The Last Frontier season 1 episode 7 ending explained: What’s the mystery behind Frank’s hidden gun?

The Last Frontier season 1 episode 7, “Change of Time,” opens with the revelation of the most-awaited secret that fans have been willing to know: What’s Frank’s little secret, and what’s the mystery behind his daughter, Ruby? The episode takes viewers back four years to Chicago, where Frank, Luke, and Ruby head to an ice-cream shop. Seems just like a random “me-time” for the family, but a tragic shootout leads to his daughter Ruby’s death. 

Ruby goes to the car because she remembers something she wants to add to her wish-list jar. When Frank walks back to give her hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, a car passes by. Two men inside fire several shots. The scar on Frank’s back — the same one Sidney and Frank once talked about — turns out to be from that shooting. Ruby is dead. The episode starts on a very emotional note, but by the end of The Last Frontier episode 7, it ends on a surprising twist.

Who were the men who shot Frank and Ruby in The Last Frontier season 1 episode 7?

Luke, who witnessed the tragic incident, always blames himself for asking his father to sneak out for ice cream. He thinks that if he hadn’t asked for it, Ruby would still be alive. But that’s not true. The real reason behind the shooting is connected to Frank’s past.

In the previous episode, we saw Luke discover that the gun from the basement had been moved and hidden inside a hollow book by Havlock. After Luke finds out where the gun is kept, he and Sarah confront Frank. This is when Frank finally opens up about why the men attacked.

Frank had been hiding a part of his past, both physically and emotionally. When he was in Chicago, he and his partner were trying to catch a criminal who always escaped punishment. One day, they arrested this man for murder. But there was a big problem: the gun they found had no fingerprints of his, which meant he didn’t commit that particular murder and could be freed again.

Frank feared that if the criminal got out, he would kill more people. So Frank made a wrong decision. He hid the real gun, the true murder weapon that had the actual killer’s fingerprints on it. By hiding it, Frank made it seem like they had the right suspect, even though they didn’t. He broke the law because he wanted to keep the criminal in jail.

Frank covered up the murder case and tried to frame the suspect because that man was involved in many other crimes, like drug dealing and human trafficking. Even though he wasn’t guilty of that one murder, if he got released, he would go back to doing all those terrible things. That’s why Frank broke the law and framed him.

The suspect’s brother later found out about what Frank had done, and he is the one who carried out the shooting, which led to Ruby’s death. Upon learning this, his family is now broken. Luke, who had blamed himself for years, was shocked, and he and his mom left the home to stay with Luke’s aunt.

Havlock gets trapped when he goes to meet Jamal Freeman in The Last Frontier season 1 episode 7

Vincent Thiago, the man who arrived in Alaska with Archive 6, was arrested in the previous episode and taken for questioning. Even though he was fully committed to his mission, which he says is his salvation, he did not share anything about himself or his connection to Havlock. Sidney first assumed he might be from the CIA, but there was no record of Vincent anywhere online. Finally, they found something: old photos of him from a 1997 parade in Annapolis.

Meanwhile, power returns to Fairbanks, and they detect a signal transmission from their post. Sidney gets alerted and goes to check on Vincent again. This time, she finds a listening device hidden in his jacket. This proves it wasn’t a CIA plan; it was Havlock. He had planted the device secretly to listen to their plans. When they traced the device, they discovered Havlock’s location.

Havlock quickly left his hiding spot, but this time, he was emotionally unstable because he had lost access to Archive 6. Junie was working on the encrypted “dead man switch” connected to Archive 6. She managed to hack into the system. She couldn’t turn it off, but she froze the countdown forever, meaning Havlock could never reaccess Archive 6.

When they reached the traced location in the Tanana Forest, Havlock had already disappeared, but he had left behind his things: a broken laptop and several clues. One important clue emerged when Briggs checked the hard drive, which had a photo of Jamal. 

Freeman is an airman who illegally sells classified information online. Havlock needed Jamal to lead him to the nearest NSA listening post, a place that monitors North Asia and Russia. Since Havlock uploaded Archive 6 from Russia, he knew the data had to exist somewhere inside the NSA system.

Havlock sends him a text, 

“u r jamal freeman. Airman 1st class with the 301st intel squadron.and you have info that I need.”

Within seconds, Havlock breaks in and gets the location to reach the NSA listening post.

Havlock gets arrested in The Last Frontier season 1 episode 7

When Frank and Sidney go to meet Jamal Freeman, the FBI blocks them. But soon, they find a new clue: a research boat was used at the Port of Dillingham. Frank and Sidney chase Havlock. There is only one road out of Dillingham, so Frank takes a helicopter and crashes it into Havlock’s car. 

During the chase, Havlock’s car flips many times and goes off the road. However, Sidney pulls him out of the burning car, showing how much she still cares for him, even though she is torn between her job and her duties as a wife.

She says,

 “Hello, Sunshine. You are under arrest.”

But since this is The Last Frontier, the episode cannot end on a happy note. Sarah and Luke have already left home, and Frank suddenly realizes something when he looks at his daughter’s photo. The same little girl seen in Vincent Thiago’s parade photo is Sidney. Sidney once mentioned that the girl in the picture was about her age now. Frank searches for Sidney online, and it turns out to be her.

Frank begins to suspect that Sidney already knew Thiago and might be connected to everything: the plane crash, Archive 6, and the secret program Thiago was involved in. He thinks she might be part of the same operation her father and Thiago worked for. He even wonders if Sidney had something to do with the plane explosion.

But these are only Frank’s assumptions for now. The real mystery behind Sidney is still hidden, and we will learn more in the next episodes of The Last Frontier Season 1.