Lawmen: Bass Reeves Episode 2 Recap: Judge, Jury And Executioner
Note: This recap covers the second half of Lawmen: Bass Reeves' two-episode premiere. For a recap of Part I, go here.
Sometimes, callings are discerned when an inner voice directs you toward work you feel somehow destined to do. Other times, like in Lawmen: Bass Reeves' second episode, a loose cannon white guy shows up on your porch and loudly demands that you join his posse.
That's how Bass gets into the career for which he'll become famous, Episode 2 tells us. But his onboarding into the world of U.S. Marshals is not the smoothest of processes. Read on for the highlights of "Part II."
NEW LINE OF WORK | This episode picks up about 10 years after the premiere, with the Reeves family settled in Van Buren, Ark. Bass is having trouble getting his land to yield any crops, making him wonder, "Suppose I did something to make the Almighty angry?" But he swears to Jennie that he won't quit. So he's still plowing when a leathery guy on a horse rides up and says, "I suspect you know who I am." Bass looks him up and down. "Don't matter," he responds, "seeing as you're fixing to tell me."
Everyone, meet Sherill Lynn (played by Vegas' Dennis Quaid). He's a Deputy U.S. Marshal who knows Reeves can shoot well and speak Choctaw, making him the perfect man to be part of Lynn's posse. Bass maintains that he's a farmer, but Lynn isn't deterred. "How many mouths you got to feed with no harvest?" Lynn asks.
As it turns out, Jennie and Bass now have four kids, with another on the way. As she takes a bath that night, she encourages her husband to take advantage of the opportunity presented him. And the next thing we know, Bass is riding behind Lynn on their way to the job. They come across a Bible society wagon with a dying man inside; the man manages to gurgle, "Run" before they're under attack from the same bandit that accosted the wagon. By virtue of Bass' sharp shooting, he picks the man off his horse and kills him. Then Bass prays over the man inside the wagon, who has passed away.
"You still believe in a god that let you spend half your life in chains?" Lynn asks mockingly. But Bass counters that the Lord gave him hope that there was life after slavery. Before they leave, Bass buries the attack victim.
FIRED UP | On the way to find the guy they're looking for, Lynn reveals that he once was on a boat that was jumped by Native Americans; during the siege, he was nearly scalped and almost died. It has... colored his view of Native Americans since then. "It's hard for a man to put fear and hate behind him," Bass observes. "Oh hell, Bass, I ain't even trying," Lynn says. But Bass won't be deterred. "Black, white or red, we all just men," he says.
The next day, they arrive at the house where they believe the man for whom Lynn has a warrant — his name is Charlie — lives. But when a woman inside won't open the door, Lynn just starts shooting up the place. Bass stops him, bars him from entering and then uses his skills of a) language and b) just being a better human than Lynn to learn that Charlie is the woman's cousin, and she's as annoyed by him as they are. "I've been paying his debts way too long," she says. She tells him where to find Charlie, he gives her some money to go toward repairing her home, then he promises to bring her word on what he finds out.
At Charlie's hideout, though, things go south VERY quickly. Bass and Lynn get into a shootout with the outlaw. Lynn takes a shot to his arm. And then while Bass is trying to talk the guy into coming out, Lynn just goes ahead and sets the house on fire. Charlie runs out, engulfed in flames, and Bass has no choice but to shoot the man in the head in order to end his suffering.
'YOU LIKE THE MAN YOU ARE?' | That night by the campfire, Bass cauterizes and dresses Lynn's wound while the marshal drinks and yammers on about how "sometimes, you've gotta be judge, jury and executioner." He shoots his mouth off so much that even Bass' huge reserve of patience runs out, and he punches him. As Bass prepares to leave, Lynn makes sure he knows he won't get paid if he goes. "You like the man you are, deputy?" Bass wonders. When Lynn doesn't answer, Bass takes off.
On the way home, he makes good on his word and stops to let Charlie's cousin know what happened. She's not surprised about how it all went down, and she thanks him for trying.
At home, Bass' family is happy to see him, and he's surprised to see that Jennie bought a piano in his absence. After all, they've got a nice chunk of change from his posse job, right? "About that," he says gingerly. "I hit another white man." She looks at him. "Not that deputy?" He apologizes and says he'll figure out a way to pay for the instrument.
But he won't have to. Because Lynn rides up the next day with two other men. He says he would've done everything exactly the same way, provided it meant the two of them left the job alive. Bass says he wouldn't change any of his actions either, which seems to half infuriate, half amuse Lynn. "Christ, Bass, you are the most earnest man I've ever met, which is likely to get you killed one day," he says. But he knows Bass has a knack for the work, so he's talked to Judge Parker, and the judge wants to make Bass a deputy U.S. Marshal, too.
"You think you can handle the weight of the badge?" Lynn asks. "I know I can," Bass replies.
Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!