Wrangling Walker: Season Four Episode Nine “A History of Horrors and Other Tales”

Lots of little things didn’t add up for me in Walker‘s “A History of Horrors and Other Tales”, which worries me when we are so close to the end of the season, and what we now know will be the end of the series.

But first, in the montage—did anyone else notice the battered journal and how much it looked like the one that John Winchester had? I do love it when Walker sneaks in those Supernatural callbacks.

Cordell vs. Everyone

Cordell Walker is a Texas Ranger in the middle of hunting a serial killer. Why has everyone decided that this moment is perfect for focusing on work-life balance?

I have been part of real-life teams that didn’t have life-or-death stakes. Projects such as launching a new product, opening a new location, or doing a major computer upgrade take immense focus, long hours, and a level of tunnel-vision concentration. Back when programmers were trying to avert big problems with the Y2K issue, it wasn’t unheard of for teams to sleep at the office as things came down to the wire. And that’s for projects without a body count.

According to Glassdoor and Indeed, two real-world job websites, Texas Rangers work 10-12 hours/day on cases, and Indeed says it can be 12 hours/day 7 days/week ‘in season’. So Cordell is not alone in his work ethic. I’m at a loss to understand why Captain James and everyone else faults Cordell for his focus as they are closing in on a serial killer. Work projects with much less at stake routinely have blackout days for time off when the project is coming down to the wire.

No one sends a heart surgeon home in the middle of a twelve-hour surgery to see the kids. Relief workers digging out from a natural disaster don’t make it home for supper at the peak of the crisis. Faulting Cordell’s focus on the job when his team is finally within reach of their quarry doesn’t make sense to me.

Captain James, Cassie, and Trey all sideline and chide Cordell for his commitment in the name of worrying about his over-commitment. They effectively close him out of the case, after James begged him to take point just a few episodes earlier.

Geri couldn’t have picked a worse time to decide to go open a new location in another state. But she chides Cordell for not paying rapt attention to her expansion plans when he is in the middle of a multi-murder case. There’s a tone-deafness there that makes me wonder how their relationship is going to work unless in the back of her mind she thinks he’ll eventually leave the Rangers and come run the bar with her.

Supernatural fans remember how badly things went when Sam Winchester left hunting, took off and decided to tend bar as ‘Keith’ instead of facing down the apocalypse. (In case you missed it, in those episodes, Sam worked at ‘Hoyt’s Bar’ in Garber, OK, which isn’t far from Oklahoma City. Hmm….)

Cordell’s work team keeps pushing him out and working the case without him. When he tries to run down leads, he gets in trouble for it. At the end of the episode, we see Cordell checking into a motel room alone and no end date on the reservation. Is this one of the places he stayed as Duke, somewhere he has gone to clear his head? Or has he set himself up as bait to attract the killer, based on the case files he took with him? I imagine he’ll get in trouble for not working the case and taking time off in the next episode.

I had been so excited that the writers seemed to have shifted away from the Cordell-can’t-win-for-losing approach, and I’m worried to see it reappear, especially now that we know there’s so little time to clean up the situation.

Auggie, Stella, and the Search for the Necklace of Doom

Auggie helps Stella look for the necklace because he’s worried about her. Stella finds clues in Hoyt’s letter that lead her to look for the necklace at the ranch house near the fireplace. Geri interrupts their search. The kids reassure Geri that they are fine with her and Cordell being together. Over lunch, they get Geri to tell them a little about Hoyt’s rough upbringing.

When Stella goes upstairs to focus on the necklace issue, Auggie ends up revealing his concerns to Geri, who brings in Liam. So far, so good. This was looking up. Bring Geri and Liam in on hunting for the necklace and leverage their adult connections to stop Joanna. But then…

Liam could write the book on how not to deal with teenagers. For being younger than Cordell and the ‘cool’ uncle, he sure doesn’t show it. Liam loses his temper with Stella, yells at her, accuses her of lying, and does just about everything to make her not talk to him. Big surprise—she goes out the upstairs window and takes off in her car. That didn’t go well.

It’s no coincidence that both father and daughter decided to run and deal with a problem their own way rather than bear the brunt of everyone’s disapproval.

Walker — “A History of Horrors and Other Tales” — Image Number: WLK409a_0210r — Pictured (L-R): Keegan Allen as Liam Walker — Credit: Rebecca Brenneman/The CW — Copyright: © 2024 The CW Network. LLC, All Rights Reserved

If Mama Ain’t Happy…

Abeline and Bonham apparently don’t talk to each other much, either. Bonham is dreaming of retirement on the boat he just bought as a surprise, reliving some of their best vacation memories. Abeline has discovered that she wants to pivot from working the ranch as a job to seeking fulfillment through her catering/wedding venue, the horse rescue and other projects that ‘feed the soul’. She doesn’t rule out vacations, but she wants a purpose and a legacy. Oops. Once again, Liam doesn’t do well as a mediator. How did he pass the required mediation classes in law school?

Last Thoughts

The whole Walker clan and the Austin office of the Texas Rangers need mandatory interpersonal communication re-training. Geri needs to decide whether she can be supportive as the partner of a Texas Ranger. Since Cordell’s team is so obsessed with making him take time off, maybe he needs to quit and run the bar instead.

I’m hoping that in the last episode, a rift opens in the fabric of space and time and the Impala bursts through with Dean and Bobby (like in the final episode of The Winchesters) to rescue Sam from a djinn-induced alternate reality where no one appreciates him, to get back to the family business of saving people, hunting things.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have ‘fix-it’ fan fiction.

 

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