Longmire Episode 2.04 The Road to Hell

Vic receives a bouquet of flowers at work, but there's no indication of who sent them. Before she can find out what happened to the card that may or may not have come with the flowers, they get a call from Highway Patrol.

The team arrives and finds a big rig truck cab sitting abandoned and full of bullet holes on the side of the highway. There's no blood in the cab, but the driver is missing, along with the trailer and all its cargo. Vic calls the trucking company and learns the driver's name is Cooper James and he was hauling cattle. Walt tells Branch to dust the truck and check out local slaughterhouses while he and Vic go to visit the rancher who shipped the cattle. Branch is unhappy about the assignments, but decides to play it cool.

Walt informs the rancher and his son that their truck was hijacked. The rancher asks after the driver, who had been a trusted friend for many years. Walt borrows a cattle brand and tells Vic to visit Cooper's family to give them the news while he heads to a local cattle auction to look for the missing animals. Vic gets a call from her husband, Sean, but he has no idea who sent her the flowers.

Vic speaks to Cooper's wife and promises her that they will do everything they can to find him, then borrows a recent picture to better identify him.

Walt and Branch go to the auction, but find no sign of the missing cattle. They learn that the shipment was underweight and wonder if the rancher was pressed for cash. Could he be in on the hijacking?

That night, Walt sits in his truck on the highway keeping an eye out for suspicious trucks. Suddenly, a man appears stumbling along the road in the dark. It is Cooper James, bound and beaten, but alive. Walt takes him back to the office where Vic calls Cooper's wife to relay the good news. Stock detective RJ Watts shows up to help with the investigation. Cooper tells them that he was attacked by masked men with machine guns. They threw him in the trailer with the cows, then dropped him off in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to identify his attackers.

Vic takes Cooper back to the trucking company to fill out a report and pick up his car. RJ tells Walt that he suspects a rustler named Bobby Dunwood may have organized the hijacking from inside the low security State Pen Ranch where he is currently imprisoned.

Walt arrives at the State Pen Ranch and talks to Dunwood who immediately guesses that RJ sent him. Dunwood claims to be clean, and even has a ranch job waiting for him when he gets out. He denies planning the attack, saying he hasn't even had any visitors to pass along messages for him He believes RJ simply has it out for him.

Back at the Sheriff's office, Vic calls Omar to see if he had sent the flowers, but he says that he didn't, although he makes it clear he wishes he had. Vic hangs up on him. Walt arrives and asks Vic to check the State Pen Ranch visitor logs and see if any recent parolees may have had a connection to Dunwood. They hear a commotion outside and are stunned to see a cow standing in the middle of the street.

The cow is one of the missing cattle and wears a sign around its neck that reads, "My farts caused Hurricane Sandy." Branch suggests that maybe they should be looking for environmental activists rather than cow rustlers. Vic runs up with news; it seems that Cooper never made it home.

Walt and Vic head to the trucking company where the manager confirms that Cooper stopped by, but left after filling out a report. Walt notices a truck in the parking lot with its back gate open, and he and Vic investigate. Inside they find Cooper hanging from the trailer roof. RJ arrives and the three lower the driver to the floor, but they're too late. Cooper is dead.

RJ and Walt guess that Cooper was in on the plan and was killed by his partners. They noticed that he didn't smell like cattle the previous night, even though he claimed he was held prisoner in the cattle trailer. RJ still thinks that Dunwood is involved, and suggests that they let him out of jail early and follow him.

Vic visits Cooper's wife to deliver the bad news. She is upset and throws Vic out, but not before showing her a bag of money that was dropped off in her driveway that morning.

Walt interviews the rancher in his office and learns that he sold underweight cattle because he was having financial difficulties in addition to having to pay for his two children to attend "fancy east coast colleges."

Outside, more cows have ended up in the street with signs around their necks. A local news crew interviews a girl who agrees with the "meat is murder" message. Omar, stopping by to drop off some flowers of his own for Vic, gets into an argument with the girl, which is broken up by Walt and his team. Walt notices the flowers and tells Omar to leave Vic alone.

Walt and RJ sit in Walt's truck keeping an eye on the recently released Dunwood, who is shacked up in a motel room. RJ reveals that his father was also a stock detective, and died in the line of duty during a car chase. RJ also expresses frustration that none of the rustlers he's locked up are still in prison.

Walt has the rancher's son, Trent, meet him in his office. Trent is surprised to see Walt has also brought in the girl who was arguing with Omar. Walt deduced that the two were a couple from their college apparel, and were possibly involved with the hijacking. After some persuasion, the two confess that they paid Cooper to shoot up the truck and switch trailers, but they deny having anything to do with the killing. Walt realizes that there is only one person besides the young couple who knew that Cooper was involved in the hijacking.

Walt calls RJ and asks him to take Dunwood back to jail. RJ agrees, but doesn't realize that Walt and Vic are parked across the street keeping an eye on him. He throws Dunwood in his truck and drives off in the opposite direction of the prison. Walt calls him again and asks where he's going. RJ realizes he's been tricked. He tells Walt that he's tired of seeing the people he puts away back out on the street, and he won't let Dunwood ruin anymore lives. RJ floors it and slams his truck into a police blockade. The crash kills RJ, but Dunwood is left alive, although seriously hurt.

Vic finally gets the card that was sent with her flowers, but all it says is "Happy Anniversary." Her husband comes out and surprises her with breakfast in bed. Noticing that she seems upset, he asks her what's wrong. She tells him, "They've found me."