‘Sheriff Country’ Episode 7 Recap – Things Aren’t Done Between Mickey and Travis

Sheriff Country has some mixed subplots in terms of quality, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s similarly inarguable that the main thrust of it is really very good. Episode 7, “Glory Days”, highlights this, while also going some way towards justifying, or at least attempting to justify, the sudden introduction of a couple of storylines in the mixed-bag previous episode before the Thanksgiving break. And it does so in pretty fine style.

The A-plot this week involves a brutal school beatdown that turns out to have its roots in a more illicit relationship, but it mostly exists to give Mickey something to do while she makes gooey eyes at Travis. As predicted, Travis’s very sudden breakup with Cassidy – who gets some backstory of her own in “Glory Days” – seems to have come about to open a romantic door with Mickey herself. But we’ll see how that goes.

In the meantime, let’s talk about Boone, since everything involving him is pretty obviously weaker than the rest. It was only last week that he was suddenly revealed to have married his late partner’s widow, ostensibly as a kind of protective gesture, but here it becomes very apparent that these two are in love but are holding off on consummating their relationship out of respect for the dead. Boone is, anyway – Nora would quite like to just get on with things, since they’re living in the same house and are, you know, legally married.

On the one hand, this creates a relatively nice payoff for Boone at the end of the episode when he finally decides to commit to Nora, but it also feels a bit wonky since when we first met these two, they didn’t seem to have any strong romantic feelings for one another, and Boone has been pretty wooden in general. Either way, it seems like Nora is here to stay, since Boone isn’t resigning any time soon.

Elsewhere, Cassidy fares better. Now freed from the trappings of that forced relationship with Travis, she’s left to her own devices. The case isn’t really important, but what it raises – about Cassidy’s connection to cars, her relationship with her sister, who I’m going to assume is either dead or severely estranged, and how she’s making an effort to move forward from her trauma – definitely is. I’m hoping that Cassidy gets more to do as things go, instead of just having more and more aspects of her past be gradually revealed, but she’s growing into a compelling character all the same.

And, needless to say, keeping Cassidy away from Travis frees him up to be involved with Mickey. This still feels pretty platonic for the time being, but as I’ve highlighted already, Travis doesn’t have a great deal of function in the plot beyond being Mickey’s ex-husband. Sure, he had something to do when Skye was under threat, and Episode 7 loops him into Wes’s efforts to go legit, but even that doesn’t last long. Sheriff Country is primarily interested in relationships, so it makes a good amount of sense that Wes doesn’t really need Travis to get him through all the bureaucratic red tape of legitimacy – he just needs his relationship with Skye (who is suddenly back in this episode, with her absence nary a mention).

Being unable to tolerate Wes for very long leads Travis back to Mickey, whose investigation of the school beating leads them both back to their own past. Mickey’s high school tenure being defined by her teenage pregnancy is revisited here, as is the kindness of others that helped her along the way, including a teacher whose efforts to help her are here recontextualised as potential grooming. Luckily, that turns out not to be the case. The groomer turns out to be someone else; the school fight was two of his paramours finding out about each other. It’s a sinister case on its own terms, especially with the teacher taking the side of the girl who was only 17, since he knew that alienating her would lead to more severe legal reprisals than the 18-year-old who had been badly beaten on account of his violating actions, but it’s mostly used as a way to explore Mickey’s own time at school – and, by extension, how that relates to her relationship with Travis.

At the very least, they finally get their prom night dance. The lingering connection between them is very obvious, and I do wonder whether the show will choose to pursue it or not. Like Boston Blue, it has already been renewed for a second season, so I suspect it probably will. But there’s plenty more to enjoy in the meantime, especially if Boone manages to loosen up a bit. I won’t get my hopes up in that regard, though.