Tag: Lou Diamond Phillips

Longmire (Season 6) Episode 2: Fever (Review)

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The second episode of Longmire, season six, finds Henry recovering from his ordeal at the Crow reservation. Walt is still facing the wrongful death lawsuit and he starts investigating what happened to his best friend.

Meanwhile, crime continues in the county. A man whose land is a popular place for treasure hunters ends up dead. The solitary man also has cash hidden all over his cabin. Walt has Ferg and Vic start chasing down leads and he stops by Cady’s office to tell her that Jacob Nighthorse must be involved with Henry’s near murder.

This episode features a fair amount of guilt, greed and not a little obsession. Cady’s guilt at possibly aiding Nighthorse to hurt Henry and a man’s stepfather’s guilt at falling out with his son.  After finding the dead man, with all that cash, someone turns up at the station and reports that his brother has gone missing.

Walt heads to a treasure hunters base camp, with the missing man’s brother and asks if anyone has seen him. Longmire bumps into Lucien Connally at the camp and the two men talk about Walt’s court case and why Connally is hunting for treasure. Lucien tells Longmire that he has pretty much figured out where the treasure is really hidden.

Vic finds the dead man’s will, handwritten and not necessarily legal, and they learn who Kayson has left all that cash to. The missing brother uses his credit card at a local hardware store and Cady visits Jacob. It is not a friendly visit and she beats her boss with the stakes that were used to trap Henry.

Walt freaks out when he sees what looks like Malachi Strand’s car and Cady goes to tell her father about confronting Nighthorse. She finds Henry at the Longmire cabin and they talk about Jacob and her attack on Nighthorse.

Lucien suggests that Longmire settle let of court and Walt explains that he tried. He also tells Connally about the murder and asks for his former mentor and friend to help out. Ferg reveals that the missing man never used the credit card. He also tells the two men that the man’s ex-wife used the card.

Walt, and Ferg, force the base camp to search for the missing man and they find him; dead at the bottom of a small cliff. Travis pushes to become more involved with Vic and the baby. During the search, Walt finds that someone returned to the dead goat farmer’s small graveyard and dug up whatever was buried in a grave.

That someone turns out to be Lucien. Walt calls Vic, in the middle of her ultrasound, and she cuts her appointment short. Travis gets upset and asks if Longmire even knows if Vic is pregnant. Walt finds the murder weapon buried in the woods.

Lucien turns up at Longmire’s office with the box he dug up at the farm and Walt works out that the missing man’s brother is the murderer. Henry and the sheriff confront Jacob. Nighthorse gives Walt the doctored books that prove Malachi’s dirty dealings at the casino. He then paraphrases “Jaws” by saying “We need a bigger search party.”

When Walt asks why Jacob is willing to help now, he replies that he more afraid of Malachi than Longmire. Travis turns up and tells Walt that Vic is pregnant. The concerned man has an engagement ring that he intends to give Vic if Walt doesn’t do the right thing.

The obsession in this episode of Longmire reminds us of Walt obsession with Nighthorse and Malachi Strand. Travis’ obsession is still Vic, the dead man’s brother is obsessed with finding the treasure; enough to murder for it, and the stepson is all caught up in hating his former step father.

Greed is covered by the missing man’s brother and all those reluctant helpers out at the treasure hunting basecamp. The guilt belongs mostly to Cady, who feels that Nighthorse betrayed her and put Henry’s life in danger as a result.

This final season of Longmire, especially this episode, makes a huge effort to turn Strand into the bogeyman. Even Nighthorse confesses that he is scared of his former chief of security. This episode also starts to focus on the relationship between Vic and Walt Longmire.

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Longmire (Season 6): What do we do Now? (Season Review)

Walt Longmire says it himself in the season six finale, “What do we do now?” He is talking to Vic, after they have finally, and officially, become a couple after almost six seasons of “will they, won’t they” false starts and stops. We ask ourselves the same question.

The popular cowboy cop show has ridden off, not into the sunset, but into a manufactured sunrise. Walt goes off to find the buried treasure that Lucien spoke of while Vic sits on the porch of the Longmire homestead sipping coffee. The Ferg looks to be soon reunited with his very angry ex-girlfriend, Cady will be stepping into Walt’s boots and the big bogeyman from the previous few seasons; Malachi Strand, is finally dispatched with extreme prejudice.

We also have Henry Standing Bear getting Longmire’s blessing to run the casino after Jacob Nighthorse leaves the money making venture and Cady Longmire has found love now that Zach Heflin (played brilliantly by Barry Sloane) is hired, again, by Walt. 

A lot of things are tied up in this final season of Longmire. Ferg gets a very final bit of closure when he shoots Eddie Harp right between the eyes. This closes the chapter on when the drug pushing enforcer terrorized The Ferg last season. We also find out that this WASP mob member was playing Hector for Malachi Strand to make sure that only the Boston Mob heroin was being sold on The Rez.

Along the way to the season six finale, Vic saves Walt’s life, gets shot and loses the new life in her womb. Travis takes off for parts unknown (not to be cruel but it this was a good thing, he was never a good fit for Vic…) and Henry comes close to death a number of times.

Even Longmire is wounded by the vicious Strand in the final showdown before being shot to death by the bleeding lawman. Cady kidnaps a Native American child to give him penicillin and loses whatever goodwill points that her shooting of the white man earned last season. Mandy; her secretary/receptionist, also turned out to be more loyal to the tribe than her employer.

Cowboy Bill, the elusive McGuffin that takes most of the final season to wrap up, turns out to be the local woodworker, nee’ rodeo clown. It is after Ferg shoots Harp dead that the local deputy decides that his girlfriend’s ex is the polite bank robber. His investigation leads to the nurse dumping him like a hot rock.

Overall, this was a fairly satisfactory season. There were overtones of manufactured stories though. The Lucien storyline, with Walt’s former boss killing the despicable Tucker Bagget, played superbly by Brett Rice, felt a tad too convenient  and there was far too little of Radha Mitchell.

Marilyn, the Crow Medicine Woman, is killed by one of Strand’s Rez goons and it was a shame to see this character go. It was also sad to see Lucien self destruct. “No one notices old people,” he says before revealing that Walt Longmire was right about who murdered Bagget.

(One of the better scenes in this season was the very short, and up close, gunfight between the two lawmen.)

Jacob Nighthorse is almost vindicated when he admits to doing some dodgy business deals with the Boston mob. He did so for the greater good but even he has to admit that Longmire was not too far off base with his accusations of criminality. Nighthorse was not greedy so much as speedy. He wanted good things for the tribe, but at a cost that was detrimental overall.

This final season still had the issue of bad continuity with any scene dealing with guns and close-ups. When Walt confronts Cowboy Bill in the bank, the gun is uncocked in many of the shots and they vary from the robber holding the gun with two hands to one and only at the climax of the scene is the pistol cocked and ready for action.

Of course the biggest letdown of all has nothing to do with plot holes or continuity errors. Longmire has finished and fans of the series are mourning the loss of a brilliantly “adult” television show. Not having read the books that the show was based upon it is hard to tell just how far the show deviated from the stories written by Craig Johnson. But one feels that the characters have changed steadily as each season ran on.

It does not really matter however as changes were to be expected. There were, after all, only 13 books about the Wyoming lawman and these were, presumably, stretched into six whole seasons. One can assume that after A&E dropped the popular show that they were nearing the end of book storylines already.

Walt Longmire may be searching now for buried treasure while Vic waits for her new partner to come home but the sheriff will live on. In fact, there were no major character deaths, apart from Strand (and Peter Weller’s Lucien) but  these were to be expected, and all our heroes look to be carrying on regardless of Walt’s stepping down from the saddle.

There are moments of comedy, tragedy and not a few tears in this last season. While it may be bittersweet, this last season has managed to deliver on many levels. It may not contain the sheer level of entertainment of the first seasons but damn it it has given its fans a bit of closure.

For those who can make the time, all six seasons are on Netflix for the bingeing. Check out Walt and his story, if you have not already, and you will not be disappointed. In answer to Walt’s question, “What do we do now,” we say head back and start watching from the beginning.  If for no other reason than to see the Longmire/Moretti relationship blossom and evolve.


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Longmire (Season 6): Episode 1 ‘The Eagle and the Osprey’ (Review)

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The last season of Longmire has, at long last, arrived. Watching the first episode, put off as long as possible, was a bittersweet experience. We have grown to love all these characters; their foibles as well as their strengths and follies. Episode one of season six takes up where the season five finale finished.

The opening is a tease. We see a man in a cowboy hat robbing a bank. Shots are interspersed of another man hiding money in jars and ziplock bags. The implication, for a split second, is that Walt Longmire has robbed the place and is burying the proceeds on his property.

Bank robberies aside, Henry’s life is still hanging in the balance as Darius’s thugs watch him slowly die of dehydration and Cady tries to make sense of her vision. Malachi is still in the wind and Officer Mathias, after discovering Henry’s truck, is hunting for his old Hector Lives partner.

Overall, this was a satisfying start to the final season of Longmire. Walt is “circling the wagons” for the upcoming attack (trial) and Vic is proving, yet again, that she would walk through fire for her boss. The Ferg jeopardizes his relationship with the nurse and Walt risks his life to save his old friend.

Jacob Nighthorse was missing in this opening salvo but it is apparent that Walt will be questioning him soon about Malachi. There is the ongoing mystery of Cowboy Bill and the Mayor shows his teeth, and his true colours.

Marilyn, the Crow Medicine Woman,  reappears and after shooting Henry’s captors refuses to save him. Instead she takes the only container with water, leaves some totems on the ground and tells Standing Bear that if he is a true warrior, the spirits will save him.

Later, somewhat touchingly, Walt gives the Medicine Woman the money from his closed bank account. She takes the money and then leads the lawman to his friend, only to disappear when Walt finds Henry. Longmire makes a travois out of his coat and some stakes but is bitten by a rattlesnake on the way back to the truck.

By the end of the episode we learn that Cowboy Bob most certainly did not rob the bank. Cady and Walt reunite and it seems that Henry and Walt have not shattered their friendship after all. (The Ferg also appears to have patched things up with his nurse…)

There are some things that jar. For example: Would Walt have gone up and disturbed an area where snakes tend to congregate? There is no mention of Vic’s “condition” and Cady still manages to irritate the hell out of this viewer with her attitude.

The urge to binge the final season of Longmire has been dampened by the thought that this will be our final journey with the Wyoming lawman. (And an overabundance of films that need attention prior to the Oscars voting coming up soon…)

Without jumping ahead to any of the available episodes, it is our guess that Malachi has robbed the bank since his massive revenue from those Irish Mob deals has dried up. Time, and the rest of the final episodes,  will tell.

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Longmire: Judas Wolf – Feint (Recap/Review)

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Longmire “Judas Wolf” has a medical slant to it.  At the start of the episode Walt is having a checkup and a pharmaceutical CEO  is hunting turkeys.  A young reservation lad’s father overdoses leaving him an orphan and Cady refuses to handle Walt’s civil case.

Mathias tells Henry that the man who overdosed bought drugs from Joey Takoda  and he wants Hector to pay the drug dealer a visit. Henry refuses saying that Hector is not Batman.  He cannot solve all of society’s ills. Mathias is frustrated as he has arrested Takoda before.

Henry asks Cady to help him foster parent a Cheyenne boy.  He clearly means to look after Mingan now that his dad is dead.

The CEO goes missing, along with his sycophantic right hand man and As Vic and Walt search for the men, Walt finds the assistant Pinkie with a tracking device around his neck and taped to a tree. Longmire also finds a note referencing the CEO; Dan Keslow, murdering endangered wolves.

It appears that the unpopular CEO has been kidnapped.

Mingan is obviously depressed about his father’s death and Henry tries to motivate the youngster. He gives the boy his medicine bag.

Pinkie is sent to the hospital and Omar, the  hunting guide who took the party out,  continues to hunt for Keslow.  Walt and Vic question Pyper Callans an animal rights activist.

She explains how Keslow used a “Judas wolf” to kill out the pack of endangered wolves. The animal is fitted with a tracking device leading the hunter to its pack. All the creatures are then killed except for the Judas wolf who then leads the hunter to another pack as it tries to find a new home.

Callans becomes a suspect, as does Cara Fillmore (Shannon Lucio). Cara sends the missing man a dead guinea pig through the mail. She participated in a drug trial 10 years previously and it left her with side effects. 

Fillmore  tried suing Keslow but the case was thrown out of court.  Her side effect resulted in her baby being born premature and with serious birth defects.

As Longmire gathers more clues and follows more leads, Pinkie also becomes a suspect. It turns out that Dan Keslow’s “yes man” was having an affair with his boss’s wife.  As Walt, Vic and Ferg question Pinkie they realize that he could not have kidnapped the CEO.

Mingan hangs himself. Mathias finds the boy and apparently calls Henry.  As Henry  drives up, the reservation policeman is on his knees crying.  At first Henry does not see Mingan. When he sees the boy, he runs over and grabs him by the legs calling for Mathias to help him.

Both men are devastated. As a result Henry decides that Hector will pay Takoda a visit after all.

Longmire gets a visit from the lawyer that Cady suggested he call about the civil suit.  He gives the man his file on Barlow Connelly.

After Walt’s questioning of Pinkie the man suggests that Dan kidnapped himself and “is sitting up at his cabin laughing at me right now.” Walt and Ferg head up to Keslow’s home and find him in bed.

The two men wake Dan up and he is disoriented and confused. They find a bandage on his torso and Keslow rips it off to find he has been “stabbed.”

At the hospital they learn the CEO was not stabbed but had his kidney removed.  Walt works out that Jenk, Dan’s friend and colleague took the kidney with the help of his son. Keslow signs a form giving consent after the fact. The animal rights kidnapping was a feint, it was always about the kidney.

Walt decides to fight the civil suit using the lawyer that Cady suggested.

Hector does visit Takoda and he takes his heroin.  Henry/Hector then   burns it  in front of the man. The drug dealer says his suppliers will kill him and Hector tells him to “Burn in Hell.”

“Judas Wolf” was a bit of a tear-jerker.  Between the Cheyenne boy killing himself and the woman’s premature son, this episode had more than its fair share of tragedy.

The mystery of who took Dan Keslow was not quite on par with the previous episode’s murder but it came close. The motive for the kidnapping was pretty outside the box;  a variation on organ harvesting that played out on a very  personal level.

Cady refusing to take her father’s case was interesting and it really does feel like she is choosing Jacob Nighthorse over Walt.  This will clearly cause problems later on. Obviously this does go back to her working for Nighthorse in spite of her father’s feelings about Jacob.

Officer Mathias breaking down and shooting the tree felt quite out of character but his level of frustration was very high. It will be interesting to see where his and Henry’s partnership ends up after this tragedy.

A common theme in this episode was the suggestion that Walt should retire.  Whether this is a possibility or a way of leaving Robert Taylor a way out remains to be seen.

It is interesting to note that Jacob Nighthorse still comes across as the bad guy. It is his casino checks that have inadvertently caused five overdoses on the reservation. Jacob seems doomed to have the finger of blame always pointing at him.

Kudos to the cast and Zahn McClarnon who knocked it out of the park in this episode.

There have been complaints about the characters in this season. Claims that they are not acting true to form. What do you think? Are they different or are the storylines making them deviate from their normal patterns?

Longmire is streaming on Netflix right now and all 10 episodes can be watched in one, or two, sittings.

Cast:

Guest starring  David Burke as Dan Keslow, Chris Conner as Ted “Pinkie” Sarton, Debra Christofferson as Pyper Callans,  Louis Herthum as Omar, Peter Jason as Abel “Jenk” Jenkins and Jovani Heng as Mingan Pine.

Longmire: Season Five Back With a Vengeance (Review)

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Season five of Longmire picks up after that cliff hanger ending where it looked like Walt and Donna were going to be killed to Wye Oak’s “Civilian.” The show is back with a vengeance and that long wait to see who it was that bulldozed their way to Walt’s cabin will have to hold off a little longer.

In the season starter, Walt has been shot and Cady finds him laying in the floor, disoriented and bleeding heavily. Donna is nowhere to be seen. Vic, Ferg and Cady all team up to get Walt patched up and he wastes no time beginning his search for his missing lady.

Henry and Mathias come to an understanding about “Hector” and Sheriff Wilkins is still a major douche with a badge.

Longmire, thus far, could be retitled the “Land of the Walking Wounded.” Walt, Vic and Henry are all injured from last season.  Walt somewhat more seriously than the other two but both Henry and Vic are walking with a limp.

In some ways the show looks different. There are more interior shots and less of the epic scenery on show. (Although this was the case last season as well.) It also looks more digital, i.e. not shot on film. However, regardless of production values,  the opening episode  focusses more on the interaction between Vic and Walt and their changing dynamic.

She “steals” a kiss from her boss as he lays in the hospital bed. Later Vic orders him about and in one comedic scene makes Walt re-take the pain pill he spat out onto the roadside.

Another change in terms of family comes with the revelation that Cady is working for Jacob Nighthorse (A Martinez). Cady was coming to tell Walt this when she found him shot in his cabin. 

Interestingly Longmire does not explode at the news. He is clearly not happy about it but his concern for Donna overtakes everything.  So too does his lack of memory. As well as being shot, Walt was concussed by a blow to the head.

The obvious suspect in this scenario is Walker Browning (Callum Rennie) who is missing from the hospital after being let loose by Sheriff Wilkins.  

Walt and Vic team up to look for suspects while Henry is blackmailed by Officer Mathias to  work for him, as Hector.

In many ways the focus in this episode is not just the wounded Walt searching for Donna or his memory loss of the shooting, but it re-establishes the relationship he had with “Philly.”

Last season saw a distance come up between the two as Vic fought off her jealous reaction to Dr. Monaghan.  Although Walt also had a green-eyed reaction to Vic’s temporary squeeze Eamon O’Neill (Josh Cooke).

This episode sees bridges mended and Vic takes charge of Walt to the extent he will let her. At one point they come across as either an old married couple or mother and son.

Once more Netflix have offered up all of season five; 10 episodes for those who wish to binge the whole thing.  While the urge to do so is almost overpowering, Mike’s Film Talk will be watching and reviewing one episode at a time. Longmire  is too good to  watch all in one go.

The first episode was a smooth and logical start to this season, although Ruby (Louanne Stephens) was missing in this one. (She does show up later however so all is well.)

There are a few things to mention before the next episode.  Walt Longmire, aka Robert Taylor is one hirsute chappy.  And for all that passion in the season finale,  between Donna and Walt, the lawman never got to take his trousers off.

Longmire season five is now streaming on Netflix. Let us know what you think about the newest season. No spoilers please, just talk about episode one so as not to upset fans of the show.

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