What I’m Watching: Longmire

Longmire: Season 4, Episode 8 “Hector Lives” (B+)

This was a very active episode, one that incorporated a handful of recurring guest stars and helped to embellish the relationships between the ones that we see all the time. The most notable returning face was Josh Cooke’s Eamonn O’Neill, who managed to impress Walt a whole lot more than the first time around as his county was directly involved in a case that pertained heavily to Walt’s. We saw Callum Keith Rennie’s oily Walker Browning again, and I also recognized Xander Berkeley from “24,” who I hadn’t remembered actually appeared in a season two episode and here again as Jeremiah Rains, who had a great back-and-forth with Vic when she stormed in and tried to trample on his rights. It was interesting to see Vic so upset at Eamonn because a woman answered his phone when she called, something he claimed was completely meaningless and out of his control. Ferg opening the case to move his name up sohwed how much Zach doing well was getting to him, and burying the hatchet at the end of the episode should have worked if Walt hadn’t assumed that the colleague with whom he was drinking was automatically more competent than him, even if Zach was drinking nonalcoholic beer. Cady was right to rail at Henry for taking on Hector’s identity, and it seems that his illegal actions have caught up with him, likely leaving either him or a much more innocent victim dead at the hands of a sheriff just trying to do his job.

I was surprised to see this show making headlines as I was watching it - I'm thrilled to see that Netflix has opted to order a fifth season of this show, a rare sign of faith for a series it has rescued from cancellation from another network.