Wrangling Walker 2.02 “The One Who Got Away”

Walker‘s episode 2.02, “The One Who Got Away”, spent more time on the Texas Rangering than the family drama, which I prefer, so I thought it was a strong follow-up to last week’s season premiere. We got some answers and some new questions, and the Davidsons didn’t act like they were strung out on drugs. People acted in reasonable and intelligent ways (at least by TV standards), and we got some interesting backstory about Micki.

I’m going to split the family drama and the law enforcement plot for the purpose of the review.

The Breakfast Club

Auggie, Stella, Colton and Todd are in detention, with Trey in charge (when he’s not texting Cordell to find out about Micki). Someone makes a Breakfast Club reference, which I’m wondering if it means anything to teens that age. Trey his a brilliant idea to give them a chance at an escape room-type challenge and shortened detention, which they take. He pairs up Stella with Colton, and Auggie with Todd, and gives them a clue that finding the key to the second door leading out of each room has something to do with their pasts.

Auggie and Todd get to work right away. As they’re going through the lockers, they talk about their time in AV club and how Ruby ditched Todd to date Auggie. They agree they were better as friends than apart, and find the key in one of the videos they shot with AV Club.

Colton and Stella don’t start off well. Colton isn’t motivated, and Stella is annoyed she’s doing all the work. Colton finally says that he’s stressed out because his folks are getting a divorce. Stella says she wishes she had two living parents who were arguing. Colton finally starts helping, and says that he’s sorry about Emily’s death. Through a weird set of connections, they find the key.

I couldn’t help wondering whose lockers they were pilfering. I hope Trey used lost-and-found stuff and they weren’t really trashing other students’ belongings.

Stella sees Colton walking home and offers him a ride.

They find an injured white horse that doesn’t belong to either family and intend to help it get to safety.

I thought this segment worked well, resolved a lot of pointless conflict (Trey is a genius) and didn’t steal the spotlight from the real action. Although the white horse had me scratching my head.

Down to Business

The action picks up immediately after the end of episode one.  Captain James and Cordell are in position, with Cordell as a sniper. Serano brought Garrison Murphy (the one who got away) to meet with Micki. He recognizes her, but they both bluff it out.

She goes with Garrison, and takes out her ear piece. Fourteen years ago, he wanted one more job and now he wants out and wants to deal.

She left him at the altar when he was 19. He apologizes to her, and says she can save him. Garrison says he has evidence of everything Serano did, including ‘that hit in Austin’ (meaning the one where the sniper shot at Cordell and Stan)—and Spider’s death.

Cordell confronts Captain James about not telling him Cordell was the target, and James says he didn’t want Cordell to go out of control. Cordell knows Micki is hiding something.

They call Denise Davidson (the new DA) to give her a heads up, and she’s surprisingly professional. Liam doesn’t like having Cordell involved, but Denise tells him Cordell has relevant perspective and won’t pull him out. She heads to Del Rio’s county because they don’t have jurisdiction and she needs to handle that.

Garrison drives Micki to the church where they were going to get married. He says the bookkeeper cooks the books for Serano and steals a key. When they go back to Garrison’s house, Captain James and Cordell are waiting.

Garrison says Serano is destroying evidence and killing his own people – ‘closing the circle’ – paranoid after the attempted hit on Stan went wrong. Serano runs North Side Nation. Garrison wants immunity, which James gets for him.

Garrison claims Spider was the Austin sniper, but Micki doubts that knowing Spider had vision problems.

GM tells them about a shell company that has the records for North Side Nation. Walker and Micki go in to get the gang’s ledger. Cordell has a warrant. The company is ‘Austin Eyes and Ears, Inc.’ which suggests they’re the ones behind the bugged house Cordell doesn’t know about yet.

A fire starts in the records room, where Serano’s goon is dousing everything with gasoline. There’s a big fight between him and Micki, then Cordell joins in while the room burns (no sprinklers?)

The ledger gets partially destroyed—is one document all there is? They all make it out, with the arsonist as prisoner.

Micki and Cordell argue about the next step—using Cordell as bait. James protests, but Denise agrees. Garrison says he’ll be the bait and wear a wire.

Garrison goes to meet with Serrano, and he tells her to listen to the ‘mix tape’ CD he made while thinking of her. When Micki takes the CD out of the glove compartment, she finds a receipt from the bar where Spider was killed from the night he died, so Garrison was there and wasn’t telling her the whole truth.

Serano’s goons find the wire on Garrison. Micki and Cordell move in. Garrison has a sniper rifle drawn on Cordell.

Micki shoots one of the guards and pushes Garrison over the balcony to stop him from shooting. James detains Serano. Garrison is hanging over the balcony, lets go, falls, and dies.
  

Afterward, Cordell asks Micki what she needs, and she wants to drive. Denise says that seeing the fire today reminded her of the fire at the barn.

Cordell suggests they need to talk about that at some point. Serano tells Cordell, “I’ll be seeing you”—a hint that he’s behind the bugged house.

Cordell finds Micki parked and sitting on the tailgate drinking, listening to the CD—a flashback to how we saw Cordell in the first episode.

In the back of the truck is Garrison’s painting of the church where they were supposed to be married.

My Thoughts

I liked the balance of cop show/family better than last week, and thought that the overall action was solid. Certain things pulled me out—like wondering whose lockers the kids were trashing during their detention assignment. I also had questions about all of North Side Nation’s accounting being in one folder? Shouldn’t there be a stack of ledgers, or computer spreadsheets, or boxes of documents? Why weren’t there sprinklers in the records room?

We got some interesting backstory on Micki, and some insight into why she’s gun shy about marrying Trey. Garrison reminded me a lot of Hoyt, which suggests that lovable rogues do not live long on this show. He and Micki did have good chemistry, and obviously she’s better off with Trey, but Garrison didn’t sell her out even though he was willing to kill Cordell.

The hanging over the balcony scene has been done so much it’s a cliche. I’ve never tried to support a dangling adult’s weight by one hand, but I think it would be harder than they make it look and wouldn’t last long enough for extended conversations.

After the snarling and frothing at the mouth introduction of the Davidsons in the first episode, both Denise and Colton were surprisingly normal. While I prefer ‘normal’ to over-the-top-cartoonish, swinging back and forth between the two is inconsistent writing. I hate when characters are used as plot devices without any coherent personality or motivation and are whatever the writers need in the moment, and I fear the Davidsons may become that.

I can’t help wondering if there’s going to be some connection between the Davidsons’ return and North Side Nation or the surveillance on the Walker home. Stan and others have implied that North Side Nation had friends in powerful places, so does that include the Davidsons? Or maybe the neighbors-from-Hell are just here to amp up the family drama. And what’s with the white horse? I guess we have to wait and see.

As always, Jared and the cast turn in a solid performance. I’m crossing my fingers that the writers up their game and give us scripts and stories that the actors deserve.

What did you think?  Please share your thoughts on the episode below!

Read more Walker Reviews, and find Cast and Show News on The WFB’s Walker Page! 
Find more of Gail’s Supernatural and Walker commentaries on her Writer’s Page.

Screencaps by Raloria on LJ