‘Longmire’ season 3, episode 5 review: An investigation and another death

What makes “Longmire” at times very interesting as a show is that one mission often bleeds into another, and this is certainly something that we saw on Monday night’s new episode.

For Walt, this episode started with an attempt by him to figure out the responsible party for his wife’s murder, and while he did his fair share of investigating, he did not leave this episode with any sort of concrete answer. All that he has seemingly figured out for himself is that the person responsible is largely someone with a personal ax to grind who may have hired an assassin to do the job, only to later kill the actual killer, as well.

The episode ended for him having to deal with the harsh reality of Hector’s death, killed presumably by a man assumed to be long gone. The way that this death happened, with Hector being asked to be able to pass under the sky and the sun, was a nice touch that reflects the many cultures that are all prominent on this show. The problem with this for Walt is that it’s yet another distraction, and nothing ever seems to be quiet for him for very long.

Meanwhile, Vic was struggling with another reality, as her attempt to find a stolen chicken ended up turning into the realization that Branch is completely unhinged. Is it better to say something and have the truth out there, or bury it to keep anything worse from happening? We anticipate this being a cornerstone of conflict for quite a while moving forward, so we’ll just have to see if this stays with her (in addition to the problems that she is having in her marriage).

Finally, tough news arose for Henry at the very end upon realizing that the former man in charge of “policing” the reservation is out on parole, and ready to cause trouble for him. Can’t this guy ever catch a break? He was just cleared of another crime, and now there is a very bad man circling him.

Overall, this was still a rather strong episode, and an improvement over what we had on the network the week before. Grade: B+.

What did you think about this “Longmire” episode in particular? Share your thoughts with a comment.