I’m so enjoying the psychological journey the show is taking Cordell on.
He wakes up, alone, reaching over for Geri but finding no one there, checking his text messages remembering she’s away. And only then does he look the other direction – at what I’ve come to call The Book.
Much like John Winchester’s journal in Padalecki’s previous show, Supernatural, it’s a journal that leads to a spiraling obsession as first James and now Walker try to figure out who the Jackal is. It feels dangerous, almost like an addiction – Larry couldn’t fight its pull, almost sacrificing his relationships with his family and his sobriety. Now Walker is being pulled down its wormhole, and his relationships are already starting to show the strain too, even if he doesn’t realize it yet.
Cordell is vulnerable to falling down the rabbit hole of obsession for some of the same reasons John Winchester was – he’s had way too much loss and trauma, and right now the support and relationships that usually sustain him are in flux. Stella is in college so not around all the time, Augie is about to graduate from high school and maybe enlist, and even Geri is away right now. Without his family to anchor him, Cordell just keeps doing what he literally does in the opening scene – being drawn into The Book. And the case.
He’s still trying, though. He immediately pulls out the eggs and bacon, wanting to cook breakfast for Augie, but his almost-grown son doesn’t have time. Cordell is disappointed and you get the feeling it would have been so good for him to have that time and that everyday parenting taking-care-of-someone job to do, but Augie is a high schooler and he’s got adolescent priorities, and that’s all pretty normal (if always difficult for parents!)
They talk, though, both kind of apologizing for the blow up the other night. Augie assures his dad that the kids don’t have an issue with him and Geri.
After his son leaves, Cordell puts the bacon and eggs back in the fridge and makes himself a bowl of cereal, alone in his kitchen.
And gets out The Book.
Tracking The Jackal
Walker is supervising the case and running down suspects as they search for the Jackal, reluctant to cross anyone off the list too quickly. They go visit one suspect, who is kinda a creepy guy but
Cassie: It’s more about control issues than violence.
Walker: It’s the control issues that interest me.
In fact, it’s all right there in The Book.
Flashback to five years ago, Larry and David arguing, all of them traumatized by the victim found with hands tied behind their back with climbing rope.
Larry: Our guy thrives on having people at his mercy, enjoys it. Wants them helpless as a child.
It got to them all then, and it’s really starting to get to Walker now. He insists this may be the guy, since he bound his wife’s hands behind her back – before he went for a joy ride in her car, Trey points out, but Walker is convinced this might be the Jackal. They come in all suited up with vests and guns – without a warrant for some reason. Not sure why he lets them in either, since they look like they are there for anything but “a friendly little chat”.
They nearly shoot the dude when he goes to take something out of a drawer, but he’s just trying to pull out a calendar that shows where he was that night – and he does have an alibi. Walker in particular is on a hair trigger and it’s making me very nervous! He’s so desperate to catch the Jackal that he’s seeing everyone as guilty. This guy was at an AA meeting and his sponsor who’s a cop vouches for him.
Wrong guy, guys!
And look, he’s clearly not a good guy, but he also didn’t do anything this time, and he’s going to AA meetings – and now he’s a traumatized guy who’s going to AA meetings!
Like I said, this season is getting dark, and they’re letting Walker really struggle against his own darkness, and I’m here for it. Cassie and David are worried about him too.
Luna: Walker, take a breath, go home, clear your head.
Walker can’t do it, even when Cassie and David try to talk him down, reminding him they don’t have any leads right now. They’re worried about him – me too! This case pulls for obsession, clearly.
Cassie and the Corpus Crooner
Cassie, on the other hand, wants to shut off her brain from the case – and Luna knows how. The two are now bonded through being fans of Hawk’s Shadow, which David has been bingeing – he greets her with a “Cacaw!” in fact. She’s reticent to show any affection while they’re at work, though, pointing out that there’s a double standard for women in that respect.
She’s down with the finding a diversion though – which turns out to be the magic of karaoke! He takes her to a karaoke bar where he’s kinda a regular (with his own nickname, the Corpus Crooner), and they find another thing they have in common. Luna says he was in a bad place with the Jackal case five years ago, and this helped.
Luna: You think it’s dumb, don’t you?
Cassie: gets up and sings “Livin’ In the Real World” (which Ashley Reyes can belt out really well!)
Luna writes her a note: I can’t even look at you. Says he hates her so much (obviously just the opposite) and she challenges him to “show me how it’s done”.
And of course he does, after sharing about his broken engagement and his fiancée who cheated.
Cassie: I’m sorry, I’m just trying to understand why anybody would cheat on you!
Justin Johnson Cortez does a great job on “Let Lovin’ Start’.
Also my friend Lauren does a great job being the extra in the background too, btw. Sure she’s completely blurry but look at that acting! A star is born!
We get a montage of Cassie and David lettin’ the loving start, and Cassie taking one look at David as she takes his shirt off and going “oooh”.
So relatable.
Back to the Jackal
Cordell is not as able to take the night off or get his mind off the case. Abeline cooked but Walker didn’t come over to eat (which means he ate cereal again, which seems to be a metaphor for lonely and not taking care of yourself). She tries to tell him he’s been overly focused on work, but he interrupts her, saying she doesn’t have to worry about him.
He convinces her, kissing her forehead goodnight. I love the mother-son relationship that Cordell has with his mama. Just because your kids are grown ups doesn’t mean they’re not still your kids, and Abeline and Bonham are unapologetic about trying to take care of them while also struggling to find that balance you need to also let them take care of themselves.
In this case? Listen to your mother, Cordell!!!
She leaves and he goes down the dark hallway to the room of wall weirdness, sinking right back into the darkness that she was trying to pull him out of.
I love the cinematography of these scenes, the way Walker is filmed walking out of the light and into the darkness as he leaves his relationships behind and immerses himself in the search for the Jackal, almost like he’s descending into the Jackal’s headspace himself.
It’s terrifying.
The next day they’re back at it. Although James tells them to take the night off, Walker suspects a guy who’s a zookeeper arrested for animal abuse might be the Jackal. Cassie and David think it’s a forced connection and that James was right to tell them to leave work at work, and Cordell is supposed to get to Augie’s boot camp, but….they realize he’s going there anyway so they go to the defunct zoo with him. It’s all about the teamwork.
The abandoned zoo is creepy as hell, wrecked buildings and a dead…is that a jackal???
This whole sequence was so well done and so ominously scary, the music perfect, the three making their way through the deserted buildings and empty animal cages lit only by flashlight.
At the same time, Augie is doing his boot camp graduation challenge, which his dad is missing. I’m ambivalent about the whole boot camp paramilitary thing for high school kids, as much as they have Trey make it about ‘helping the rest of your team’.
We get a music montage for both scenes cut together, which as everyone knows is not my favorite thing but the song is appropriate for the search for the Jackal, with the lyrics ‘make me into a monster’.
Cassie and Luna find an extension cord and a back room where someone has been living, and through a trap door, evidence that points to the Jackal, including fruit in the fridge and rope on the shelf. And another creepy journal.
At the same time, Walker spots someone running and gives chase, though Cassie tells him to wait for them.
Augie comes in first, about to break the course record, when he remembers that it’s all about teamwork and goes after his teammate who’s struggling.
Walker gets knocked out – presumably a close call with the elusive Jackal. Luckily he has backup there and the Jackal takes off as Cassie and Luna approach, because it’s all about the teamwork.
James and Cordell are happy to feel like they finally have the Jackal on the run, and James tells Cordell to rest up (which we already know he will not do).
James also notices the way Cassie and David look at each other, and says it’s none of his business but Luna’s good people and she shouldn’t take as long as he did to figure out the whole work life balance thing.
Cassie goes over and takes his hand, and awwwww.
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Liam is on a workout binge, Stella wants to learn self defense and Bonham offers to teach her, and Augie has a boot camp graduation. This show is like an advertisement for working out recently!
Stella and Augie are still investigating – and texting with Witt. Augie once again tries to put the brakes on things, while Stella just wants to help Witt.
Augie: Shouldn’t we tell Dad?
Stella: Tell him what, that I lied to the police?
Liam writes up a contract for Ben and Abeline to work together in the event business – which is news to Bonham.
Liam: It’s her event business.
Bonham: Well it’s still OUR ranch!
Bonham and Abby are definitely not on the same page when it comes to retirement – I like when there’s some focus on the older generation in this show, and I’m eager to see what they have to say about this important life transition that is actually very difficult for a lot of people.
Stella: Awkward…
That Ending!
Liam confronts Cordell about not being there for his kids – again. Cordell says this is a very different situation. Liam disagrees, saying he’s not really here again, and it feels like he has to be there for Cordell’s kids, that Cordell is ignoring his family, that he’s pushing everyone away.
Cordell says he’s fine, his family is fine.
Cordell: Why don’t you maybe just look out for yourself?
He pats Liam’s face, kinda condescendingly I think, and sends his brother off.
I think Liam is genuinely concerned for his brother, and he’s right about the obsessiveness getting in the way. On the other hand, Liam hasn’t really had to “watch his kids” because they’re not kids anymore. I do think Cordell realized he jumped to conclusions about Stella and Augie’s feelings about Geri, but he and Augie have already started to work that through.
Liam is right that Cordell is in a dark place, though.
He steps back into the room of weird walls, putting down his duffel bag as ominous music plays.
He opens the duffel bag, puts on black rubber gloves and takes out some rope – the Jackal’s rope maybe?
He winds it slowly around his own wrists…
As he ties the rope tighter, he flashes back to a victim’s hands tied behind their back, pulled tight.
Cordell grimaces, eyes closed, nearly shaking.
What the hell? I was watching with friends and we all were like, what is happening? Is he having a flashback? Is he remembering something? Is he actually the Jackal? Is he trying to get inside the Jackal’s mind?
Nobody was quite sure – but whatever was going on, it was not good!
And it was really good!
I really like that the show is getting as dark as it is. The family stuff is often well done and I enjoy it, but give me a dark twisted psychological mystery any time! Jared Padalecki can really pull off the twisted tortured soul of a genuinely good caring person and let us see all those contrasts. I am so here for it!
They’re also doing a great job of making who the Jackal is a mystery. Luna has been suspicious simply because he’s been involved in the case from the start, but he obviously wasn’t the person who knocked Cordell out at the zoo. Did he warn that person they were coming, though? Or is that just a red herring. I don’t know, and I like the not knowing!
We got the news yesterday that without a guaranteed renewal for Season 5, they’re currently breaking down the Walker sets, and that is breaking everyone’s hearts – the cast, the crew, my friends who work on the show, and the fandom. And we got the news a little while ago that this season will be the last. I am so sad to see the show go, and so very very sad for the wonderful people who work on the show and made it what it is.
Please keep watching and posting about the show so we can show the network that we’re supporting it to the very end!
And stay tuned for next week to see just how dark Walker can get…
Caps by spndeangirl
–Lynn
You can read Jared Padalecki’s own story in
Family Don’t End With Blood and There’ll Be
Peace When You Are Done – links and info at:
