Billy the Kid Season 1 Episode 5 Review: A Little Bit of Paradise
Like many 19-year-old men, Billy McCarty Antrim is still learning the hard way.
Unfortunately, Billy continued to be haunted by his recent criminal mistakes on Billy the Kid Season 1 Episode 5.
Billy believes he’s basically good but just misunderstood. Thanks to the wanted posters for Kid Antrim, the general population feels otherwise.
While recuperating after almost dying in the desert on Billy the Kid Season 1 Episode 4, Billy had the opportunity to reflect upon his short life.
Instead, he fell hard for his nurse, Barbara, who just happened to be the woman of Jesse Evans, Billy’s former partner in crime.
Maybe Barbara should have mentioned that along the way. Then again, Barbara was a liberated woman long before her time who had broken away from the strict dogma of the Calvinists.
Barbara didn’t feel compelled to bind herself to one man, and she told both Jesse and Billy that, to their chagrin.
Billy and Jesse had a strange dynamic, which helped to color the situation.
Jesse left Billy to take the fall for the burglary at a Chinese laundry back on Billy the Kid Season 1 Episode 3. But Billy did owe Jesse for rescuing him from his ill-fated march through the desert.
Like many teens, Billy’s problem was that he succumbed to peer pressure.
He rustled cattle and robbed the laundry at Jesse’s urging. Alias pushed him to steal horses from the Army. He killed that blacksmith in self-defense. He’s just a victim of circumstance.
Billy tries to be a good Christian, following the teachings of his late sainted mother, Kathleen. Thanks to her loser husbands, she worked hard every day to provide for her boys even though she would never get ahead.
Unlike Kathleen, Billy lacked socially approved skills. He could shoot and, to a lesser degree, play cards. Was it any wonder that he was in trouble from a young age without Kathleen’s moderating influence?
So when Jesse invited Billy to ride with his gang, he declined for a host of reasons, leading with that he was attempting to lead a good life, all evidence to the contrary.
There were other, more apparent, obstacles. Members of Jesse’s gang didn’t want the infamous Kid Antrim to draw attention to them.
Then there was the whole Billy-Jesse-Barbara triangle. Barbara didn’t want to choose. Billy didn’t like to share Barbara with Jesse. Jesse didn’t want to share either of them with the other.
So, yes, that was one of Billy’s rare good choices when he asked Jesse for a horse so that he could leave.
Jesse’s drawing a bead on Billy was his “If I can’t have him, no one can” moment. But, as Barbara pointed out, he loved Billy too much to kill him.
Billy followed that good decision with yet another bad one. Since Billy was wanted in New Mexico and Arizona, he chose to head to Mexico instead.
That made some sense, as criminals going to Mexico to hide out is a longstanding tradition that lingers to this day.
And, yes, Billy spoke the language, which had to help. However, there was no disguising that he was a gringo, and the Mexicans hated gringos for stealing their land. Billy, whose best friend growing up was Mexican Carlos, was painfully unaware of that fact.
He was soon made painfully aware of it. First, a young boy suckered tourist Billy by offering to shine his boots, then absconded with them.
When Billy chased after that boy, a trio of local bandits cornered and beat him until local gambler Segura rescued him. Yup, Billy found himself another running mate with whom to get into trouble.
Billy did have the common sense to hide some of his stash, which turned out to be a good move after Segura unveiled his plan to double team crooked card dealer Ortiz.
However, his luck didn’t hold after they’d won, as the pair got rolled by a couple of attractive sisters who seduced them to stay overnight and then stole their money after they got drunk and passed out.
Broke yet again, Billy had to use his gun and bullets as his stake at Ortiz’s game. But after catching Ortiz dealing off the bottom of the deck, Billy and Ortiz won once again.
The two amigos then parted ways, with Segura heading to New Mexico for family business and Billy opting to go to Texas, where there wasn’t a price on his head yet. Likely he’ll join the Texas Rangers once there.
However, Ortiz didn’t take losing so gracefully the second time around, and he and his men trailed Billy and Segura after they left Chihuahua, determined to get his money back.
He made the mistake of ambushing Billy at night. After Billy got his campfire roaring, he could pick off Ortiz’s men one by one by firelight.
That left Ortiz alone with Billy. Even after Ortiz offered to let Segura live, Billy chose to shoot him in the head, becoming a murderer.
What changed to make him kill intentionally? Billy likely saw this as a righteous killing, ridding the world of a horrible individual.
Still, Billy crossed a line from which he’ll never return in his short life.
It will be intriguing to see how this changes Billy’s thought process about himself.
To revisit Billy’s move to the dark side, watch Billy the Kid online.
Was Billy right to leave behind Jesse and Barbara?
How did you like Segura?
Was Billy justified in killing Ortiz?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
