Summary
Billy the Kid Season 3 finally picks up some pace and urgency in “Take Your Medicine”, with Jesse’s historically ambiguous involvement lending things some unpredictability.
Season 3 of Billy the Kid seems best characterised as “the one where he gets ambushed everywhere he goes”, which must be demoralising when you’re trying to organise a resistance movement. Even though Billy got his revenge on Miguel for his betrayal, he hasn’t really gained much ground in Episode 3, “Take Your Medicine”. While the title could just as easily apply to someone else, since things aren’t looking great even for current and former members of the House, there’s undoubtedly a sense that Billy is being forced to consider the cost of his mission.
He’s also forced to consider who his allies are, since they’re pretty prone to stabbing him in the back. In this regard, at least, the show yields its most interesting drama, which, as predicted, involves Billy’s relationship with Jesse. This is all good stuff, since the lack of historical precedent makes it genuinely unpredictable, and their eventual, inevitable team-up also gives Billy a feasible chance of fighting back. As a result, “Take Your Medicine” is easily the best episode of the final season thus far, which is good news since it was definitely flagging.
We also say goodbye to Riley here. After his unceremonious removal from the House by Thomas Catron, he’s left adrift, drunk, and purposeless, having to swallow his ego to grovel to Emily and then, when that doesn’t work, resorting to the bottle once again. Even the bartender is sick of him and his unpaid tab. The funny thing about power is that the powerful don’t know how to live without it. Riley isn’t a sympathetic figure, but his eating his own gun in the shadow of the old Murphy Store is an effective cautionary tale. There’s always a bigger fish, a badder bad guy, someone who’ll go further, do more, and complain less.
This kind of ripples through Jesse’s arc, too. Still languishing in the guilt of Ana’s death, he’s only riding with Sheriff Garrett’s posse because of blackmail. And, perhaps, a lingering connection to, and sense of brotherhood with, Billy. He thinks the hunt for Billy will give him some kind of purpose, but what it really does is hold a mirror up to himself. Is he really the kind of guy who’d mortally wound a young man and then blithely play cards while he noisily and painfully expires? Jesse only has so much humanity left to spare, and he doesn’t want to spend it torturing Billy’s few remaining loyalists. Tom pays the price for Billy’s crusade in a grim way, but he also awakens some kind of purpose in Jesse, who hands in his deputy badge and rides out to reunite with Billy.
It’s a tough sell, to be fair. Jesse has done plenty wrong, and Billy and Dulcinea have precious few reasons to trust him or believe his claims that he’s now reformed. The argument spills over into a fistfight until both men are pulled apart, panting and bleeding. But if nothing else, it proves Jesse is serious. Maybe he can’t atone for everything he’s done, but he can at least try – he can at least, in his own words, not be misunderstood. It’s still a very uneasy alliance, but it’s an alliance nonetheless. It’s the best scene of Episode 3, easily, but probably the best scene of Billy the Kid Season 3 thus far. It’s certainly the one that is underscored by the most complex and genuine-seeming emotion.
It’s easy to forget sometimes, since he’s not Billy the Kid, but Jesse is a serious gunslinger, and his allying with Billy is a major deal for Garrett. This is proved pretty much immediately in “Take Your Medicine”, since they both decide to send a message to Garrett that he’ll hear loud and clear. So, they ride right into Lincoln County and open fire on the Sheriff’s office. Garrett and his goons are forced to dive for cover as Billy and Jesse speed by on horseback, and then a multitude of hidden gunmen shred the place to pieces. Garrett avoids the bullets, but not their implication – the man responsible for keeping Lincoln County safe is himself pretty vulnerable.
As if this wasn’t personal before, it is now. And for the first time, Billy has the law on the back foot.
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