S02.E12: Common Ground

[jewel21]

Quote

Cordell reaches a breaking point with Denise who sets her sights on revenge and the tensions between the Walker and Davidson families finally hit a fever pitch.

Airdate: 03/31/2022

[historylover820]

Long time viewer, first time poster ;)

I was hoping that this stupid horse race (and what a stupid concept that was!) would make the Davidsons leave. Nope--murder trial is next. Of course. Got to keep this insanity around longer.

I want to actually get back to Walker at his job, maybe investigate his new partner's former partner. That's much more interesting to me!

[Casseiopeia]

 

[wlk68]

I was hoping that when Dan got clotheslined by that branch, that would be the end of the race. I wanted to slap Cordell for pushing Dan to finish it. So now, we have Dan pulling a douchebag move, leaving Walker laying there in the dirt when his saddle (stirrup?) breaks. The Walkers can absolutely claim cheating. I hope we get to see that in the next episode.  

And how the hell did they get any blood/dna evidence off that lantern? I'm pretty sure anything would've been destroyed in the fire. That lanterned was completely blackened and crispy.  

Denise had absolutely no right to try and question Augie (a minor) without a guardian being present. Yes, Augie was willing and Cordell wasn't picking up his phone but that's no excuse. As a District Attorney, she would know that anything he said might end up getting thrown out as inadmissible as a result.     

[sigmaforce86]

I was hoping Cordell would win, point out how flimsy Denise's evidence was and offer to give back the Davidson's land minus the 20 acres in exchange for dropping the charges.  Why is it nobody including Liam the smart attorney; explored how adverse possession could be applied (it likely could, in Texas, under the right circumstances, the Walker's could claim that land after ten years).   

16 hours ago, wlk68 said:

Denise had absolutely no right to try and question Augie (a minor) without a guardian being present. Yes, Augie was willing and Cordell wasn't picking up his phone but that's no excuse. As a District Attorney, she would know that anything he said might end up getting thrown out as inadmissible as a result.    

Agreed, and Augie was stupid for going along with it.  That or he's honest to a fault (that kid should NEVER play Poker!).  

The whole feud story line is just not interesting.  It could be in limited doses, as a side story but this is sliding into soap opera territory.  They don't need these heavy plots and twists to carry the show.  It's a crazy idea but Walker is a Texas Ranger, maybe he could actually go out and catch bad guys from time to time?   I could like the show, I do like the show a lot of the time but these Walker family drama plots are dragging it down by overshadowing a lot of the other characters and making things unbalanced.

 

[Hana Chan]

What Denise did with August wasn't illegal as unless the minor is the one suspected of the crime, there's nothing in the law that prevents them from being questioned. That doesn't excuse the rest of her conduct, which is highly unethical to say the least. She knows that professionally that she needs to recuse herself from anything involving the investigation of her father's death and her family's land dispute with the Walkers. Just as Cordell should have had nothing to do with the investigation of his wife's death (and for the most part, he was kept out of things until the very end of the investigation), Denise has a personal interest in the outcome of both these matters and the role she has to play in her office is to be impartial in seeking out the truth of any case that crosses her desk. She has been abusing her authority and by all rights should lose her job over using her authority to pursue her family's vendetta against the Walkers. 

The horse race was an idiotic way to resolve the land dispute and given the way Cordell's girth just gave way, I'm calling obvious sabotage. You're trying to tell me that a wily man like Bonham would have put an old, defective saddle on a top racehorse? For all the years that I've worked with and rode horses, checking tack for wear and damage before I got up on the horse. And yeah, big difference between Cordell (who stopped to make sure that his rival was okay when he was thrown) and Dan (who ignored Cordell's hard fall and used the opportunity to win the race). The Davidsons as a whole (minus their kid) are proving themselves to be complete assholes and it's nearly impossible to sympathize with whatever legitimate complaint they might have against the Walkers because of their their shitty behavior. 

Yeah, I'm calling BS on the "blood on the lantern" conceit as the DNA (if there was any) would have been degraded by both the fire and any judge worth their robes would rightly question why the DA was involved in a case for their father and call them out on it. 

That's not to say that there weren't some good things about this episode. The big appeal of this show is the tight bond between the Walkers and I love watching Cordell go all papa bear to protect his kids. And Jared has become a more secure rider, which is nice to see. Here's hoping that things will go better for the Walkers the rest of the season and that the Davidsons are sent packing.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Hana Chan

[thuganomics85]

Yeah, wherever it was legal or not to question Augie without a legal guardian, Denise's involvement in all of this really should be raising red flags if this was anywhere close to real life.  She really should have recused herself a long time ago.  But I doubt anything will come up of it and it will just be treated like the norm.

Figured Walker was going to lose the raise in order to keep this feud dragging along.  Of course, they had to make sure we knew he probably would have easily won had it not been so damn noble and helped Dan up after he got taken out by the branch.  And then Walker's strap mysteriously breaks at the end.  I doubt the Walkers will be out of the ranch for long, but I wonder if we'll actually get to them having to move out.  Hope Captain James and Trey have a lot of couches to spare!

The Davidsons now think it was Bonham who killed Daddy Davidson.  Totally think it's Gale now.  Only person that would make sense as a suspect.

[Bobcatkitten]

A - it takes weeks to get DNA back not a few hours. 

B - why wasn't Augie at the race? And why didn't Walker go be with his son? 

C - if indeed Bonham clocked the guy and started the fire then that's a big problem.

D - I think a better ending would have been that Walker made sure Dan was okay but then raced ahead and won. Still was being a good person but not stupid. Then have Bonham be arrested as Walker crossed the finish line. That would have been powerful. They would have won but lost.

[Linderhill]

On 4/5/2022 at 2:34 PM, Bobcatkitten said:

A - it takes weeks to get DNA back not a few hours. 

that is one of my pet peeves with all of the forensic type programs.  It certainly wouldn't have been back that quickly if they had been able to find anything at all after being burn and then buried in dirt.