Summary
The mid-season finale of Billy the Kid Season 2 delivers more gunfights and bloodshed than basically all of the previous episodes combined, representing a major turning point in the Lincoln County War.
It’s the Regulators versus the uncreatively named Jesse Evans Gang in Billy the Kid Season 2, with the opening salvo of the Lincoln County War forming an exciting centerpiece gunfight in Episode 4, “The Day of the Dead”. I say “opening”, but that’s not quite true; the battlelines were already drawn when Jesse killed Billy’s father figure and employer John Tunstall in the third episode of the season. This was simply a bloody certainty, but it represents a major turning point in the season all the same.
Billy, Dick Brewer, Fred Waite, George Coe, Charlie Bowdre, and Tom O’Folliard, all decide to prove a point by ambushing Jesse and his gang in Lincoln, preventing the corrupt Sheriff Brady from serving Alex McSween a dodgy arrest warrant by filling him full of holes. This very public retaliation against one of Murphy and the Ring’s allies will be the key to the back half of Season 2, which will return to MGM+ on an as-yet-unconfirmed date in 2024, since it leads to the installation of a new Sheriff who will, in a roundabout way, be the end of Billy the Kid.
Billy the Kid Season 2 Episode 4 Recap
While it can easily be argued that both of them deserved it, Billy coldly executing Frank Baker and William Morton has made the Regulators wanted fugitives, and has also panicked Murphy and the House into taking rasher, more obvious action.
Riley is still adamant that Billy represents a much larger threat than anyone seems to be giving him credit for, but targeting his allies in the meantime seems to be a safe bet. Murphy plans to have Sheriff Brady serve Alex McSween, now the head of the Regulators following Tunstall’s death, with an arrest warrant. He’ll be charged as an accessory to the murders of Baker and Morton, and be publicly hanged following a sham trial.
Did the Regulators really kill William Brady?
In a scene cribbed straight from real history, the Regulators ambush Brady on Lincoln’s Main Street and shoot him dead. This really did happen and for basically the same reasons as those depicted in the show.
“The Day of the Dead” effectively builds tension in this scene in the build-up to the shootout, since Riley covers it with a public party, meaning that Billy and the Regulators have to sneak into position without being spotted. Murphy plans to have McSween arrested as soon as he arrives in town, so there’s a ticking-clock element that ups the drama.
The shootout resulted in the death of Brady and several members of the Jesse Evans Gang, and the severe wounding of Tom O’Folliard, Billy’s number one fan who had previously been rightly cautioned about the dangers of getting involved.
Gunfight at Blazer’s Mill
After being tended to by the McSweens, Tom is denied the opportunity to participate in the next battle and is hidden under the floorboards of the McSween residence with food and water. In the meantime, Billy and the other Regulators ride out to Blazer’s Mill, another key battleground in the Lincoln County War, to maintain the pressure on the Jesse Evans Gang.
This, like the ambush of Brady, really happened, and it’s one of the better action set-pieces of Season 2 thus far. It’s another action-packed shootout with plenty of close calls and near-misses, but it also has a strong sense of character. Bitter enemies though they might be, Jesse and Billy still have a complicated relationship, and the former refuses to take a clear shot on the latter, allowing him time to escape with Charlie Bowdre, who almost died in the battle.
How does Billy the Kid Season 2 Episode 4 end?
“The Day of the Dead” ends with Pat Garrett being appointed the new Sheriff of Lincoln County.
This is an extremely important development since it is Pat Garrett who, in real life, eventually killed Billy the Kid. We have already met him in Season 1, of course, and the introduction was ominous for those in the know. Still, his return is treated as a fittingly big deal here in the mid-season finale since he’s personally appointed by Thomas Catron as Brady’s replacement. His sole function is to take out Billy and the Regulators.
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