Walker Review: Bar None (Season 1 Episode 6)

Walker Season 1 Episode 6, “Bar None,” drops three bombs in its last minute that blast us into a whole new type of storytelling. 

It’s a welcome shake up! 

The show is still finding its narrative structure legs, and the murder mystery(ies?!) is a fabulous brace. 

I saw Gerry’s sabotage coming. Her willingness to sell the bar and get out of dodge was way too quick and clean. 

However, when Trey shows up at the prison my jaw drops to the floor and then when Micki’s mom is arrested my jaw falls through the floors to the basement. 

Walker and Micki are in serious hot water and they don’t even know who is doing the boiling!

The bombs help to clarify and justify why certain stories from the first five episodes happened, especially Stella and Trevor’s and the entire undercover episode.

Given that I have critiques these choices a bit, the fact that there is a clear reason these characters and relationships are emphasized helps to build trust in Walker as a show with a cohesive plan. 

Partner Round Up

As it has been on every episode far, the core strength of the “Bar None,” is the partnership between Micki and Walker. It is a testament to the natural chemistry between Lindsey Morgan and Jared Padalecki that the cheesy structural problems analogy hits really nicely. 

 MICKI: I’m here on a Sunday trying to help my stupid partner not lose his badge, only to be dragged into some deluded effort to fix a structural issue with cheap old brackets.

They need a ship name. Even if they remain platonic partners, they are already BrOTP goals. Milker sounds gross. Walcki is darn cute! It can be a reference to walkie-talkies, and this partnership is all about communication!

The thing about Walki (I’m going for it), is that each character has stretched out a bit so that they are more specifically drawn than just the archetypes we might expect. The conversations they have are fairly standard. Each is calling out the other on their avoidance issues. But, it still feels fresh and surprising.

Walker’s anger has more of a fatherly tinge than rebel cop. He is putting that bar back together like a dad working on the Ikea furniture for his college freshman. Even when he is meeting Trevor, he explicit calls out he is trying to threaten the boy and it saps the interaction of any real threat. 

Walker isn’t a Bady Boy, he’s a Grieving DILF. 

Micki’s avoidance is likewise laced with something unexpected; it’s a mix of not being the perfect daughter and wanting to find her own morality, even when there is signficant overlap with her family’s. 

Walcki sees each other for their enigmatic and layered selves. They rarely connect physically. They aren’t huggy. But, dang it if their conversations don’t feel exactly like a hug.  

And mixed in with all that heavy stuff is humor. 

MICKI: Real quick, while I’ve got you nailed down.

Before our eyes, Walcki is becoming family. It what they both need, especially now that they will be working together in the wreckage of the episode’s bombs!

Whether their chemistry is romantic is still as much a mystery as Gerri’s motives. 

There is a brief little blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment between the two right after Micki has poured the liquor on Walker’s nail wound and right before Trey walks in that is electric. It’s only a breath and eye contact but it means something. 

The fact that Micki’s boyfriend is the one to interrupt means something too. What those somethings are remains to be seen. 

Offtrack for Tejano 

“Bar None,” introduces us to Micki’s family through her psychology professor mom. It is really cool that we see a hyper-educated and successful Latina in Dr. Adriana Ramirez. 

The problem is that the show doesn’t make the story specific to Texas and tejanos. 

We still learn nothing of Micki’s culture and background. Everything remains firmly centered on Walker. Even Dr. Ramirez’s book, it seems, has more to do with Walker than with her family’s or the tejano experience. 

Why make the book about police officers and not about the people who have been impacted by their prejudiced practices? 

The tejano people in Texas, who have been there longer than the white people, by the way, have a rich, sordid, and important history with the Texas Rangers.

Mexican-American journalist Jovita Idár literally stood in front of the newspaper where she worked when the Texas Rangers came to tear it down. She is one example of a long history of tension and oppression between these two groups.

Walker and Micki represent these two sides that have long been at odds. It is not enough for there to be a generic critique of policing. The social justice critiques needs to be as specific as the character development the show is providing.

Frankly, the actors can only do so much. They need the writing to be informed. 

Hopefully, in the wake of the breath-taking bombs, the non-white characters on the show will find themselves in a more central and rich place in the story. 

Target Practice

• Drinks on the pool table? I think NOT.
• There is not a couple out there that actually acts like that when they leave a bar, right? The cutest carrying and hat exchange? I don’t think so.
• Trey and Trevor are way too similar names. Rude
• Abby’s explanation of being rude to Trevor is so honest and sweet. She isn’t afraid to admit some fault while also standing her ground. What a bad ass grandma.
• The fall-guy murderer has big Abel Koontz from Veronica Mars vibes.
• Gerry’s going down and it is going to be epic. Can’t wait.

 

What did you think of this episode of Walker? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Walker airs Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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