‘Walker’ Executive Producer Anna Fricke Explains the Twistiest Episode Yet
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Walker, Season 1, Episode 106, “Bar None”]
We risked throwing out our backs dodging the twists on Walker‘s March 11 episode.
Since it debuted, the CW show starring Jared Padalecki as Cordell Walker has been slowly pulling threads here and there regarding the murder of Cord’s wife Emily, (the star’s real-life spouse Genevieve Padalecki), as well as the fractured family backstory of his partner, Micki Ramirez (Lindsay Morgan). What we know so far is that some guy named Carlos Mendoza (Joe Perez) confessed to killing Em, and that Micki’s psychologist mom is a total pain in the A.
They just gave a huge yank to those stories.
On the domestic front, Micki’s mother Adriana (Alex Menses) shows up unexpectedly and announces that she’d been assigned with evaluating Walker’s fitness for the job following complaints of excessive force. While not a monster, it turns out that the woman — who surprisingly took a shine to Trey (Jeff Pierre) — does want our hero’s badge. But just as they were heading into his hearing, Federal officials showed up with a felony warrant for her arrest. And it looked like she wasn’t surprised.
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At the same time, as the family prepares to mark the year anniversary of Emily’s death — and Walker spirals over Geri (Odette Annable) deciding to sell the Side Step bar — Liam (Keegan Allen) and James (Coby Bell) cut a deal with the jailed Hoyt Rawlins (Matt Barr) to get close to Mendoza behind bars. They discover that the dying convict may have taken the fall for the homicide to secure funding for his daughter’s art gallery in Mexico.
Said gallery, it turns out, had received a questionably large amount of what appears to be hush money from an LLP called Straw Ring — the name of Geri’s LLP for the Side Step. Which she conveniently sells to Cord and the kids before hightailing out of town.
We also learn late in the episode that the young man (Gavin Casalengo) courting Stella (Violet Brinson) is actually the son of Clint West (Austin Nichols), one of the Rodeo Kings robbers Walker put away during his 10-month undercover stint as Duke.
Rebecca Brenneman/The CW
TV Insider did the only thing that made sense and got on the phone with series writer, creator and executive producer Anna Fricke for some answers!
Is Geri actually a baddie? And where is she going?
Anna Fricke: She’s not leaving. It does seem like she’s involved in something. It seems like she was happy. She was pretty happy to get rid of the bar for reasons that we’ll find out. It’s complicated.
She’s definitely mixed up in something that will end up being connected to a greater picture. When Odette and I talked about the character of Geri before she came on board, she very much didn’t want to just be like “the pretty girl at the bar.” And I didn’t want that for her, either. She’s such an important character, she’s like O.G. Walker crew: It’s Emily, Walker, Hoyt and Geri. Nothing is going to be black and white. I wouldn’t make her straight up bad or anything like that. But she may have gotten in over her head on something.
OK, so why that nail gun scene?! [Walker shoots a nail through his hand while trying to repair the bar].
I know! I will have you know, I actually can’t watch that part.
What is up with Micki’s mom?
We wanted to start getting into everyone else’s personal life as we get into the season. … Micki states early in the pilot how fraught things are with her mom, how they haven’t been talking…you’ll definitely see more of her and play that dynamic out.
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There’s a good reason why Micki is so shocked that her mother, who basically set her up with a very strong moral code and is extremely judgy [herself], would get into this kind of trouble. [As for Micki], she’ll get a bee in her bonnet [and go digging once it becomes clear that] there’s more behind these charges that Adriana is being faced with.
This stableboy Trevor is going to be trouble, isn’t he.
Trevor has a very fraught relationship with his dad. He’s kind of hinted at it when he met Stella in Episode 1.04 and said, “I’m working at the stables because it’s close to my dad. My dad’s in prison.” That’s why he took the stable job, so he could visit him…but it’s not like Clint is a great dad. They have a very complicated relationship that will definitely be playing out.”
Does this mean heartbreak ahead for Stella?
Tragic love.
Walker, Thursdays, 8/7c, The CW
