Summary
Billy the Kid Season 3 has been a countdown for its titular character, and he finds himself at the end of the road in “The Shepherd’s Hut”. But something tells me there’s still more to come from the story.
It was only a matter of time. Even Billy the Kid can’t run forever, and if nothing else, Season 3 has been a consistent reminder of that. It’s one step forward and several back for the outlaw; he makes a new friend and then gets betrayed by him, he re-teams with Jesse to send a message to Pat Garrett, and then he gets cornered by Pat and his posse pretty much immediately. The guy’s cursed, and Episode 4, “The Shepherd’s Hut”, proves it.
The episode is so-called, by the way, because a shepherd’s hut is where Billy and the Regulators hide out. It’s an isolated shack in the middle of nowhere, supposedly safe from scrutiny. But there’s an accidentally funny cadence to this hour, since Billy keeps coming up with bright ideas about where to go and what to do, only for the subsequent scene to reveal that Pat is receiving information that keeps him right on Billy’s tail. This is supposed to build a feeling of cruel inevitability, but it mostly just seems a bit silly, like Pat has been looking at the script.
There’s an element of foreboding in a lot of the dialogue, too. Even the Regulators are beginning to doubt the mission, if not necessarily Billy himself. An inevitable march to death will do that to you. And even though all of these men and women have seen firsthand what the House is capable of, that doesn’t mean that endless war, skirmishes, and life on the run are a viable alternative. Either fortunately or not, depending on your perspective, Pat removes the need for any tough choices. But I personally reckon they would have been made otherwise.
There’s a sense in Billy the Kid Season 3, Episode 4 that Billy has become slightly mad. He can’t see the forest for the trees. There are “Wanted Dead or Alive” posters all over the place, and he becomes a bit obsessed with the idea of not being taken alive at any cost, even if it means the few loyalists he has left being gunned down around him. Even when that potential future comes about and one of his staunchest fellows is dead on the ground, Billy is still reluctant to surrender himself. Going out in a blaze of glory crosses his mind more than once. It takes all of the Regulators surrendering themselves first to convince him that it sometimes makes more sense to live to fight another day.
On that note, RIP Charlie Bowdre. He’s actually cornered by Pat’s posse early on in “The Shepherd’s Hut”, but he’s given a chance to save himself by parting ways with Billy’s gang. He claims he will, then goes right to Billy about it. This is partially why the whole gang set out to trek a lonely trail to the supposed safety of the hut. It’s only fitting that it’s Charlie who meets his end during the ensuing stand-off, another one of this season’s decent set-pieces, albeit one tempered by the fact that there’s simply no way that Billy and the Regulators are going to get out of it.
And they don’t, obviously. Charlie is mortally wounded and heads out to sacrifice himself, hoping to take one or two of their pursuers with him. But it’s a brutal, unceremonious death for the character, whose unblinking eyes are returned to multiple times as a reminder. Fans of horses would also be best steering clear of this outing. There was simply no need to shoot that horse.
I’m confused about what Billy the Kid wants us to think about Pat Garrett, though. He’s nice enough with Emily, who he grovels to after making a fool of himself coming on to her, but his pursuit of Billy leans a bit psychotic, so it’s difficult to take moments like him threatening to shoot Bob Olinger if he guns Billy down after Pat gave him his word he’d take him alive seriously. Is this a guy who really cares about his word, or simply about not being seen to break it publicly, thus damaging his image? That’s actually the justification that Jesse gives when he’s trying to compel Billy to surrender peacefully – that Pat won’t allow him to be killed in cold blood, because someone in his posse would mention it. It smacks of narcissism to me.
Since Billy remains alive, we’re not at the end of the story just yet, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were another escape in our immediate future. Even though we know, roughly, what is going to happen, at least historically speaking, I’ve got a feeling that there’ll be a turn or two before we’re finished.
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