Killer Women - Recap: Power Rangers
Recap and review of Killer Women - Episode 6 - Daughter of the Alamo:
While "Daughter of the Alamo" wasn't exactly my favorite episode, it did have me feeling somewhat sad that this is the last episode of Killer Women on ABC's schedule. Granted, they might burn off the remaining two episodes during the summer like they did with 666 Park Avenue, but by then, who's to say what level of connection we might have with it? Will we even remember that Molly (Tricia Helfer) finally won her divorce from Jake (Jeffrey Nordling), or that Billy (Michael Trucco) is working under Dan (Marc Blucas) to bring down a criminal mastermind in order to avoid jail time? It's a shame that the show is ending right as it embraces a more direct serialized approach, in addition to introducing a character whose presence immediately made the show feel more fun, and gave it the jovially combative dynamic that it had otherwise been missing. Is "Daughter of the Alamo" perfect? Of course not. But it offered a glimpse into a potentially good little procedural developing underneath all the narrative excess.
Credit: ABC
The story this week centers on Molly making an arrest that leads to the re-opening of a cold case that retired Texas Ranger Colt Ritter (Michael Shamus Wiles) failed to solve. Immediately, the pairing makes for a more interesting dynamic than we've been getting the past five weeks. I get that part of the idea behind the series is that these killer women are brought down by a woman themselves, but I don't see why this precludes the involvement of a male partner. Ritter is a wonderful addition to the cast, and could have provided a terrific contrast to Molly's character: while Molly represents the progressiveness of the modern age, Ritter is very much a representative of the old guard, who feels a woman has no place among the Texas Rangers. He's not necessarily a bad man or anything, he's just out of a different time altogether, like a living anachronism of sorts. Had this been the pairing from the start, we could have gotten five weeks of pretty engaging stories, in which Molly gradually earns Ritter's respect and slowly changes his views on the role of women in law enforcement. It would have had the benefit of making Molly a more vivid, fully-realized character while also providing her a point of professional opposition, as opposed to simply having the personal opposition that is represented by ex-husband Jake. It also helps that Helfer and Wiles have immense chemistry as on-screen, crime-solving partners, trading witty barbs and acerbic one-liners with each other throughout the episode, including an amusing little bit in which Ritter wants to say grace before eating beef jerky (arguing it's still "God's bounty"), but not before eating an egg roll.
Credit: ABC
Of course, there's an actual murder to solve underneath all this back-and-forthery, and it involves a cold case Ritter could never solve. Once again, part of the problem of a show titled Killer Women is that all suspense is removed from the outcome, particularly in an episode like this that has only one viable female suspect. A woman will always be the killer, and more often than not, it's someone Molly will question or meet within the first fifteen minutes. Granted, this is a problem with a great many procedurals on TV, but it's more pronounced here because of the female-centric premise, which seems to allow only for one kind of killer. Some procedurals can get away with having a case with an obvious solution, since the journey towards that inevitable solution is entertaining enough to make up for the obviousness of the reveal. But Killer Women has rarely been that show. Take tonight, for instance. Molly and Ritter go searching for a man connected with the victim, someone who might be able to identify the real killer.
Credit: ABC
When they finally take the suspect, a man named Shackleford, in for questioning, a lawyer mysteriously appears and brings the interrogation to an end before they can get any meaningful intel. Later, after Shackleford is released, he's found murdered (with his loyal Rottweiler adorably keeping watch over his body). This means that whomever murdered Shackleford likely sent the lawyer to prevent Shackleford from spilling what he knew about the murder. Thus, whomever the murderer is must have been somebody who knew both Shackleford and the victim. And, naturally, only one person fits that bill, Sue Ellen Tucker (Erin Karpluk), a killer who remade her life as the perfect wife and mother. Ritter feels like an idiot for not having solved the case sooner, leaving Molly to console him with assurances that his work was helpful, and it's a sweet little moment, particularly when he offers her his respect by calling her "Ranger". It's just a shame the case around this moment wasn't more interesting.
Luckily, the character-centric stories at the heart of the episode fare a bit better. Molly refiles her divorce on the grounds of cruelty, finally revealing that Jake beat her. She explains to Billy, in a poignant moment, that she refused to fight back even though she was more than capable of defending herself. Her rationale, at the time, was that loving Jake more would mean he would hate her less. Unfortunately, this didn't turn out to be such a sound strategy in practice, since Jake is a complete sociopath, even taking over his own defense during the divorce proceedings, and grilling his wife over her lack of evidence. She admits that one of the reasons she never filed a report was to avoid the shame of being seen as a Texas Ranger who couldn't defend herself. He smugly asks for her cruelty claims to be thrown out...until Dan arrives with a file containing evidence of past victims Jake has assaulted. When confronted with the possibility of his violent past coming to light, Jake drops his objection to the divorce and agrees to sign the papers right then and there. At last, it seems like a happy ending for Molly -- except there are bigger problems in her family than she knows. After being caught as a part of a criminal operation last week, Billy is forced to work for the DEA to bring down the mysterious gangster El Diablo, in order to avoid prison time. El Diablo inevitably discovers that Billy is working with Dan, and abducts his daughter in revenge. So yes, Killer Women comes to an ignominious end: an unresolved cliffhanger.
Credit: ABC
And that's a shame, because the show's more gradual shift towards more focused serialization was beginning to pay off, from a character perspective. Molly, Dan, even Billy -- whom Michael Trucco imbues with a terrific "dead man walking" unease -- feel more like real people in a real world. There are talented people here, and I particularly look forward to seeing what Helfer does next. And hey, if ABC burns off the rest of the episodes in the summer, I might actually give those a look too. I might not have always loved Killer Women, but it's not as if there was nothing to like here. But in this age of television, audiences expect more from primetime dramas. For better or worse. Ultimately, I'm not exactly sure I'm going to miss Killer Women for what it is so much as I'll mourn it for the campy, fun little procedural it could have been.