‘Longmire’ season 4, episode 9 review: Henry gets a gun (but not how you’d think)

We’ve now made it through 90% of “Longmire” season 4, and we are starting to get a sense of what the show wants to do before we get to the finale: Put some of its characters in a situation where we don’t quite know if they can ever return to their normal lives again.

With that, we have to discuss the current fate of Henry Standing Bear. Desperate to protect Gabriella after she potentially saved his life by shooting the rapist who was set to kill him, he took her to a separate reservation to visit a medicine woman, one who seems almost akin to Robert Forster from “Breaking Bad” in that she can make people disappear. After what she did, Henry realized that she can never go back, and therefore wants her to go away.

However, this medicine woman was not so pleased to see Henry, and knocked him on the head with her gun once she realized that he was coming from a different reservation with a request. This was a man who already was in severe pain and barely standing up after getting shot by Walt in his escape from the scene of the murder.

Longmire is getting close to piecing together what happened at the crime scene, and seems pretty convinced at the moment that Gabriella is involved. Yet, he’s in an interesting position where nobody, including Cady, is that interested in helping him to figure it all out. The only way Henry may be able to come back is if no one realizes everything that he did, and that could be a very delicate balancing out for him.

Lou Diamond Phillips gave one of his best performances of the season in this particular episode, and we could feel some of his suffering. Robert Taylor continues to be steadfast and effective, even though this is a very different story than most for him given that he has not been able to crack the case completely.

As strong as the main story is right now, there are some kinks that still need to be worked out elsewhere. We’re still not entirely sure what the show is doing with Vic and Eamonn O’Neill, who she finally kissed and then some at the end of the episode despite concerns that he may have another girlfriend / wife back in Cumberland County. Also, is Zachary and Walt being watched by someone just because this guy is bitter about not being hired; or, is he working for Jacob Nighthorse or someone ready to expose him?

There are clearly some questions to be resolved in the finale, but we still give kudos to Netflix and the show’s writers for the journey so far. It’s been excellent, and far and away the best overall batch of episodes. Grade: B+.

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