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.
