Walker
“Don’t Fence Me In”
February 11, 2021
Walker has found something to distract him from obsessing over Emily’s murder—obsessing over Micki’s middle name. She tells him that knowing a detail like that doesn’t mean he knows her … but that’s totally what it means to Walker.
The feeling is exacerbated by a social gathering with a few of Micki’s former Austin PD colleagues. Walker learns from friend Winston that she likes bourbon, not tequila—especially when it’s being poured in a joint like the Side Step—has mad boatorcycling skills (She has what? I listened to the line a dozen times, I have no idea), and at some unfortunate point in her past was dubbed with the nickname, “Muskrat.”
No wonder Micki is so close to the vest about her middle name.
She makes the point that all of that information was learned over time after earning her trust. WALKERSON.
Hey, did you know there’s a muskrat festival that’s been held each year since 1938 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore? And that it includes a Miss Outdoors pageant featuring a ceremonial skinning competition?
These are both true facts.
The next morning, Micki uses art to work out her feelings about the case of the week—the apparent murder of an oil field boss, Bob Harlan, by his longtime employee Enzo Carillo. She resents being pulled in front of the cameras during a press brief, feeling that she was being tokenized as the “Mexican good-guy”. She feels used.
Trey suggests that Micki’s visibility is a good thing for little girls who will see her and want to be her. It’s cold comfort after being confronted at the press brief by Enzo’s adult daughter Delia. Trey insists that Micki is blazing a trail. He says it’s easy to show up after the work has been done.
Walker and the kids have officially moved into the ranch farmhouse. He and August carry in the last of the boxes from the old house while Stella picks out paint colors. DID YOU KNOW THAT BENJAMIN MOORE HAS AN APP THAT HELPS YOU CHOOSE COLORS? I’m half expecting Kelly Clarkson to show up on Walker’s doorstep next week with tips for zhuzhing up the living room.
August carries a banker box to his room and starts going through the contents. A grimy Texas Rangers (baseball) trucker cap, a point-and-shoot camera, and a cell phone. Score! Walker comes over all squirrelly when he sees August wearing the cap. OH, YOU FOUND ONE OF MY OLD WORK BOXES NOTHING TO BE SEEN HERE. He doesn’t notice August stashing the camera and phone under a blanket.
Bonham and friend Stan Morrison startle Abby in the kitchen as she’s singing and making jalapeño pepper jam. Bonham says it’s just one of the new hobbies Abby has picked up recently. His tone is both admiring and low-key mocking?
Abby mentions that Walker is rooting around in the basement (looking for a place to stash the WORK BOX OF DOOM). Stan asks how he’s holding up. Bonham answers by wondering how any man gets over losing his wife … and suddenly they’re not talking about Walker and Emily anymore. Bonham excuses himself, creating the opportunity for Stan to tell Abby that Gary from the Seed and Tack in Rosedale has been asking after her. Abby comes over all wistful at the mention of his name.
Liam meets with Belle and her parents to discuss their case, and I guess Show hasn’t dropped this storyline after all. He says he can’t represent them, but he can advise them of their options—which are few. Stella is there to passionately insist that her uncle do something to help. Mrs. Munoz primly says that perhaps Stella and Isabelle could stay out of trouble. Stella shuts her yap and sits down.
Later, she and Belle begin their community service working at the prison stable. Stella is put on mucking duty and told to report to a sentient mass of floppy hair, long eyelashes, and high cheekbones called Trevor. She tells him Belle is in trouble because of her and asks him for advice on making things right. Trevor tells her she can’t change what happened, but she shouldn’t pretend it didn’t happen.
Stella acts on his advice by giving Belle a jar of Abby’s jam. SORRY YOUR PARENTS ARE GOING TO LOSE EVERYTHING THEY’VE WORKED SO HARD TO BUILD BECAUSE OUR SYSTEM OF IMMIGRATION AND ENFORCEMENT IS A SHITSHOW PLEASE ENJOY THIS CONDIMENT.
August charges up Walker’s cell phone of mystery and scrolls through the contacts. One face jumps out at him. He clicks on Twyla Jean’s number and taps out a message, “Hiya.”
Also, the contact directly below Twyla Jean? Winchester Auto.
Doubts about the Enzo case keep nagging at Micki, but she can’t openly question an investigation led by a beloved sheriff, Monty Shaw. She also gets the sense that Captain James doesn’t want her chasing it. She goes to Walker for his support, asking if they can keep it off the books until they have hard evidence. OFF THE BOOKS, shouts Walker. He says OFF THE BOOKS is his middle name.
“Just kidding, it’s Beauregard.”
After learning Enzo has died, Micki and Walker interview his daughter. Delia is suffering from the loss of both her father and Harlan. She tells them Harlan was a fixture in their lives—the first person on the dance floor at parties and even attended her quinceañera.
The rest of the Harlan family, not so much.
Walker and Micki interview Mrs. Harlan, OG Aunt Zelda, while she’s gardening and tending her titan arum. The US Botanic Garden in DC has a corpse flower and its blooming is an EVENT second only to the birth of a giant panda cub at the National Zoo. She and her terrible children keep the focus squarely on Enzo, suggesting that he was overly familiar and always seemed to be after something from Bob.
If that’s true, it must have worked. Bob Harlan left his entire estate to Enzo.
Micki suspects she knows why. She shows Walker her sketches, wondering if there isn’t a family resemblance between Harlan and Enzo. After re-interviewing Aunt Zelda, Walker reveals to Micki that he has discovered her middle name—Floriana. She tells him AGAIN SOME MORE that if she’s slow to trust him, it’s not because she doesn’t want to. It’s because she can’t afford to screw things up. Just like she’s told him EVERY EPISODE SINCE THE PILOT.
I’m taking Walker’s obvious cognitive impairment (after 15 years cumulative years of head trauma) as further evidence that Show is set in an alternate Supernatural universe.
They keep digging and, with dispatcher Connie’s help, uncover security cam footage showing Sheriff Monty and Aunt Zelda canoodling. Add Frank Devereaux hacking skills to Connie’s resume. Micki says the video establishes motive and may even suggest that Monty and Aunt Zelda conspired to kill her husband. James doesn’t think it’s enough to accuse a respected sheriff who’s 10 minutes from retiring, but Walker backs her up. He asks Captain James to let them put Monty’s feet on the fire and he reluctantly agrees.
When Micki pushes, Monty shoves. Her bluffing guess that Monty bludgeoned Enzo after killing Harlan and tried to frame him nearly gets her head blown off. That seems like a pretty solid confession.
Later, after her ears have presumably stopped ringing and the adrenaline has subsided, Walker toasts his partner for not letting it rest. Captain James agrees that he’s glad she didn’t. He says taking a job like this you think, ‘Here’s my chance to right the wrongs’, but you never know what’s going to fall when you shake the apple tree.
James leaves the two of them with take-out from Micki’s favorite barbecue place. Walker says he also knows she likes blueberry ice cream, green tea, and bourbon. He admits he called Trey, who he says was very forthcoming. Micki thanks Walker for believing her when she said the case didn’t feel right. Walker says he didn’t believe her—he trusted her. When your partner has a strong feeling, you back her up.
“Thanks, Bo.”
“Don’t mention it, Flore.”
Yes please, more of this. More of Walker and Micki having quiet character moments that help make their partnership feel authentic.
When Micki gets home, she’s greeted by the be-caped and be-unshirted Captain 8-Pack. She pulls him into a hug and hangs on. Trey wraps her up and says hugging is one of his superpowers. She doesn’t tell him she was nearly murdered hours earlier. She simply thanks him for helping her sort out the case.
Micki switches gears to ask Trey how his job interview went. He tells her she is looking at the new Director of Sports Medicine and Assistant Soccer Coach at Sacred Heart High. Micki wants to know everything about it, but Trey has a gift for her first—Micki’s childhood drawing of Lady Libertade, matted and framed. He says she needed a hero, so she drew one … and then she became one. He tells her not to forget that.
Again, Micki and Trey are 100% the best relationship on this show. And is anyone else starting to see a pattern here … that characters feel more real when they interact with Micki? Lindsey Morgan, y’all.
Walker joins Abby affixing labels to her jam jars. He casually asks if she’s happy. If she and Bonham are happy. Abby guesses that he found her stash of love letters from Gary while looking in the basement for a place to hide his own box of secrets. She shuts the conversation down, saying it’s in the past, and pulls parent rank—children aren’t entitled to know everything.
He goes home to the farmhouse and discovers an 8×10 glossy photo waiting for him on the Dining Table of Grief. It’s a photo of Walker canoodling with a woman who isn’t Emily. A photo August had developed from the point-and-shoot camera of mystery. Walker tells August that the woman was part of his undercover crew. She was part of a job that is done. He understands that his son has questions, but Walker says he doesn’t want to go back to that time. He wants to be here, now.
August says Walker looks happy in the photo. Unlike now. He wonders why there aren’t any photos like that with his mother. Walker says Emily was the family photographer. She took all the photos so she was almost never in them. Walker suggests August take up his mother’s mantle, starting with a selfie of the two of them.
Liam is winding down the day shaking the apple tree and reviewing the files from Emily’s murder. His assistant mentions that Captain James pulled surveillance logs just a few days earlier. Liam wonders why James would do that after he told Walker to back off the case. WHY INDEED?
The next morning Walker slips into August’s room to wake him up for school. He hears the soft ping of a text message alert. He picks up the cell phone of secrets to see a response from Twyla Jean to his alter ego, Duke Culpepper.
DUKE.
CULPEPPER.
Duke Culpepper sounds like the result of the ‘what’s your stripper name’ game. Anyhoo, Twyla Jean’s message reads, “Are you fresh out of jail? Just got to Jarrow Motel. Get down here. Urgent.”
Last week, Drunk August accused Stella of acting out to try and push their father away. Well, looks like this one is one him. Whoops.
Walker airs Thursday at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern) on The CW. Follow Whitney on Twitter @Watcher_Whitney.