Review with Spoilers for A Killing Cold

There are a few mysteries in The Killing Cold:

• Who is “Theo” and why does being at Idlewild trigger childhood memories for her?
• What happened to Connor’s father Liam, and was it really an accident?
• What happened to Theo’s biological mother?
• Who is sending Theo texts warning her not to marry Connor?

We’ll get to those, but let’s do a quick plot summary:

• Theo and Connor drive to Idlewood and on the drive there, are startled by a bloody deer running past. Connor says that it is bowhunting season. Okay, then.

• Theo met Connor through mutual friends in LA. But she’s been getting texts telling her to stay away from him.

• Theo wonders about a mysterious fifth cabin that the family doesn’t use. She also has a nightmare involving a dragonfly and an antlered man

• Theo and Connor discuss Liam’s death in an accident when Connor was seven. Connor says his father fell off a roof.

• Theo takes a walk at night to the unused, unnamed cabin and finds Vance, who asks her if she’s been at Idlewood before.

• The next day, Magnus asks Theo to help him butcher a deer he has killed. They discuss the fact that Theo was adopted.

Theo’s memory starts to return

• Theo goes back to the empty cabin and is certain she has been there before. She finds out the cabin was named Dragonfly, just like her dream. She also finds a photo of a man who looks like Connor (and must be Liam) with a young girl that looks like her. Of course I’m now wondering if Theo and Connor are half-siblings!

• Theo finds Sebastian lost in the snow and gets him warmed up with Nick’s help. She remembers a woman with a red scarf. When she returns Sebastian to his cabin, she finds photos of woman with bruises.

• Theo is convinced that Liam was the antlered man in her dream. When Connor is asleep, she goes back to Dragonfly. She has a memory of her biological mother telling her they have to leave.
• She remembers Liam giving her mom a blue scarf and giving her a teddy bear. Oleana and Trevor turn up at the cabin to hook up and Theo has to hide.

• When Oleana leaves, Trevor confronts Theo. He tells her that Liam was hiding a mistress in Dragonfly cabin. And a child (but she wasn’t Liam’s. Whew.)
• Trevor also tells Theo that her meeting with Connor wasn’t accidental. Connor saw a photo of Theo that her friend Harper took and asked Harper to introduce them.

Was Connor the one who lured Theo to Idlewood?

• Alarmed, Theo burns her hand as a way to get away from Idlewood. But Liam is a doctor and asks to see the burn. He also sees the old photo that Theo took from the cabin.
• Nick confirms that the girl in the photo (named Teddy) was the daughter of a “friend” of Liam’s named Mallory.
• He says that Alexis found out about Mallory and told Connor, and that after Liam’s accident, Mallory and Teddy left the compound.

• Theo confronts Connor about scheming to meet her. He says that he saw the photo of her in Harper’s exhibition and thought he recognized her.
• Theo manages to get cell service and calls Harper, who confirms Connor’s story.

• Theo’s adoptive father contacts her. After that, she remembers getting pregnant as a teenager by a pastor’s son named Peter.

Someone reveals most of the Dalton family secrets:

• Someone puts weird Christmas ornaments on the tree: a photo of a crumpled car, a picture of Magnus, and a snowflake made out of a repurposed legal paper that suggests Rose was filing for divorce. Louise blames Theo. Theo thinks that Trevor is responsible.
• Theo notices a photo on the tree of Alexis sitting on a woman’s lap and removes it while the family is distracted.
• Alexis invites Theo to her cabin for a drink and explains the crumpled car: Connor got a DUI with a young woman in the passenger seat. Mangus paid off the girl.
• In addition, Alexis says that Paloma knows about the photo of the woman on her lap, as someone emailed it to her.
• Theo and Alexis discuss Liam’s affair. Alexis knew about it and had to keep quiet.
• Alexis also says that her father’s death was not an accident.
• Connor shows up and Theo mentions the photo of the woman with bruises. She asks him if those were of Kayla and he says yes.
• Then Connor shows Theo her ornament: a photo of her at sixteen covered in blood and bruises.
• They fight over the lies each told the other.

Theo opens up to Connor

• Theo tells Connor about her adoptive parents (and Peter’s father) finding out about her pregnancy. She was beaten by Beth, her adoptive mom, until she miscarried. Then Theo went after Joseph, her adoptive father, with a knife.
• The police agreed to forget Beth’s beating and Theo’s attacking Joseph. Theo went to live with Joseph’s sister until she was of legal age.

Theo starts to remember the last time she saw her mom

• Theo struggles to remember what happened the night she and her mother left Dragonfly. She recalls the man with antlers looming over her.
• Daniel Vance shows up and tells Theo that a woman called Mallory Cahill was living at Dragonfly. That Liam told him not to ask any questions or tell anyone. That Mallory and her daughter Rowen left the night Liam died.
• Vance pulls out a box of Rowen’s things: a teddy bear, a blue scarf, and a photo of Mallory and Rowan. Theo realizes the bruised woman in the photos is her mother Mallory, not Kayla.
• Theo remembers her mom telling her to run, and that her mother’s neck was coated in blood.

The stakes get higher

• Louise offers Theo a check for 75,000 to leave.
• Theo gets invited on a crossbow hunting trip trip with Magnus, Connor, and Nick.
• Magnus tells Theo that Liam was too soft and needed to be someone’s hero.
• Connor shoots an arrow that grazes Theo’s arm.
• As Nick gives her stitches, Theo asks him about Mallory, and he seems to realize that she is Rowan Cahill.
• Connor agrees that they can leave in the morning
• During dinner that night, Theo searches the others’ cabins. She finds a burner phone in Magnus’s office and the photos of Mallory in Alexis’s suitcase.
• Paloma shows up and tells Theo that Alexis keeping the secret of her father’s death not being an accident has taken a toll on her.
• Theo calls the number on her warning texts and is not surprised to find that Magnus was sending them.

Connor opens up about Mallory

• Connor tells Theo that Alexis found the photos of Mallory among his father’s things.
• Then he tells her he met Mallory’s daughter and realizes that Theo is that daughter.
• Theo says that her mother was murdered and that Liam’s death was not an accident.
• Connor tells Theo he saw his dad’s autopsy report and that his only injury was a blow to the head.
• Theo remembers Liam telling her they have to go, and then him falling down.

Theo’s escape gets complicated

• A blizzard makes it impossible for them to leave
• But Louise wants Theo OUT
• Trevor says that Oleana left his bed last night and is now missing
• They find Oleana dead in the snow, wearing a red coat that looks a lot like Theo’s
• Rose brings Theo some tea.( I tell Theo not to drink it but she does…)
• Rose admits she saw a divorce lawyer when Connor was a child AND that Nick knew
• Theo tries to go to the UTV but guess who is there?

The Ending of A Killing Cold Explained

Nick. (Yes, Rose drugged Theo’s tea.) Magnus tells Nick to put Theo in Dragonfly.

• Nick can’t believe that Connor and Theo met by chance. (Yes, I felt that way too. Connor said a five year-old Theo/Rowan told him she wanted to live in a warm place and they decide their meeting was … fate.
• Theo tells Nick that he killed Oleana thinking she was Theo.
• Nick thought Rowan was dead, but Magnus found her a new home.

Who killed Mallory?

• Nick insists it was not him. Mallory was mortally wounded when he got there. He and Liam scuffled over the rifle and Liam was accidentally hit by the rifle butt.

• Vance insists that Magnus tried to protect Rowan/Theo.
• He also suggests a woman killed Mallory.
• Vance leaves Theo, who manages to untie herself using a knife from her pocket.
• Theo runs to Red Fox where she tells Alexis the story
• Connor shows up and can’t believe any of it: Rose drugging Theo and his grandfather telling Vance to tie her up.

Alexis confesses: she killed Mallory

• At fifteen, Alexis knew something was off with her father. Then she overheard her mother discussing a divorce. She drives to Dragonfly and confronts Mallory for sleeping with her father.
• Mallory tries to explain but Alexis accidentally shoots her. Liam shows up and tells her to leave and that he’ll deal with it. She never sees him again.
• Connor and Theo tell Alexis they have to leave before the family kills Theo.

Theo and Connor make a run for it

• They head out on the UTV, but someone shoots at them and they crash.
• Nick comes to check on her. She plays dead, but has the knife in her hand.
• She stabs Nick in the throat.

The big reveal

• Connor and Theo and head back to the lodge where Theo assembles then remaining family.
• Theo announces that she is Rowan, daughter of Mallory Cahill
• She adds that Nick, not Liam, was sleeping with Mallory. He was also physically abusing her, and Liam was helping her get away.
• Alexis confesses to killing Mallory.
• Louise suggests they just frame Theo for Oleana and Nick’s deaths
• But Theo points out that Nick killed Liam. Magnus says yes, but it was an accident.
• Magnus is also the one who killed Mallory (Alexis’s shot just injured her.) But he also has terminal cancer.
• He offers to tell Theo where her mother is buried if she will protect Alexis by blaming Nick for everything.

Epilogue

• Theo did not agree to Magnus’s plan, and was arrested for the murders of Nick and Oleana.
• But Alexis confessed, so Theo was released.
• Theo and Connor got married. Vance fled, so they adopted Duchess.