What To Know
- Tracy Spiridakos stars as Anna Pigeon, a park ranger haunted by her husband’s death who solves murder cases in the new USA drama series.
- Spiridakos explains Anna’s confrontation of rancher Jeremiah Paulson in the premiere.
Thanks to USA, we’ve finally seen author Nevada Barr’s park ranger heroine Anna Pigeon (Tracy Spiridakos) onscreen in the cable net’s latest drama series. But it’s not all clear blue skies for Anna, who’s still grappling with the trauma from her late husband’s killing three years ago, has left behind her New York City life, and become a park-hopping ranger dedicated to stopping litterers and … solving murder cases? Sounds about right. Warning: Spoilers for Anna Pigeon‘s series premiere ahead!
And as Anna solves her first case — involving the not-so-accidental death of a fellow ranger named Sheila — she also makes her first enemy at the fictional Glacier National Park: rancher Jeremiah Paulson (Kim Coates). Anna “has no fear” of the wealthy landowner, says Spiridakos, even if he is responsible for Sheila’s murder, and for Anna getting pushed off of a cliff in the series opener. “She just wants to put him in his place.”
Michelle Faye/USA Network
The Chicago P.D. vet continues, referring to Anna’s threats to Jeremiah at the end of the episode, “Anna is super impulsive and her emotions run her. She’s mad in that moment, and she wants to be confrontational. She’s not thinking about what this confrontation may lead to later on in life. She just wants him to know, ‘I’ve got an eye on you and I’m not going to let you get away with anything that you think you’re going to get away with.’ She needs him to know that there is somebody that’s going to make sure he’s being held accountable. He’s not going to get to do what he’s been doing [in the park].”
In spite of — or perhaps because of — her brush-up with Mr. Paulson, Anna chooses to stick around at GNP, even adopting Sheila’s cat, Piedmont. Spiridakos confirms Anna’s decision to stay at the national park is “twofold.”
“First, she has a moment [when] she looks around the room and sees all these relationships that she’s made, and all these wonderful people, and I don’t think she’s quite ready to say goodbye to them just yet. That moment where she’s just kind of taking everybody in, and she’s like, ‘I don’t know, I think I’ll stay.’ And I think the other [reason] is, she knows Jeremiah’s going to be a problem, and she just feels like she wants to keep a little bit of an eye on him. He almost got away with it all. So, she just wants to stay close.”
And hopefully not get pushed off of any more cliffs.
Anna Pigeon, Fridays, 10/9c, USA