Wrangling Walker: Season Four Episode Thirteen “See You Sometime”

What a ride! Kudos to the writers for giving us an episode that functions well both as a season finale, and as it turns out, a series finale. While “See You Sometime” gives us an enticing clue about a problematic new neighbor, all the main threads of the season are tied up, or are at least on their way to resolution.

The writers and cast did the best they could to give the storylines and the characters a good jumping-off point for the rest of their lives, whether we get to go along for the ride or not.

One last time, I’ll leave the detailed recap to others and focus on impressions.

Life and Death

Given Luna’s murder and Cordell’s brush with dying, thoughts of life and death weigh heavily on all the characters’ minds.

Cassie is overwhelmed with grief, so Geri and Kelly try to keep her from ‘drowning.’ She admits to Ben that she doesn’t know what to do.

Cordell gets flashbacks while surrounded by his family cooking dinner, trying to focus on Auggie’s graduation, but is reminded by his children ‘you weren’t here’ and ‘you almost died’. ‘Time and again, we’ve come so close to losing you,’ Abeline tells him. It’s so sad that even now, when his bravery and willingness to put himself at risk led to capturing the Jackal, Cordell still thinks he’s made a mess of everything.

When Cordell goes to see Stella in her dorm, she tells him she just needs him to be there, that she ended up where she was meant to be. She also tells him that they didn’t read the letters he left for them, not needing to hear from that version of him. “There’s no version where you being gone is better—just different pain,” she tells him.

While Stella owns that her recklessness and risk-taking comes honestly to her as Cordell’s daughter, she doesn’t seem to understand that it’s just as unwelcome for those who love her. Maybe that underscores how alike they are, where she can’t see the downside to her actions and Cordell can’t see that his successes outweigh his failures.

Cordell seems to have literally come back from the grave with a need to apologize to everyone. He tells Geri that he hasn’t been the partner she deserves, and that he saw her in his drugged vision and wants to be the person who makes her happy. Geri says he needs to talk to her before taking risks in the future, but I’m not sure how that works with Ranger protocol. She also reminds him that he wasn’t there to help with her re-opened grief over Hoyt’s death that came about from the necklace incident. I’m not giving Geri points for being a supportive partner, because she certainly doesn’t seem too traumatized about almost losing him.

Cordell tries to patch things up with Cassie as best he can. I’m not sure how he ends up reporting to her. I guess his times going rogue have counted against him getting promoted since Captain James was his previous partner and now Cassie moves up while he stays behind and is partnered with Trey despite seniority. Heroes just don’t get promotions, I guess.

If there was one thing I wish the show had done better, it would be having Cordell’s loved ones wrestle more clearly with the unreasonable expectations and blame caused by the tension between their own understandable desire for ‘normal’ and the requirements of his job. Seeing them go to family counseling could have been eye-opening for all involved.

Even here at the end, Cordell is apologizing for not being a better father, life partner to Geri and work partner to Cassie. He has tried so hard to do right by his job and by the people he loves—an unwinnable situation—and I think he deserves more credit for doing pretty darn well overall by everyone involved. Especially since Cassie still seems to be weirdly blaming Cordell for Luna’s death. That’s going to be a major problem if he now reports to her, and he shouldn’t have to deal with that.

Maybe it really is time for Cordell to hang up his Ranger’s hat and run the Side Step. His contributions to successfully closing cases don’t seem to be appreciated by his work team or his family, so why keep putting his life on the line? He needs to walk away, close the door on that chapter in his life, and find meaning in something that doesn’t pose an ongoing risk to his life.

Cordell makes an important decision to take a leave of absence from the Rangers and go on a long vacation with Geri and the kids. It was a nice touch for him to look at the old photo of him, Emily, Geri, and Hoyt, linking past and future. We see he has a ring box, and I sure hope Geri appreciates what a great guy he is. I hope on that vacation, he decides to leave the Rangers permanently.

There’s a call-out to the past two episode titles, “Letting go” and “Let’s go, Lets go” when Geri is herding everyone toward the car, “Let’s go, Let’s go.”

It’s a nice way to have them ride into the sunset, with their whole future ahead of them.

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

I’m happy to see Ben and Liam take a step forward by moving in together, and Liam get a chance for a whole new career move with the call he gets from the Governor. Kelly and Larry James seem to be back on better footing as well.

Auggie got into all the schools he applied to, so he has big choices ahead. Stella has moved into a dorm at college, so her life is changing, too. Sadie also seems to be moving forward in a positive way. Trey and Cordell will be partnered when he gets back from his leave—if he returns to the Rangers. Cassie got her promotion, but has a lot of grief and anger yet to confront and manage.

Bonham and Abeline work out their differences on the events management job, with Abeline clarifying that she wants to have a voice in it, but not to abandon Bonham during their retirement years. He offers to sell the boat, but they decide to keep it and use it for events. So refreshing to see them talk things out!

Final Thoughts

Walker has given us quite a ride. I don’t think it really hit its stride until Season Three, so it’s sad to have it end before it tells its full story. While I had some major issues with the first two seasons, those were largely resolved in the final two, which I think made the stories and characterizations much stronger.

Jared and the cast knocked their performances out of the park every week, regardless of where the writing took them. They made us love the characters and care what happened to them, and they gave us real moments of tears and joy.

To quote Chuck from Supernatural: “Endings are hard…but then again, nothing really ends, does it?” Walker (and Walker: Independence) created an important contribution to the Walker mythos, and even though both are gone too soon, they’ve left a lasting, important mark. Bravo.

I can’t wait to see where Jared takes us next!

Catch up on all of Gail’s Reviews, Original Stories and More on her Writer’s Page.

Bookmark The WFB‘s Walker (and Walker: Independence) Pages for reviews, character profiles, and news on the cast and show!