As this episode of Joe Pickett begins, activists raid the Hunting Awards and dump blood on the head of Terry Boulden (David Trimble). Klamath Moore (Aaron Dean Eisenberg) and his pals begin shouting to stop the slaughter. Governor Budd (Lochlyn Munro) tells everyone about the protestors and Klamath. Budd is worried that they’ll learn about Frank’s murder and come to Saddlestring. Sheriff Barnum (Patrick Gallagher) says Frank’s body was found about three miles from his elk camp. He was killed and mutilated in a manner that suggests he was left to resemble a game animal. Deputy McLanahan (Chad Rook) thinks it is good that they’ve identified the problem although the others aren’t impressed.

Joe Pickett (Michael Dorman) shows them the poker chip he found, but McLanahan doesn’t think it is anything. Governor Budd argues with them before he says Game and Fish will handle the investigation. He urges them to figure it out quickly before Klamath and his three million followers get wind of it. Outside, Sheriff Barnum tells Joe that he is still over the investigation. At home, Marybeth Pickett (Julianna Guill) speaks to Joe about him not sleeping well. He explains that he is trying to find proof that these twins exist. Marybeth believes he is trying to find a way to go back up the mountain to face the Grims. She believes he doesn’t think he could survive it.

Marybeth warns him that she’ll tell the girls the truth if he goes up there and gets himself killed. She will say he didn’t die for his job, duty, or honor. Instead, she’ll say that he committed suicide. Marybeth recommends speaking to Blaire to see what she knows. Her nephew, Chris, has been staying with her since and he was on the trip with Frank. In the morning, Marybeth gets the girls ready for the field trip. She finds Sheridan (Skywalker Hughes) reading a newspaper article about Joe’s attack. Sheridan reminds Marybeth that she said Joe was out camping. Luke Brueggeman (Keean Johnson) and Joe visit Blaire Urman (Julianne Christie). Once they go inside, Blaire insists that Frank didn’t have any enemies. Joe asks about the twins and says he is trying to get a fuller picture of what happened.

Chris (Josh Collins) interrupts and says he has already told the Sheriff everything he knows. Joe convinces him to talk. Chris says Frank was down because one of his friends died this summer. He keeps thinking that they shouldn’t have split up that day and should’ve stayed together. Once Chris leaves, Joe tells Luke that a woman with a saintly husband would never describe him as a saint. Joe says he needs to go pick up his daughters. Marybeth attends a speech by Charlie Left Hand (Sean Wei Mah) about his missing daughter. He thanks Rosenda Littleshield (Fawn Wood) before speaking about Marissa. Although it has been four weeks, Charlie still feels her out there. Marybeth teams up with Alisha Whiteplume (Cheryl De Luca) to look for Marissa.

She explains she thought it’d be nice to worry about someone else for a change. When Marybeth asks about Marissa, Alisha says she is very bright, strong, and tenacious. She was going to be the first from her family to attend college. One day, she told Charlie she was going to get groceries and never came back. They found her car abandoned on Route 10 the following day. The police refused to look because they say it isn’t their jurisdiction. The car wasn’t abandoned on the reservation so the tribal authorities won’t investigate either. In the car, Sheridan asks Joe why she didn’t tell them how he really got hurt. Joe claims he was fine and newspapers exaggerate, but Sheridan doesn’t believe him.

Sheridan doesn’t like that her mom will lie to protect her. Joe says he’ll tell her if he can’t answer something honestly instead of lying. Nate Romanowski (Mustafa Speaks) uses a payphone to call the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to report a game violation. He tells them he is calling from a payphone in Twelve Sleep County. He says there are a few poachers near Mad Bull Creek that are hunting on private lands. Joe tells the family to start dessert without him because he needs to check on something. Klamath tells his friends that he got a picture of Frank’s body from an anonymous source. He wants to milk this for everything it is worth. Rory (Lukas Kowalko) is tasked with finding out what he can about Saddlestring.

Klamath also wants a place to stage an event and televisions. One of them is worried that celebrating the killing of a local could backfire, but Klamath says this is war. To change public opinion, they’ll have to shake people out of their slumber. Joe meets Nate in the woods. Nate explains that he has some people after him and they might use Joe to flush him out. Then, they begin talking about Joe’s recent case. They agree it takes practice to do that to a human. That night, Joe has a nightmare about the Grim brothers and a spooky woman. In the morning, Joe encourages the girls to get ready because they’re going to be late again.

He tells Marybeth that Sheridan will come around. He is heading to Cheyenne although he somewhat wishes the Governor didn’t put him in charge of the Urman case. Once Joe leaves, Marybeth goes to the station to speak to Deputy McLanahan about Marissa’s case. McLanahan insists they cannot investigate without the missing person’s report. He believes she is fine because the native girls tend to move around. Cricket (Aadila Dosani) stops Marybeth to say she’ll do what she can to help. Randy Pope (Chris Gauthier) interrupts Joe and Luke when they look through files of hunting incidents. He complains that they’re making a mess. Missy (Sharon Lawrence) notices a man eyeballing her at the bar.

Marybeth arrives with the girls. She wants Missy to watch the girls for a few hours while she takes care of something. Although Missy says they can’t have children in the bar, Marybeth pushes them off on her anyway. Marybeth listens to Buck on the radio while driving to Marissa’s vehicle. She tries to open the door until she hears a twig snap nearby. Marybeth visits Charlie to say she is a lawyer and looked into Marissa’s case. She thinks there is more than enough evidence to establish probable cause that there was a crime. Marybeth says she knows a sheriff’s deputy who said she’d help. She tells Charlie why she trusts Cricket. Marybeth takes Charlie to meet her. Charlie says his daughter was up to something when she disappeared because she was making secretive phone calls.

If they knew who she was calling, he believes they’d know who took her and why they took her. Cricket says they need Marissa’s consent to have the phone records released. Without a missing person’s report, she legally isn’t missing. If someone from Saddlestring abducted her on the reservation, no one would be allowed to investigate. Cricket repeats what McLanahan said about it being a problem of jurisdiction. Charlie refutes that. He says the problem is that people are willing to look at a thing and pretend not to see it. Charlie storms out and complains that Marybeth got his hopes up today. She tells him about losing an unborn child. She thought she might be able to start to heal if she helped him.

Marybeth apologizes and admits that must’ve blinded her to how hard this is for him. Charlie says she’ll need to look elsewhere for her peace. Nate speaks to Cricket about helping them even though it means breaking the law. Cricket admits she doesn’t have the authority to pull the phone records. A group at the club celebrates EJ’s first hunting season. Derek Longbrake (John Ralston) gets Missy’s attention and flirts with her. Then, Missy goes to the stage to sing to the audience. Randy tells Joe and Luke that they’re done there for the day. Joe finds a case that sparks his interest. Then, he storms into Sheriff Barnum’s office to tell him about Dan Garrett and Warren Tucker.

They supposedly accidentally killed themselves, but Joe doesn’t believe that. There were poker chips at both crime scenes. Joe argues this is the work of the serial killer. Marybeth visits Blaire with a restock. She tells Blaire she can sit down and rest for a while. Joe runs into a protest from Klamath and his group. Klamath tells everyone that the town of Saddlestring has been lying to its own people. Blaire watches him on television. Klamath tells everyone about someone hunting a hunter. He questions whether they haven’t said anything because hunting pays their salaries. The crowd begins chanting string him up. Sheridan looks out of the pub’s window just as Klamath shows the picture of Frank to everyone.

Klamath says the person who killed the hunter should be celebrated just before Joe unplugs the power. Klamath says he is one of them and makes hunting possible. People in the crowd attack Joe. Sheridan runs outside and sees her daddy on the ground.

 

Joe Pickett Review

The second series of Joe Pickett certainly feels like a major drop in quality compared to the first which also had a host of problems. Even though the episodes are shorter, they still feel a bit drawn out with no real momentum in any of the stories. The decision to combine three books into a single series has proven to be a serious mistake and that was very evident in this episode.

With so much going on and so much jumping around, it is becoming increasingly hard to care about any of the three stories. The writers are also trying to juggle new characters and new side stories so that doesn’t help either. Marybeth is becoming too big of a presence and it feels like the character is being forced into these unrealistic situations because no one is that much of a do-gooder.

The dialogue remains iffy, but the unbelievable writing really takes the cake. Everything that happened in the last five minutes of the episode was too farfetched, but it gave the writers another chance to make Joe look even weaker than before. At this rate, they might just kill him and make the series about Marybeth who is being written as a stronger, more competent figure.

This episode was a frustrating experience with so many dumb moves from the characters, such as leaving kids at a bar for hours with a bunch of drunks, Marybeth once again injecting herself into everything, and Randy Pope being so worthless and obnoxious. The whole Klamath side of the story is pretty bad, especially if the writers expect viewers to believe people are so quick to turn to violence.

This episode of Joe Pickett scores a 4 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 with us here.