. She bears a cross-shaped wound on her inner arm, which a medical examiner believes was self-inflicted.
At the Dario Sur, the newspaper where Miren works, she's assigned to write an article about Allison's case alongside her new partner, fellow reporter Jaime (Miki Esparbé). Although Miren prefers working alone, her boss tells her this partnership is non-negotiable.
When Miren learns that Allison attends the same school as Laura, a prestigious institution called Los Arcos, she immediately begins to question whether Laura's disappearance nine years ago could share a connection to Allion's murder, especially since she was gifted the photo of Laura on the same day as the police discovered Allison's body (though, technically, Allison had been dead for approximately 48 hours before anyone found her).
In more interesting coincidences, we learn that Los Arcos is Jaime's alma mater. His connection to the school's principal, Andrés Garrido, helps him and Miren nudge a reluctant secretary into securing them a meeting.
An interesting tidbit about Garrido. Miren researched him before they visit the school and learns he is a former priest, dismissed for being too fanatical. He may have been a priest in a past life, but Jaime says Los Arcos is not officially connected to any congregration or religion. This school is his dream, and his business, meaning they should tread carefully.
On their way to Garrido's office, Miren notices him shaking hands with businessman Alberto Mendoza, a member of the schoolboard with a trust that invests in various charities and foster homes. Garrido says he and Mendoza are working together on several projects.
Having watched dozens of these thriller/mystery shows by now, I'm assuming we'll want to keep in mind that A. Garrido was once a fanatical priest, and B. he's cozied up to a wealthy businessman who also happens to serve on the school board. Moving on.
Miren and Jaime question the principal about Allison, who Garrido says was a devout Christian and a bit of a rebel. Unbeknownst to Jaime, Miren has an ulterior motive when meeting with Garrido, surprising him with questions about Laura.
Garrido is confused as to why she thinks the two cases are connected, as Laura's case was closed when no further evidence was found, not to mention the fact that Laura disappeared almost a decade ago. But Miren points out that one disappearance and one dead girl from the same school in a span of 10 years is unusual enough to warrant a second look, especially since both girls were scholarship students from low-income families.
The principal becomes uncomfortable with the insinuation and invites both reporters to attend an assembly about Allison to give them a better sense of the school's tight-knit community.
Only Miren ends up in attendance. She and Jaime get into a disagreement over her bringing up Laura. That and Miren makes an underhanded remark about Jaime's past, specifically the reason he was fired from his last job. Jaime opts to return to the office early, where he starts investigating Laura's case on his own.
Back at the school, Miren finds Laura's brother, Ignacio "Nacho" Valdivia. He was reportedly the last person to see Laura alive and is not keen to speak with Miren. But we know she's persistent. Miren later tracks him down at his job, where Nacho divulges some new information about Allison. She had supposedly fallen in with the wrong crowd.
When Nacho was a kid, Miren was one of the reporters who spoke to him after Laura vanished. She promises him that, this time, she will find out what happened to his sister, but he advises her not to make promises she can't keep.
Upon returning to Sur headquarters, Miren and Jaime make amends. Miren heard that Jaime was fired from his previous job because he revealed false information about a judge. "That's all they told you? Hm," Jaime replies, indicating that there is more to this story. He doesn't expand on it just yet. Instead, redirecting the conversation to Laura's case. Even though he thinks the connection between the girls is tenuous at best, he's open to helping Miren investigate this thread, so long as she doesn't withhold anything else from him. Miren agrees.
Miren's close friend and former mentor, Eduardo (Jose Coronado), grows concerned about Miren's new obsessive fervor over this case, reminding her that while she might have figured out what happened to Amaya, it didn't come without a steep price. She almost died in the first season. Eduardo thinks that if Miren truly believes the girl in the photo is Laura, she should pass that on to the police and leave it alone. Miren snarkily comments that perhaps Eduardo is a better professor (his current job) than he was a journalist. Ouch.
To add salt to the wound, the episode ends with Eduardo having a heart attack and dying, meaning that the curt exchange between them is now the last. Miren is obviously devastated to hear the news of Eduardo's death.
In the final moments, we see a video of Allison. In it, she films herself leaping across train tracks, narrowly avoiding a collision. The whole thing is part of a mysterious game she's playing called "The Soul Game."
Summarizing important reveals from The Snow Girl season 2 premiere
- Laura and Allison both attended the same elite private school, Los Arcos, about 10 years apart.
- Allison was playing something called the Soul Game, which led her to do dangerous acts like jumping in front of trains.
- Jaime has a daughter and appears to be estranged from his family. He was fired from a previous job for providing false information on a judge.
- Principal Garrido is a former priest with ties to a powerful businessman named Alberto Mendoza.
- Belén and Chaparro discover a phone number tucked away in Allison's things.
- Miren was very early in her journalism career when Laura disappeared and she spoke to Nacho as a kid.