Apologies for the delay in posting this; I’ve been dealing with the heartbreak of last night’s episode’s ending (to put it mildly :p)! Still, as the show goes on, so must the reviews as well! Not to mention, “Let’s Go, Let’s Go” was a very emotional hour overall; very “It’s A Wonderful Life” type of a look into what might have happened if Emily and Hoyt were still alive and part of the family. The episode also marked the directorial debut of showrunner Anna Fricke, and I think it was quite a powerful showcase of what Walker has always been about – at the heart of it all, it comes down to family. And yes, even though I am quite upset and disappointed by how it ended, I’ll get to that after talking about the highlights first! I’ll start off by saying that even though we knew Genevieve Padalecki was returning as Emily Walker for one final appearance, I was pleasantly surprised that Matt Barr showed up too – a girl’s gotta have some unexpected moments she doesn’t see coming.
The storyline mostly focused on Cordell’s… alternate timeline experience shall we say, wherein he didn’t realize what was really happening, mostly because he’d been drugged by the Jackal and you could say that all of this was in his head; imagining what his life would be like if he hadn’t lost his wife and best friend (honestly, tiny nitpick but Hoyt was more brother than best friend to Cordell) all those years ago. It was a little confusing to him to say the least – seeing Emily with the kids and how Augie was able to have those bonding moments with her, while Stella would barely even look Cordell in the eye – everyone kept using August’s graduation as their reason for this gathering, but we’d find out halfway through the episode what the truth was. It was an interesting sight to see how different things were from Cordell’s perspective – Liam was based in New York as a lawyer as he originally had meant to spend his life as, Geri and Hoyt were together, with Sadie too! (oh I would have loved to seen more father/daughter scenes with those two) and he was still absolutely Abeline’s third son – who else couldn’t stop grinning when he showed up at the ranch with an “Abby Bear!” exclamation of delight! Emily was a constant presence in most of the scenes, even when Walker himself wasn’t around… and you could get the sense that something was off… but I don’t think I really put two and two together until almost the end, when everything was revealed.
Elsewhere, we got to see what was happening outside of Walker’s dream life sequence with the “Stetson Gang” as they were so aptly dubbed. It was all hands on deck as James, Trey, Cassie and Luna got together to try and figure out just where Cordell had disappeared off too; even though at first it did seem like they weren’t sure if he was actually missing, but Cassie was worried and said what everyone was thinking – the Jackal case that has consumed Walker, which is still unsolved, meant that there was every chance he was in danger. Thanks to some quick detective work, not only were they able to track Walker to the motel where he was last seen, but the foursome was also successful in locating the laundry van that conveniently showed up on the wrong day for a pickup and had parked outside Walker’s room too. I wonder, was it all a little too easy for them perhaps or has the Jackal finally slipped up and made a mistake, making tracking him to the forest seem like a piece of cake almost?
Still, however it happened, thanks to their hard work, they were one step closer to saving Walker before it was too late. The question though one supposes, is, did Walker himself think that he’s worth saving? Over in the dream world, he was going from one place to the other, having heartfelt conversations with Hoyt about how their lives have turned out, with Emily about how they didn’t expect to make it this far – and every so often, Cordell would have moments of confusion but also awareness; something was off, things weren’t aligning with the way he knew them to be in reality, and every time a door was left open, he’d walk outside and get jolted back to him being trapped with the Jackal, but never regained consciousness, instead slipping back into the safety that his mind was offering.
“Let’s Go, Let’s Go” – WALKER: Pictured (L-R) Molly Hagan as AbelineWalker, Mitch Pileggi as Bonham Walker: Rebecca Brenneman/The CW© 2024. All Rights Reserved
It was only when everyone was finally gathered together, all dressed up, with Kelly in attendance – but not James – did Walker slowly start to realize something was wrong. And when he handed over the napkin to his partner’s wife, it clicked for me – and Cordell too – they were all attending his funeral. Very rarely do we get a chance to see an episode of television where a character has the chance to witness their own funeral! Once that revelation set in, everyone took turns to try and say a few words, quoting Shakespeare, as a tribute to their fallen father, husband, son and best friend. Whew! Talk about emotional! And that wasn’t even the gut punch moment for me. The moment when it was just Cordell and Emily would be my standout scene for sure – when she tells him that it’s not his time yet, that he still has a life to live and a family to take care of; despite the promises he thinks he’s broken, Cordell Walker is a man who has tried to do his best by everyone in his life, even though there have been mistakes or slip-ups or forgotten occasions to celebrate; he is only human after all and it’s time for him to “let go” of everything that’s been holding him back and wake up to reality again. Jared and Genevieve were so good in that moving scene and yes, they are married in real life so you know the chemistry is real and beautiful, but sometimes it’s not easy to translate an offscreen relationship to onscreen!
“Let’s Go, Let’s Go” – WALKER: Pictured: Ashley Reyes as CassiePerez: Rebecca Brenneman/The CW© 2024. All Rights Reserved
Of course that scene was paralleled with the team finding where Walker was buried alive and we saw how once they had split up (why do people keep doing this when there’s a serial killer on the loose is beyond me – pairs! stick to pairs at least!) Luna was the first one to discover an open, empty shallow grave. And that’s when I knew – one phone call to Cassie, with her not confessing her feelings for him, it was obvious that the Jackal was going to kill him…. which….. honestly, I did not get. Like, why Luna? Is it because he wasn’t part of the main ensemble so it just made for the only character to get killed off, whereas everyone else is untouchable? (we haven’t had an MCD since Hoyt have we?) Why does Cassie find a perfect man who left everything behind to move to Austin for her only to have that happiness taken away! Walker found his second chance in Geri, James remarried Kelly, even Trey had some girlfriend which didn’t work out sure, but… I’m upset with this decision really. Do I think that it was a character death for the sake of it and not a shocking twist? Yes. Am I wrong? I could be… this is just my opinion, but it wasn’t needed.
Give us a close-call like Walker was, let them have had a chance to save him and have things be touch-and-go for a while there even if they had to; if anything, this is just serving to add on to Walker’s guilt and Cassie’s anger towards him which is tearing them apart – with only two episodes to go, how are they going to resolve this? Are they? Or will the series end with things left unfinished for some storylines? I guess we’re going to have to wait and see what happens.
