User Reviews

The Brothers went off the rails from the start. Bank robbers had cleaned out the safe in Dodge City and were ready to leave the bank - through the front door. A bank customer walked out the door in front of them, so one robber shot the customer in the back. The rifle shot drew more attention than the customer. Consequently, there was a shootout with Matt as the robbers fled. This set-up allowed Matt to shoot and capture one robber - "a boy" (played by a 22-year-old). The writing that started this episode continued throughout. Three characters who we'd never seen in Dodge City were quickly introduced, much like crew members on Star Trek whenever a victim was needed. The problem with these set-ups is that the audience has no connection with these victims. They were thrown in by the writers to be abused or killed off, and we see it coming. The first new-character victim walked into a trap. He had a gung-ho attitude and a gun in his hand, but a bad guy walked slowly toward him smiling, and all he did was cower. End of shot. The next time we saw him, he was dead; and Thad (his "good friend") looked at him and said, "Oh, no." The second and third new-character victims were spouses. Turned out she was pregnant (not showing), and what followed was the worst of the writing & directing. Matt abruptly decided to take "the boy" to see what his brother had done to her. When the boy walked briskly into her bedroom toward her, she didn't ask who he was, and she wasn't afraid or catatonic after the brutal assault, but instead asked the boy if his parents wanted a boy, on cue. She looked beat up; and after her brief soliloquy, the boy began to consider the possibility his older brother (played by a 34-year-old) was morally challenged. Still, he told Matt (which was to tell us) the backstory of their childhoods. The "hurt people hurt people" story without the violin accompaniment. Like all good guys, Matt tied the boy to a tree and hid in the rocks above with a rifle to execute the boy's brother and two friends ("the gang"). The sooner the better. After watching Noah Berry and a French-Vietnamese woman play Indians in the previous episode, I assumed this episode would be better. I had to replay the last words of this episode to make sure I heard them correctly. The episode ends with Matt and the boy walking off into the sunset (western 101). No shovels in hand. Rewind. The last words spoken by Matt to the boy were, "We've got work to do."