Summary
Sheriff Country makes a major statement in “Crucible, Part 2”, delivering a major set-piece with real skill and finesse.
Sheriff Country is making a big claim for itself in Episode 10. The midseason premiere, “Crucible, Part 2”, picks up five minutes after the midseason finale, and manages to not only immediately resituate us in that tense siege situation but also keep the suspense up unrelentingly for the entire episode. It’s a real bravura outing that positions this show a little bit above the average procedural, though it admittedly doesn’t make it especially easy to recap beyond saying “Shooty shooty bang bang” over and over again.
This isn’t a bad thing. This instalment thrives in its construction, a surprisingly tight evocation of Assault on Precinct 13 that really nails all the basics like spatial choreography and action orchestration without abandoning the heart of the core relationships that have been threaded through this series from the beginning. It’s a really quite good episode of television.
Remember, the midseason finale ended with the news that Travis had been shot; the premiere winds back five minutes to show us how that happened. Those preceding five minutes are dense with the emotional throughlines that are going to carry us through – Travis and Mickey’s unresolved romantic rekindling, Boone’s confession of his feelings to Nora, Cassidy’s missing sister. But the big news is that Travis is indeed shot, and not just winged in the arm, either. He’s shot right in the chest, and the serious injury not only keeps him out of commission for most of the episode, but also introduces a few other compelling elements as well.
Anyway, for the most part, this is how things work. The Barlows – led by Ruth – are storming the sheriff’s department in an effort to free Enoch, who is being kept in a holding cell under Federal guard, from captivity. There’s no negotiation to be had here. The Barlows are coming in, and it’s up to Mickey and Boone to keep them at bay for long enough that backup can arrive. While that’s going on, Cassidy has to look after Travis, which she has already been doing from the jump, having dragged him back inside and shot dead one of his attackers.
There are talks of trades, obviously. Kavanaugh, the FBI agent, is adamant about not handing Enoch over, but some, including Cassidy, think that trading him is the only way to save Travis, especially since he wasn’t really their problem to begin with. But Mickey puts her foot down. Enoch can’t be trusted. And as long as he’s a guest in their establishment, he’s their responsibility. Thus, a gunfight ensues for most of the rest of the episode.
Mickey and Boone’s relationship is great here. Mickey is barely holding on, given what’s going on with Travis, and Boone is taking every available opportunity to send Nora really normal messages so that when the communication blackout ends, she doesn’t think anything is amiss, but they also have to double down and hold off the encroaching Barlows, potentially putting their lives on the line. There are badass one-liners. There are moments of real emotional intimacy. And since Sheriff Country Episode 10 is really well orchestrated, there’s a ton of legitimately effective suspense-building. I genuinely thought Boone might die in a couple of spots.
There’s also a ton of drama elsewhere in “Crucible, Part 2”, thanks largely to Travis’s injury. As with Mickey and Boone, it’s the strength of the relationship that really carries things here. Having seen the chemistry between Mickey and Travis, Cassidy knows that something has sparked between them, but instead of pouting about it, she gets to work making sure Travis stays alive. They even share some nice, adult scenes discussing their relationship, coming to terms with the idea that it was only ever a stopgap until he figured things out with Mickey.
In an unlikely turn, it’s Enoch himself, who is revealed to be a former combat medic, who manages to save Travis’s life when things get worse. Again, this is genuinely tense stuff, even if Boone was right that Enoch can’t be trusted – he tries to escape immediately after. Whether he helped Travis just to facilitate that or out of an innate sense of humanity, though, is still unclear; the relatively peaceful ending suggests that it’s the latter, since it’s also Enoch who ultimately talks his people down, as well he might.
Not to overstate things, but this was easily the best episode of Sheriff Country thus far, and the one that clearly positions it above most of its contemporaries. You can lament the absence of key characters like Wes – and whatever happened to Skye? – but it’d be a nitpick in the face of an otherwise-great hour of tense and impressive network TV.
