Season 1 of the Spanish mystery thriller The Snow Girl was a hit because its star, Milena Smit, played a determined reporter with past trauma whose dogged pursuit of a years-long missing child case paid off. The second season of the show has Smit’s character, Miren Rojo, investigating a new mystery. Will her past contribute to how she solves this one, too?
Opening Shot: A foggy beach at night. A woman runs along the water and screams, then falls down.
The Gist: The woman running is Miren Rojo (Milena Smit), the reporter who found Amaya Martin after she was missing for nine years. A few days earlier, we see her practicing what she will say during a reading of her book about the case, entitled The Snow Girl. At the bookstore where she does the reading, she meets her friend and mentor Eduardo (Jose Coronado), who was instrumental in helping her find Amaya.
As they are about to leave, the store owner hands her an envelope that has her name on it and the phrase, “DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?” Inside is a photo of a women being held captive; written on the border is “LAURA VALDIVIA 2012.” She later remembers the reporting she did on the case back when Valdivia was abducted back in 2012; Laura went to the exclusive Los Arcos school, and her brother was the last to see her. Eduardo thinks she should bring the photo to the police, but Miren feels pretty confident about her ability to find people after what she did to find Amaya.
In the meantime, Inspector Belén Millán (Aixa Villagrán), who is about to transfer to the financial crimes division, is called to a murder scene with her partner Chaparro (Marco Cáceres). The body of a 17-year-old girl named Allison Hernandez (Francisca Aronsson) was found a few days after her grandmother reported her missing. She also went to the Los Arcos school, it turns out.
When Miren goes back to work at the Sur after her book tour ends, her boss introduces her to Jaime Bernal (Miki Esparbé), whom the paper hired while she was on leave. While Miren likes to work alone, her editor insists that she work with Jaime on reporting Hernandez’s murder, especially because Jaimie went to Los Arcos and knows the school’s headmaster.
When questioning the headmaster, Miren brings up Laura Valdivia, which surprises Jaime. But, given the fact that both of them went to the same school, and were approximately the same age when they disappeared, she thinks the cases might be related despite the time gap. Jaime agrees to help Miren investigate the connection, but wants to make sure she doesn’t hide anything from him.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The first season of The Snow Girl, based on a novel by Javier Castillo, reminded us of shows like The Missing or Dark, and that remains the same in Season 2.
Our Take: The new mystery in The Snow Girl‘s second season, subtitled The Soul Game based on a social media game played by one of the victims Miren looks into, is presented in a somewhat more straightforward manner than the first season’s mystery was. The first season went back and forth between three different timeframes, and while there might be some flashbacks in Season 2, it seems like it mostly takes place in approximately 2021, at least if the references to how long ago Valdivia’s disappearance took place are any indication.
This season feels like it’s going to be more of a case where Miren and Jaime try to solve two mysteries and fuind the connection between the two of them, with only some of their pasts coming into play. Remember, we saw how Miren related to the victims and their families because she had been sexually assaulted when she was a young reporter, but we wonder how much of a factor that’s going to be in the second season. Jaime also seems to have skeletons in his closet, but we’re not sure how much of a factor they’ll be.
One thing that Miren is going to have to deal with is a significant loss, and we’ll see how that impacts what she does.
Sex and Skin: There’s some dead body nudity, but that’s it in the first episode.
Parting Shot: We see a video of Allison playing The Soul Game, where she videos herself sprinting across train tracks as a train bears down on her.
Sleeper Star: Jose Coronado’s character Eduardo might not be as much in the forefront of the second season as the first, but it feels like Eduardo will still have some sort of presence.
Most Pilot-y Line: Jaime seems to have a tiny lollipop in his mouth most of the time. Is that an affectation or is the lollipop a substitute for something else, like cigarettes?
Our Call: STREAM IT. By itself, the mystery Season 2 of The Snow Girl is an intriguing one to follow, but anyone that was a fan of how the first season’s story was told might be disappointed.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.