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| Still frame from the season three intro for "Walker, Texas Ranger" (CBS). |
I used to watch "Walker, Texas Ranger" on and off with my mom all the time, and there are a number of episodes that I enjoy, but one that I still think about all these years later is the 1995 episode "Case Closed."
In the episode, Walker (Chuck Norris) and Alex (Sheree J. Wilson) find a little girl wandering alone on a county road in the middle of the night while strange lights come and go in the background. They then run into a military blockade with soldiers demanding that the girl be handed over.
Of course, Walker's jurisdiction on the county road takes precedence and he even draws a shotgun to keep the soldiers away from his truck. Classic. This interaction starts an investigation into the nearby military base and the disappearance of the little girl's father.
What really makes the episode unique though is how this plot is interwoven with local alien sightings. The little girl swears her father was taken by "sky people" and the entire town has had alien sightings on and off for several decades, much like the story of Roswell, New Mexico.
There's even old black and white footage of people being interviewed about alien sightings that gets interspersed throughout the episode, mostly right where the episode would've picked up after a commercial break. An interesting artistic choice.
While there are some moments of doubt with all the unexplained things going on, Walker and Alex mostly seem to think that there's a more logical explanation related to military testing.
To an extent, they're right: the military has been testing a laser defense system, and a set of contractors working on the project have been trying to sell secrets to other foreign powers. Also, the little girl's father was injured during a test, so he's receiving treatment on the base.
But there's a bit of a twist near the end. One of the greedy contractors tells Walker that he "wouldn't believe" where the inspiration for the project comes from, then when Walker, Alex, and a reporter review an old roll of footage, they see something shocking.
The footage is from the crash that started all the alien sightings and when the camera zooms in on a fog-filled container, an alien-like hand with long fingers reaches toward the container's glass cover.
The trio reviewing the footage collectively gasp, and then the show cuts to a current day shot of the military base's lab, zooming in on an open door with fog rolling out, as if to hint that there's still an alien there. And then the incident is never addressed again.
Literally, after the credits roll, it's like that case has been permanently closed because none of the episodes that follow in the entire series address the alien footage ever again.
While I could understand if the trio kept it to themselves for the sake of national security or because they convinced themselves it was something other than aliens, it bothers me that the incident was never even hinted at again. A shocking revelation was reduced to the episodic reset button.
Walker isn't a sci-fi series, but just a small nod to "the incident at Two Rock" would've sufficed.
Regardless, "Case Closed" is an interesting episode, and it was worth rewatching. If you like "Walker, Texas Ranger," you'd probably agree.
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