Is truth easy? The sentiment is direct enough that you can capture it on a colorful coffee mug. You can espouse that sentiment after you pick up a stranger from the side of a road underneath a sign warning drivers that hitchhikers may be escaped inmates from a nearby prison. But telling someone that truth is easy is a lot different from actually telling the truth all the time. Moreover, how can you define the truth? Is it best to be truthful in a way that darkens the human spirit and makes a person more cynical about the world? Or is it equally truthful to share an upbeat story from within a dark society? These questions fuel not just a huge swath of The Lowdown’s second season, but also a central scene of “Raw Milk,” an episode that turns up the season’s energy and intensity.
Last week, I mentioned a recent New York Times profile of creator Sterlin Harjo, referencing the filming of this week’s episode and specifically the extremely funny scene in which Lee has to get extremely high on nitrous before getting his chipped tooth fixed. But that profile also referenced the return of the Boontill Oracle himself, Dale Slater (Steve Earle). When Lee met Dale last week, he just thought the bearded gentlemen was an inexplicably friendly midnight driver. As it turns out, Dale is the editor of the Woodrell County Monitor, a local paper that may be a bit more focused on the kind of truth you’d see back in the Willard Scott era of NBC’s Today, sprinkling in local events and celebrating people’s milestone birthdays. Both men tell some version of the truth, but they’re not remotely the same. Dale compares himself to legendary jazz musician Robert Johnson, at the crossroads and potentially about to sell his soul to the Devil for one big story. Lee doesn’t contemplate like this; he just dives right in.
“Raw Milk” is a microcosm of all that The Lowdown does extremely well. We get frantic action as Lee and Johnny race away from the latter’s house after they realize the interloper who Ginger had previously shot is a Woodrell County Deputy Sheriff named Lonnie. Soon after, the tone shifts to something loopier, as Johnny, Ginger, and Lee all take a few hits of nitrous before the latter can calm down to get his tooth capped. There’s the genuinely sincere and philosophical debate over the concept of truth between Lee and Dale, and the value of bringing people down in the hope of making the world a little better. And then, seeing as we’re now reaching the halfway point of the second season, we get introduced to the boss whose obnoxious errand boys are hounding Lee and Ginger for the whereabouts of Mekko Dean.
That boss is Woodrell County Sheriff Vela Thorne, played by Martha Plimpton. Sheriff Thorne is introduced off screen by skeevy local lawyer Jeff (Kirk Fox) as “a big ol’ See You Next Tuesday.” And she seems to wear that perception as a badge of honor next to her county-issued one. When a young 4-H contestant tells Sheriff Thorne that everyone calls her a bitch, she laughs and replies, “Honey, I hope they call me a bitch every day of my life.” Lee ought to know better than to steer clear of the event, because Dale has also warned him about how tough the sheriff is.
The action at the opening aside, “Raw Milk” revs up the tension when Lee informs Ginger that Lonnie is from the same county where a young inmate apparently died. Seeing as Mekko was apparently involved with a dead inmate before he escaped to parts still unknown, Lee and Ginger are drawn to visit Woodrell County, where the motto is “everyone is a neighbor.”. The 4-H event overseen by Sheriff Thorne seems like the positive side of that motto. There’s a friendly hog competition! And look at how cheerful people are, even when they’re selling Lee some raw milk. (Even before his stomach rebels on him, I was grossed out by that stuff.)
But even the upbeat side of what Thorne and her constituents nominally stand for hints at a darkness. When Lee first realizes that his roadside savior is the editor of the Woodrell County Monitor, he also learns his own brush with fame saved his life. Dale knew Lee from his past work, and his instantly infamous acceptance speech. And Dale knows about Nathan Spence, the young inmate who died, as well as his mother with all of her intense questions. What Lee sees as a quest for the truth is what Dale sees as something that “gets people hurt.”
If Lee doesn’t believe it when Dale says so, he ought to believe it by the end of “Raw Milk.” His encounter with Sheriff Thorne is contentious and confrontational, and her dismissiveness is unpleasant and cruel. That she would dub Lee a busybody is perhaps unsurprising, but that she says the same thing about Nathan’s mom is pretty cutting. Sheriff Thorne is all too happy to throw Lee in jail for specious reasons (though Lonnie would argue it’s because Lee lost his gun). And she’s equally pleased to introduce Lee to her cousin: McMann, the guard who killed Chili Franks. Everyone is a neighbor indeed.
Lee puts himself through the ringer each week on The Lowdown, and you wonder how long he can keep it up. The dude starts this episode with a chipped tooth, and ends with a painfully upset stomach. He tries very hard to look past his exterior problems, let alone his interior ones. Even though he’s convinced he can talk to anyone, Lee gets awfully sour when Ginger suggests even briefly that he might be a lot like his recently returned father than he cares to admit. (The darkness in Ethan Hawke’s look when Ginger asks Lee about what Francis would think is pretty impressive.) The only good news is that Lee’s one phone call could be a true get-out-of-jail-free card. The episode ends with him rolling down one of his boots to look at the phone number of a “Big D.” There are three options (I imagine) of who that could be: Lee’s lawyer friend Dan, Dale Slater, or Governor Donald Washberg. Barring a surprise fourth option, I get the sense Lee’s going big and bringing in the head of state.
Stray observations
- • My brain is so rotted with pop-culture references that when Marty and Ray tease Frog about his past being “some real Indiana Jones shit,” I could only quickly leap from that line to the image of Tommy Lee Jones telling Harrison Ford he doesn’t care in the sewers of Illinois in The Fugitive.
- • In the same vein, I’m sure many of us see Kirk Fox and think of his appearances on a number of other shows including (obviously) Reservation Dogs as well as playing Sewage Joe on Parks And Recreation. He’s pretty solid in his few scenes.
- • We all know Chekhov’s gun, but I wonder if Lonnie’s gun—currently wedged in the couch cushions at Dan’s office—is going to appear again before the season is over.
- • In retrospect, Lee’s acceptance speech in the premiere really is a lot like the bit from A Star Is Born.
- • It feels notable to me that after Ginger approaches Nathan’s mom and all but begs her to explain what she thinks happened to Nathan, we don’t revisit that story before the episode ends. Quite an early cliffhanger.
- • The subplot with Frog accompanying Marty and Ray to a black-market auction is fun enough, mostly to see Jones, Keith David, and Michael Hitchcock as a motley crew. But I keep waiting for this storyline to tie back to the main plot. I’m still not sure how it will happen, but… it’s got to, right?
- • Speaking of Frog and pop-culture references, the John Huston movie he’s referring to (I believe) is the 1960 Western The Unforgiven, filmed in Durango, Mexico.
- • I thought I got nervous at the dentist, but Lee shouting, “No gas, no deal!” is about as wild as you can be.
- • Leave aside how tacky a tattoo of the Monster Energy logo would be. Getting your cheek tattooed sounds especially unpleasant, no?
- • Thorne’s husband, Bob, is played by character actor Clifton Collins Jr. He doesn’t get any dialogue this week, but seeing as Collins is well-known for a host of roles, I think we can safely assume he’ll be getting more to do in future episodes.
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