I really enjoyed last week’s gentler, slower paced Walker episode, Four Stones In Hand.
The title refers to the hypervigilance that comes from being accustomed to being on the defensive, which is the position many of the show’s characters find themselves in after the events of the last year. As we’ve gone through Season 1, most of the characters have been slowly fleshed out, their complexity and emotional reactions to the stress of losses and trauma becoming more and more obvious. With this episode, many of the characters seem to turn a corner, dropping enough of their defenses to start on the bumpy road to healing. Fifteen episodes in, that feels like the right timing, because in real life when we humans are hurt, we hang onto those defenses for a long time – sometimes longer than we need to, just to make sure. I like that ‘Walker’ hasn’t rushed to sweep the traumatic events of the past onscreen year under the proverbial rug, but instead has allowed us to watch the characters struggle and now try to deal with the messy aftermath.
This episode is nicely framed, beginning with Liam’s challenge to his big brother – and ending with the Walker brothers in a slightly different, less defended, place. And they’re not the only ones.
Cordell is pretending to go over paperwork for the Side Step when he’s joined by Liam.
Cordell: I’m worried about you (as Liam heals from his gunshot wound).
Liam: I’m worried about YOU.
And rightly so. Cordell is listening to a police scanner, unable to let go of his motivation to keep solving crimes (I’m tempted to say, saving people hunting things…) although he knows he’s on leave. He tries to BS Liam about that, but it doesn’t work; the brothers know each other. And Cordell is not okay, still flashing back to the violent death of his best friend.
Liam: You chose to take a breather, but it feels like you’re not breathing.
Cordell insists he’s going to, and Liam challenges him to prove it.
Liam: Keep your mind on something other than solving crimes for one day.
He hands Cordell a Rubik’s Cube and challenges him to solve it.
(I confess to never having had the patience to do that, but Cordell accepts the challenge.)
