After the horrific experience with her “concerned citizen” (“Alaska Daily” Episode 7), Eileen Fitzgerald is back at The Daily Alaskan to resume her investigation into the murder of Gloria Nanmac. There are new advancements as well as dead ends. Meanwhile, The Daily Alaskan is also looking at a potential shutdown. Will Roz and Eileen’s investigation remain incomplete? Let’s hope not.
Spoilers Ahead
Back To Murder And Mystery
Everyone is back to work at The Daily Alaskan except Gabriel and Eileen. Claire, Yuna, and Austin are talking to one another when Eileen walks in, sounding just as casual and arrogant as always. She is undergoing therapy, but there is not a hint of it in her face or behavior. Stanley requests she continue her therapy. She then joins Roz at the table to update herself on Gloria’s case. Roz informs her that Reed Gallahorn is a pastor at the New Zion Church. He was arrested six years ago for a felony, but his DNA wasn’t swabbed, just like Gloria Nanmac’s. As they are talking about it, Max Hansen, Roz’s source and a reporter who reported on a dead teenager’s body recovered from the previous church where Gallahorn worked in Nebraska, video calls Roz and tells her that Randy Martin killed Reed Gallahorn. Gallahorn practiced physical abuse, and when Randy, Max’s source, found out about it, Gallahorn killed him. However, the medical examiner ruled the death accidental. Meanwhile, Alice, Gloria’s friend from church, hasn’t replied to Roz, so Eileen tells her that they should pay Alice a visit and then visit Gallahorn. Roz tells her that they should divide the jobs. While Eileen looks up the DNA system, Roz will go to Meade to talk to Alice. Roz arrives at Meade, and her brother Derek, with whom she now has gotten closer, takes her to Gloria’s mother, Sylvie Nanmac. She tells Roz that Gloria wasn’t a part of Gallahorn’s church.
Claire approaches Bob to ask him to call Gabriel and find out how he is doing at home. Bob calls Gabriel, and it seems that he is experiencing some kind of trauma. He tells Gabriel to call in case he needs anything. All they can do is give Gabriel his space and wait to see if he calls.
Eileen visits the Public Health Services department and finds out that only when the death is ruled a homicide does the state decide to carry out a DNA test. If the cause of death is unknown, there is no DNA test. In case there is new evidence, only the public safety commissioner can reclassify the case as a homicide. Eileen then meets with Commissioner Haynes of Public Safety and tells her that she has new evidence in Gloria Nanmac’s case and wants her to reclassify Gloria’s death as homicide so that her DNA, as well as Gallahorn’s, can be tested. Despite Eileen’s zeal to find the truth, Haynes tells her that even disregarding the reduced funding for the DNA testing, she doesn’t have much time left to solve the case because Conrad Pritchard is selling The Daily Alaskan.
Jeopardy
Aaron Pritchard is at The Daily Alaskan and tells Stanley that they need to cut off reporters or at least go for furloughs. The budget needs to be cut short. Stanley believes that taking any such step will affect the morale of the reporters. That’s when Eileen calls Stanley and asks him about what she’s heard. Stanley dismisses it and disconnects the call. Eileen then calls Aaron, who puts her on loudspeaker. She asks him the same question, but he tells her that it is not true. Stanley then mutes the call and tells Aaron that cutting the budget will make the paper more valuable to a buyer. Stanley unmutes, and Eileen suggests talking to Conrad. Stanley disconnects the call. Aaron tells Stanley that although his father didn’t like the way Eileen ambushed him at the arts gala (“Alaska Daily” Episode 6) and the publishing of Austin’s article on Senate candidate Frank Moses’ campaign (“Alaska Daily” Episode 3), Aaron doesn’t want to approach him with just a rumor.
Eileen arrives at New Zion Church and meets Alice and Father Gallahorn. Alice doesn’t reveal anything to her. Roz asks Gallahorn about Gloria, and he tells her that Gloria fought with her mother the day she died. She was planning to run away but failed. Roz then brings up the name Randy Martin and asks Gallahorn if the same thing happened to him. Did Randy also plan to escape but fail? She then asks him straightforwardly if he killed Randy. Gallahorn’s expression flickers for a moment before returning to a smile as he asks Roz to leave.
Austin shows Yuna his chat with Gabriel, and they figure out that Gabriel is trying to overcompensate. They decide to check on him as soon as they can. She calls Eileen and informs her that Gallahorn apparently spoke to Gloria the day she died. Upon getting Eileen’s update on the DNA system and learning that it takes the public safety commissioner to reclassify the case as a homicide, she tells Eileen to talk to Alberta Hartman. She is the executive director of the Justice Council for Alaska Natives. Roz then visits Gloria’s grave with Sylvie. She asks Sylvie if she fought with Gloria. She did, and the argument began because Sylvie didn’t want Gloria to go out. The last time she went to a party, she returned with frostbite.
Corruption
Eileen visits Alberta Hartman and finds out that JCAN lobbied for a $2 million grant so that the state could run DNA tests. And yet Haynes told Eileen that there weren’t enough funds. Eileen calls Austin to ask if he knows someone in the state house who can get ahold of the state budget. He does and hooks her up. The state budget reveals that the whole $2 million was transferred to facility maintenance.
Back at The Daily Alaskan, Stanley sends Claire to the accounting section to find out about Conrad Pritchard’s latest request for The Daily Alaskan’s financials. Claire returns and informs him that Conrad asked for the annual reports for the last five years. The reports have been sent to Horizon Capital in New York, a company that has been buying newspapers across the country. Stanley conveys this information to Aaron and also tells him that he has intel, albeit incomplete, that Aaron can barter for The Daily Alaskan with Conrad (“Alaska Daily” Episode 6).
Eileen visits Commissioner Haynes and confronts her about the fund fraud with the money that JCAN provided her department with for DNA testing. Eileen even showed her the budget. Haynes tells her to get out of the office. Eileen makes it clear to Haynes that the people of Alaska will find out about what she has done. She will write an article exposing the public safety commissioner.
New Info
Roz looks up the New Zion Church website and finds a picture of Gallahorn with his wife and son, Chris. Chris’s last picture was from six years ago. She calls and tells Eileen about it, as well as sends her the Anchorage address. That night, Eileen visits Chris and is told that Reed Gallahorn is a sadist. He broke Chris’s jaw, after which he filed the complaint and then withdrew it [Chris was the one who filed the assault charge six years ago]. Chris then shows Eileen the marks on his back that resulted from his father whipping him because he was an atheist. The next day, Eileen shows her article on the money fraud to Stanley, who greenlights it. She also tells her that she has positive intel on Gallahorn from his son.
Alice meets Roz and Sylvie at Sylvie’s house and opens up to them about Gloria, who didn’t want to go to church, so Gallahorn made her stand in the show [the reason for Gloria’s frostbite]. Gloria even messaged her that she would expose Gallahorn online. Roz asks for the messages. She then returns to Gallahorn and asks him the same question: Did he kill Gloria Nanmac? Gallahorn tells her that he was with his wife the night Gloria died and even agrees to a DNA test.
Good News
Roz, Eileen, and Stanley are in the newsroom. While Roz shows Stanley Alice’s messages from Gloria, Eileen gets a call from Commissioner Haynes, who tells her that she has reclassified Gloria’s death as a homicide. The DNA test has been greenlit. Eileen will get the results soon. Meanwhile, Roz tells Stanley that the Meade police have taken Gallahorn’s DNA sample, and the results will be back in a couple of days. Whether or not Gallahorn is responsible for Gloria’s death, his practices will be exposed by The Daily Alaskan.
Aaron meets his father, Conrad, and offers to buy The Daily Alaskan from him, and in return, Aaron won’t have to spread the word about his father’s newly bought land in the Hockley Mountain Land area (“Alaska Daily” Episode 6). Conrad, as angry as he is at having been threatened by his son, agrees to sell the paper to him.
‘Alaska Daily’ Episode 8: Ending Explained – What Do The DNA Test Results Say?
Roz and Eileen visit Sylvie at the hospital where she has been admitted. She is nervous and tells Roz and Eileen that she needs to know what happened to her daughter. As Roz and Eileen come out of the hospital, Eileen gets a call. Gloria’s DNA test results have come. The samples aren’t of Reed Gallahorn. They are of Toby Crenshaw (“Alaska Daily” Episode 2).
Gabriel ushers Claire, Bob, Austin, Yuna, and finally, Stanley to his house. They have all come to cheer him up with binge-watching. However, the atmosphere turns dull when Gabriel tells them that he won’t be returning to The Daily Alaskan. Reed Gallahorn’s DNA test results are futile now. However, an article will be published addressing his malpractices. The Daily Alaskan is now in safe hands as Aaron Pritchard owns it. Roz and Eileen will have to get back to Toby and pull all the information out of him. “Alaska Daily” Episode 9 will be interesting as it will finally throw light on what happened to Gloria Nanmac.
