WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Walker Episode 9, “Rule Number 17,” which aired Thursday on The CW.
Ever since the opening scenes of The CW’s reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger, lawman Cordell Walker has been haunted by the murder of his wife Emily. While a figure was convicted and incarcerated for Emily’s murder, Walker remained convinced there was more to the tragedy and the actual culprits were still on the loose. Walker’s suspicions proved true when a recent bust revealed a criminal syndicate known as the Northside Nation was linked to the murder, meaning the jailed convict was innocent all along. As the series’ inaugural season reaches its halfway point, Walker faces Emily’s killer as justice is meted out, resolving one of the series’ biggest overarching conflicts.
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While investigating connections to Northside Nation in Mexico, Texas Ranger Captain Larry James and Walker’s brother and district attorney Liam are nearly assassinated. Shaken up by the attempt on his life, Liam reveals the truth to his brother upon returning to Texas. Walker vows to locate his wife’s true killer and avenge her by killing them himself. Before he can go on this unauthorized vendetta, Walker teams up with James. The Captain provides him evidence that Emily’s best friend, Geri Broussard, has ties to Northside Nation and is suspected of money laundering for the syndicate.
Geri convinces Walker and James to let her infiltrate a Northside Nation meeting while secretly wearing a wire to obtain actionable evidence for a bust. While Walker and his fellow Rangers bust the syndicate on completely different charges after their leader Oswald finds the hidden wire on Geri, a woman in the busted meeting named Cali eludes the authorities and reveals that she was actually the one that murdered Emily on that fateful day just over a year ago. Cali had been helping Northside Nation smuggle prescription medication across the border, and Emily happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time transporting water for those in need. As Cali prepares to kill Walker, Geri appears in the nick of time and manages to shoot Cali dead, avenging her best friend.
At the start of the series, Walker had quickly established two core conflicts. One, a larger conspiracy behind Emily’s murder. Secondly, the subsequent estrangement between Walker and his family after he immediately buried his grief by taking an undercover assignment that separated him from them for eleven months instead of mourning with them at a time they needed him the most. By the second episode, Walker had largely reconciled with both of his children over his prolonged absence and now, with the true killer revealed and already dispatched, the series has resolved both of its major conflicts.
With the Northside Nation busted, Emily’s murderer killed and Walker back in his family’s good graces, Walker has resolved its inciting conflicts and is relatively free to proceed however it likes. Walker has already taken major steps with moving on in his own personal life as he strikes up a tentative romance with Geri in the immediate aftermath of the Northside bust. And with the Lone Star State still needing its most famous Ranger, there is still plenty of justice for him to deliver across Texas.
Walker stars Jared Padalecki, Lindsey Morgan, Keegan Allen, Mitch Pileggi, Molly Hagan and Coby Bell. New episodes air Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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