As the episode begins, Leo Doyle (Sam Trammell) gets a few rifles from John Ainsworth (Toby Schmitz) since he is going to take his son hunting. Ainsworth tells Leo about the rifles before giving him ammunition as well. John offers to take Leo and his son up to the hunting site but Leo wants to spend time with Paxton alone. Mike (Aden Young) and Cyd Ramos (Gloria Garayua) interview the woman Leo attacked last night and try to find out how she got Mike’s card. Sheila didn’t see her attacker so he isn’t able to give the detectives much. After they leave, Cyd ridicules Mike for using a heavy thumb on Arlen’s photo. She suspects the RRK left the card as a way to tell Mike to stop chasing his trail.
Mike is more interested in trying to find out why Sheila wasn’t killed. They agree to send the card to the lab before circling back to Sosa and Waller at the end of the day. Leo and Paxton (Ed Oxenbould) make it to the hunting spot and begin looking around. They shoot at bottles and Leo isn’t very good but Paxton’s aim is very good. Paige (Simone Kessell) cooks for the family while chatting on the phone. Jake (Finn Little) enters the room and distracts her causing Paige to drop her phone in the cooker. Jake grabs the phone and burns himself before smashing a few plates on the ground. After that, Mike and Cyd tell Sheriff Waller (Paula Arundell) and Randy about the business card.
They encourage Mike to tread lightly. Back at home, Amanda (Mitzi Ruhlmann) takes provocative pictures of herself She sends pictures to her boyfriend while he pleads for more. That ends when Jake enters the room to tell her about his finger. Mike finally makes it home and Amanda tells him she is thinking about taking a gap year because the Obama girls did. Jake asks his father if he would come home if he called 911 but Mike says 911 is for emergencies only. Then, Jake asks about the RRK and that surprises him. Sam (Milly Alcock) lies about it so he won’t find out the truth about the Russian River Killer. Cyd arrives at the door before she is invited inside by Paige.
In private, Cyd tells Mike that autopsy is in and she got a message from Cabrera that the guy’s time of death is in the same window as Gretchen’s. Drugs were found in his system but it wasn’t enough to kill him. Mike doesn’t look happy when Cyd decides to stay and eat with his family. Paxton spends quality time with his father. They chat about John being a weird guy and other things. Leo agrees to go home right now if Paxton tells him the truth about anything but that only leads to an argument. Later that night, Mike watches a patrol office drive around his house outside while his wife sleeps. In the morning, Paxton and Leo start looking for deer.
They search the woods while Cabrera tells Mike and Cyd that there are nicks on Phillip’s ribs and that he was murdered. It is unknown if the same blade was used to remove Gretchen’s tattoo. Cyd suspects it was a drug deal gone bad and not the RRK before we jump back to the deer hunting trip. They find nothing and stop for a break. Paxton apologizes before they chat about him bringing a gun to school and him pretending to a young girl online. Paxton says he is doing it to punish that man. The argument continues until Paxton gets angry. Paige confronts Amanda with the provocative picture. Amanda says there was only one picture and that the boy’s name is Reuben. Leo continues talking with his son and trying to figure out what is going on with him.
Paxton says it is his business just like what goes on the shed is Leo’s business. Paxton ends up elbowing his father in the face before running into the woods alone. He walks through the night only stopping when he finds a couple having sex in a tent. He takes aim at them but doesn’t fire. Amanda spends time with Reuben (Tom Dalzell) and she encourages him to get rough with her. Jake grabs his mother’s lipstick and causes trouble by smashing it. He gets angry and heads outside where he starts a fire. The family begins looking for him after spotting the fire. Jake is okay. Brad checks on Paige before Mike returns home and finds out what happened.
Mike checks on Jake who says it was an accident. Later that night, Mike and Paige put Jake to bed and Paige apologizes for yelling at him. She also reminds him of the special school she showed him and he says he might like it. Mike wants to know more about that school and he isn’t happy about it. Mike says Jake is fine but just different. Paige reminds him that their son is on the spectrum. After breaking down at home, Mike goes to the office and finds Cyd looking through pictures and other evidence. He asks her to define evidence before admitting that the RRK likely wasn’t involved in Gretchen’s death although he wanted it to be him.
However, he thinks they should lie to Sosa since Gretchen’s case might be their last opportunity to catch the RRK. He believes they should use the case as a Trojan horse to stay on the RRK and Cyd agrees to cooperate with him. Leo has a nightmare that the woman from the tent comes running toward him and he starts choking her. Paxton arrives and shoots her before he wakes up. Then, he finds that Paxton has killed a deer. In the morning, Brad (Nic English) checks on Paige again but she doesn’t have much time to chat. He mentions that the woman who was attacked had Mike’s business card in her hand so she goes to the station to ask her husband about it. She wants a patrol outside at all times and he tells her that is already done.
She encourages him to try harder to solve the case. When he goes home that night, he watches the patrol car drive by and checks the door to make sure it is secure. He goes around the house checking on his loved ones and Amanda tells her dad that he will catch the killer. He goes out and drinks while Leo returns home with his son. Candace (Laura Gordon) steps outside and greets them from the balcony. At the end of the episode, Mike visits Arlen Doyle.
Reckoning Review
IMDB says Arden and my subtitles say Arlen. The end credits say Arlen and it sounds that way so I am going to assume his name is Arlen Doyle. Anyway, this episode of Reckoning was decent but nothing spectacular. The hunting trip was a bit pointless but I guess it gave us a chance to learn more about the relationship between father and son. Mike is having problems at home as well since Jake is acting out and Paige might be interested in having a fling with the neighbor.
He is putting his family in danger in hopes of uncovering the identity of the Russian River Killer. I’ll stick with it since I’ve already made it this far but I am sure a lot of people didn’t bother. It would’ve been much better if it was only 5 or 6 episodes. We can only tolerate being given the runaround so long before we get bored. The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Previous recaps of Reckoning are available on Reel Mockery.
