Walker
“Tracks”
March 18, 2021
Morning in the Walker household. Stella is texting Trevor and August is making pancakes from scratch and caramelizing grapefruit halves with a handheld kitchen torch. On a Tuesday? Is Ruby coming over? Or is this just how you do when you’re 14 and you apparently own a bar now?
Walker does not actually eat any of his son’s food. He lingers just long enough to burn his hand on the cast iron skillet and assure Stella that he will try his best to make it to her game in Laredo. It’s her complete lack of believing him, and August telling their father he can just watch the video later for me.
Instead of taking five minutes and eating a damn pancake, Walker goes to Micki’s house to check on her after the whole ‘mom getting arrested in front of you for felony hit and run’ thing. And yes to all of this. Yes to Walker and Micki’s relationship of mutual respect as partners and Walker’s easy, friendly rapport with Trey. Yes.
Loading up the bus for Laredo. August steals a moment with Ruby intending to ask her to the upcoming dance. Because in typical The CW fashion, school only exists as a backdrop for sports and dances. But so sad for August, they’re interrupted by Suave Todd … who’s already taking Ruby to the dance. Belle rescues August before he bursts into flames from embarrassment. She tells him she’s been there—it sucks when somebody gives you fireworks but you can’t give them back.
Trevor pulls up and Stella tells Trey he’s the team’s waterboy. Really? Some floppy-haired non-student rando shows up and the adults are like, sure! This seems fine. What?
Stella tells Trevor they almost left without him. He teases her, asking if she was worried. She doesn’t josh back when she wonders if she should be. The question sends Trevor into a dissociative state as he thinks back to his recent visit with his father in prison. Clint telling him that Duke Culpepper ruined their family and is the reason Trevor’s mother Crystal is dead. Clint telling him that they weren’t just going to let that sit. Trevor shakes it off and gets on the bus.
They arrive at the hotel and August broaches the, “So, you and my sister” subject. Are these two pals, now? Did they bond during the 15 minutes they spent together not murder camping? August quickly reveals that the question is less about Stella and more about girls in general. Specifically, how he gets one to like him?
Suave Todd overhears the conversation and say less, friend! They’re at a place with a pool. Suave Todd lowers his sunglasses and says this calls for the UV13 method. You have to work the vacation vibes! Starting by finding that right light angle—42 degrees—and walking 13% slower than normal. He says girls won’t be able to tell, which makes it the perfect slo-mo walk.
This child is ridiculous and I kind of want him to become a thing. Team Suave Todd.
August questions what the point of doing that is if it’s not the real him? Trevor slips into another dissociative state. And scene.
August considers deploying UV13 in the hotel restaurant, but Suave Todd slides into the booth with Ruby before he can find his angle. He overhears Belle talking to her parents and she admits that they returned to Mexico to avoid deportation. August sits with the weight of this news and the fact Belle is dealing with it alone.
At another table, Stella is explaining Thirsty Balls, a secret keg scrimmage the team does every year. Trevor is still a million miles away. He tells Stella that he saw his dad the day before and it’s gotten into his head and under his skin. He says he came to Austin to be close to his dad, but sometimes all he wants is to be as far away as he can.
Stella says she gets it. She tells Trevor she speaks from experience when she says it’s not their job to inherit their dads’ baggage.
Speaking of, Micki is reeling from her mom’s arrest. It doesn’t make sense to her—Adriana doesn’t drink and her whole MO is accountability. Walker accompanies Micki to San Antonio to post Adriana’s bail. Micki is on fire for justice, ready to get the press and ACLU involved in the case, but Adriana tells her to stop—she did it.
Micki isn’t ready to let it go. They stake out Adriana’s house while Micki pokes holes in the evidence—no injuries that would be consistent with the amount of blood found at the scene. An incomplete DNA profile on the blood that won’t hold up in court. And a bracelet with a religious medallion that Micki says is just not her mom.
Walker is sympathetic. He says he knows what it’s like to go after things that don’t make sense to you. But it if makes sense to everyone else … it’s the Rocko’s Radio principle. Micki is like, it’s Occam’s Razor, you chump. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy their banter?
They follow Adriana to a second location. Walker suggests it could be Adriana’s drug dealer stash house … or she’s visiting a friend and it means Micki doesn’t really know her mother that well. Micki says she used to. She tells Walker about her childhood and how watching the trolleys with her mom was the only thing that could comfort her when she was having a bad day. It made her feel safe and loved. And then at some point, things changed.
Walker understands how deeply Micki wants her mom to understand the choices she’s made. They work the case and spin theories, settling on the idea that someone might be threatening her.
After Adriana leaves, Walker and Micki attempt to interview the woman she was visiting, Mercedes Ruiz. She has no interest in talking to them beyond to say that Dr. Ramirez is a good woman and that’s all that’s important, good day. SHE SAID GOOD DAY.
They don’t appear to notice that Mercedes is wearing a bracelet similar to the one found at the crash. Oh, snap! Is Micki about to discover she has a secret older sibling? Is Mercedes her sister?
Micki and Walker retire to a food truck court to consider a possible list of suspects. Walker notes that Adriana’s list of potential enemies includes more than a few badges. Micki tells him to think on their latest theory while he tucks into his taco.
Micki says she knows the owner. He’s a friend … actually, he’s the first guy she ever arrested. She might have helped a little with turning his life around. Walker says Micki shares that with her mom—going above and beyond to take care of someone.
Micki identifies a person of interest—Officer Mike Stevenson. The volume of calls to Adriana suggests harassment. When Adriana shows up at Mike’s house with steaks for the grill while Micki and Walker are interviewing him, they realize Mike isn’t Adriana’s stalker—he’s her boyfriend.
There’s no time for conviviality and unpacking family baggage after Walker gets an emergency call from Trey—the kids are gone. All of them. Slipped away to a second location for Thirsty Balls. And how does that work exactly? A fleet of Ubers? There are cars parked at the Thirsty field—did they carpool with the opposing team? Who got the keg? And the ice and cups? THERE ARE LOGISTICS REQUIRED FOR AN EVENT LIKE THIS AND I JUST NEED TO UNDERSTAND THEM.
Several hours later, Thirsty Balls is still well in swing when three trucks full of hooting dirtbags roll up. Trevor puts himself between the group of scared teenagers and Head Dirt Bag in Charge. HDBC says they’re on Northside Nation land and they’re hurt they didn’t get an invite to the party. Trevor stares the man down and says the group is leaving (in the cars they don’t have? WHAT?) Trevor gets steely and salty when HDBC starts eyeballing Stella.
HDBC suggests they play for it. If any of the kids can score on him, the dirtbags will leave. Stella is like, square up loser. HDBC gets set in goal. Stella kicks the ball … and it’s shot out of the air by Dirt Bag of the Second.
Trevor launches himself at HDBC, tackling him to the ground. Fight, fight, struggle, fight. Trevor soon finds himself staring down the barrel of three guns, at imminent risk of having his floppy-haired head blown off. Walker, Micki, and Trey come roaring up, just in the nick. Shooting, shooting, shooting. Fighting, fighting, fighting.
While Walker tussles with HDBC, Trevor picks up the man’s fallen gun. He raises the gun, but who is he aiming at? HDBC or Walker? Walker gets cuffs on HDBC and Trevor snaps out of his fugue. He’s like, here is this gun I found that I was most certainly not going to use to shoot you and avenge my family.
At the police station, Walker says they took down a faction of Northside Nation in Austin … although he notes those arrests lacked tonight’s pizzazz. HDBC overhears Walker say that the redhead is his daughter. He gets in Walker’s face, making lecherous threats against Stella. Walker pulls the man in close, but this time, he uses his words. He calmly quotes the criminal code statute that just bought HDBC an extra 12 months in prison.
Micki is impressed! De-escalating and not retaliating. Although he totally got the statute wrong, fyi. Walker says he was close.
No, says Micki. No, he was not.
Walker glowers over his children. He tells them if he wasn’t so relieved he would be cuffing them right now. He’s not half as relieved as they are. August silently throws his arms around his dad and hangs on. Stella says she finally figured out what it takes to get Walker to her games before joining in the hug.
August tells Walker there’s just one small thing they need to do before they go back to the hotel. Micki drives them to the border. August tells Belle to check her phone just as it dings with a message from her mom telling her to look up. The sky lights up with fireworks. August hands Belle a bottle rocket and says now she can give them back.
Micki watches the show and flashes back to the trolleys of her childhood. Only in this memory, there’s someone else in the car with her and her mom. Micki needs to know what it means and leaves to ask Adriana in person. Even though she drove Walker and the kids there and you know what? I just have to let it go. Letting it go now.
Micki knocks on Adriana’s door early the next morning. Who is the woman in her memories?
She’s Micki’s mother.
Sitting on the front porch swing, Adriana explains that Mercedes is her sister. And an addict. Mercedes left Micki with Adriana when she was a baby. It was only supposed to be temporary while Mercedes went to rehab. But two months turned into six months turned into a year. By the time Mercedes came back three years later, Adriana says Micki was hers.
When Mercedes asked for money, Adriana paid her and then left town and changed their names. Micki tearfully asks what her name is. Adriana insists her name is Micki Ramirez before admitting her birth name is Nina Ruiz. Born in Carlsbad, NM but raised in San Antonio so Mercedes couldn’t find them.
Until she did.
Adriana says Mercedes came to one of her lectures a week earlier and begged to see Micki. They got into a fight and Mercedes drove off—drunk. Adriana says she’s responsible for the accident. Responsible for years of her sister’s misery. She justifies the years of lies as protecting Micki. Protecting her from turning out like Mercedes.
Micki says she’s always asked herself why she couldn’t make her mom proud. She accuses Adriana of letting her feel that way. She says Adriana never had that right.
In Laredo, Trey calls the team in before they take the field. He says after what they went through last night he wants them to just have fun. The girls are like, really? Never mind the whole underage drinking thing, Coach Bobby would never tell them to have fun during a game. Trey is like, well because of the whole sneaking out, underage drinking, being menaced by dirtbags, and almost murdered thing, Coach Bobby is no longer their head coach. Trey is.
Before she begins her warm-up, Belle takes a moment to thank August for the fireworks. She says it’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her. And then she asks him to the dance. Ruby watches August accept. And then she watches Suave Todd struggle to get his hoodie sleeve uncaught from the camera tripod and realizes she made a 42-degree angle of deviation mistake.
Micki calls Walker from San Antonio. She tells him not to come to her, but she’s grateful that he offers. She asks him not to tell anyone about her mom. She says she’s not ready for it to be real yet. She hangs up, takes a deep breath, and walks towards Mercedes’ house. She stops and turns away before she gets to the steps.
Trevor joins Walker in the stands. He thanks the boy for what he did the night before. He says standing up to HDBC took guts and bravery. Trevor doesn’t feel brave. He says he had the shot, but he couldn’t take it. Walker tells him that is exactly the bravery of which he speaks. Trevor has no idea how taking that shot could have changed his life. As someone who’s had to do it before, Walker says he doesn’t wish it on anyone, especially not a young man with his whole life ahead of him.
And granted, most of the people Walker has shot—witches, shapeshifters, skinwalkers, British Men of Letters—might not be human, per se. Hey, remind Walker to tell Trevor about the time he shot his niece to save his brother from being killed by his Amazon monster baby.
Good times!
Liam and Captain James are in Reynosa, Mexico following the money and looking for answers—especially now that Geri is MIA. They visit the art gallery owned by Mendoza’s niece. Liam enters first and photographs the visitor book while James distracts the character who doesn’t have a name so I’m going to call her Sophia. They discover later that several of the addresses match business fronts tied to—wait for it—Northside Nation.
The minute they leave the gallery, Sophia places a call to report the visit from the guy who put her uncle in prison. And then the next morning when James hits the remote start on his key fob, the car blows up.
Walker airs Thursday at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern) on The CW. Follow Whitney on Twitter @Watcher_Whitney.