Burden of Truth

Joanna Chang (Kristin Kreuk) is working at her new firm a year after her successful lawsuit against the steel mill in Millwood. She’s living a new life under a new name. When she is assigned the case of a brilliant young Internet privacy activist, she is dragged into a dark world of secrets and people who play for keeps. Back in Millwood, Billy Crawford (Peter Mooney) works to help his town get back on its feet. With the steel mill closed as a result of the lawsuit, people are out of work and the town is down on its luck. With Luna (Star Slade) back from school for the summer, she and Molly (Sara Thompson) adjust to living together.

After her car was hacked and she was warned to drop Noah’s (Varun Saranga) case, Joanna (Krisitn Kreuk) sets out to settle it. Her agreement with the enemy infuriates him and he fires her. Desperate to win back the case and the client, Joanna makes a dramatic last-minute save in court to win the day. Thrown by the serious invasion of her privacy, Joanna seeks out the advice and protection of a security expert, but everywhere she looks, there’s technology she can no longer trust. In Millwood, the return of Shane Crawford (Andrew Chown) has Billy (Peter Mooney) on edge. When Shane pitches his idea for a microbrewery to bring jobs to town and to save Millwood, even Billy must admit that Shane had a good idea. However, when they meet with potential investors, a couple of Trust fund brats, everything goes wrong. With Molly (Sara Thompson) living a carefree party life making up for her lost senior year of high school, Luna’s (Star Slade) decision to volunteer with the Bear Clan Patrol pulls them further apart but opens Luna’s eyes to issues and injustices in her community.

When Lovand returns fire against Noah (Varun Saranga), Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) struggles to control the narrative of the case. Lovand starts a smear campaign accusing Noah of racist allegiances. Lovand pulls out all the stops, digging up and exposing secrets from Noah’s past. With Noah on the verge of giving up and agreeing to shut down his app, Joanna tries one final maneuver against Lovand - a last-ditch bluff they will be too scared to challenge. Lovand lifts the injunction against Noah. While waiting for an answer in the civil case, Billy (Peter Mooney) entertains Shane’s (Andrew Chown) challenge to recreate their youthful competition known as the Crawford Cup, but as their competitive juices start flowing, so does their honesty and Billy reveals a truth he’s always hidden from Shane. David Hanley (Alex Carter) turns up unexpectedly in Millwood with an offer to settle which Gerrilynn (Jessica Matten) rejects loudly and angrily at The Boot. Luna (Star Slade) encounters a dismal reality while volunteering for Bear Clan Patrol, stirring up a longing to return home. After a fight with Molly (Sara Thompson), Luna hitches a ride with her best friend, Taylor (Anwen O’Driscoll) who’s finally returning to Millwood to see her father. Amidst the clamorous celebrations of her victory in Noah’s case, Joanna gets news that sends her racing back to Millwood.

Millwood is rocked by a grisly murder. After her victory against Lovand, Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) is called home to answer questions about her father’s past and to identify his body. With so much left unsaid between them, Joanna doesn’t even know where to begin to grieve. With a killer on the loose, the Millwood police force is under intense pressure to solve the case. Joanna won’t get a moment to mourn in peace, as the police investigation focuses on Gerrilynn Spence (Jessica Matten), despite her strong alibi. Fearing a rush to judgement against an innocent person, Joanna and Billy (Pete Mooney) team up to free her with a promise not to leave town. When Joanna catches Gerrilynn and Luna (Star Slade) preparing to skip town, she demands answers and discovers a terrible truth. Luna and David (Alex Carter) had a physical altercation in his room just moments before his death. Her DNA and fingerprints are going to be found at the crime scene. Joanna and Billy scramble to lawyer up, but there’s little they can do when Luna is hauled away in cuffs.

With Luna (Star Slade) in police custody for the murder of David Hanley, Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) must counsel her sister on how to survive a police interrogation - say nothing to anyone. Joanna and Billy (Peter Mooney) scramble to get Luna out on bail before she’s sent off to the Brockstone detention centre. With Luna’s DNA under the deceased’s fingernails, the evidence against Luna is starting to pile up and even Joanna and Billy’s lawyering isn’t enough to sway the judge. Desperate to help Luna, Taylor (Anwen O’Driscoll) comes forward with proof David Hanley was alive when Luna left the motel, but the police also discover other evidence which may prove that the murder was premeditated, and Luna and Taylor traveled together to Millwood with intent to kill. When the charges against Luna are upgraded to first degree murder, Billy reaches out to the prosecutor to negotiate a potential plea bargain. With her future in the balance, Luna is forced to make an agonizing choice.

Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) is being pulled in too many directions and trying to keep too many people happy. Sleepless, manic and suppressing her grief, a crumbling Joanna is failing to keep all the disparate parts of her life – Luna’s (Star Slade) case, and her work at Steadman Lavery – functioning. With the start of jury selection in Luna’s trial, Joanna returns to Millwood. When the potential jury members shows up, the crowd lacks the racial diversity they need to get Luna a fair trial. Joanna and Billy (Peter Mooney) uncover evidence of suspected jury tampering, but their pleas for help from the court are ignored. Desperately searching for a way to avoid trial, Billy and Joanna notice a discrepancy with Shane’s (Andrew Chown) statement to police and may have unearthed a potential suspect who could provide an alternate theory about the murder and exonerate Luna. With Joanna pressing to get Shane before the judge, Billy makes a discovery that breaks his heart and makes Shane’s testimony useless.

With Luna’s (Star Slade) trial about to start, Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) and Billy (Peter Mooney) are scrambling to unearth any exonerating evidence to keep her from going to jail for life. When Joanna notices the laptop belonging to her usually careful and private father open on the motel room table, she knows the killer was looking at his computer before the crime. Joanna races off to her other client, the computer expert Noah (Varun Saranga), for help extricating the documents accessed on the computer. Noah succeeds, and the evidence brings Joanna face to face with her father’s real killer. Back in Millwood, Billy is pulled away from the case to get help for Shane (Andrew Chown), but when he tries to get him to a doctor, Shane goes AWOL, stealing Billy’s beloved truck. When Shane resists all of Billy’s attempts to get him help, Billy is forced to make an agonizing choice. Luna practices tough love on her new cellmate, before realizing that prison is changing her, and she’d better stop it before it’s too late. Officer Owen Beckbie (Meegwun Fairbrother) leverages inside information about missing evidence for a clue to a cold case that may cast doubt on the impartiality of the Millwood police force in their investigation into Luna’s case.

After Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) discovers the true identity of her father’s killer, she returns to Millwood with the single-minded objective of proving it in a court of law, but with Luna’s (Star Slade) trial about to start, Joanna is forced to pivot to defend her sister against an avalanche of damning evidence. Downcast, Luna mentally prepares herself to spend a life behind bars for a crime she didn’t commit. When Officer Owen Beckbie (Meegwun Fairbrother) unearths a secret about the death of an Indigenous man, he throws the entire Millwood police force into disrepute and finally exacts revenge on Officer Sam Mercer (Paul Braunstein). With the police investigation on shaky ground, Joanna and Billy feel confident Luna will get exonerated, but that feeling is short-lived, as the prosecutor uncovers Luna’s long-deleted voice-mail message threatening David Hanley, putting Luna - and Joanna and Billy - in further legal jeopardy. Joanna is called to the stand to explain why she deleted evidence in a murder case, forcing her to lie on the stand, putting her career and freedom at risk. With things not looking good for anyone on the team, Joanna gambles everything by calling the real killer to the witness stand in hopes of setting a trap and setting her sister free.