What I’m Watching: Longmire

Longmire: Season 4, Episode 3 “High Noon” (A-)

I remarked at the beginning of the season that moving to Netflix hadn’t changed this show at all, but the extra fifteen or so minutes in each episode has definitely enabled the show to tell more of a story in every installment. This episode started off in one place and ended somewhere completely different and unexpected, and what an involving ride it was. Cady’s return to the show was a very welcome one, and it was quite an episode for her. Getting what appeared to be a $50,000 tip turned into an extraordinarily enticing job offer, but that went downhill so fast once she realized just who she was really working for. Currie Graham is an actor who I remember from his guest spot on two “24” season one episodes and who has guest starred in countless series since then. This episode allowed him to give one of his most memorable and intense performances, demonstrated most in the scene where he chewed Cady out for not knowing what she had agreed to do. Walt finding a drunk Barlow at the beginning of the episode seemed to suggest a new relationship for the grieving father and his late son’s boss, and Walt needed all the friends he could get after someone took a shot at Nighthorse and gave him all the ammunition he needed to take Walt down. That long and tense scene at the end of the episode in which Walt told Barlow he knew that he had killed Branch and Barlow proudly confessed to ordering the murder of Walt’s wife was an unforgettable one. It’s going to be hard for Walt to get out of this situation, and killing Barlow in self-defense may lead him down an unkind and unforgiving road. I could tell this season was going to be dark, and it only seems to be getting darker.