There was a lot of anticipation for the season premiere of “Walker” last week – it’s the show’s fourth season, and it’s made a switch to Wednesday night, but fans were happy to follow it to its new day, posting their excitement online.
The cast and crew were equally excited – it was a long long break between seasons with the strike going on. They posted some bts photos and Jared Padalecki even took over the “Walker” Instagram for some fun videos.
The season premiere opens 5 months later – after a reminder of the reappearance of The Jackal, the reappearance of “Cordri” (the Geri and Cordell romance) to the elation of those who ‘ship it’, and the missing body after Stella and Sadie’s break in. The episode is a treat for the Cordri shippers, opening with some Geri and Cordi making out – waiting all these seasons really created a lot of passion! I don’t ship it, but I don’t not ship it, so good for you, Cordell and Geri.
Also, Geri looks hot in his oversized shirt and a disheveled Cordell is a very good thing.
It’s Cordell’s birthday – Geri surprises him with a little cupcake before he reluctantly has to leave for work – more reluctant about leaving Geri than not eating the cupcake though.
He’s saving room for a big steak eating competition at the Grand Lonestar. Augie isn’t thrilled about it, but Geri wants to surprise her man by the whole family being there too. Also, I’m happy that Ben’s eating breakfast with the Walkers so I guess things are going well with him and Liam. Lots of happiness it seems….which I’m sure means something will go very wrong soon.
Oh, and it does! Stella oversleeps for the meeting she and Liam have about the break-in case. She’s clearly despondent and is asking for space and maybe avoiding her family (and leaving a lot of telltale pizza boxes strewn around her dorm room).
Cut to Cordell having a bad day already too, as he and the other Rangers are tossed around a big truck as the bad guy bank robber driver takes a whole lot of sharp turns. He somehow stole a bunch of gold bars all on his own and didn’t notice a bunch of Rangers sneaking into his truck – or did he?
Cordi: Guys, I’m starting to think this may have been a bad idea…
The truck finally comes to a screeching halt and the bad guy comes around with a gun at the ready.
Walker: I got this.
Everyone else: Oh boy…
Cordell slides to the end of the truck and kicks open the door, flying out and knocking the bad guy down just like that.
Cordell: Walker, Texas Ranger. You’re under arrest.
Okay, that was pretty sweet. For Jared Padalecki, apparently it didn’t feel as smooth as it looked – he had injured a toe on a coffee table at home and even putting a boot on it was painful, let alone flying out the back of a truck. Ouch!
Jared: I had an “altercation” with my coffee table on New Year’s Eve and shot the sequence in the back of the truck with a fractured toe…. Not as fun as it sounds
Back at HQ, the gang tease Cordell about his steak eating contest and getting the “meat sweats” which sounds kinda disgusting, but Cordell has a plan and is confident he’ll get the commemorative tee shirt and that’s adorable. Cordell is kind of a fanboy and I’m here for it. I can totally see him rocking that tee shirt. Trey clearly appreciates that side of him too – or else he’s thinking about winning the contest himself…
The guys are wondering when Trey and the woman he’s dating are going to join Cordell and James on their double dates, with the implication that nothing serious has been going on with anyone Trey’s been dating. And then, right on cue, Cassie comes back for a visit.
Apparently, none of them have heard from her for months. Now I know some people were hoping she and Trey would be a thing, but as I said last season I love their relationship as platonic and hope it stays that way. We’ll see…
The FBI needs their help.
Cassie: What do ya say we get the band back together?
Trey isn’t too happy that she totally disappeared, but Cassie seems to be really enjoying her work with the FBI and Tessa Graves – who’s in the hospital with a gunshot wound. Cassie’s chasing the Delmonico brothers and the fentanyl ring they’re bringing to Austin. That puts a crimp in Cordell’s steak plans and Geri’s birthday party plans, but of course they’re in to back Cassie up.
Meanwhile, Det. Luna has a lead on The Jackal, which Trey and Cordell are trying to keep from the Captain. Trey sneaks out to run down that lead while Walker covers for him. The two are trying to protect James since his life was upended by the Jackal before, but of course that sort of subterfuge never ends up going well, does it?
Poor Geri is disappointed, especially since Cordi went all out for her birthday, taking her to all the places that she mentioned loving as a kid. Awwww, he’s so sentimental.
Abeline: I knew I raised that boy right.
Bonham: He gets that from his daddy.
Bonham also gets to the say the memorable line “Hells bells cockleshells” which was apparently a Mitch Pileggi ad lib that everyone liked so much they left it in. It sounds very Bonham.
Augie: What if we just got a big ass staek and had him eat it here?
Stella and Liam meet with the detective investigating the break-in case, which the county wants to close. He asks Stella to read over her statement to be sure she didn’t leave anything out. Stella has a hard time with the memories brought up by reading the case summary – of the intruder, Witt McCarthy, being shot (and then found dead in his smoldering car, of that gunshot).
It’s considered self-defense, and Stella doesn’t correct that Witt was a stranger, saying she’d never met him. Which we know is not the truth, since they met him at that party where Bel was also. Hmmm. I feel like signing something that’s not true could be a problem down the line, Stella…
Cassie didn’t forget Cordell’s birthday, gifting him with some cowboy boots, which he pronounces awesome and puts right on. I love his boyishness as he sticks his feet out and grins at his new boots like a little kid. We don’t get to see that side of him very often, but Padalecki can really pull off that kind of little boy energy.
Cordell isn’t so happy about Cassie considering re-upping with the FBI, but he also wants what’s best for her. And he’s lived long enough, and had enough loss and change, to understand that it’s a fact of life.
Walker: I think it’s an incredible opportunity that doesn’t come around too often. Everyone leaves eventually, so do me a favor. Don’t be a stranger again.
Cassie invites him to lunch at the ranch which is a ruse for the surprise birthday party.
On the way, they catch up about the show-within-a-show ‘Hawk’s Shadow.’ Cassie’s love of Hawk’s Shadow is one of my favorite things about this show, so I was thrilled that she told Walker that they’re doing a reboot, which I choose to view as a “Supernatural” Easter egg since Jared and Jensen Ackles are constantly talking about doing a reboot of that show. The reboot is ‘more grounded, more about his family’ lol. Walker’s been watching it too – more fanboy Walker, yay!
They walk into the house, and everyone shouts surprise!!
Jared Padalecki is always so good at adding those little physical touches that tell you who his character is and what he’s been through – he startles a lot at the surprise, as anyone would who’s had some PTSD after the violence he’s experienced.
Augie asks his dad if he can leave early for a high school party, and poor Cordell struggles with the answer. His son reminds him that Walker told him to enjoy his high school years (and not drop out early to join the armed forces), and Cordell really does want him to do that. But he also wishes his son would stay for his party – it’s so hard to let your kids grow up, ouch.
Also, when did Kale Culley grow up so much??
Meanwhile, Stella’s keeping to herself, sitting alone at the piano while the rest of the family is celebrating. Liam comes to sit with her, realizing she’s struggling – and remembering his own struggles.
Stella confides in him. She can’t sleep, is behind in class and her hair has been falling out.
Stella: I can’t keep the dorm room window open because of the noise.
She says she keeps hoping to wake up and have things be different, which I think is a feeling anyone who has been challenged by physical or mental stressors has experienced.
Stella: But I still feel like…like this.
Liam confides that he felt similarly after the shooting and talking with his big brother helped.
Liam: Your dad told me that I needed to forgive myself. I didn’t know what that meant, to forgive myself for killing a psychopath…but it takes time. Slowly it gets better.
He’s right.
Trey and Walker try to figure out the lead about the Jackal away from Captain James, but Kelly finds them and figures it out. They all know that the multiple jackal teeth that were found means he’s gearing up. She asks them to do what James did when Emily passed – protect Cordi as long as he could.
Kelly: Because he cared for you. I’m asking you to do the same thing now.
Then it’s time for the steak eating contest, which is a playful interlude to the rest of the episode that everyone in the cast seemed to thoroughly enjoy.
Jared shared a little bts tidbit:
Keegan and I were both in there still eating when they said cut, and Jeff Pierre was as well. I probably went through a couple pounds over the course of six or eight hours.
Ah, the joys of filming.
No sooner does the steak eating contest end than the Delmonico brothers come to town and everyone goes to intercept them.
Cut to a montage with music, flashlights in a dark warehouse – it’s actually a really beautiful scene, and the music works with the lyrics “gonna get my vengeance”. I enjoy seeing Cassie run things and be in charge, and everyone follow her lead seamlessly.
They’re suddenly under gunfire, ducking for cover.
Walker and Trey do a ‘fake sweep’ where Trey baits the shooter out and Walker manages to sneak up behind one guy and capture him.
Cassie finds the brothers, but they have Captain James at gunpoint so she has to put the gun down. They offer to exchange the Captain for her letting him leave, but Cassie has another idea – she ignores that and starts sharing some of the “intel” they’ve gotten. Cassie gives the brothers the bad news that one of the brothers is sleeping with the other’s girlfriend and that gives them the distraction to turn the tables and take them down.
It’s so hard to be in business with your family. Unless you’re the Winchesters, that is.
Cassie: Perez, Texas Ranger. You’re under arrest.
Well played, Cassie.
Trey and Cassie finally have a conversation, and it seems to put them back on the platonic track, though I guess we’ll see.
Cassie: The best part of today was just having my friend back.
Captain James asks her which way she’s leaning, but she says she doesn’t know. James says she can make as big a difference there as with the FBI and asks her to think about it, and to trust him.
At the end of the long day, Cordi is struggling with all the change happening, Augie almost done high school, Stella at college, Cassie going back to Quantico.
Cordell: It all hit me.
Geri: What’s so bad about an empty nest?
Cordell: The quiet.
That was a great line, and such a meaningful one. Jared Padalecki delivered it with impact.
Cordell: When you can’t keep the darker thoughts from work at bay, it can eat you alive. Gonna be a lot of quiet in this house real soon.
Geri is there for him, listening and accepting. He adds that it helps to say it out loud.
He’s right.
Cordell turns to Geri, a serious expression on his face. He’s emotional, eyes glistening a little.
Cordell: I hope you know…
Trey knocks on the door, interrupting their conversation.
But before Geri leaves them to talk, she leans down and touches his face, says gently “Cordi – I know.”
That was a beautiful little moment, a lot of vulnerability from Padalecki and a lot of empathy from Odette Annable. It felt very real, just a quiet little moment. Apropos of the title of the episode, those can be the most powerful.
The two Rangers go down the hall, to the room where an entire wall is devoted to The Jackal. Shades of the Winchesters!
Jared tweet:
Is that a…. hunter wall??
It definitely is. A little “Supernatural” Easter egg perhaps.
Trey asks just how bad things got before with James, and we get a flashback of that time. James holed up for days and nights on end, drinking too much. Cordell brings Kelly to try to talk him into going home and drying out but he refuses, insisting he’s fine and throwing Cordell up against a wall, slamming him against it.
Shades of the Winchesters again!
James (anguished): Why did you bring her here?? I can’t come home, just tell DJ…. I’m so close…
The perfect music cue plays, melancholy, in the background as Walker remembers. (‘Night’ by Daniel Spaleniak, a beautiful, mournful kind of song, very evocative).
Cordell: It all just kinda ate away at him I guess.
Trey: The depravity?
Cordell hesitates, then answers softly.
Cordell: The quiet.
Nice wrap around to the theme of the episode and how when we don’t let anyone in, the quiet really can eat away at us. And a better understanding of why Captain James doesn’t drink and why Kelly is so determined that this case not get under her husband’s skin again.
Anyone who has ever witnessed a loved one losing themselves to something they can’t give up, no matter what it takes from them, probably cringed at that flashback scene. I know I did. I felt for Walker, trying to be so gentle with his friend, not expecting the lashing out and the rage directed at him, and for Kelly, helplessly witnessing it and wanting to protect their son from that out of control anger. So sad, so scary.
The two Rangers share a look, knowing they have to try to prevent that from happening to their friend again.
This was a coherent episode, with some nice action sequences mixed in with family moments and some deeper themes. I think I’m really gonna relate to Cordell’s empty nest stress. It’s a huge transition, even if your kids are doing great things, not to have them be little kids anymore. It’s hard to know how to let go, when to still step in, when to not.
If you’re lucky, you have a bunch of people around you who care enough to ask questions, and to listen to your answers – and you’ve got the courage to share with them. I’m glad Cordell has Geri, and Stella has her Uncle Liam, and the whole family tries to have each other’s backs even if it doesn’t always go smoothly.
My favorite things are always the psychological and emotional touches that this show often gets right.
Walker’s lingering hypervigilance as he startles at the surprise party.
Stella confides all the ways that the trauma of shooting Witt has affected her – they even included her hair falling out, which is something that absolutely does happen but is rarely portrayed on TV. (We didn’t get to see it, but that’s understandable and I’m sure Violet Brinson is grateful for that!)
Her emotional struggles aren’t something we just hear about either – we see them, from the pizza boxes strewn around her apartment to how set apart from the rest of the family she is at the party.
Walker’s wistful sadness as he anticipates the quiet that will come with his kids growing up (and leaving home). It’s a quiet that anyone who has experienced their children getting older will immediately understand – I did. His comment to Cassie about how everyone leaves is both evidence of the way his losses have shaped his perspective and also of some of the healing he’s done recently – it’s wistful but it’s also accepting, an acknowledgment that loss is a part of life even if we don’t like it. It’s clear that he’s not alone anymore, that his relationship with Geri is much closer and there’s a solidity to it that he can pull from when he’s struggling.
And speaking of emotions… Jared also tweeted asking if we all wanted to guess Cordell’s birthday. The break-in was June 16 and it’s five months later, which brings it awfully close to November 19, the day that Sam Winchester went to Heaven on that other little Show that Jared was on. Too big an Easter egg? Hmmm.
Looking forward to next week’s episode with Maybe It’s Maybelline!!