What I’m Watching: Longmire

Longmire: Season 2, Episode 9 “Tuscan Red” (B+)

I find myself giving this show the same compliments week after week, and that’s because each installment digs deeper into the psyche of Walt’s county and the many intersecting cultures within it. It was good to see the easily irritated but ultimately clearheaded Mathias again, with his good conscience most evident in his disappointed arrest of Mancell Lone Elk. Henry was also thrown into the middle of it all, straddling both sides as he weighed law and order versus justice. This episode added a new dimension of complexity to everything, as Vic’s husband Sean was involved directly in the aftermath of a murder, nearly torn apart by an angry mob on his way to work at the energy company. Vic suspecting him of reporting Dolan Lone Elk as a terrorist didn’t help their marriage much either, but I think that non-romantic relationship is beyond saving at this point. This episode did feature some very interesting developments related to the supposedly defunct romance between Cady and Branch. Speeding just to get his attention in a way that wouldn’t have people in the town talking was a bold tactic, but he managed to turn it around on her, and nearly of them seem to be able to hold their alcohol at all. I think Cady is going to come to regret that more given how set against a relationship with Branch she had seemed to be, and because she spilled the beans about her mother’s murder. Branch telling Walt that he needs to start thinking about his daughter was actually noble and professional, but something tells me Walt is not going to come around to seeing it that way and that this is also going to drive his passion to crush Branch.