In the first season finale of Common Law, called appropriately enough “Gun!”, we finally found out what it was that caused Wes to pull his gun on Travis.
Advance reviews are always a challenge for me. I’m dying right now to talk about everything that happens in this episode scene by scene, but as that would of course spoil everything, I’m going to break this down into three “acts.”
Act One begins in a place you’d expect after the end of last week’s episode. The boys are working with their new therapist and I’m sure you can imagine how well that goes. I’m trying to beat back the spoilers with a stick here, but I am going to mention what was shown in the previews for this episode. And that is the fact that Wes and Travis are so desperate to get back to Dr. Ryan that they offer her quite the deal: if she takes them back, they’ll tell her about the incident that brought them to her in the first place.
Thus begins Act Two, where Wes and Travis go over the entire story with her. It starts with a bit of comedy as each of the guys have their own version of events and they vary from the slightly comical to the absolutely ridiculous. This Act also gives us some very interesting flashbacks where we get to see the captain in a new way. We also see the moment that the guys met, which was a nice surprise. Though some of the flashbacks provide some humorous moments, it’s really in this act that the story starts to amp up. In order to know why Wes pulled his gun on Travis, you have to know all the incidents that led to it and it’s a twisting road full of mysteries.
It’s hard for me to decide exactly where Act Three begins, but I’m going to say that it’s with the moment where we finally find out what happened on that fateful day. It turns out to be one of the most intense scenes I’ve seen on this show, but that is far from the end of the story. Once we know why Wes drew his firearm on his partner, we then have to learn the effects that incident had on both of them. Also, it begins a transition into the final part of the story, which for me was the most emotional. It’s killing me that I can’t say more right now (have no fear that my full review will go into everything) but let’s just say that the guys make a decision after they reveal their secret, and it leads to the penultimate scene of the episode.
Now, I’m a big wimp and I know it so feel free to take this with a grain of salt but I’m not lying when I say that this scene brought me to tears. Not great big sloppy sobbing kind of tears, but I did have to blow my nose a few times. I think it was the music that really got to me. The way they use music in this show has always been great, but nothing compares to what they did in this particular scene. What happens is so much better expressed without dialogue; with only a song to convey the emotion that we’re supposed to feel right then.
In the end, when all is said and done, the episode ends like any good finale should. There is a sense of relief on the one hand, but also a look towards the future that brings excitement for season two. And I really, really hope we get a second season because after watching this episode, I know that I want to see many more adventures with Wes and Travis.
The season one finale of Common Law airs tonight at 10pm on USA Network. Once the episode has aired, be sure to come back here to TV Equals and check out my full, spoilerific review.
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