#i swear i might expand on the duke!verse

[bunnyreaper]

this is duke by the way. he is a german shepherd that lives in my neighbourhood, he's incredibly well trained and just gorgeous <3

he tried to climb the wall to get hugs from me!!!

[what-a-messsss]

1x8 rewatch

Oh nooooo, it’s the sex cult one, and I feel so bad about the gas station guy.  It’s one of the few times that Ruby actually gets a bit of screen time, which is grand because Ruby is the actual best, but she’s so sad.  

Kudos for the continuity of his truck still being a slammed up wreck.  I hope I notice when he gets it more or less fixed, just to see how long it took in the end.

I still have thoughts and feelings about Walt’s bear paw print buckle.  Why can’t he be the kind of friend that Henry deservessssssS?

Oh honey, Ruby.  Breakin’ my heart, here.  I have a sort of headcanon that in addition to just generally knowing everybody because she’s Ruby, that she would get to know the folx who run the places that would likely tend to end up calling in a bit more often (gas station owners, bartenders, DV advocates, shelter workers) a bit better.  But he was also her contemporary, so hell, they might have gone to high school together, or gone to the same dances as teens.  Basically I have lots of feelings about Ruby, and I dearly wish that she had had more screen time and character development.

Looool, Branch actually doing some decent police work.  

I am unreasonably fond of Ellis just because of the jackalope with the camera. 

GLASSES.  And these are Henry’s early glasses, excellent.  I am choosing not to ruminate on the fact that I have mentally ranked the glasses that he has throughout the series.  That mess of the cable is making me twitch, though.  I may not deal all that much with the sound equipment, but yeeeesh, that is not great for the cable.  He’s so pretty, though.

Again with the Ruby feels, with her working on the eulogy!  She’s so wonderful.

Early seasons Ferg falls into the trap of making the chubby guy clueless and ridiculous, but I mostly forgive the writers for that because he does get some character growth.  And he is practically a kid these early days.  He’s what, mid 20s or something?  ...whaaaaaat.  Whaaaaat??  I just googled, and the actor was 33 in S1.  Oof.  Well.  Then the character just had some, uh, room for personal growth.  >.>

Ooooooope, first introduction of Newett!  Supervisor simultaneously managing to be a tool, and to call out Walt and Vic on their little blackmail threat.  

Aaaaand then this is also why I forgive the writers about Ferg: he’s not a complete lump.  They give him his own quirks, but then those quirks do prove useful.  Nerd powers activate!  You go get your geology thang on, buddy.  BLESS HIM.  And then once Henry does realize that he’s onto something, he doesn’t belittle him, just rolls with the new information.

“The DMV again.  What, am I being punished for something?”  No Vic, it’s called being one of 3 deputies, so it’s your frickin’ job.  If you’re too high and lofty to do the job, why did you take it?  (I wanted to like her character, I swear I did.)

Tooooooooom Wopat.  Heh.  Wilkins is such an ass.  And it’s so very amusing to see him in that role, because, of course, the first role I saw him in was as Bo Duke in Dukes of Hazzard.  ...Bo would have grown up to be a better sheriff than Wilkins is, though, oil company shill that he is.  The mustache works for him, though.  Wilkins starts off as reasonable.  He’s up front about the campaign checks from Newett, and has a valid point about Walt stomping around wherever he damn well feels like it without so much as a radio call ahead.  “Didn’t have time,” my big toe.  Absaroka is supposed to be big, which means that it would take time to even get to the county line.  More than enough time for Vic to call in to the station on her phone, or for them to radio ahead.  He just doesn’t like not being able to do exactly what he wants exactly when he wants wherever the hell he wants, with no acknowledgement of other people’s boundaries or responsibilities.  (I’m more cheesed off on Mathias’ behalf than Wilkins here, but the point is largely the same.)

And then he promises that he’ll check in before any future visits, which is as much use as a fart.  All it does is clear the room, with no lasting impression.  UGH.

Early Branch still does want Walt’s approval.  He bucks the down-talking that Walt constantly gives him, and does think that he has better ideas a lot of the time...  ...but his reaction when Walt says that he thinks he’s right (given the circumstances) is a tiny bit heartbreaking.  With a dad like Barlow, it’s no wonder that he’d be absolutely aching for support and approval from a father figure and the few moments where Walt gives him any sort of nod clearly land deep.  

I adore Ferg and Henry’s extremely different reactions to the rando baby.  Henry is like >:( BABY DOES NOT BELONG HERE; WHO LEFT BABY HERE ANGY HENRY, but Ferg is just instantly a worried pile of sparkles and cotton fluff going Baaaaabyyyyy!

Cady!  Speaking of schmoopy people in the face of a baby, she’s adorable.  And competent.  I love her.  That’s a great top on her, too.  Shut up, I’m not just saying that because it’s yellow.

Ferg is such an optimist.  And I want to believe that he just carries that map around with him any time he’s on duty, not just for this case.  It seems like a very Ferg, just in case, thing to do.

[Aaaand sidetracked for a 45 minutes by the expanding Cobbler verse in the form of spinning more ideas about Ruby’s daughter and family.  I love them so much.]

Ok, I might have a little bit of a double standard.  Walt not playing by the rules annoys me, but Henry seeing the ‘No Trespassing’ sign and basically just shrugging and doing how he do is amusing to me.  Wow, Henry; you make it a whole 20 feet inside the fence before the rentacops roll up.  Womp womp.  Ew, and the racism.  Which he handles with grace and humor, but bleeegh.  And the unspoken, but so very clear, ‘bitch’ following his “How.”  Hearteyes forever.

I swear, Henry gets pulled into so much of Walt’s bs without even really asking that much.

OPE.  I have caught a booboo.  First of all, it’s kind of hilarious that Fiona Hines, aka “October” in the creepy sex cult has a DOB on her license of 04/15/1954.  She looks pretty good for a 58 year old.  But her address is listed as 6 Meadow Dr. RT 10, Durant Wyoming, aaaaand then Vic has her, “Guess where the address is--” and they cut to apparently Cumberland County, because there’s Sheriff Wilkins being all unhelpful.  I’m such a pedantic little asshole.  

The oncoming train is certainly an effective method of ratchetting up tension.  The teacup on the track is a neat visual, but makes no sense, because the vibrations of a train going by, much less one slamming on the breaks like that would have either knocked it off or shattered it.  ...I’m why we can’t have nice things, aren’t I.

And then Ruby coming through with tying off the emotional thread of the episode.  She’s a gem, and I wish we’d had more of her.