We are officially past the halfway mark for Ransom Canyon, the Netflix adaptation of Jodi Thomas's romantic Western novel series.
And Ransom Canyon episode 6, entitled "We Need to Talk About Reid", is certainly keeping the drama moving with romantic snafus, run-ins with law enforcements and reveals about what really happened during the car accident that shockingly claimed Randall Kirkland's (Hubert Smielecki) life.
Here's everything that went down in Ransom Canyon episode 6.
Red flags
Fresh off his rodeo win, Yancy (Jack Schumacher) wants to use his $20,000 cash prize to buy a new tractor for Cap (James Brolin), a thoughtful move that charms new girlfriend Ellie (Marianly Tejada). (As you might remember from the last episode, he didn't have to fork over the money to Freddie & Co. because they were arrested last-minute for cattle-stealing.)
Ellie is less charmed, however, during a drive when she unexpectedly sees Yancy arriving at the care facility where Ruth Fuller lives. She finds out from Kai (Justin Johnson Cortez) that a young man has been spending a lot of time with Ruth there, and that the guy is allegedly Ruth and Cap's grandson.
Believing Yancy is up to no good, Kai decides to run a background check on him, while Ellie takes the opportunity to poke around the ranch for clues. Yancy nearly catches her going through the bags and boxes in his room, but she plays it cool, and they hook up instead.
She does, however, call him out about the nursing-home sighting. "You make it really hard to trust you," she tells him. He lies and tells her he's been going to see Ruth because he felt bad that Cap doesn't visit her anymore, saying she reminds him of his own grandmother. He apologies but she can't shake the nagging feeling there's a lot he's not telling her. He asks her to have dinner with him tomorrow — he'll be an open book for her, he promises.
However, she cancels on him after that background check comes back, revealing that Yancy's criminal record has mysteriously been sealed. She knows he's not a good guy, she just needs to get some answers — which she'll seemingly get from Freddie (Kenneth Miller), who she goes to visit in jail.
Green envy
Much to the annoyance of Quinn (Minka Kelly) and the awkwardness of Staten (Josh Duhamel) — who drunkenly slept with Davis's ex the episode prior — Paula Jo (Meta Golding) is still sticking around town. Even worse, she wants to use Quinn's dance hall to conduct some pipeline business. In the process of setting up the meeting, Paula Jo spills about her vehicular rendezvous with Staten at the rodeo the night before.
In an excellent coincidence, both Staten and Davis (Eoin Macken) show up to the dance hall at the same time, with Paula Jo pulling them into a conversation about Reid (Andrew Liner) — he can't keep staying at Staten's, she argues. Things get snippy between the men until Davis lands a particularly low blow, saying Staten taking in his nephew isn't going to bring his dead son back. That causes Staten to storm out.
The next we see of Staten, he's being bailed out of jail by Quinn — he was seemingly all fired up from his argument with Davis and assaulted some guy for no reason. As she's dropping Staten off home, they discuss Reid and Randall, and their conversation grows wistful. "Maybe somethings are best left in the past, no matter how beautiful they are," she tells him.
Davis is upset that, out of all the people he knows, Staten called Quinn to bail him out; he admits he's jealous of their connection. In turn, Quinn admits to some jealousy over Paula Jo, not only because she spent the night with Staten but because she bullied her into hosting a pipeline meeting at the dance hall.
During said meeting with a city councilman and Texas water development board member, Paula Jo puts a plan into place to order salination tests on Staten's wells. When the results come back brackish — and they will, she promises — the council will call for a vote to end grandfathered wells in the county, meaning Staten will be forced to spend millions retrofitting every single well, which will fundamentally force him to take the pipeline deal.
Quinn, who overheard Paula Jo's dealing, confronts her about messing with Staten's business. She threatens to tell Staten about the plan, but Paula Jo says the city council is going to rezone the town square next month and she'll make sure the dance hall loses its liquor license in the process.
Staten shows up to Davis' house to drop off Reid's things. Davis surprises him by inviting him in for a drink and apologizes for what he said at the dance hall, even more so when he admits that Staten hooking up with Paula Jo bugs him. ("Good!" Staten jokes.) Staten tells his brother-in-law it's time to make peace with Reid — he doesn't want him to regret not mending their relationship, like Staten does with Randall.
Blue trucks
In the first moments of the episode, we see a flashback to the night that Randall died — a mysterious figure checks on the boy in his badly mangled car, then rushes back to their own truck and rush off. Is it Reid?
Speaking of, Lauren (Lizzy Greene) tells Lucas (Garrett Wareing) that she hasn't spoken to Reid since she broke up with him last episode; things aren't going smoothly between Lucas and Reid, either, who basically start fighting every time they see each other.
But at least things are finally good between the young couple — Lucas tells her that, instead of Yale, Brown or Vassar, he wants to attend the University of Texas next year to be close to her. His older brother Kit (Casey W. Johnson) warns Lizzie, though, that things won't pan out for the two of them. The longer their relationship goes on, the worse things will be for Lucas, he says.
Later, the couple is spending time down by the lake with a bunch of other teens. They peel off for a private moment and are set to go skinny-dipping together — as Lauren is getting undressed though, Lucas goes swimming first and realizes that something is down there in the water. It's a truck.
When law enforcement arrives, Lucas tells Sheriff Dan (Philip Winchester) the pick-up he saw beneath the water's surface was blue. Staten arrives to the scene and realizes the vehicle is missing a bit of its fender, just like the piece he had found earlier in the season.
All 10 episodes of Ransom Canyon season 1 are now available to stream on Netflix.
