Longmire – Blood measurements

In this week’s episode of Longmire, that moment we all knew was coming finally comes, when Walt finds out his daughter Cady was sleeping with Branch. It went a little better than I expected at first, then got a lot worse when Walt confronted her. Cassidy Freeman has a sad crying face that makes me want to side with Cady, no matter what, but especially when she’s right.  He better get over it, because she was trying to do her best, and it’s not her fault he was a nutcase six months ago.

I love it when the show and Walt are cleverer than I am. When he put together that Mathias had already found the body and moved it because he didn’t want to deal with it, that was a nice, smart character moment for Walt, and for Mathias, too actually, when they discuss the problem this case gives them. I hope that working together on this case lets them be crime-fighting buddies, because Mathias is pretty cool when he’s not being a jerk. Also I covet his hair.

Branch with his dad make me feel sorry for him, because Barlow is such a controlling bag of awfulness. Growing up in that family seems like it would be the opposite of fun, and his dad saying Branch owes him for providing information to solve a murder is low and scummy. Gerald McRaney plays it with such a smarmy edge I want to smack him in the teeth. I am curious what his beef is with Walt though; it seems more personal than Walt being in his son’s way as sheriff. Then, of course, Branch has to go wreck my feeling sorry for him by being all “it’s none of your business” to Walt about his relationship with Cady when he may technically be right, but that’s such a stupid thing to say in that moment to his boss and her father. Then later buying into his father’s philosophy that just because Walt is mad at him that he can’t stay at the job and has to win.

When Walt stormed out to find the game, I had the horrible feeling that Barlow has set it up as a trap for Walt, knowing his son would pass on the address. Thankfully that turned out to be not true, but Walt still got lucky he wasn’t more badly hurt before the cavalry arrived. I was excited to see the former Trickster of Supernatural (Richard Speight Jr) in that crowd at the game — anyone with a name that I recognize is automatically a suspect by TV law — but then he turned out not to have much to do with the story, which was disappointing. Also disappointing was that the excessive force complaint was too obviously a plot device to give Walt the name.

I think the show leaves us little doubt that all of Walt’s accusations of Jacob’s plan are true, which makes Jacob the Lex Luthor to Walt’s Superman, which could be great fun, if they can keep it up. There is nothing as annoying to a lawman as the criminal mastermind who keeps his hands clean, and they play off one another well.

Since I was born and raised in New Mexico (not far from where this show is filmed, in fact), the topic of blood quantum was something I heard a lot about as gambling started to become popular on reservation land. While I don’t know of anyone getting murdered over it in real life, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out it happened somewhere, not with that kind of money involved. But I suppose it’s probably best not to tie real life to Absaroka County too closely, though it would make a funny meta observation if Branch pointed out in his campaign how unusually high the homicide rate is. The frequency of murder does require more suspension of disbelief than smaller cases would, and I hope for next season the show does some of those, even if the cases are harder to make interesting.

Season finale next week! Hope to see you then!

Clacked by Liz Tamura
on Aug 06, 2012 @ 04:57 EST5EDT