This episode has a much slower pace than last week's and focuses around the Side Step, the bar that's been a recurring location throughout the first five episodes and has been established as a place Cordell and Emily often hung out. It felt a little rushed at the beginning, with Geri just straight up announcing over the phone that she was selling the bar, but the pacing evens out and flows well from that point as Cordell uses fixing the bar to both work through his own feelings concerning the anniversary of Emily's death and his stress about an upcoming evaluation for his behavior in the pilot (it took me forever to figure out that's what he and Micki were discussing, though, since I couldn't remember the name of the guy Walker beats up). It was really gratifying to see Walker realize that running from or trying to smooth over his issues won't do any good. He needs to own up to what he did wrong and use it as an opportunity to be a better Ranger.
I did find the camping plot with the kids and grandparents to be a little boring but I'm still not sold on Abeline in general and it mainly centered around her. The actress is doing a great job, her character just rubs me the wrong way and has from the start. I'm warming up to Bonham more and more, though! It's interesting to see Mitch playing a "good guy" after only being familiar with him in the role of Samuel Campbell in Supernatural, a character I wouldn't really describe as "good".
Now, the ending. That I really enjoyed. Between the arrest of Micki's mother (definitely didn't see that coming), that Stella's new boyfriend is the son of the man Cordell put in jail when he was Duke, and the reveal that the man in prison for Emily's murder is being paid off AND that the money is coming from Geri (I wanted to trust her but I KNEW she was too good to be true), the end of this episode was a roller coaster! It feels like this may have been planned to be a midseason finale, before the addition of extra episodes that came with the renewal for season 2. I'm really hyped to find out how Geri fits into this. Did she kill Emily? Did she have Emily killed? Why? What would have driven her to murder her best friend? I'm looking forward to seeing Geri fleshed out as more than "Emily's best friend" and "the pretty face behind the bar" as we delve deeper into the truth of that night.
I did find the camping plot with the kids and grandparents to be a little boring but I'm still not sold on Abeline in general and it mainly centered around her. The actress is doing a great job, her character just rubs me the wrong way and has from the start. I'm warming up to Bonham more and more, though! It's interesting to see Mitch playing a "good guy" after only being familiar with him in the role of Samuel Campbell in Supernatural, a character I wouldn't really describe as "good".
Now, the ending. That I really enjoyed. Between the arrest of Micki's mother (definitely didn't see that coming), that Stella's new boyfriend is the son of the man Cordell put in jail when he was Duke, and the reveal that the man in prison for Emily's murder is being paid off AND that the money is coming from Geri (I wanted to trust her but I KNEW she was too good to be true), the end of this episode was a roller coaster! It feels like this may have been planned to be a midseason finale, before the addition of extra episodes that came with the renewal for season 2. I'm really hyped to find out how Geri fits into this. Did she kill Emily? Did she have Emily killed? Why? What would have driven her to murder her best friend? I'm looking forward to seeing Geri fleshed out as more than "Emily's best friend" and "the pretty face behind the bar" as we delve deeper into the truth of that night.