TV Review: Outsiders S1 E06, “Weapons”

By Laury Scarbro

A bit of news for fans of the show: Outsiders has been renewed for a second season as of March 11. Ged ged yah!

Sometimes you should just do what your Ma says. Big Foster needs to learn that lesson, and it would save him a heap of trouble. He always butts heads with her at nearly every turn, wanting to do things his own way, and never does it turn out for the good. This episode serves as the perfect example of that. First, he argues with Lady Rae again about their need for guns, and while Asa agrees that they’re going to have to prepare, now is not the time. Sober equals logical, while drunk equals spontaneous and reckless. There’s a moral here folks: booze plus explosives are bad, mmkay?

Speaking of booze, Wade and Ledda argue about Caleb, she warns him that if he doesn’t straighten up she’s going to take Caleb. I don’t see why not, since Caleb spends most of his time with her anyway. But Wade takes her words to heart, and tries to do right. At first. He childproofs the house, including dumping all of his pills in a bag with what looks like motor oil and disposes of it. Later, he responds to a call from a nosy neighbor who hasn’t seen or heard from the old guy Little Foster shot awhile back, and thought she heard a shotgun go off. He finds the body, a bullet hole in the ceiling, and what looks like a necklace clutched in the old man’s hand. Of course he covers that up, because that’s just what you do when you’re scared to death of the Farrells.

The neighbor keeps at him, and amid his withdrawal, he’s extremely irritable. Finally, he has enough and shows his full range of cussing ability, which is limited to “bitch,, and variations of the theme. Later that night, Wade and Caleb talk about the sleepwalking problem, it’s revealed that Caleb’s mother has a mental condition, and that’s why she’s not around.

Breece meets with Haylie, who informs him that she knows he’s kin to Wade, and inquires about why Wade’s so ineffectual in his dealings with the Farrells. Breece proceeds to tell her the story of Wade and Ledda’s father, a line boss with the coal company who tried to take the mountain the last time. The negotiations went wrong, and two Farrells were killed. A couple of days later, their father was killed–struck by lightning with not a cloud in the sky.

It’s a busy episode for Asa, who’s going about making threats to Ned, warning him to get the work on the road shut down or he’ll kill his family. I don’t know if Asa would act on his threat or not, I’d like to believe he wouldn’t. When he gets back to the mountain, Gwin’s asked to see him, to ask him to put a stop to Big Foster’s plan to steal guns from a local gun shop while everyone’s at church. He does what she asks, tipping off the owners to what is coming.

While Big Foster and his group are at the gun shop, being pinned down by gunfire from the owners, Wade’s having sex, then slightly reluctantly getting drunk and high when the call comes in. He really has no business behind the wheel of a car. When he arrives at the gun shop, he tells the owners to stand down, giving the Farrells the break they need to escape. A chase ensues, but no Farrells are actually caught–the other officer in pursuit loses Big Foster, and Wade just stops. He tries to turn around and hits the trailing Farrell head on, killing the guy. His reaction is pure fear, whether it’s of the Farrell’s retribution or of getting caught with drugs and alcohol in his system.

At last we get a little more story on Sally Ann; she never knew her father, her mother ran off, so all she has is her brother. Hasil goes to see her, and she tells him they can’t be together–we’ve heard this story from her before, it’s like she and Gwin go to the same school of Wishy Washy Mixed Messages. She calls him a dirty disgusting hillbilly, but you can tell it hurts her to do it. He goes to her house to try to speak to her brother and assure him that his intentions are good, but the guy isn’t having any of it. Even Hasil’s go-to hand-carved gift-giving trick doesn’t work, and Hasil gets a door slammed in his face. Before he can leave, he can hear her brother screaming at her, then hitting her. He breaks down the door and of course a fight ensues, ending with threats of death and Sally running off.

Finally, it feels like the plot is really getting somewhere. There’s more action and revelations of back story that are necessary to make this show really shine. Subtle hints here and there about things that happened before don’t quite get that done and make a story drag along, especially when there are plenty of questions that go unanswered. You’ve got a group of people in town, and a group of people on that mountain, and you can’t just gloss over the details even when the cast is as big as this.

I’m sure Wade’s right on the cusp of a major character development–for the good or the bad is anyone’s guess. In most cases, killing a guy is a wake-up call, or it could send him spiraling even further out of control. I don’t expect Sally will be very receptive to Hasil after seeing the violence he’s capable of, but she could surprise me, realizing that Hasil is willing and capable of protecting her. I don’t think she’ll make the switch and move to the mountain with him, though.

See you next season!

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