Longmire season 6 episode 3 review: The Chance Gilbert showdown
If you recall, Chance is the notorious “live free or die” criminal who has been a presence, off and on, for this series for years. While many characters on Longmire do have a tendency to be rivals of Walt’s, he is more of an enemy of Vic’s. Therefore, it only made sense that at the end of the episode, she was the one who took him down. Given that he was trying to kill her and Walt both at that point, she didn’t have that much of a choice.
Unfortunately, in the process Vic was hurt in the crossfire. While she seems to be alive, you’re meant to be very worried for her unborn child after this.
Walt has Vic’s own stubbornness to thank for his entire life at the moment, given that without her refusal to accept some of his commands he would probably be dead. After Walt had ordered Vic to go home with Travis — and Travis in turn tried to protect her — she ditched him and took off to where she thought Chance would turn up. She and Walt luckily both had the same thought. This entire showdown was the culmination of a crazy, violent episode that was stuffed full of interesting plots, surprising twists, and basically everything that you could have wanted from this showdown. To think, it all started with something as simple as the jury selection in Walt’s wrongful-death lawsuit and it ended up careening completely out of control the moment Chance escaped from a trial of his own. We went along at pretty breakneck speed before getting to the final gunfight, one that had genuine stakes even if we felt our heroes would survive.
What this episode did that was really smart was reminding us, even with the jury selection, of how hard it is to be Walt Longmire. After all, almost every single person in the town is familiar with you and has one horror story or another about your various exploits. Beyond this, it also created a smart narrative surrounding why an officer would want to help someone like Chance be free (it served the officer’s own self-interest thanks a unique arrangement) and also why it was so important for Vic to be on the case in the first place. She learned that Walt knew about the pregnancy and she didn’t want to be handled with kid gloves.
It does seem as though Walt isn’t too interested in marrying Vic, at least for now — he didn’t take the ring that was the basis of the previous cliffhanger. Maybe it remains that way or maybe it doesn’t. We still have seven more episodes to go and there’s plenty of time for things to change.
CarterMatt Verdict
This was fast-paced and action-packed. In the end, it was the best Longmire episode of the season. A notorious villain is now dead, and we’re both glad to see him go and happy that his departure was as epic as it was. This is Longmire at its best.
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