Summary
Billy the Kid takes a dark turn ahead of its midseason finale, with both Billy and the show itself crossing some lines they’ll never be able to walk back over.
In easily the best and most bombastic episode of Billy the Kid Season 2 thus far, the Lincoln County War officially starts, the Regulators are formed, and a major character is killed off. Episode 3, “The Agony”, rattles through all this in a coherent 45 minutes, which is an impressive feat considering how much is going on.
This feels like the turning point, both for Billy as a character and for his namesake show itself since the episode builds to a dark climax for them both. Things are getting a lot more real, and tense stand-offs where neither man draws on the other seem like a thing of the past.
The thing about power is that it needs a face, but always has to borrow one. In Lincoln, New Mexico, the face belongs to Sheriff Brady, who realistically has no power at all. And yet he still seems to have more than everyone else thanks solely to association. He marches into Tunstall’s store and rescinds Dick Brewer’s deputy badge on the instruction of Thomas Catron, knowing there’s nothing Brewer or McSween can do about it.
And everybody knows what’s happening. Brewer calls the corruption out openly. McSween threatens a legal recourse, which Brady knows is pointless since the House controls the courts. It’s a frustrating scenario since it’s so relatable having to look at that face and know what lurks behind it.
How does John Tunstall die?
This is why Billy has been so adamant with Tunstall about war being inevitable. The jailbreak plan in Episode 2 went so badly wrong because Tunstall was naïve enough to believe that those who possess power would be willing to share it. This has never been true, throughout the entirety of human history. And Tunstall pays for his naivete with a bullet.
Tunstall’s death at the hands of Jesse Evans is almost banal. Jesse and his gang are out to repossess Tunstall’s cattle and horses. When they find the ranch empty and Jesse decides the hunt can’t end there, they ride up to Tunstall and just shoot him dead. It’s over in seconds, with no resistance at all. Tunstall might have survived smallpox, but his days were numbered nonetheless.
Billy, who had begun to see Tunstall as a father figure, doesn’t take his death well. He vows to kill everyone responsible, and teams up with all of Tunstall’s still-living supporters to form the Regulators, an outfit with the sole purpose of legal or, failing that, extrajudicial revenge on the men who killed Tunstall.
Billy, Dick Brewer, Charlie Bowdre, and Tom O’Folliard are all members of the Regulators, with Alex McSween at the head to lend the outfit a kind of legal legitimacy.
Billy is all in on this plan, so much so that he completely blows his relationship with Dulcinea by telling her all about it and insisting that war is coming to Lincoln County sooner rather than later. It seems like the reformed outlaw is not entirely reformed at all.
At the end of “The Agony”, Billy and the Regulators track down Billy Morton and Frank Baker, two members of Jesse’s gang. It’s here that things take the darkest turn.
At this point, the Regulators are still operating under a veneer of legitimacy. Dick Brewer, even without a badge, is a lawman at heart. He trusts the process. Billy, on the other hand, does not, and he’s probably right not to.
So, after a shootout, when Billy and Frank find themselves surrounded, Billy understands that their arrest will only be temporary. If they’re taken back to town, Brady will free them, one way or another.
Billy shoots them both in the head.
Read More: Billy the Kid Season 2 Episode 4 Recap
