Everything to Remember About 'Annika' Ahead of Season 2

When Nicola Walker's lead character, DCI Cassie Stuart, was killed off in Season 4 of Unforgotten, it shocked fans in the U.K. and the U.S. alike. But thankfully, Walker wasn't done being a detective inspector and had already lined up a new fictional precinct to solve crimes on TV for British audiences and on PBS' Masterpiece. The series she would launch in the starring role was Annika, where she played detective Annika Strandhed. The show was adapted from the BBC radio mystery series Annika Stranded, where she already starred as the same titular character, solving crimes in Oslo.

For the TV series version, Walker's character moved from Olso to Glasgow, not just for the series, but literally transferring from working in Olso to Glasgow, with her teenage daughter Morgan (Silvie Furneaux), taking over the Marine Homicide Unit, solving mysteries on water. (It's at least a little easier than walking on it anyway.) Working with a team of local Scottish police, some of whom she knew from growing up in the area before she moved to Olso with her parents around the time she gave birth to Morgan, Annika is a woman who's a bit of a mess, but a damn good cop.

The series was an immediate hit in the U.K. when it debuted and landed an early PBS Passport release for members ahead of its October 2022 debut on most PBS stations. The show was renewed for Season 2 before it debuted in America, and now returns with six new cases of the week for Annika to solve while trying to juggle her love life, balance her family, tackle her workload, and handle her co-workers, all while randomly comparing it all to the great works of literature bouncing around in her head. 

Let's run down everything to remember from the first season.

DCI Diane Oban (Kate Dickie) is the one who initially decided to hire Annika to run the Marine Homicide Unit, pulling the detective back to Glasgow after she left nearly two decades ago. Her hiring doesn't thrill everyone; DS Michael McAndrews (Jamie Silves) is a local boy who spent his career here and was turned down for the job. Considering he dated Annika in high school (and she dumped him), it's a bit of an ego blow. The other two team members, computer whiz DC Blair Ferguson (Katie Leung) and newly promoted DS Tyrone Clarke (Ukweli Roach) are nervous about impressing their new boss without pissing off Michael.

Annika and Michael spent a lot of time in the early episodes dancing around the elephant in the room but seemed to calm down by the end of the season, though it did require Michael to be pulled from a case where his brother Adie McAndrews (Andy Clark), was a prime suspect. The vibes between them are a little weird, though, especially on Annika's side whenever she sees Michael's wife, Astrid (Cora Bissett), and their ever-moving pack of daughters. It takes the entire season before Annika finally reveals why: Andrew is Morgan's biological father, a thing he still doesn't know.

Annika and Michael aren't the only ones with an interpersonal relationship at the station. Morgan's inability to make friends has Annika asking if anyone knows girls her age she can meet, and Blair happens to have a kid sister, Erin (Jade Chan), coming to visit. Morgan and Erin hit it off, but not as friends. That's certainly one way to come out to your mother, and while Blair is maybe not thrilled her kid sister is dating the boss' daughter, no one will break them up either, at least not for the moment. At least Tyrone's most significant problem is that the cute girl he's not into from his old unit is still crushing on him.

Speaking of Morgan's teenage problems, Annika also does the right thing and gets her daughter a therapist, Dr. Jake Strathearn. He's an excellent therapist, too! Unfortunately, he's also played by Paul McGann, otherwise known as the Hottest McGann. (There are five of them; look it up, and you'll see I am correct.) Annika merely responds the way any single woman would when confronted by the Hottest McGann, and when she realizes he still wants to sleep with her after making a perpetual fool of herself, she does the right and honorable thing. She tells Morgan she can get a therapist played by literally any other actor in existence because she's going to sleep with this one.

Sadly, the new therapist is not as good as Dr. Jake. (Also, sadly, Annika and Dr. Jake take a break from dating.) Still, eventually, Morgan is encouraged to reach out to her grandparents, despite Annika never wanting a single thing to do with them again. However, she admits that it would be good for her daughter to forge her own relationship by the end of Season 1, especially after being kidnapped and having a near-death experience. It's the sort of thing that makes one rethink everything, including perhaps telling Michael he has an extra daughter he might need to look out for someday.

Speaking of that near-death experience, unlike Unforgotten and most high-end mystery series, Annika is a solid "case of the week" show, with no overarching plot or baddie waiting in the wings to tie everything together. Instead, what loosely (very, very loosely) ties Annika's cases together is her tendency to relate them to literary works she's been reading, which she does by breaking the fourth wall. So, let's run down those cases, author by author.

Season 1's premiere case was a white whale of a tale with a Moby Dick theme and a harpoon murder weapon. However, it wasn't the one that got away, but the kid who kept getting away with it, as an entire family conspires to hide that they have a mentally ill son with anger issues who finally lost control and committed murder. Episode 2 was all about the myth of the Valkyries, and with Morgan acting out at school, a Take Your Daughter To Work Day gone wrong when they investigate the death of a teacher. Morgan winds up befriending a girl who is the case's second death but first victim, sexually abused by the teacher in question.

Morgan's horror at seeing dearth up close is what brings in Dr. Jake, so Annika is understandably distracted as she investigates a murder that looks to be tied to someone trying to expose a company's water crisis, which she compares to The Enemy of the People. The victim was his own worst enemy, refusing to acknowledge his son and stealing his kid's benefits, so his own father put him down like the dog he was. Episode 4 is less about books than bridges, but that's because the case involves a bunch of authors who twisted their research to support right-wing policy nonsense. It's totally worth killing over.

Season 1's penultimate episode should be Gift of the Magi as she and Morgan keep making sacrifices for each other they shouldn't. Still, it is actually centered on Greek Dionysian festivals after a rich dude who was on a boat is suddenly not, and winds up being a case about Mesothelioma, which was probably a significant mystery to UK audiences, but merely a regularly scheduled American TV commercial break for the rest of us. As for that finale, Morgan's 16th birthday sees her mom held at gunpoint, knocked out, and shoved in the boot of a car that then blows sky-high, all because some dumb dude on the internet got catfished. Shakespeare! Natch.

Annika Season 2 will have to do a lot of work to top those stories, but hey, maybe this time Andrew will be correct that Annika and the works of Chaucer can get together and solve themselves a crime. The series' second season debuts on Sunday, October 15, at 10 p.m. ET on most local PBS stations, and all six episodes arrive on PBS Passport for members to stream the same day. As always, check your local listings.