What I’m Watching: Longmire

Longmire: Season 1, Episode 9 “Dogs, Horses, and Indians” (B+)

When finding a dead Indian on your land isn’t your biggest problems, you know something’s wrong. We knew that whenever and however Walt found out about Cady and Branch, it wasn’t going to be good. Putting the pieces together by reading her phone bill that was sent to him wasn’t exactly the best way to learn the news, and it sure made him mad for the duration of the episode. To his credit, Branch held his own well during their meeting, and Cady didn’t hold back in putting the blame on him for not wanting to hand over the reins. Seeing it all through Vic’s eyes wasn’t pleasant either, and it’s a good thing that Walt had her to back him up when he went nuts on those bikers and earned himself an excessive force complaint. Mathias did seem uncharacteristically open to Walt’s help, which made a lot of sense when Walt discovered that he had moved the body so that it wouldn’t be on the reservation. There were Indian politics aplenty in this hour, as lifelong members of the tribe, including one of its most notable leaders, were disqualified and deemed not Indian because their blood wasn’t pure enough. This show continues to do an excellent job of representing a complicated relationship between cultures in a remote place. In creative music usage of the week, a stylized version of “Bad Things,” the theme song of “True Blood,” was quite effective in scoring Walt’s rage rampage in an unconventional moody moment of this show.