Carol confesses but Frank Jr. is in charge of the case and he won’t let Trip see the confession. 

 

Frank tells Kim that he doesn’t consider Carol a flight risk and his father, the Sheriff, likely won’t pursue her confession but she should have a lawyer. Frank tells Kim that he loves her but she chastises him for his timing and walks away.  

 

Ethan tells Izzy he wants to talk. Turns out that Ethan is a piano prodigy. He’s leaving Erie Harbor. His parents are separating and his mom is moving to San Francisco. Izzy is heartbroken but the two spend us much time together as they can before he leaves. 

 

Matt tries to get a copy of Carol’s confession but Frank says he can only share it with the prosecutor and Sam Gillis’ attorney. Bridget gets a copy of the confession. Matt and HIlde read it together. Hilde realizes that what happened to Richie Fife is what drove Matt to be a reporter. It’s probably what drove Hilde to be one too. 

 

Carol claims that someone hired Ezekiel to grab Richie to get him away from his abusive father.  If Carol didn’t help him he would expose her old life and then hire another ex-con to help him. Carol agreed to help in order to try and protect Richie. She claims she got out of the van and went home. She never saw Ezekiel or Richie again. She assumed Richie was safe with someone who loved him.  

 

Bridget says they still have to prove what Carol is saying is the truth in order to get Sam out of prison. 

 

Hilde goes to talk to Carol. She asks why she let Sam sit in prison for years when she knew he wasn’t guilty. Carol says that Sheriff Briggs convinced her that Sam was a bad guy and that Erie Harbor was better off with him locked away, and that she could lose her daughter if she told the truth. 

 

Carol finally admits that Richie fought while he was in the van. Richie had a knife that Sam gave him to protect himself. Richie stabbed Ezekiel with it. Carol cut her hand on the knife when she pulled it out of Ezekiel. Richie jumped out of the back of the van and was knocked unconscious on the ground. Carol insisted on getting him help. They got Richie into the back of the van but Ezekiel took off and left Carol behind. 

 

Later, Ezekiel called Carol to say he needed a hospital for his stab wound and that Richie was dead. Carol says she heard the van crash over the payphone after Ezekiel didn’t hang up. She never found out where he was or where the crash took place but it happened during the Super Bowl. 

 

Hilde calls Trip and asks for payphone records for the night Richie was abducted, a call from a payphone to Carol’s house. The call came from a now broken old payphone on Route 8. Matt and Hilde search the area and find a tree that’s grown around a piece of old metal bumper. Off the road and through the woods, they find a lake. 

 

Sheriff Briggs refuses to drag the lake. HIlde thinks that getting Trip elected is the only way to get the lake searched. Hilde writes a story urging the people of Erie Harbor to demand the lake be searched and urge them to elect Trip 

 

Officer Trip Johnson is elected Sheriff. She beats Frank Jr and it isn’t close. He shakes her hand and sincerely congratulates her. Trip tells Sheriff Briggs her first act as Sheriff will be to drag the lake or he could make it his last act, a show of good faith that might save his pension and his ass. 

 

The Sheriff relents and they find the van in the lake but Richie’s body isn’t inside, leaving everyone to wonder if somehow, Richie Fife is still alive. In flashbacks, we see Richie Fife fight his way out of that van and crawl to shore. 

 

 Hilde and Matt are determined to follow the story until they find the truth.