The Missing And The Dead – As this episode of Joe Pickett begins, a man with a rifle walks out into the woods where he shoots a hunter. Joe (Michael Dorman) listens to Master Tracker, Buck Lothar, on the radio. Buck mentions that half of Saddlestring has been shut down for hunting since a Lame Warden discovered an extinct weasel. Joe stops to send another message to Marybeth who hasn’t been responding. Joe picks up his coworker, Luke Brueggeman (Keean Johnson), who overslept. Luke wants to know where they’re going because he is the new trainee. Joe informs him that the first rule of becoming a game warden is to become comfortable with silence.

Joe admits he shot the guy who trained him. Vern isn’t dead and instead is in prison. The other game warden died though. Luke asks if he should be nervous. Joe says yes. Marybeth (Julianna Guill) is zoned out while April Keeley (Vivienne Guynn) and Sheridan Pickett (Skywalker Hughes) get ready for school. Since they missed the bus, Marybeth has to take Lucy (Kamryn Pliva) and the other girls to school. Joe and Luke catch up with Richard (Chris Enright) and learn they’re going to be dealing with drunk elk. Marybeth stops working to check on Blaire Urman (Julianne Christie) who is outside. Blaire believes she is just being a worrywart. Marybeth says the estate plan is going well. She tells Blaire that her husband has been depositing money into an account for the Bull Grove Foundation.

Mary asks if it is a charity, but Blaire says it is a BS tax shelter or something knowing Frank. Blaire goes on to say Frank was supposed to come home from a hunting trip last night. She suggests he is just sleeping one off since he spends half of the trips hunting Budweisers. Marybeth offers to have Joe look for him, but Blaire wants to give him more time. Then, she asks Marybeth if she needs to talk because she seems distracted. Blaire tells Marybeth that she can take the work home with her. While working at the orchard, Joe takes a break to message Marybeth again. Joe leaves Luke with Richard and leaves. At home, Marybeth can’t stop thinking about what happened. Lucy and April get picked on by a bigger girl at school. Sheridan stands up to Julie and tells April that they stand up for their family. Julie Scarlett (Evie Marsten) thought all those Keeleys abandon their family. Sheridan and Julie begin pushing each other until Alisha Whiteplume (Cheryl De Luca) gets involved.

When Lucy sees an elk in the school, Alisha orders the students to go to the cafeteria. Joe gets himself and Marybeth coffee. He sticks his finger in the hot coffee while thinking about Ote. Once he comes back to reality, he joins Marybeth. Joe tells Marybeth that he was worried about her. Marybeth reminds him what today is before making sure he is okay. Joe comforts and sings to Marybeth. After that, Marybeth gets a call from the school asking for Joe. He goes to the school to deal with the elk with Luke’s help. Once the kids are escorted out, Luke says he wants to try something he saw on TikTok. He runs out of the cafeteria leaving Joe face-to-face with the elk. Joe goes outside where he finds Luke playing Seal because elks supposedly love his music.

The elk comes out and attacks their truck. April and Julie trade jokes while they watch what is happening through the window. Later, Luke and Joe get out to look at the damage done to the truck. Alisha introduces herself and says she is the school therapist and guidance counselor. They speak about Sheridan in Alisha’s office. Alisha knows it is the one-year anniversary of the attack on Joe’s family. She reveals that Sheridan blames herself for her mother being shot and the loss of her little brother. Joe asks what he should say to someone if they’re hurting to make them feel better. Alisha says there are no magic words. She offers to speak to him if necessary. At home, the girls tell Marybeth about what happened at the school. Joe stops Sheridan to tell her what happened last year wasn’t her fault.

Sheridan blames herself before saying her mom and dad are always so sad now. Joe insists it wasn’t her fault and blames himself. Sheridan says they’re family and should keep each other safe. Marybeth comes out to tell Joe about Blaire’s husband Frank who hasn’t come back from Swanson Lake. Frank got separated from his nephews and nobody has heard from him since. Joe reveals there have been some strange reports this season. They call it Bermuda Mountain after the Bermuda Triangle. Joe agrees to go, but he isn’t going to take his trainee because he doesn’t like horses. While Joe is getting ready, Sheridan tries to convince him to stay through the night. Joe says he is taking his satellite phone so he’ll call her every hour to check-in. Once Sheridan goes inside, Marybeth thanks Joe for doing this.

Joe would do anything for her, but he wishes he could be there with her tonight. He makes sure to set an alarm so he won’t forget to call Sheridan every hour. Once Joe reaches the trailhead, he finds Frank’s truck so he begins calling his name. Dave Farkus (Travis Friesen) comes out of the woods and claims he was tracking a wounded animal after accidentally making a bad shot. When he found it, the elk was already stripped clean. Dave tells him about a Wendigo which is like a zombie cannibal. He thinks one has been haunting these woods for a while now. When Joe asks if he has seen Frank, Dave says he hasn’t seen anyone. Joe hopes he isn’t going to drive home drunk. Dave says no because he is a model citizen. Joe eventually leaves him and rides his horse through the woods.

He finds a dead elk and begins yelling for Frank again. Joe pulls an arrow out of a nearby tree and takes it with him. Missy (Sharon Lawrence) catches up with Marybeth and tells her she is here for her on this difficult day. Marybeth reminds her that was yesterday. Missy wants to see her grandkids unsupervised again. Deputy McLanahan (Chad Rook) catches up with them. He tells Marybeth that he and her mother are concerned about her. Missy says he is going to be the sheriff in ten years. She reveals that she got a job at Stockman’s Bar. Marybeth asks if a bar is the best place for an alcoholic to be. Missy hates that word. They hear a man nearby asking for help finding his missing daughter. Deputy McLanahan complains that he is bothering people again.

He explains that they didn’t look for her because they don’t do native cases. Once McLanahan leaves, Marybeth calls him the worst. Missy warns her to be careful because she might marry him to irritate her. The father comes over to tell Marybeth about Marissa who is missing. Joe approaches a man who is fishing to see if he has spotted Frank. The man ignores him until they start talking about how many fish he has caught. Joe gets permission to look for his license in his bag. Caleb (Alex Breaux) warns him that it may not end well if he keeps messing with him. Camish Grimmengruber flings his hook back causing it to get stuck in Joe’s shirt. Joe finds a Bible that has been ripped before telling Camish he doesn’t see his license. Joe wants to go to his camp to get his license. Camish gets out of the water and reminds him he could’ve just ridden away.

As they go together, Joe asks if his name is Caleb because it was written on the pack. Joe questions why he only had the Old Testament. Caleb calls him a government man and says he isn’t going to answer any more of his questions. He runs away from Joe. Pickett looks around and finds their camp before seeing Caleb’s twin sitting nearby. Caleb tells his twin that Joe just followed him. Camish thought they had an agreement about this because of what happened the last time. They tell Joe they prefer the Grim Brothers although they don’t want to say much else. Joe says he can take a look at the fishing license and get going so Caleb tries to find it. Joe asks Camish how long they’ve been there and how many animals they’ve eaten. Camish says he won’t answer because he doesn’t want to incriminate himself.

Caleb looks for the license in one of the caches they have in a nearby tree. Camish asks Joe if he ever heard about the Wendigo. Joe and Camish argue about the need to buy a piece of paper to buy fish in wild country. Camish wonders who the criminal is and isn’t. Caleb halfheartedly looks for the license. Joe says he’ll have to look for it when he gets to a computer. He writes him a ticket for not having it. Then, he writes him another for wanton destruction of game animals. Joe gives the brothers the tickets and tells them how to protest. Caleb says something to Camish about not being able to see the judge before he shuts him up. Once Joe leaves, he stops to get his satellite phone only to realize that it is missing. He tells Lizzie they should get the heck out of there. Marybeth waits for Joe to call.

Missy sings at the bar while McLanahan argues with Derek about whether she is out of his league. As Joe tries to get back, he ends up getting shot at with arrows. Lizzie gets hit several times, but Joe tells her they’re going to be okay. He gets knocked off the horse and hits his head.

 

Joe Pickett Review

The first episode of Joe Pickett’s second season was interesting once it finally got to the core of the story. The series has some of the same problems as last season including not-so-perfect performances, but there weren’t as many over-the-top Southern accents in this episode. The younger performers can be hit or miss and the same can be said for some of the adults as well.

The first half of the episode wasn’t great because it felt a little like a Disney series. There were moments early on that made Joe and the others seem really weak. Hopefully, Joe and Marybeth get over the past soon because that feels like a repeat from last season just with a different traumatic event.

Some of the dialogue was odd and made Joe look like a fool as well such as him asking his kid’s guidance counselor what to say to someone who is hurting. The episode could’ve spent more time building the primary story for the season because it is hard to know exactly what that is right now.

The last half of the episode was decent, but it is going to take some time for the story to develop and see how everything plays out. That’s really one of the issues of dragging everything out for ten episodes. For a show about a game warden, the episode felt a little claustrophobic compared to the first which had many wide-open scenes.

Finally, the show’s CGI animals are still pretty bad but that isn’t anything new. The opening episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Joe Pickett can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.