Sheriff Country Season 1, Episode 17 ‘The Hunting Party’ was one of those episodes that felt crowded in the best way possible.
To begin, the murder case of the week put Mickey’s sister-in-law in danger as an old co-worker tried to kill her. As the two clashed heads in an effort to protect her and solve the case, we got answers on why they’ve struggled to be on the same page. Then, Mickey found out that the federal government wanted to collect the three million dollars she found in the woods.
In an attempt to keep the money for Edgewater, Mickey called her old fling and DEA agent Alec to help get them off her back. Thinking their past relationship would be enough motive to bypass logistics. However, it turned out that he was the one asking for the money all along. That soured their reunion before he realized he could pull strings to have her keep some of the money.
Overall, we feel Alec’s return is going to complicate two things in Mickey’s life after Sheriff Country Season 1, Episode 17 ‘The Hunting Party.’ One: her relationship with Boone as he now believes his feelings for her are one-sided. And two: her relationship with Wes as he’s a part of the DEA, the federal organization he just stole from to get his money back.
MORE: Miss last week’s episode? Watch then read our Sheriff Country Season 1, Episode 16 ‘Twenty-Four Candles’ review!
Mickey and Miranda at Odds Again
Previously, we’ve learned that the Fraley family didn’t like that Mickey and Travis got pregnant as teenagers. And for a long time, Mickey believed that his side of the family had it out for her and that they’d never like her no matter what she did because she kept Travis in Edgewater for their family. Their relationship has always been unstable as a result. So, it’s no surprise that said relationship was threatened in the fresh aftermath of arguing over Skye and a crazy ex-employee targeting Miranda to try and kill her.
It wasn’t hard to see why they clashed heads again in ‘The Hunting Party’ because both women are naturally defensive, especially on Mickey’s side of things. She was only a teenager when Travis’s family looked at her as beneath them or an obstacle to get over. And because he came from a wealthy family he had no idea what growing up poor or alone was like.
Mickey had lost her mother young and had to deal with Wes going in and out of jail as a kid. And as they got older, their relationship problems rooted from the fact that Mickey felt unsupported. So, naturally, she felt like she’s had to raise Skye on her own.
This is why she acted out when Miranda came back into their lives and offered Skye a job at her company. Because old insecurities of not feeling like enough in their family had resurfaced within her. In ‘The Hunting Party,’ Mickey needed to be the one to apologize first if she wanted to fix her relationship with Miranda. Because she was the one who was hurt. She was the one with the power to rebuild bridges and move past decades of resentment.
Skye Is Going to Go Far in Life
Sure, Mickey was interrogating Miranda after her friend took a bullet for her as if she wasn’t family. And she got visibly upset when Miranda wouldn’t let herself be taken care of and kept secrets from her. Notably, they also clashed because Miranda assumed Mickey thought of her as heartless, which pushed her to being so stubborn, even when Mickey invited her to spend the night at her house with no hesitation.
In sitting Miranda down a final time to apologize for coming off as insensitive, Mickey was making that choice to reconcile because they were family at the end of the day. Sometimes, family is dysfunctional and mean toward each other. But that doesn’t mean there’s love there.
Therefore, Mickey bit the bullet and confessed that watching Skye get close with her had made her jealous. Instead, Mickey wanted to be the one to take Skye exploring out of Edgewater but never had the money for it. Naturally, seeing Miranda give her daughter those experiences made Mickey feel replaced.
So, it was really sweet in the end to hear Miranda assure Mickey that she was enough as a woman and a mother who did a great job raising her daughter. Miranda may have the money, but she had no involvement in how Skye was raised. Truthfully, the beautiful, intelligent, and capable Skye Fraley is going to go far in life. And it’s not because she’ll have money or experience from her job with Aunt Miranda. It’ll be because she has her mother’s best qualities; perseverance, strength, and unmatched kindness toward strangers and loved ones.
MORE: Missing Travis at all? Read our interview with Christopher Gorham!
Wes Really Did It
Honestly, we felt a headache come on almost every time we saw Wes on our screens in ‘The Hunting Party.’ He finally made the choice to step away from illegal growing, which we applaud. And we’ve been waiting for the words to leave his mouth forever. But he chose to stop after making the worst possible mistake of his life. We don’t even think planning a heist and stealing back the three million counts as a mistake. But it’s awful and Wes should not have done it. He can’t just promise to do the right thing after doing something so terribly wrong.
Listen, we get his loyalty to his grower community. He’s been friends with these people for years and they gave him a safe space free of judgement. However, that safe space came with the cost of making sure all of their drug deals with Emerald Eden LLC went smoothly. As soon as he lost the money, they were willing to hurt and threaten his life. And we understand that Wes felt cornered and pressured to get the money back from Mickey and the DEA. He felt threatened for his safety and we’re sure we’d panic too if we were in his shoes.
Wes was able to pull off the heist in stealing back the money from the DEA truck because he’s great at schemes. Arguably, planning a blockade with friends and stealing one of Mickey’s uniforms to act as cops was smart. So, it’s a little surprising that nobody thought of the consequences. Nobody, especially Wes, thought of what would happen after Alec and the DEA found out that their money has been stolen.
This wasn’t a state issue. Or an issue that would solely concern Edgewater as a county. Wes and his friends stole from the federal government and Mickey’s reputation is at stake here, as there’s nothing good that will come from finding out that the Sheriff’s father was the one who stole the money. And it breaks our hearts to think about Mickey and Skye’s reactions to finding out what he did.
Alec’s Return Complicates Mickey and Boone
‘The Hunting Party’ gave us the moment we’ve been waiting weeks for. Boone has finally admitted to having feelings for Mickey to Gina and we squealed every time he looked at her in this episode. To hear him call her perfect in his eyes was almost enough to have us falling off our chairs.
Initially, Boone thought his only problem in pursuing Mickey was that she was his boss. And it’s a valid reason to resist his feelings. There’s an obvious power imbalance between them in the workplace. And it’s no surprise that the first female Sheriff in Edgewater dating one of her lieutenants would create drama that nobody wants, even if Mickey is more than whoever she chooses to love.
As frustrating as that is, that’s not the biggest problem Boone is facing in his pining. His biggest obstacle is Alec coming back into Mickey’s life. We’ve said in the past that we wanted to see him return because he was the first guy Mickey had been with after Travis. He was a nice guy who respected her boundaries and got her to open up. Their relationship, both past and present, was always romantic. And there’s a fire between them that makes Mickey think with her body and not her heart.
Even if he’s back temporarily, he’s messed with Mickey’s head without her even realizing. Because she’s separated Alec and Boone in her mind her old feelings for him are overshadowing whatever new feelings she could have for Boone. Perhaps it was ignorance or just how intense her feelings were for Alec; Mickey didn’t really bat an eye at Boone in this hour. She had no recollection of stuttering over inviting him to her private birthday dinner for Skye that was family only. Or how nervous she was in having him so close when cutting her daughter’s birthday cake. Or how easy it felt to talk to him about her problems and fun it was to watch football with him.
Above all, the damage of Alec’s return has already been done in Sheriff Country Season 1, Episode 17 ‘The Hunting Party.’ We believe his stay is temporary and he’ll leave once the DEA gets their money back. But Boone thinks he has no chance after hearing Mickey call him a good friend for listening to her rants about Alec.
That’s the enticing and thrilling part of watching a relationship evolve, isn’t it? Sometimes, there’s setbacks that shadow how two people feel for each other. And we don’t think Boone is alone in his feelings. Because we have eyes and have seen how easy it is for Mickey to be herself around him.
Sheriff Country airs on Fridays at 8 pm EST on CBS.
