Wrangling Walker Season 2 Episode 19 “A Matter of Miles”

Well—that was exciting! And Gale Davidson is evil, just getting that out there ahead of things. Evil.

Okay, now that’s off my chest, let me cover what I liked and what didn’t set well with me. On the whole, I thought it was a good episode, so there’s a lot more of the ‘likes’ than the other stuff!

I’m going to skip a total recap, and also take a look at this by groupings, rather than going in chronological order.

What I liked

Miles, Fenton, and the new bad guys

The reunion between Miles and Cassie was well done. We really felt for Cassie’s relief, guilt, concern and betrayal. Cassie persisting with her search for Miles when everyone told her to stop certainly was a reflection of Cordell’s insistence that there was more to Emily’s death than anyone wanted to believe. (And a throw-back to Supernatural when Sam was willing to burn down the world to cure Dean of being a demon and get rid of the Mark of Cain.)

Cordell reveals that he and Captain James had to shoot their way out of the trailer and lie low for hours—a very close call. Cassie is angry at Miles for the deception and for putting guilt on her by using her gun for Miles’ fake death.

Cassie brings Rita to HQ and then takes her to Miles. There’s a painful reunion when Rita confesses her affair with Fenton, and Miles realizes that Fenton never told Rita and Cassie that he was still alive, as Miles was led to believe.

Captain James is a fantastic by-the-books leader. He plays tough, but he also plays by the rules, and he’s done with Fenton. He confronts him on both lying about Miles’ death and sleeping with Rita, and about the gunfight at the trailer. Then he lists off all the offenses that Fenton has committed, and arrests him, bringing him back to HQ.

Someone is watching Fenton come into HQ. Captain James takes over the interrogation, while tasking Trey and Cassie with getting Miles to the safe house. He doesn’t let up on Fenton, who is still going on about how he had to keep his investigation of the big bad secret from everyone. He claims that ‘they’ wanted Fenton to kill Miles and his family, and claims that pretending to kill Miles was Fenton’s only option. While there was a lot I liked about this new twist, some parts show up in my ‘Other Stuff’ section.

The big fight at the not-very-safe house was exciting. Cassie, Trey and Miles hold their own, and Cassie manages to use a gun again when the chips are down. Cordell and the Rangers bring the big firefight outside. We know Cordell’s right about this being just the beginning (because there are a lot of unanswered questions and it’s the end of the season).

Miles and Cassie shared a good moment at the end before he goes into WITSEC. I’ve kept saying that Cassie reminds me a lot of Dean Winchester, and her ‘You believed in me more than I thought I deserved’ and ‘I couldn’t let it be too good to be true’ were definite Dean-isms in my book.

Walkers vs Davidsons

Stella and Liam dream up the idea of a joint family dinner. Stella hopes for peace—Liam wants a confrontation. Gale is at the farmers’ market musing that if she hadn’t pulled out Abeline’s gardens, she wouldn’t have to buy produce. (She’s evil.) Denise is back to being nasty. Geri says she is for the joint dinner, and Gale agrees, but tells Denise she wants to see what the Walkers are up to.

Liam thinks he’s got Dan in his corner to help push a confession from Denise. He’s sure that Dan will protect himself, and plans to use that against Denise. Frankly, only bringing two bottles of wine to that confrontation was poor planning. With eight legal drinkers, that’s only two glasses per person, and given the circumstances, I’d have suggested half a case or switching to something harder.

Abeline brings plenty of food because she doesn’t trust Gale’s cooking. Bonham and Gale have a  tug of war over who sits at the head of the table. Gale toasts to ‘new beginnings and family’. But in the past she has toasted ‘to blood’ when Geri toasted ‘to family’. This is a dark twist on the Supernatural catchphrase ‘Family Don’t End With Blood’ (meaning the family of your heart counts more than blood relation).

I felt bad for Auggie, Stella and Colton. Auggie is especially aware that while the others are going off to college, he has to deal with the fallout. Now even his band has broken up, and he doesn’t have a steady girlfriend (although the girl at the music store seemed like a possibility). Poor Auggie is desperate enough to try doing card tricks to lighten the mood. (Is this a hint that there’s been some ‘sleight of hand’ about the saddle?)

Bonham confronts Gale about taking out the garden, and she says it needed ‘better light’. Hmm…the Davidsons don’t do well in the light with all their shady dealings. Bonham stalks off, which is when Cordell finds him. Bonham’s comment that ‘blood doesn’t have to equal loyalty’ not only harkens back to the Supernatural phrase with another dark twist, but it seems to be an omen about Geri and maybe even Colton (who is adopted).

Liam brings up the saddle and both Gale and Denise get extremely defensive, like anyone would be ‘over’ losing their entire homestead. Lots of old dirt gets churned, including Denise’s false “arrest” of Auggie and failed arrest of Bonham. Denise turns on Dan about divorce papers, and Gale accuses Cordell about the barn fire. Denise and Gale are out of control.

Abeline gets in the best dig, telling Gale ‘It doesn’t matter what you take, how much you take, it doesn’t mean you can take care of it. You’ve got it all—how sad it’s not enough.’ Her comment about Gale not being able to build seems to have the weight of prophecy—I guess we’ll see.

Geri gets suspicious when Gale suggests that she ‘always knew’ she would see her baby again, then backtracks. Gale ends the episode in the kitchen alone with an evil look in her eye.

The Other Stuff

There was less than usual that had me scratching my head, but there were a few things.

First off, what’s with all the windows both at Ranger HQ and in the safe house? Shouldn’t there be some windowless rooms for security? Maybe a covered portico so everyone doesn’t see Rangers bringing someone in through the front door?

Why did Fenton have a suicide pill on him? That deepens my suspicion that he’s a dirty cop, that his ‘investigation’ was never legitimate, and that he was probably in cahoots with the bad guys all along. His conduct with Rita and lying to Rita, Cassie and Miles certainly furthers that suspicion. Why did Captain James leave him alone, even for a moment? Fenton could have still succeeded without the lapse in oversight.

I suspect that even with Miles in WITSEC, he’ll have a role to play in the future. Will we find out that Rita knew about any of Fenton’s schemes? Miles and Rita need to do some serious fence-mending.

Nate shows up and confirms to Geri that only he, Marv and Frank knew about her as a baby. What about the doctor who delivered her? They’ve never explained how in today’s paperwork-intensive healthcare world Marv managed to fake a baby’s death without someone at the hospital knowing and in on it.

The Davidsons have been written very inconsistently this season. Either they are rabidly frothing at the mouth or inexplicably nicey-nice, and both feel like extremes. Denise and Gale don’t seem to be able to have an actual conversation without being unhinged. Dan is now the reasonable one, something difficult to believe.

I’m intrigued about why the big silver mirror was left behind by the Walkers and kept by the Davidsons. Does it ‘reflect’ the families as they really are?

I really want to see Gale and Denise get their comeuppance, and the Walkers to get their ranch back, but the preview photos from the finale suggest that there will be more trouble ahead before anything gets resolved!

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.