Irish Blood season 1 premiere ending explained: Is Fiona going to die?

The Irish Blood season 1 premiere kicked off a winding mystery of murder, family secrets, and lies surrounding Fiona Fox, aka Fiona Murphy, and her estranged father. Alicia Silverstone's new Ireland-style mystery series follows her LA divorce lawyer character as she travels to Ireland after receiving a letter and a cryptic phone call from the father who left her and her mom 30 years ago.

But instead of a chance to confront her father, she arrives to find him already dead. He left her clues about criminal activity in town, prompting an investigation. The Irish Blood season 1 premiere ends with Fiona almost dying after being kidnapped. However, instead of killing her, the still unknown armed man decides to spare her life and give Fiona her first and final warning.

Meanwhile, she's trying to acclimate to life in Ireland and the extended family she never thought she had.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for the Irish Blood season 1 premiere. Reader's discretion is advised.

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Irish Blood season 1 premiere: Is someone trying to kill Fiona?

Fiona at the funeral (Image via Acorn TV)

Fiona finds herself in a dangerous pit in the Irish Blood season 1 premiere. The six-episode crime thriller doesn't take much time to introduce danger and criminality into the story. By the first two episodes, Fiona already knows that her father, Declan, is involved in something dangerous from what her mother has told her and from what her father teased in his video.

While she doesn't know the specifics of the things her late father was involved in, she knows that someone has come after him. Like what his father said in a video addressed to her, if he dies, it's not an accident. Some people are coming after him, and it's why Fiona believes that her father didn't simply plunge to his death by falling off a cliff.

As she investigates Declan's death through clues found in his briefcase, Fiona finds out that he was investigating a criminal activity in town. It involves identical horses, horse theft, international buyers, and cons run by Patsy Burgess. Her father had gained evidence about the criminal activity and was on the verge of exposing it before he tragically passed.

Knowing all these, Fiona breaks into the racing hall and then to the barn to witness an ongoing horse theft. She tells the police about the con, that Patsy is going to bring one of the horses into the bog and make it look like it died, and then sell it to an international buyer. However, the police don't seem to believe her. Meanwhile, her investigation has already put her in danger.

Fiona at the bog (Image via Acorn TV)

At the end of the Irish Blood season 1 premiere, Fiona is abducted by two masked men who take her in a van to the bog. After leaving her there, another masked man appears, carrying a gun and warning her that the gun is for killing cows, horses, and nosy little lawyers. Although the man does not kill her, a threat is already made to Fiona.

If she doesn't stop with her investigation, she will likely end up dead. Whether being held at gunpoint and having her life threatened will stop Fiona from finding out more about her father and the underlying criminal activity in town remains to be seen.

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What's inside Declan's briefcase in the Irish Blood season 1 premiere?

Declan's briefcase in the Irish Blood season 1 premiere holds many clues that drive Fiona's investigation. It's the same briefcase Fiona remembers her father having when she was a kid. The picture of a locker and the key she receives in the mail in LA lead her to a boxing gym where the briefcase is located. Like when she was young, she had to guess the PIN to open the lock.

Inside the briefcase are items her father cherished. There's the action figure she asked for as a birthday present when she turned ten. It turns out her father did remember but was unable to give it to her before he ran away all those years ago. Irish Blood season 1 premiere quickly establishes that Declan left his family only to protect them and has the intention of coming back.

Declan's briefcase (Image via Acorn TV)

The briefcase also has an old phone with a video message from Declan, in which he talks about the investigation and warns Fiona that his eventual death wouldn't be an accident. There's also a horseshoe inside, the very one Fiona compares to the horseshoe in the racing hall. This clue leads her to conclude that identical horses were switched as part of the con.

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Irish Blood season 1 premiere: Who killed Declan?

The Irish Blood season 1 premiere leaves Fiona believing that Patsy Burgess either killed Declan himself or had someone else do it. Everyone else thinks it was an accident, except for Fiona, her newfound Irish grandmother, and Declan's grieving mother, Isadora.

Fiona has surmised from the evidence and video her father left that he was on the verge of exposing the criminal activity in their town. However, the people may have found out what he was up to and have decided to kill him. At one point in the Irish Blood season 1 premiere, Fiona mentions her theory that Patsy Burgess killed Declan to cover up his crimes.

However, she admits that she has no evidence to prove any of her theories, and it's implied that she will continue digging into her father's murder. Moreover, there are still a few things inside the briefcase that are yet to be explored, and she has Róisín's help for the investigation. With that said, getting abducted and being held at gunpoint would complicate her next moves.

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Catch the first two episodes of Irish Blood season 1 on Acorn TV. A new episode will be released every week on Mondays at 3:00 am ET.