If This Is Goodbye – As this episode of Joe Pickett begins, Marybeth Pickett (Julianna Guill) holds Sheriff Barnum (Patrick Gallagher) at gunpoint. She tells him to get on the ground because she is going to take Shenandoah (Emily Alabi). Marybeth accuses him of killing Marissa Left Hand. Sheriff Barnum casually walks over and takes the shotgun from Marybeth. He wants Shannon’s phone and the voicemail. Barnum doesn’t know why she had to do this because he doesn’t want to hurt her. He tries to shoot her, but Shannon hits him from behind to stop him. They wrestle on the ground until Barnum shoots Shannon in the shoulder.

Before Barnum can shoot her again, Marybeth shoots him. She tells Shannon that she needs to go to the hospital, but Shannon is worried about what might happen to her if she does. Marybeth offers to tell them that she shot him. When a police car approaches, Shannon runs into the woods nearby. She shoots at the state trooper before Marybeth runs into the woods too. As the officer calls for help, Marybeth complains about Shannon shooting at him. Joe (Michael Dorman) hears about the incident on the radio. Marybeth calls and tells Joe about Sheriff Barnum. She worries that the state trooper is going to be coming for them. Joe tells her about an old miner’s cabin where they can hide.

Joe insists that Shannon isn’t her friend. Marybeth needs to get her gun. If she fires on the cops, they’re both dead. After the call, Marybeth tells Shannon about the miner’s cabin. Deputy McLanahan (Chad Rook) reaches the scene and sees Sheriff Barnum. Cricket (Aadila Dosani) wonders why Marybeth would do this. McLanahan says Shannon is pure evil so she must’ve got into Marybeth’s head. He takes over and says they won’t rest until they’re behind bars or dead. He gives them permission to shoot on sight. Cricket says no because this is Marybeth. Joe arrives and gets in McLanahan’s face. He tells him about the voicemail, but McLanahan won’t believe it unless he hears it himself.

Joe ends up punching McLanahan and fleeing in his vehicle. McLanahan can’t take Joe’s vehicle so he tells others to go after him. Joe pulls off the road and hides before throwing the keys to the vehicle away. Cricket wonders if what Joe said was true. McLanahan says it doesn’t make any sense. He goes on to suggest Joe is looking at a decade in prison for hitting an officer and stealing a police cruiser. Cricket calls Nate to tell him Joe is in trouble. Missy (Sharon Lawrence) tries to call Marybeth and find out where she is. Sheridan (Skywalker Hughes) and Lucy (Kamryn Pliva) want to know where their parents are. Missy eventually says she knows they’re okay wherever they are.

She agrees to let them stay up late tonight. Marybeth and Shannon make it to the cabin. Marybeth asks for the handgun, but Shannon refuses to be out there defenseless. She wants to make sure Shannon isn’t going to shoot her. After looking at Shannon’s wound, Marybeth says they need to clean it. She goes outside to get water. Marybeth remembers her shooting and scrubs the blood from her hands. Joe catches up with her sons later. Then, he goes inside and takes the gun from Shannon. Joe says the state trooper claims they shot at him. He tells them about punching McLanahan for not listening to him. They try to figure out what to do. Joe says they’re covered in blood and that is going to create a perfect trail for dogs.

He thinks they should stay there and try to negotiate when they find them. They don’t have the phone or the photo so they’re not sure what evidence they’re going to use to back up their claim. Shannon blames the law for everything that has happened. Joe tells Shannon that she can tell herself whatever story she likes, but their lives are in danger because of what she did. Shannon believes other people are safer thanks to what she did. Marybeth and Joe step outside so Shannon can have a moment of peace. Arlen (Brendan Fletcher) tells Hank Scarlett (Roger LeBlanc) that he invited Chet. Hank calls Chet (Samuel Hoeksema) a psycho. Arlen wonders what their mom will say when she finds out about the hunting trips. Hank says they made money and no one was asking questions then.

Arlen is worried that Joe Pickett could be a problem for them. He will take some guys and make a run at his family while Hank finishes off the native girl. Otherwise, he could have Chet shoot Hank in the head and be rid of this little problem. Hank says he’s got this. Joe tells Marybeth that they’re not going to come at them before daylight. Marybeth worries she is going to jail, but Joe insists there has to be a way out of this. She talks about loving rules and following them. Joe argues that it’ll be fine because he is going to make it fine. Marybeth tells Joe that they don’t want to be saved by him. Instead, they want to be with him. She is there in pain and he is too fragile to see it. Nate (Mustafa Speaks) sneaks onto Scarlett property and attacks one of the men.

He wants to know what they’re doing and where they’re going. The girls ask Marybeth to call the deputy to see if he knows where Joe and Marybeth are. Kyle McLanahan waits for the dogs to get a trail. He talks to Cricket about running for sheriff if Barnum dies. Missy calls him to ask about Joe and Marybeth. He tells her what they did. Kyle asks Missy if she ever thinks about him. When she says no, Kyle suggests asking the mouth breather at the bar to help her instead. Kyle says he can’t do anything for her before hanging up. Joe gets upset and punches the water while thinking about Marybeth and what she said. Missy promises to keep the girls safe. When Marybeth sits down with Shannon, she is told that Klamath came up there to stop her.

After her attack, she turned all of her anger inward. Shannon didn’t hate the men who attacked her. Instead, she hated herself for getting attacked. That is why she scolded Marissa when she came for help. When she found him, he didn’t even remember her. She didn’t feel victorious after shooting him. Marybeth doesn’t think she is a monster since she knows what it is like to be attacked. She told the universe to take the baby, but she wanted to live. She chose herself. Joe comes in and says he would’ve chosen her too. They manage to smooth things over. Then, they hear the cops approaching them. Joe tries to use Marybeth’s phone to get in touch with McLanahan. He finds out that Nate called. Joe calls him and learns that Hank is going after the native girl. They think she is on Bermuda Mountain.

Marybeth says that doesn’t make any sense because Barnum had no idea Shannon was going to escape. Joe remembers something before asking Shannon if Marissa has tattoos on her fingers. She says yes. Joe says they’re talking about Marissa instead of Shannon so she must be alive. Marybeth says Marissa is their proof, but Joe says they have to find her first. McLanahan yells that they’re going to open fire and set the place on fire. A woman walks out and they think it is Shannon. Once they arrest her, they see that it is Marybeth. Joe and Shannon ride away on horses while dodging bullets. Marybeth says Kyle would know where they’re heading if he was a better cop. Hank and his men ride through the woods as the episode ends.

 

Joe Pickett Review

Much like the episodes before it, the 9th episode of Joe Pickett’s second season was riddled with problems and believability issues. At this point, we can only hope the finale pulls everything together and the series ends on a high note. If it tries to wrap up three concurrent stories in 45 minutes, it may feel like a rushed mess. Unfortunately, it seems to be heading in that direction.

While this episode had many problems, the unbelievable writing is by far the worst. For starters, it was silly for Marybeth to confront Sheriff Barnum only to let him take her gun. Despite being shot, Shenandoah’s gunshot wound never seemed to matter. Cleaning the wound isn’t going to stop the bleeding so she probably would’ve bled out by this point.

The cops stood around near the woods for however long while Marybeth and Shenandoah talked in the woods nearby forever. Nate just magically knew that the Scarletts would be going after Joe so he effortlessly snuck onto their property and extorted information from one of their men. Isn’t he and Cricket supposed to be on the run from some special forces guys or something? What happened with that storyline?

We can already see how the show is trying to conveniently tie in the Grim Brothers who haven’t been mentioned much. In the real world, Marybeth and Joe would never worm their way out of this. Joe and Shannon would’ve been gunned down when they attempted to flee the cabin on horseback. Where did they get those horses from anyway?

It is really silly to think the mumbling fool Joe Pickett is going to come up with some genius plan to resolve everything and keep Marybeth out of prison. Nevertheless, it is going to happen in the next 45 minutes. If the writing wasn’t so cartoonish and the main characters weren’t so easy to dislike, Joe Pickett would be a lot better.

At this rate, the drop in quality is just asking for the series to be canceled. This episode 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.