‘Longmire’ season 4, episode 8 review: The Hector legend takes unexpected turn

Now that we are getting near the end of “Longmire” season 4, we are starting to get more of an idea of what the producers of the Netflix show are planning as their big arc to tie things up. It is all about Henry’s attempts to become the new Hector, and in turn how his attempts to get Gabriella justice lead to pain and peril.

When it was revealed at the start of the episode that one of the rapists of Gabriella was found dead in what was being deemed a “workplace accident” involving the energy company, the inevitable question is what, if anything, he had to do with it. After all, Henry had mud on his car, and at first the ruling was that the rapist suffocated in the mud. Cady had cast great suspicion on him after seeing his car, which he later denied by saying that after how Walt worked so hard to get him out of prison, he would not risk going back in by doing something stupid.

Yet, there we saw Henry at the end of the episode, getting caught in a situation as Hector where, after attacking Gabriella’s second rapist, the man struck back. Then, Gaby shot him to protect Henry right as Walt was tracking down a murder suspect among the oil-crew guys. Walt heard the shot, saw someone fleeing the scene, and ended up shooting Henry … seemingly. The screen went black right as Henry started to run away.

Is Walt really responsible for killing his friend? We haven’t watched ahead, but it’s doubtful. Still, this is a really hard pickle for Henry to work his way out of. While he’s not guilty of murder seemingly, he has still assaulted at least one person. You can debate whether or not he was justified in keeping someone from ever raping another woman again, but the act still is the act.

While the majority of episode 8 (entitled “Hector Lives”) was about this story, there were a few other good moments on the periphery of it, whether it be Ferg’s new attempts to bond with Zachary after at first treated him pretty badly, or Vic going undercover to rope a suspect into questioning by using a dating serving to go slow-dancing.

The drama as a whole is starting to ramp up moving towards the finale, and this is the sort of episode that as a “Longmire” fan, you should be more than happy to see. Grade: A-.

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