What I’m Watching: Waco

Waco: Season 1, Episode 5 “Stalling for Time” (B+)

I didn’t realize that there was only one installment left in this series – I thought there were eight – but I guess that makes sense given how this one ended, with Tony practically authorizing Mitch to storm the place after the latest escalation. We’re seeing just how Gary is being boxed out of his own negotiations, with Mitch opting to employ psychological warfare tactics that Tony laughed off as something he had never even heard of during the press conference. As the patience of the lawmen outside the compound is wearing then, so is David’s, as he dismissed Gary as illegitimate because he didn’t believe in God and then started lashing out at his own followers. Steve has the primary voice of reason so far, and I imagine that he wouldn’t have any problem with letting someone like Thibodeau leave when he actually asked to, and not just banishing someone who had been caught drinking to accompany a woman who wanted to leave to be with her youngest child, who had been separated from his brothers because he came from a different father. In all this, we’re hearing some interesting conversations about gun control that feel even more relevant given how prominent it’s become in the past two weeks in real life. While I’ve started to notice this on a number of shows I’m currently watching, it’s especially important here because the fact that they were converting semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons, which was illegal except with a permit, begs the question that continues to dominate this whole standoff: if this group did nothing wrong, what exactly did they need all that firepower for?