Summary
The second season of Billy the Kid already leans heavily against ominous foreboding as Billy finally finds himself on the “right” side of the upcoming war for Lincoln County.
If the first season of Billy the Kid on MGM+ was an origin story of sorts, showing how personal trauma and unfortunate circumstances led Henry McCarty to become first Kid Antrim and then Billy the Kid, the second season, at least if Episode 1, “The Road to Hell”, is anything to go by, is about the inexorable, rapid decline into tragedy that defines all the Old West legends worth making a streaming series about.
Spoilers ahead.
We know, for instance, that Billy the Kid was shot and killed at the age of 21, having apparently killed 20 people himself by that point, and that he was put down by a Sheriff whom the series has already introduced in a teasing way for those in the know. So we know that there’s a good probability this second season will be the show’s last since there’s only so much longer Billy can feasibly survive.
And yet it’s probably not worth taking the real historical details that inform Billy the Kid especially seriously. For one thing, based on sketches and such from the time, Billy didn’t look anything like handsome leading man Tom Blyth. Besides, the show’s almost troublingly uncomplicated morality has already painted Billy as a hero, on the side of good and righteousness against the flagrantly evil drunkard Lawrence Murphy, his old rival Jesse Evans, and the sinister secret societies that they are closely associated with.
Billy the Kid Season 2 Episode 1 Recap
“The Road to Hell” finds Billy having taken up with John Tunstall, a well-intentioned Englishman who is battling Murphy for control of Lincoln County, New Mexico, running mostly on the position of not murdering the natives willy-nilly.
Things are going okay for Billy, more or less. He manages to finesse a first date with Dulcinea Del Tobosco, he knows he’s finally on the right side of things, and Tunstall, in every way except an open gunfight, seems like he might be a match for Murphy.
Who kills Jim Dolan?
Of course, Billy perhaps hasn’t considered the lengths that his adversaries might be prepared to go to in order to secure a victory, which most viewers might not have considered either given that John Riley’s murder of his compatriot Jim Dolan deviates from the real-life record somewhat.
READ: Billy the Kid Season 1 Ending Explained
I’m happy about this since it lends the show some welcome unpredictability. Simply browsing the Wikipedia pages of the major players doesn’t seem like enough anymore, and a new interpretation of these characters and events can’t be a bad thing – nobody, after all, thinks this is a documentary.
Who is Tom O’Folliard?
One might hope this trend continues with Tom O’Folliard, Billy’s real-life best friend who met the same fate at the hands – and gun – of the same Sheriff. Tom shows up in the series for the first time in the Season 2 premiere, and he’s immediately sympathetic, both in his hero worship of Billy and his comparatively tragic backstory.
Billy offers to teach Tom ranching, though it’s clear enough to everyone that as the Lincoln County War escalates, he’ll need to pick up some other skills.
Tunstall’s hope is that this war can be fought on more legitimate grounds, so to that end his lawyer, McSween, forms a partnership with Judge Wilson, one of Lincoln County’s few remaining officials not on anyone’s payroll, to attack Murphy and the House through the courts. Wilson, whose son was killed by Jesse Evans’ gang on Murphy’s orders, has more than enough reason to want to take Murphy down, but his close association with the Santa Fe Ring makes the idea somewhat implausible.
On that subject, we’re also introduced to Thomas Catron in “The Road to Hell”. He’s the leader of the Santa Fe Ring and thus the most powerful man in New Mexico, who reveals he also has a very specific interest in Billy the Kid.
Billy the Kid Season 2 Episode 1 Ending Explained
The Season 2 premiere of Billy the Kid ends in a strange way, with Billy being visited by the ghost – sort of – of his mentor Old Moss.
Billy is clearly imagining this, and since Old Moss is a made-up character anyway, it’s not to be taken especially seriously. His warning that “things don’t always work out the way you want ‘em to” is leaden with obvious foreboding, but it’s actually a little disappointing that the premiere chose to deliver this message – which is clear throughout the entire episode – in such an on-the-nose and quasi-mystical way.
Still, it’s the only real disappointment in what was otherwise a solid opener, so we’ll let it slide for now.
Additional reading:
- Billy the Kid Season 2 Episode 2 Recap
- Will there be a Billy the Kid Season 3?
