Initial reaction: Walker 1.13
WELL. Turns out I have a lot to say about this episode. Maybe because it's the first one I actually watched on a TV and not on my phone? Maybe because the whole thing was one big Supernatural fanfic? But I had a lot of thoughts and feelings about this one and decided I need to do an actual recap. (Don't count on it ever happening again.)
We start right where we left off, with Clint Dressed In Black So You Know He's Evil gunning down sweet pretty Liam in the front yard. Liam is draped gracefully on the step, presumably dead, and Clint orders everyone inside but Cordell says "let me take my brother" and already we're starting with the brother feels, y'all. Also I like Cordell calling his mother "Mama." I like it a lot.
I like Jared in a white shirt too, though I'm annoyed that there's a bullet wound there which we are being denied.
Clint and his henchmen herd everyone inside. Mama Walker is briefly hysterical but calms down quickly and no one seems to care about poor dead Liam. They are really just remarkably unmoved by his supposed murder right on the front steps. Clint sits everyone around the table and has his son - Stella's one-time boyfriend, if you forgot - tie them up. Hoyt is snarky and I starting to have feelings for him. But it looks like there's going to be a lot of Bad Guy Monologue and I'm not here for that.
Clint wants Cordell to call Micki and have her bring Clint's partner to the house, and they have a conversation on speakerphone wherein Cordell says, very pointedly, Clint's still out there, but Mickey does not get the hint and apparently these two don't have a code word like Funkytown or Poughkeepsie, which is a damn shame. Unfortunately Clint's partner is already in jail, so Clint says let's go look at the horses instead.
All the horses are in the stable, which is odd because it's the middle of the day and it seems like they'd be out in the pasture, but what do I know. I had a horse once but I was an amateur horse owner, not a professional. Clint mentions Cordell not being in the family business (I see what you did there) but I thought the family business was cattle, not horses. Cordell points out that Clint has already evened the score, since he killed his brother, and yeah, I'm sorry, I can't hear Jared Padalecki say those words without going… well, you know where I'm going.
Oh hey, where are we, looks kinda like a BARN.
Grandpa Walker arrives, listening to some dreadfully twangy music, and decides things don't look right, what with strange trucks and people walking about with shotguns. Or rifles. I've pointed out that I don't know the difference, right? Being Grandpa Walker, he stalks up there with his own lengthy gun instead of calling the authorities. He finds Liam, who it turns out is only mostly dead, and picks him up and carries him off. Damn, Grandpa Walker is a serious badass.
Is hurt!Liam doing things for me? MAYBE. DON'T JUDGE.
Grandpa carries him into the… tack room? I'd know, if I were a professional. He gets some pain pills out of his pocket and Liam asks where he got them, because that's our biggest concern right now. Hey Dad, the family is being held hostage and I've been shot but why do you have pain pills? (Maybe this seems odd to me because I am part of a family where we send routine texts saying my back went out, do you have anything but that's what happens when you are in a family of healthcare workers. Do you think they're extra careful about making sure you only take what's prescribed to you, and tossing out that leftover Percocet you got from your wisdom tooth removal after you've recovered? Trust me, they are NOT.)
But I digress. Grandpa Walker calls Micki (do you have your child's coworkers' numbers saved to your phone, because I do not) and tries to tell her what's going on but he's interrupted by Clint, who grabs the phone and checks out who he called. "Glad you weren't stupid enough to call the cops," he says, because Micki is not identified as Cordell's Law Enforcement Partner on Grandpa's phone. Maybe she's called Not Moose. Clint also finds the pain pills in Grandpa's pocket and confiscates them. Clint is a man after my own heart.
Anyhoo.
{Sidebar: Why is Gramma Walker with him? Why did he drag her along?}
Back at the ranch, Cordell tries to talk Travis (that's the son's name, isn't it, or did I already forget?) into letting them go, while Stella and Hoyt both manage to get out of their ropes and sit there pretending they didn't. Cool, will they do something? (Spoiler alert: nope.) Did Travis tie them loosely on purpose, or is he just a failure at being a criminal? Could go either way at this point. (On rewatch - yes, if I'm writing an actual recap rather than a list of grievances I have to do a rewatch - I'm not sure Stella got out. Accuracy is important.) Clint and his minions (seriously, how many minions does he have here?) show up with Grandpa and Liam, and Liam's family is surprised to see him up and breathing but not, you know, inordinately happy. Anyone starting to think Cordell was the golden child?
{Sidebar: I suspect the Venn diagram overlap between people who would name their son Cordell Beauregard and people who would name their son William but call him Liam instead of Billy or Will even though they live in Texas is narrow indeed.}
Poor injured Liam is dumped in a bedroom, Cordell gets an excuse to yell "Daddy, stop it," and Grandpa Walker is added to the group around the table. There's some more evil monologuing and yelling, Hoyt tries to be the hero and gets knocked around, and Cordell yells "Enough!" He does not add that there will be no new king of Hell, unfortunately, but I went there. Did you?
Hells yeah I did.
Cordell says he'll do anything if Clint will just let his family go and he has to look up at Clint and this scene isn't giving me the same feels as vulnerable Sam Winchester looking up at someone but, you know. It will do.
Yeah it will.
Anyway. Clint's going to make Cordell rob a bank for him. Hoyt is going with. Cordell changes into a clean shirt for whatever reason and daaaamn guys, have we seen this outfit before? Cause I like it.
You can come rob my bank any time, sweetheart.
Clint hands Cordell and empty gun and Hoyt asks if they can take the Mustang, which makes me think he's got a plan. Spoiler alert: he doesn't. Or maybe he does. To be honest, I skip the whole bank robbing scene because I don't want to get secondhand embarrassment from Cordell awkwardly trying to rob a bank, but I suspect it goes something like this:
Hand over all the money.
Son, you're wearing a Texas Ranger badge.
Um. I forgot about that.
But I do see that Hoyt bonks him on the head and pretends he's the real robber and Cordell is just his hostage. During the robbery, Hoyt manages to sneak a loaded gun to Cordell. Good for you, Hoyt. I'm beginning to really like you. They make their escape in the Mustang and Hoyt is apparently such a badass that he can get under the bridge they were expected to be driving over, evading both the police and the minion tailing them, even though there doesn't seem to be an actual road there. But he's not enough of a badass to escape Micki! Because before they robbed the bank, Micki told Captain I've Forgotten His Name about her weird phone call with Cordell's father, so Captain called Cordell. And they don't have a code word either. Seriously, guys. Captain thinks he's "a little off" but that's as far as he'll go.
Anyway. Micki meets the boys on the bridge. (Team Sassyboots! I didn't know that was canon!) Cordell tells her what's going on and she agrees to let him handle it. They call each other Flora and Beau, which I guess is becoming the new bitch/jerk.
Back at the ranch, Liam is screaming in pain (rather dramatically, I thought) and the kids beg Trevor to let them help him. Stella and August are allowed to check on him, under Trevor's watchful eye. (Clint then interrogates Gramma and Grandpa Walker and I skipped most of this but he figures out that Grandpa has cancer. Oh, and he reports the bank robbery! Clint, you shithead.) Liam looks like crap, but this is the one time that the Walker hair and makeup team could learn a lesson from the Supernatural team. Because Liam looks kind of orange, not grey like Sam did in Red Meat. (Mmm, Red Meat.)
Stella convinces Trevor to let her call Coach Micki's Boyfriend, who Facetimes her through some first aid. He says they need to cauterize the wound, because he’s a war medic but he’s never heard of wound packing, and Augie says oh, there's a brand in the barn and I'm like... wait. Y'all couldn't think of anything smaller than a fucking branding iron? Bitch, do you not have a curling iron? Conveniently, Stella has a knife and alcohol in her room. She cuts on the wound for whatever reason and then Trevor brings the red-hot iron (how long do they stay red hot?) and Stella carefully uses just the edge of it ha ha ha no she doesn't she smacks it right down flat on his chest, and now Liam has a big W brand right where his brother has an anti-possession tattoo. Seriously, could you not just heat up that knife???
(Am I now jonesing for a fic where Sam Winchester gets branded? MAYBE. I TOLD YOU, DON'T JUDGE ME.)
Clint is pissed when he sees Liam's brand, cause he's jealous and he wants one. Oh, no, wait. His son explains that Liam was dying and Clint's all, that was the point, dumbass. Oh, it ain't about the money. It's about revenge. We should have known from Clint's all-black outfit that he wasn't just evil he was eeeviiiiiillll.
Anyway. Cordell and Hoyt are back, and now it's dark outside, even though it was full daylight when they fled the bank. The ranch must be on the very farthest outskirts of town. Everyone goes outside to meet them except Liam, who is probably still dramatically screaming in pain. There is more monologing and then Hoyt pulls out a loaded gun and shoots, so maybe he kept the gun I thought he gave Cordell at the bank? {shrugs} There's more runnin' and fightin' and shootin'. Even Stella jumps into the Mustang and backs over somebody. Hoyt thinks he got Clint and goes over to check, but oh, Clint has the knife he took out of Grandpa's jacket! And he stabs Hoyt! Oh no! Everybody runs over, Gramma screams louder than she did when her own son was shot and presumably dead, and Hoyt gets his goodbye speech, complete with his bloody hand over Jared's, saying he always knew it would end this way, and Jared's tears, and IT IS TOO SOON FOR THIS NONSENSE, OKAY? IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN A YEAR. And Gramma cries, which she didn't do when she thought Liam was dead.
Clint just stood and watched this whole thing, but now he holds a gun to Cordell's forehead and Cordell kicks him. So I guess we have a shoutout to the OG Walker in addition to all the Supernatural shoutouts tonight. I guess neither of them has a loaded gun now, because there's more kicking and punching. Trevor shoots into the air to stop their fight. Micki has just shown up, and when she hears the gunshot she calls for backup. And let me tell you, if I was Captain What's His Face and I found out one of my Rangers knew her partner had robbed a bank because his family was being held hostage by a wanted criminal, and she just decided to let the whole thing run its course? She'd be fired. She'd be up on charges. She'd be dead. But then, I'd also arrest a civilian for straight-up murdering an unarmed suspect, so maybe I just don't understand how things go down in Austin.
Clint tries to get Trevor to shoot Cordell, but Trevor isn't convinced his dad is right. And even Cordell is like yeah, if I were you, I'd shoot me, cause I have some obvious anger management issues. Trevor does put down his gun after some encouragement from Micki, but then Clint reaches for another gun on the ground! Oh no! And there's a gunshot! Cordell frantically pats himself down for a wound but Clint was the one who got shot, by Liam! Coming up from behind, bleeding, in true Red Meat style! Well, who saw that coming? And can I just say what a goddamn shame it is that Sam's shirt wasn't hanging wide open like this in Red Meat?
We was robbed.
Also interesting that whoever plays Liam didn't get the shaved chest part of the standard CW contract crossed out like Jensen and Jared eventually did.
Cordell grabs his staggering, wounded, badass little brother (dammit) and pats his head and tells him it's all right (Safe House!) and they end up in a group hug with August and Stella. Gramma Walker is still cradling her dead favorite son, Hoyt. (I mean, first the diamond ring and now this. Anyone else starting to wonder?)
Aftermath! I didn't mention Cordell's DPS hearing because I didn't care, but apparently he's going to be put on probation for two weeks because of some other shit I wasn't paying attention to. Or is it because he robbed a bank? "That's not right," Cordell says, and I think he's going to say it's too harsh, but actually he thinks that because he got his best friend killed, and almost got his brother killed, and he just can't do this right now. And he hands in his badge.
This scene was framed well, because they manage to make him look small and helpless.
Well! So much drama. And so many questions... Did Hoyt ever give the big-ass ring back? Is he secretly Gramma Walker's lovechild? Will Trevor and Stella ever go to a dance again? Will I remember anybody's names next time? Who's the Big Bad now? Will Cordell get his job back? Will he get a matching brand? Will we ever see Liam shirtless again? Was there a Supernatural shout-out I missed? What is the airdate for The Boys season 3?
Stay tuned, friends. I hear there's a Richard Speight-directed episode coming up. That should be interesting.
We start right where we left off, with Clint Dressed In Black So You Know He's Evil gunning down sweet pretty Liam in the front yard. Liam is draped gracefully on the step, presumably dead, and Clint orders everyone inside but Cordell says "let me take my brother" and already we're starting with the brother feels, y'all. Also I like Cordell calling his mother "Mama." I like it a lot.
I like Jared in a white shirt too, though I'm annoyed that there's a bullet wound there which we are being denied.
Clint and his henchmen herd everyone inside. Mama Walker is briefly hysterical but calms down quickly and no one seems to care about poor dead Liam. They are really just remarkably unmoved by his supposed murder right on the front steps. Clint sits everyone around the table and has his son - Stella's one-time boyfriend, if you forgot - tie them up. Hoyt is snarky and I starting to have feelings for him. But it looks like there's going to be a lot of Bad Guy Monologue and I'm not here for that.
Clint wants Cordell to call Micki and have her bring Clint's partner to the house, and they have a conversation on speakerphone wherein Cordell says, very pointedly, Clint's still out there, but Mickey does not get the hint and apparently these two don't have a code word like Funkytown or Poughkeepsie, which is a damn shame. Unfortunately Clint's partner is already in jail, so Clint says let's go look at the horses instead.
All the horses are in the stable, which is odd because it's the middle of the day and it seems like they'd be out in the pasture, but what do I know. I had a horse once but I was an amateur horse owner, not a professional. Clint mentions Cordell not being in the family business (I see what you did there) but I thought the family business was cattle, not horses. Cordell points out that Clint has already evened the score, since he killed his brother, and yeah, I'm sorry, I can't hear Jared Padalecki say those words without going… well, you know where I'm going.
Oh hey, where are we, looks kinda like a BARN.
Grandpa Walker arrives, listening to some dreadfully twangy music, and decides things don't look right, what with strange trucks and people walking about with shotguns. Or rifles. I've pointed out that I don't know the difference, right? Being Grandpa Walker, he stalks up there with his own lengthy gun instead of calling the authorities. He finds Liam, who it turns out is only mostly dead, and picks him up and carries him off. Damn, Grandpa Walker is a serious badass.
Is hurt!Liam doing things for me? MAYBE. DON'T JUDGE.
Grandpa carries him into the… tack room? I'd know, if I were a professional. He gets some pain pills out of his pocket and Liam asks where he got them, because that's our biggest concern right now. Hey Dad, the family is being held hostage and I've been shot but why do you have pain pills? (Maybe this seems odd to me because I am part of a family where we send routine texts saying my back went out, do you have anything but that's what happens when you are in a family of healthcare workers. Do you think they're extra careful about making sure you only take what's prescribed to you, and tossing out that leftover Percocet you got from your wisdom tooth removal after you've recovered? Trust me, they are NOT.)
But I digress. Grandpa Walker calls Micki (do you have your child's coworkers' numbers saved to your phone, because I do not) and tries to tell her what's going on but he's interrupted by Clint, who grabs the phone and checks out who he called. "Glad you weren't stupid enough to call the cops," he says, because Micki is not identified as Cordell's Law Enforcement Partner on Grandpa's phone. Maybe she's called Not Moose. Clint also finds the pain pills in Grandpa's pocket and confiscates them. Clint is a man after my own heart.
Anyhoo.
{Sidebar: Why is Gramma Walker with him? Why did he drag her along?}
Back at the ranch, Cordell tries to talk Travis (that's the son's name, isn't it, or did I already forget?) into letting them go, while Stella and Hoyt both manage to get out of their ropes and sit there pretending they didn't. Cool, will they do something? (Spoiler alert: nope.) Did Travis tie them loosely on purpose, or is he just a failure at being a criminal? Could go either way at this point. (On rewatch - yes, if I'm writing an actual recap rather than a list of grievances I have to do a rewatch - I'm not sure Stella got out. Accuracy is important.) Clint and his minions (seriously, how many minions does he have here?) show up with Grandpa and Liam, and Liam's family is surprised to see him up and breathing but not, you know, inordinately happy. Anyone starting to think Cordell was the golden child?
{Sidebar: I suspect the Venn diagram overlap between people who would name their son Cordell Beauregard and people who would name their son William but call him Liam instead of Billy or Will even though they live in Texas is narrow indeed.}
Poor injured Liam is dumped in a bedroom, Cordell gets an excuse to yell "Daddy, stop it," and Grandpa Walker is added to the group around the table. There's some more evil monologuing and yelling, Hoyt tries to be the hero and gets knocked around, and Cordell yells "Enough!" He does not add that there will be no new king of Hell, unfortunately, but I went there. Did you?
Hells yeah I did.
Cordell says he'll do anything if Clint will just let his family go and he has to look up at Clint and this scene isn't giving me the same feels as vulnerable Sam Winchester looking up at someone but, you know. It will do.
Yeah it will.
Anyway. Clint's going to make Cordell rob a bank for him. Hoyt is going with. Cordell changes into a clean shirt for whatever reason and daaaamn guys, have we seen this outfit before? Cause I like it.
You can come rob my bank any time, sweetheart.
Clint hands Cordell and empty gun and Hoyt asks if they can take the Mustang, which makes me think he's got a plan. Spoiler alert: he doesn't. Or maybe he does. To be honest, I skip the whole bank robbing scene because I don't want to get secondhand embarrassment from Cordell awkwardly trying to rob a bank, but I suspect it goes something like this:
Hand over all the money.
Son, you're wearing a Texas Ranger badge.
Um. I forgot about that.
But I do see that Hoyt bonks him on the head and pretends he's the real robber and Cordell is just his hostage. During the robbery, Hoyt manages to sneak a loaded gun to Cordell. Good for you, Hoyt. I'm beginning to really like you. They make their escape in the Mustang and Hoyt is apparently such a badass that he can get under the bridge they were expected to be driving over, evading both the police and the minion tailing them, even though there doesn't seem to be an actual road there. But he's not enough of a badass to escape Micki! Because before they robbed the bank, Micki told Captain I've Forgotten His Name about her weird phone call with Cordell's father, so Captain called Cordell. And they don't have a code word either. Seriously, guys. Captain thinks he's "a little off" but that's as far as he'll go.
Anyway. Micki meets the boys on the bridge. (Team Sassyboots! I didn't know that was canon!) Cordell tells her what's going on and she agrees to let him handle it. They call each other Flora and Beau, which I guess is becoming the new bitch/jerk.
Back at the ranch, Liam is screaming in pain (rather dramatically, I thought) and the kids beg Trevor to let them help him. Stella and August are allowed to check on him, under Trevor's watchful eye. (Clint then interrogates Gramma and Grandpa Walker and I skipped most of this but he figures out that Grandpa has cancer. Oh, and he reports the bank robbery! Clint, you shithead.) Liam looks like crap, but this is the one time that the Walker hair and makeup team could learn a lesson from the Supernatural team. Because Liam looks kind of orange, not grey like Sam did in Red Meat. (Mmm, Red Meat.)
Stella convinces Trevor to let her call Coach Micki's Boyfriend, who Facetimes her through some first aid. He says they need to cauterize the wound, because he’s a war medic but he’s never heard of wound packing, and Augie says oh, there's a brand in the barn and I'm like... wait. Y'all couldn't think of anything smaller than a fucking branding iron? Bitch, do you not have a curling iron? Conveniently, Stella has a knife and alcohol in her room. She cuts on the wound for whatever reason and then Trevor brings the red-hot iron (how long do they stay red hot?) and Stella carefully uses just the edge of it ha ha ha no she doesn't she smacks it right down flat on his chest, and now Liam has a big W brand right where his brother has an anti-possession tattoo. Seriously, could you not just heat up that knife???
(Am I now jonesing for a fic where Sam Winchester gets branded? MAYBE. I TOLD YOU, DON'T JUDGE ME.)
Clint is pissed when he sees Liam's brand, cause he's jealous and he wants one. Oh, no, wait. His son explains that Liam was dying and Clint's all, that was the point, dumbass. Oh, it ain't about the money. It's about revenge. We should have known from Clint's all-black outfit that he wasn't just evil he was eeeviiiiiillll.
Anyway. Cordell and Hoyt are back, and now it's dark outside, even though it was full daylight when they fled the bank. The ranch must be on the very farthest outskirts of town. Everyone goes outside to meet them except Liam, who is probably still dramatically screaming in pain. There is more monologing and then Hoyt pulls out a loaded gun and shoots, so maybe he kept the gun I thought he gave Cordell at the bank? {shrugs} There's more runnin' and fightin' and shootin'. Even Stella jumps into the Mustang and backs over somebody. Hoyt thinks he got Clint and goes over to check, but oh, Clint has the knife he took out of Grandpa's jacket! And he stabs Hoyt! Oh no! Everybody runs over, Gramma screams louder than she did when her own son was shot and presumably dead, and Hoyt gets his goodbye speech, complete with his bloody hand over Jared's, saying he always knew it would end this way, and Jared's tears, and IT IS TOO SOON FOR THIS NONSENSE, OKAY? IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN A YEAR. And Gramma cries, which she didn't do when she thought Liam was dead.
Clint just stood and watched this whole thing, but now he holds a gun to Cordell's forehead and Cordell kicks him. So I guess we have a shoutout to the OG Walker in addition to all the Supernatural shoutouts tonight. I guess neither of them has a loaded gun now, because there's more kicking and punching. Trevor shoots into the air to stop their fight. Micki has just shown up, and when she hears the gunshot she calls for backup. And let me tell you, if I was Captain What's His Face and I found out one of my Rangers knew her partner had robbed a bank because his family was being held hostage by a wanted criminal, and she just decided to let the whole thing run its course? She'd be fired. She'd be up on charges. She'd be dead. But then, I'd also arrest a civilian for straight-up murdering an unarmed suspect, so maybe I just don't understand how things go down in Austin.
Clint tries to get Trevor to shoot Cordell, but Trevor isn't convinced his dad is right. And even Cordell is like yeah, if I were you, I'd shoot me, cause I have some obvious anger management issues. Trevor does put down his gun after some encouragement from Micki, but then Clint reaches for another gun on the ground! Oh no! And there's a gunshot! Cordell frantically pats himself down for a wound but Clint was the one who got shot, by Liam! Coming up from behind, bleeding, in true Red Meat style! Well, who saw that coming? And can I just say what a goddamn shame it is that Sam's shirt wasn't hanging wide open like this in Red Meat?
We was robbed.
Also interesting that whoever plays Liam didn't get the shaved chest part of the standard CW contract crossed out like Jensen and Jared eventually did.
Cordell grabs his staggering, wounded, badass little brother (dammit) and pats his head and tells him it's all right (Safe House!) and they end up in a group hug with August and Stella. Gramma Walker is still cradling her dead favorite son, Hoyt. (I mean, first the diamond ring and now this. Anyone else starting to wonder?)
Aftermath! I didn't mention Cordell's DPS hearing because I didn't care, but apparently he's going to be put on probation for two weeks because of some other shit I wasn't paying attention to. Or is it because he robbed a bank? "That's not right," Cordell says, and I think he's going to say it's too harsh, but actually he thinks that because he got his best friend killed, and almost got his brother killed, and he just can't do this right now. And he hands in his badge.
This scene was framed well, because they manage to make him look small and helpless.
Well! So much drama. And so many questions... Did Hoyt ever give the big-ass ring back? Is he secretly Gramma Walker's lovechild? Will Trevor and Stella ever go to a dance again? Will I remember anybody's names next time? Who's the Big Bad now? Will Cordell get his job back? Will he get a matching brand? Will we ever see Liam shirtless again? Was there a Supernatural shout-out I missed? What is the airdate for The Boys season 3?
Stay tuned, friends. I hear there's a Richard Speight-directed episode coming up. That should be interesting.