The Crow Girl has soared back onto our screens for a second season that’s even wilder than the first.
Based on a trilogy of novels by Erik Axl Sund — the pen name of Swedish author duo Jerker Eriksson, and Håkan Axlander Sundquist — The Crow Girl follows DCI Jeanette Kilburn (Eve Myles) on the hunt for a killer.
With help from psychotherapist Dr Sophia Craven (Katherine Kelly), Kilburn made some shocking discoveries in season one, but none were as shocking as the discovery we made at the end when we found out that Victoria Burkeman, a prime suspect in the case, was actually Craven herself.
Kilburn doesn’t know that though, and she’s even sleeping with Craven, which complicates the case somewhat.
Season 2 immediately picks up where the first left off, with Kilburn back on the hunt for who killed those young male asylum seekers.
Things take a shocking turn as a mummified body in a church wall and another body in a freezer add new wrinkles to the case. Craven begins to suspect Victoria might be responsible, not realising that she is actually Victoria, suffering from a unique personality disorder.
Yep, things are about to get real messy, but where does this all lead? Join us as we crack the case and reveal exactly what happens at the end of The Crow Girl season 2.
As flashbacks further detail the abuse Craven suffered at the hands of her family, Kilburn has to face up to the knowledge that Sophia and Victoria are one and the same. Not just her either, because the truth has got out and everyone who works at the police station is now fully aware that Jeanette’s been sleeping with the prime suspect in their case.
DC Mike Dilliston (Elliot Edusah) tries to stop Kilburn from entering the station, but she’s having none of it. Everyone stares as Jeanette enters, whispering behind her back until Kilburn dramatically points out that she doesn’t have to answer to anyone, but they all have to answer to her still as their superior.
It’s then that she reveals Victoria Burkeman, aka Sophia Craven, has D.I.D. (aka Dissociative Identity Disorder). “As far as we know, Sophia does not know she is Victoria.” And even more crucially, “Victoria is almost certainly responsible” for the various deaths they’ve been investigating, including the murder of Ben Burkeman, Victoria’s father.
As the police quickly start to narrow down clues to the case, Superintendent Verity Pound (Victoria Hamilton) suddenly shows up and demands that Kilburn leaves with her. Jeanette refuses, to which Pound says:
“You have been having sex with the woman at the very heart of your investigation, a woman the entire country is looking for, and you’ve been fucking her in her flat while Mary Burkeman was being held captive in very next room.”
“None of us knew,” says Kilburn.
“None of us were fucking her except you.”
As workplace drama goes, it doesn’t get messier than this. And with that, Pound forces Kilburn to leave, telling her she’ll be brought in for questioning the next morning. But that won’t happen, because Sophia is back at the manor where she was abused all those years ago. There’s another party going on, another party where rich people assault young girls, but Sophia isn’t going to let that happen again.
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Meanwhile, Pound joins Kilburn in the car park, checking to see if she’s ok after what just happened. Kilburn’s freaking out, but she’s also annoyed because men have affairs at work all the time and they get away with it — why shouldn’t she?
“I didn’t know who she was, she didn’t know who she was, and you’re punishing me! Not fucking fair is it.”
Points are made, although sleeping with a suspect isn’t ideal, regardless of your gender.
Pound admonishes Kilburn further, but she’s too distracted by a sudden text from Craven to care. The message is actually a shared location, enticing Kilburn to come join her at the remote manor where we just saw her.
Kilburn arrives at the party, but no one’s partying anymore. The music is still playing, but the revellers are all dead. The lights go off then, so Kilburn texts Dilliston for backup. Conveniently, he and the squad have just rocked up outside anyway due to their own investigation, so that’s perfect timing. Except, they’re at the wrong house.
That means Kilburn is on her own. Well, kind of. As the killer wanders around, Kilburn encounters a girl named Lily she met previously, as well as other girls who have been hiding this whole time in the bedroom.
They’d been rounded up for the adult partygoers below, but they’re safe now. A “blonde lady”, obviously Craven, brought them all to this room and told them she’d return when it was all over.
As Kilburn discovers a pool full of dead bodies, a flashback shows us how Craven electrocuted them all, and then Craven herself walks past her lover without announcing herself. Just for the drama of it all, apparently.
When Kilburn catches up to her, Craven holds out a knife. Except, Victoria’s the one in control now.
Victoria is frustrated that no one helped her deal with these abusers, saying “I’ve talked and talked to police, to teachers, authorities, everyone. Talking doesn’t work.”
But Kilburn is more focused on how she was tricked into falling in love with Craven, who is also Victoria:
“You made me believe Sophia was a real person. I’ve never fucked a woman, I’ve never cheated on my husband or lied to him. I’ve never lost my head like this. You made me do this.”
Victoria points out that Kilburn will never understand the trauma she’s endured, and then reveals that both sides of her personality are in love with Jeanette. “This is bigger than you,” she adds.
That’s when one of Craven’s surviving abusers suddenly shows up with a gun and shoots at them. A bullet hits Kilburn’s leg and Sophia attacks, managing to wrestle the gun away. But just as Kilburn convinces her to let the man live, he provokes her with talk of what he did to her and all the other little girls.
And with that, Craven shoots him in the head.
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The two women lie together then. Craven strokes Kilburn’s face and pleads, “Don’t leave me.” But Kilburn tells her to run, and so she does, crying as she goes.
Kilburn’s voiceover kicks in, ruminating on what’s happened as if it’s just a breakup and not the most messed-up relationship you’ve ever seen:
“It’s not often in life we can hear a page turn,” says Kilburn. “A new chapter ends and another begins… Sometimes I think about where she might be. Sometimes I don’t think of her at all. Sometimes I close my eyes and she’s right there. They both are. But I love them. Both of them. My love for them is as endless as the sea.”
Paramount+ hasn’t renewed The Crow Girl for a third season just yet, but there’s still plenty of story left to tell. Aside from this messy romance, the source material also continues until Craven learns to integrate her various personalities at the end of the third book titled “The Pythia’s Instructions”. Let’s wait and see if there’s an appetite for more of this on screen.
The Crow Girl season 2 is available to stream now on Paramount+.
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