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Episode Guide

VIDEO

• BONUS CLIP | 2:15

  

  Branch Operates In Gray Areas

• BONUS CLIP | 2:12

  

  Walt and Vic Have Feelings For Each Other

• BONUS CLIP | 2:22

  

  The Cast Wonders What Might Have Been

• BONUS CLIP | 3:02

  

  Ferg Steps Up for Cady

• BONUS CLIP | 2:44

  

  Branch and Cady Want Each Other

• BONUS CLIP | 2:01

  

  Deputy Ferg Finds His Confidence

• BONUS CLIP | 2:12

  

  The Bond Between Henry and Longmire

• BONUS CLIP | 2:21

  

  Longmire Cast Debates the Sheriffs' Debate

• BONUS CLIP | 2:02

  

  Katee Sackoff on Getting Her Ass Kicked

• BONUS CLIP | 3:01

  

  Vic and Her Secret

• BONUS CLIP | 2:10

  

  Searching for the Truth with Cady Longmire

• BONUS CLIP | 2:05

  

  The Cast Introduces the New Season

The Road to Hell

Episode: 4 Premiere Date: June 17 2013

GO INSIDE THE EPISODE EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS TALK ABOUT IT

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.

Guest Stars:

Louanne Stephens as Ruby

John Bishop as Bob Barnes

Louis Herthum as Omar

W. Earl Brown as RJ Watts

Stephen Sullivan as Cooper James

Hilary Tuck as Linda James

Dan Buran as Bobby Dunwood

Brian Howe as Dale Lowry

Alix Gitter as Amy Hendricks

Matt Angel as Trent Lowry

Zion Leyba as Thomas James

Dylan Kenin as Sgt. Haynes

Morse Bicknell as Whitey Culver

Michael Mosley as Sean Moretti

Greg Ellis as Jordan Helms

Production Notes:

In "The Road to Hell," Walt and company get help in the form of Stock Detective RJ Watts, played by W. Earl Brown. Vic was surprised to learn that cattle rustlers are still a problem for ranchers, but the fact is "Cow Cops" still play an important role in the life of a cattle rancher. Writer Daniel Connolly explains:

"We did a fair amount of research in this area. Cattle and livestock theft, a signature crime of the Old West, remains a persistent problem in many parts of the country. And much of the investigatory work for these crimes is handled by specialized law enforcement officers called stock detectives. We envisioned RJ Watts as a career civil servant who has grown frustrated by a criminal justice system that consistently fails to mete out serious punishment to the thieves he has devoted his life to tracking down."

Watts. RJ Watts. Cow cop.

Connolly continues, "We also wanted to draw a corollary to Tom Horn, a notorious stock detective in the Old West who was ultimately convicted and hung for the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy. We wanted RJ to have this business in his blood. At one point, Walt hears from RJ that his father was also a stock detective who died in the line of duty when 'he drove off the road and crashed' during a chase. This is meant to foreshadow RJ's final decision at the end of the episode."

RJ's "final decision" to slam his truck into a police roadblock in the hopes of killing his passenger, cattle rustler Bobby Dunwood, called for an intense stunt performance. Connolly recounts the excitement of the shoot:

"This was incredibly fun and nerve-wracking to watch being shot. I think there were nine cameras running at once. You obviously only have one take to get it right. The stuntman who drove RJ's truck was very professional. I think viewers would be as impressed as I was by the tremendous amount of safety precautions that go into pulling off a stunt like this. It's really a testament to the professionalism of our stunt coordinator Chris Howell and his team. I recall feeling this collective sense of relief on set when the crash was over."

Trust the professionals. It's safer than it looks!

Connolly continues, "The director Dan Sackheim and the Camera Department knew we had great coverage of the crash from multiple angles. So I approached the stunt driver and extended my hand to thank him for his work. He looked at me suspiciously and asked, 'Are you the medic..?' I said, 'No, I'm the writer.' He promptly shook my hand and explained he never shakes hands with medics because years ago he did that and ended up with serious injuries on his next stunt. So far, his superstition is working. He also told me that he keeps the keys to every car or truck he wrecks onscreen and throws them into a bowl in his kitchen. Kind of like his own 'hurt locker.' It's apparently pretty full."

Poor RJ. And poor W. Earl Brown! Between Longmire and Bates Motel, his characters are having some real bad luck. Special Makeup Effects Artist and Designer Steve LaPorte used prosthetic applications (and a touch of the red stuff) to create the wounds the stock detective received in his final act.

Lookin' good, Mr. Watts.

Ill-fated truck driver Cooper James, played by Stephen Sullivan, left this world in a less dramatic fashion than RJ, but that doesn't mean he didn't get special treatment from the make-up department, too. Here are some shots of the process used to make his hanging look real. Yikes.

Cooper, we hardly knew you.

And here's the final look on the day of the shoot.

Hooray! Cooper's ok! Although he's looking a little peaked...

Sheriff Walt Longmire is an experienced lawman. Nothing gets past his finely honed investigative instincts. More than once in this episode, a particular clue was the key to Walt unravelling another twist in the case. What was it that put him back on the scent of his quarry?

Answer: It was poo!

That's right, it was manure. First, Walt notices the cow patties by the shot-up truck, indicating that a cow-jacking had taken place. Later, the lack of bovine stink on Cooper helped Walt to realize the truck driver was in on the crime. FX Foreman Maggie Johnson (pictured above) gives us the scoop on the poop.

"That was the box of hero cow poo to be put on the road when Walt drives up and finds the semi tractor shot up. The trailer was missing from the tractor, but Walt found some residual cow poo on the road and of course, he puts poo and poo together (hehe). We had to to a little rehydrating to freshen it up. I thought it was hilarious that it was in a Discovery box."

Production notes courtesy of Daniel Connolly, Maggie Johnson, Steve LaPorte, and Emily Thomas.