Woody left the Brothers premiere wondering whether Ma Mac’s history with his father could make him and Matthew more than lifelong friends. Episode 2, “The Hunt,” doesn’t give him the answer. Instead, digging into the past introduces Woody to two men who apparently have unfinished business with his father.
Matthew has his attention firmly on the future as his campaign for governor begins taking shape, although a birthday tradition with his son creates a very different disagreement between the two families.
Matthew Starts Putting His Campaign Together
Matthew is serious about running for governor, and one of his first jobs is finding someone to manage the campaign. He and his wife conduct an interview at the ranch with a prospective campaign manager who quickly takes control of the conversation herself.
She has plenty of ideas about how Matthew should run and appears to see his earnest, folksy personality as something they can use politically. She is confident she can turn him into a successful candidate, although working with her would also mean accepting everything that comes with a professional campaign.
Politics soon has to wait because it is Wyatt’s birthday. Matthew gives his son a rifle and plans to take him hunting the following morning. Wyatt goes with him, although he isn’t particularly enthusiastic about killing an animal. Woody’s daughters decide to join them as well.
Woody doesn’t learn about that part until they are already gone.
Hunting clashes with what he has taught his daughters about animals, and he immediately goes after them. His intervention nearly ends disastrously when he gets between the hunters and a deer shortly before a shot is fired.
Wyatt is relieved to leave and heads back with the girls. Matthew is far less happy about what Woody has done, and the two friends argue as they drive back to the ranch. Then Woody accidentally hits and kills a deer.
For someone who went into the woods determined to stop an animal from being killed, it is an especially unfortunate way for the morning to end.
Matthew initially celebrates the kill, but that doesn’t match the reaction waiting for them at home. He changes course, and the deer gets a funeral instead of becoming dinner.
Woody Keeps Digging Into Ma Mac’s Story
The question Ma Mac raised in Episode 1 hasn’t gone away.
Woody tries asking her directly about what she told him, but Ma Mac isn’t interested in confirming anything she may have said while drinking. Without answers from her, he starts looking elsewhere.
He visits a local bar and leaves his card behind, hoping someone who knows about his father’s past will contact him; eventually, someone does.
The call reaches Woody through his wife, and he leaves the ranch expecting to learn more about his father and whatever connection he may have had to Ma Mac. Instead, someone hits him over the head.
When Woody regains consciousness, he is with the Travis Brothers, two men who knew his father. Their interest in the Harrelson family has nothing to do with helping Woody solve his mystery. His father owed them money; now they expect Woody to settle the debt.
The Travis Brothers Threaten Woody Over His Father’s Debt
Woody suddenly faces a much bigger problem than figuring out whether his father once had a relationship with Ma Mac.
The Travis Brothers demand payment and threaten him as they try to figure out how he’ll pay what they believe they are owed. At one point, that includes the threat of shooting him through a phone book.
Woody doesn’t have to find his own way out, because Ma Mac arrives.
She gets the Travis Brothers to back down and frees Woody, showing through her actions that she knows far more about these men and his father’s history than she’s been willing to tell him.
Woody understandably wants an explanation after what just happened. Ma Mac still doesn’t provide one; instead, she warns him that he has opened a hornet’s nest.
That leaves the mystery surrounding Woody’s father even larger than before. Ma Mac’s suggestion that she may once have been involved with him already raised the possibility that Woody and Matthew could share a biological connection. Now Woody knows his father also had a debt to the Travis Brothers, and Ma Mac knows enough about the situation to intervene when they threaten him.
