‘Longmire’ season 6 debate: Should Zachary return?

With the sixth season of “Longmire” coming up on Netflix later this fall, we imagine that the writers are going to do their best to offer up a sense of closure for many of the show’s characters. Heck, we’ve written an entire series of pieces over the past month describing what the perfect endgame should be for many of them.

For the sake of this article, we want to talk a bit about a character we haven’t seen on the show in some time, but also one we really loved when he was there: Zachary. He’s one of the reasons why season 4 is our favorite one of the series to date. He’s a smart, meditative guy, and in terms of his overall vibe there really isn’t anyone else like him on the show. He was a deputy with his own unique moral code, but an inner darkness he was perpetually trying to avoid. It was a different sort of darkness than what Branch showed near the end of season 3, but we felt there were some ways in which it could be contained.

Unfortunately, things got out of hand at the end of season 4, and Zachary decided to become judge, jury, and executioner long enough for Walt to consider him a liability. Zach was fired, and we lost someone we came to really love watching. He gave Ferg a friend, and there was something really organic about the bond that the two of them had. While Adam Bartley’s developed some great chemistry with other actors over the years, what he and Barry Sloane did together was wonderful.

It doesn’t take too much thinking to figure out why Sloane wasn’t in the fifth season: Had had another project in “Six,” and the reality here is that he’s a pretty in-demand actor to the point that it’s hard to keep him on any one project, especially as a recurring role for a hefty amount of time. Yet, at the same time, the fact that he still managed to do that miniseries and “Shameless” shows that he could have room to do a few episodes on “Longmire” even if he does find another full-time gig.

Given where we left Zachary off and how we still continue to believe that there is a road to redemption for him, we’d like to see him get one more kick at the can. If nothing else, it’d be nice to have an episode where we see he’s doing a little better, and he and Ferg have some bonding time. Even if he’s a little too hot-and-cold to be a detective, we like to think that he would be a rather great CI.

Do you want to see Zachary return for an episode or two next season? Let us know in the comments, and head over here to get some additional news on the show! (Photo: Netflix.)