In Longmire, episode 8, titled Shotgun, we pick right up where Hector Lives ended, with Tyler Malone being shot by a .410 snake slayer and Walt firing in the dark at a fleeing figure. This week the episode starts out at a pretty hectic pace. The suspects are about to depart the crime scene, Walt tries to help the wounded Malone, Henry and Gab run from the area and finally Trot Simic is arrested as they let everyone else leave. Malone is rushed to hospital in Walt’s vehicle.
Gab waits for Henry and the two drive off in his truck, Walt questions the wounded man in the back of the car. Meanwhile Henry passes out from the .30 calibre slug he got from Walt.
Longmire realizes at the hospital that he may be dealing with two different killers and Henry realizes he has his best friends bullet in his bum. As the doctor removes the slugs from Tyler, Henry asks Gab to help him remove the bullet from his wound.
He puts the handle of his knife between his teeth and when Gab attempts to remove the slug, he screams in pain. The young woman then tells Henry she cannot take out the bullet and he has to use his Hector pliers to remove the slug. Bellowing in pain, he uses the pliers and collapses.
Walker Browning confronts Walt about two of his men, both rape suspects, dying and Gab patches Henry up. He tells the young woman she should have left and Gab confesses that she thought about it. She then tells him that she could not leave Hector to die. “I’m not Hector,” Henry tells her. She replies:
“What you said, while you were beating that scumbag?
It was in my note, word for word.
If you’re not Hector you should stop reading his mail.”
Henry tells the woman that they both have a secret to protect.
The tension in this episode is high. Henry’s struggle to move Gab out of harm’s way. Walt trying to catch Gab after initially denying that she was most likely Tyler Malone’s killer. Zach’s discovery that Monte had been tailing him and everyone connected with Longmire. Cady’s decision to lie about not seeing Henry with Gab. All these combine to add to the turmoil.
*Sidenote* Walt knows that his daughter is lying, you can see it in his eyes.
Browning is becoming even more antagonistic toward Walt and Vic finally gets together with Eamon. Apart from all the relationships shifting in this season and these episodes, Shotgun shows Henry and Walt struggling on parallel journeys. Walt is seeking answers while Henry seeks justice for Gab, initially, and then seeks the Crow Medicine Woman who can help Gab escape.
This episode, more than any other, points out the hostility between the local Cheyenne tribe and the white legal system. For example, when Vic goes to the bar looking for a lead on which women were at the Res at the party, she is hindered in her search for Laila Bixby (Alicia Urizar).
The deputy is tripped by another woman and it results in an injury requiring treatment. Later, when they go to see Gab and question Sam Poteet and a strung out Linda, Gab’s mother, Sam questions Mathias’ presence. One imagines that the tribal lawman will be facing some strong animosity from the Cheyenne people because of his cooperation with Walt.
After Walt talks with Laila, who tells Officer Mathias (Zahn McClarnon) that her rescuer had no face and was Tsitsistas, the tribal lawman explains that the term means “ourselves.” In other words that it was another Cheyenne who saved Laila from being Malone’s second victim.
The fleeing couple, Gab and Henry, get another car, after Gabriel threatens the woman and after she gets the keys, Gab strides to the station wagon to find Henry already in the passenger’s seat. “Shotgun,” he says wearily as she grabs the car door and closes it.
Episode 9 is all about threats, anger, animosity, and struggle. Henry’s and Gab’s journey is so full of struggle and pain that it is almost epic. There are a few moments of humor. Mathias tells Walt he really needs to release Trot Simic as Walker Browning “knows his way around the law.”
Longmire releases Simic and then arrests him again. Ferg reads Trot his rights while taking him back upstairs to the cell. Vic and Eamon getting together has a comic feel to it, or at least amusing and the interaction between Walt and the doctor does as well. Walt brings Donna Sue his copy of John Donne’s poetry:
“I know you’re busy, but you said you enjoyed him.”
“No, I didn’t. I-I-I said I had to read him in college.”
“Oh. Give it back.”
“No, it’s mine. You just gave it to me.”
Sadly, this “cute” moment between the two is interrupted by Walker Browning who is upset that Tyler Malone just died. He blames Walt who then implies that Browning may have done it. Emotions are running high from all concerned and Walker is sure that Longmire is responsible for his men’s death.
The long painful journey of Henry and Gab ends at the Crow reservation. They finally reach the Medicine Woman’s wheel and shots ring out. Henry throws up his hands and bellows out:
“Stop! I have been shot at enough for one day!”
The woman comes out and gives him one minute to explain why he is there. After he starts talking she smashes him across the face with her rifle butt, Henry collapses.
This penultimate episode is all go from frame one. By the time the end credits roll, Henry is flat on his back on the ground. Walt now thinks that Browning killed Balint, Cady sides with Henry, and Zach may be in trouble. Season four is zooming to its conclusion and things are coming to a head. More importantly, Mathias confirms that there is a new Hector.
Episode 10, What Happens on the Rez looks to be a continuance of this intensity.
Kudos to Tantoo Cardinal as the medicine woman, she is only on screen for a split second in this episode but what an entrance.
Lou Diamond Philips and Julia Jones, as Gab, own this episode full stop. The two are a great double act in their flight to the Crow Medicine Woman’s camp. Shotgun is Longmire gold and it looks like the finale may well be platinum.
