Season 1, Episode 2: “Riverbrook”
Second episode always has something to prove. Pilots are overstuffed and flashy, follow-ups are pace-setters. I feel fine about my broad generalizations if you do, and you do, we all know how television works on account of we’ve watched so much of it and can Google things, right? We’re very smart here on our couches. But, then, the first fifteen minutes of this episode are real good. Better than they need to be good. We don’t have to be kept guessing about how deeply in love Raylan and Boyd are, we get that right away. I can’t get a handle yet on how much Boyd believes himself when he talks. All that business about rebirth and acts of god, it’s somehow more upsetting to think he doesn’t believe it but says it anyway. It makes it harder to dismiss him, you can’t just say, that man is crazy, that man believes in things that aren’t true and therefore has a clear crazy path that we can cut off at a point we’ll all find together. Instead you always have to be keeping one hand out, in case the walls close in real fast. I know Raylan is acting like he’s not bothered, but he’s bothered. So I am too.
Of course the other one who bothers Raylan is Winona, who I nearly wish hadn’t been in the episode at all. Ava too, except it gave us the opportunity to watch Raylan pour alcohol into a cheap plastic cup and then wear a tank to sleep even though I believe we established in the pilot that he sleeps barechested, goddamnit. But. As much fun as it is to watch Raylan squirm under Winona’s glare, seeing her again just so she could re-play the beat about him breaking into her home and freaking out her husband, you know. We didn’t need it. The parallelism was easy enough to spot, Raylan sympathizing ever so slightly with a man who breaks out of prison and finds himself more upset to lose his ex-wife than he does to lose the fortune he buried in a housing development. Winona and Ava are clearly important but currently in stasis, waiting for their turns.
(Although her delivery of, “Oh, you gonna shoot him if you catch him?” and his reaction to that was the best. They’ve got reverse chemistry!)
I did get an opportunity to learn the other marshals’ names, so, pretty happy about that. We know something about Tim, now, we know he’s a sniper, ex-military, and that occasionally he chooses not to answer questions. Jacob Pitts reminds me a little of a younger Reed Diamond, I like that very much. I hope we get lots more of him, and Rachel, too, who although we don’t yet know many shades of her she does do us all the favor of asking about Raylan’s hat. That damn hat, I love it bunches, it’s as much to me a character as is Coach Taylor’s hair on Friday Night Lights. Raylan says, “Honestly, I tried it on one time and it fit.” I say that’s a fish story, like getting born again because you didn’t get quite shot through the heart by your mysterious coal-digging buddy from way back. But I am comfortable believing the myths that these men make, because at this point they tell me just as much, true or false.
If the monster of the week feels slight it’s partially because there isn’t a lot of time devoted to it. The convict band is funny, and the scene in the convenience store has a real life to it, but it isn’t until nearly halfway though that we meet Shirley’s Lips and Cuz. The mystery is handled efficiently, and with jokes. We get another mention of Pa Givens, more hints to his nature, that he’s perhaps under the law. It’s good to see Raylan do his job without shooting anyone, good to know he’s talented, good to watch him crack jokes with the prison guard who should have his own spin-off. Good too to be in a few rooms where he isn’t, to see the criminals develop the story for themselves. Episode two is good. Let’s keep on.
