Spoilers ahead for Anna Pigeon Season 1 Episode 7.
Anna Pigeon Season 1 Episode 7, “The Three Matt Skweikis,” starts out like a quirky small-town mystery and ends with a declaration that leaves Anna completely speechless. In between, a naked, glowing man leaps in front of a ranger vehicle, a dead man’s wallet turns up by a river, and Stanton finally comes clean about Zach’s case. Here’s the full recap, followed by my thoughts on where the show is heading.
Stargazing, Aliens and a Glowing Stranger on the Road
The episode opens with the rangers and other locals out stargazing. Stanton is there too, and Anna is doing her best to dodge Jesse. Zoey advises Jesse to give Anna some space.
On the drive back to town, Anna and Stanton get onto the subject of aliens and UFO sightings. She teases him about believing in them, and almost on cue, a naked, glowing man jumps right in front of their car. They bring him back to the office, where he claims he fell from the sky. He can’t remember his own name, either.
Anna leaves the stranger to spend the night at the office with Stanton. The next morning she phones her sister to ask about the man’s amnesia, then heads out with Stanton to a river in the park, where there’s been an algal bloom. Anna’s theory is that the man was glowing because he came into contact with it. Stanton tries to tell her he’s looking into Zach’s case during the drive, but she’s too distracted to take it in.
A Wallet by the River and a Man Who Died Twenty Years Ago
At the river, they find a pair of old boots and a worn-out wallet. The driver’s licence inside belongs to a man named Matt Skweikis, but when they track him down, it turns out he died twenty years ago. They still bring in his wife, who explains that he died on his annual solo camping trip. The wolves tore his body apart, and she had to identify him by his hat and car keys. She recognizes the boots from the river, but she’s never seen the amnesiac man before.
Then she asks a question that sets the rest of the episode in motion: did they happen to find her husband’s wedding ring? It was never recovered. Anna decides to go looking for it so Matt’s widow can have some closure, and she and Stanton head out to the old, closed-down campsite where Matt stayed. Back in town, Geoff posts the amnesiac man’s picture to see if anyone can identify him.
Camping Beside a Body: Anna and Stanton Find the Real Matt
The trip to the campsite pays off, just not the way anyone expected. They find the real Matt’s body, wedding ring still on his finger. It’s too late to get the forensic team out there, so Anna and Stanton camp at the site overnight to keep the wolves from getting to the body.
Stanton worries that Anna sees herself in Matt’s widow, and that it’s the reason she’s going so far to solve this one. As they camp, they get closer and trade personal stories.
Three Matts, a Mystery Tattoo and a Night Together
By morning, the coroner reports that Matt likely died from head trauma. Now there are three Matts to untangle, and the amnesiac man keeps insisting he needs to be somewhere. Zoey is surprised to learn that the amnesiac man speaks Italian, and Geoff is disappointed that nobody has identified him yet. With no other option, they drop him at the men’s shelter for the time being.
Meanwhile, Anna and Stanton go through the police photos from the original death scene and notice that the man in the pictures has a tattoo. Matt’s wife insists her husband never had one. Something clearly doesn’t add up.
Later that night, Anna invites Stanton over. He finally tells her he’s been looking into Zach’s case, and she’s surprised but cool with it. He also admits he likes her, and the two spend the night together. The next morning, though, Anna sneaks out before he wakes up. When they do talk, she tells him she isn’t good at expressing her feelings and that she’s somewhat dating Jesse.
The Truck, the Cattle and a Second Chance
Right in the middle of that conversation, the amnesiac man interrupts. Anna notices the tan on his hands, which suggests he might be a truck driver, so she takes him for a drive to look for his truck. On the way, he tries to give her advice about her relationship with Stanton, and she shuts that down fast.
They do find the truck, and seeing it brings his memory back. He’s a cattle breeder, and he owed a client money after something went wrong with his cattle. He’d been drinking, and he got into an accident on his way to the client’s office. Now that client is holding the man’s daughter at gunpoint in that very office. They arrive in time to repay the client.
Afterward, Monroe is disappointed to realize he wasn’t as good a man as he’d hoped he was. Anna tells him to treat the accident as a second chance.
Josiah, the Real Matt and a Surprise Waiting at Anna’s Door
Stanton, meanwhile, cracks the Matt Skweikis mystery. The real Matt was killed by Josiah, a prisoner who had escaped from a nearby prison. Josiah buried Matt in a shallow grave, then got lost in the woods and froze to death, and the wolves got to his body. The police mistook that body for Matt’s and closed the case. Anna returns the wedding ring to Matt’s wife and gives her the closure she’d been praying for.
Afterward, Stanton and Anna agree the timing just isn’t right for them, and Anna says she wants to try working things out with Jesse. The episode closes with her driving home to find Jesse waiting for her. He asks her to move in with him and tells her he loves her. Anna is stunned, and so was I.
Anna Pigeon Episode 7 Review: A Slower Hour That Still Plays the Love Triangle Card
Anna Pigeon Season 1 Episode 7 slows things down by stepping away from the main plot of Anna’s trauma, though it never lets go of it completely. The biggest moment on that front is Stanton finally telling her he’s looking into Zach’s case. You can see how conflicted she is: part of her wants answers, and part of her doesn’t want to relive that loss. In the end she lets him keep digging, and I think that decision says a lot about where she is right now.
My bigger worry is what happens to everything else. The other subplots are sidelined here, too, and it’s hard to tell if this pacing will pay off when the finale rolls around. It would be a pity if the show tried to cram everything into one episode just to raise the stakes. I’d much rather see these threads get room to breathe, so I’m hoping the writers have a plan.
Then there’s Anna’s love life, which is going full steam ahead. I was rooting for Jesse, but I’ll admit Stanton isn’t so bad. The love triangle is messy, and we love it. After that ending, with Jesse waiting at her door and Anna stunned, I can’t wait to see how she answers. May the best man win the Lonesome Ranger’s heart!