The Checklist: Walker, Texas Ranger – “The Final Showdown”
Earlier this year while celebrating Walker, Texas Ranger‘s 30th Anniversary across our social media platforms, frequent Walker guest star, Marshall R. Teague mentioned his favorite episode of the series. Marshall selected the two part series finale, “The Final Showdown”.
I knew at that moment that the the next time I decided to put Walker, Texas Ranger to The Checklist test, that I was going to select “The Final Showdown”. Since the finale was a two parter, this isn’t going to be your garden variety Checklist, it is time to bust out the super-sized Checklist and here we go…
#1. Was the cold open hot?
As Part 1 began, I felt like a better question would have been “Did the cold open feel like a Hallmark movie?”. Cordell Walker (Chuck Norris) is outside preparing for a big barbecue that all his Ranger friends and their significant others will be attending. Inside Walker’s very pregnant wife, Alex (Sheree J. Wilson) is in their newly decorated nursery packing her labor bag, despite still being three weeks out from her due date.
The Walkers’ friends begin arriving, Trivette (Clarence Gilyard Jr.) pops the question to his girlfriend Erika and we even get a light hearted moment with Gage (Judson Mills) as he attempts to eat the burger monstrosity he created. Again, I started to wonder if the final season of the show moved over to Hallmark.
Then we cut away to the Huntsville Maximum Security Prison… we see the prisoners out in the yard and approaching the prison in a military helicopter is Emile Lovocat looking to bust out his four running buddies. Which is actually pretty easy to do when you can fire missiles… the guard tower goes up in a burst of flames and I instantly thought… this is a hot open! 1/1
#2. Were there any exploding helicopters?
If the folks over at Exploding Helicopter have taught me anything, it is that anytime a helicopter appears in an action oriented TV show or movie there’s a chance it could explode. So this is a very fair question.
Sadly, despite Lovocat having a helicopter and later in Part 2, Walker being in a police helicopter when our heroes discover the location of Lovocat’s lair, neither of these helicopters explode. 1/2
#3. Were there any notable guest stars?
It is fitting that Marshall R. Teague, who guest starred in the very first episode of the series played the main villain in the series finale, Emile Lovocat. Lovocat is a man obsessed with eliminating the Rangers that busted him and his friends seven years earlier. In addition to his numerous Walker appearances, I am a fan of Teague’s work in U.S. Seals II, Fists of Iron and The Bad Pack, just to name a few.
Lovocat’s gang includes Jonas Graves played by the one man who may have been a guest on more episodes than Teague, Richard Norton (Gymkata and The Octagon)… Then there’s Leon Rippy (Universal Soldier and Beyond the Law) who played Chastain… And I can’t forget Randall “Tex” Cobb (Blind Fury and The Golden Child) as Dollarhide.
Other notable guest stars included Robert Wall (Enter the Dragon), William Sanderson (Thunderground), Matt Clark (Tuff Turf) and Vijay Amritraj (Octopussy). 2/3
#4. Were there any flashbacks?
“The Final Showdown” has parallel storylines… One is the present day situation with Emile Lovocat and his gang hunting Texas Rangers and an Old West flashback story to Lovocat’s great great grandfather Milos “Moon” Lovocat (Marshall R. Teague) and his issues with Walker’s ancestor, Hayes Cooper (Chuck Norris reprising the role from earlier in the series) after Ranger Hayes allowed some Cherokee to scalp Moon for his crimes against their people.
The flashbacks allowed all the regulars and the main characters in this episode to play dual roles. Like Nia Peeples who played Ranger Sydney Cooke in the series, played the singer at the Old West saloon and was able to display her vocal talents with her rendition of “Beautiful Dreamer”. 3/4
#5. Was there a quality cliffhanger?
Lovocat and his gang start making good on their promise to kill the Texas Rangers who put them away. Towards the end of Part 1, Trivette is on his way to the mental institution where Lovocat was placed after his trial and the institution where he supposedly lit himself on fire and died…. Dollarhide and Lovocat, pull up along side Trivette just before Lovocat detonates the bomb he planted under Trivette’s car! The car flips and goes off the road, fortunately Trivette is able to crawl away from the wreckage before it blows up.
Trivette did suffer numerous broken bones and internal injuries and is in critical condition in the hospital as Part 1 is coming to a close, but before the end credits Alex needs to talk to Cordell in the hallway. She is an emotional wreck and does not want to raise their baby by herself… Cordell tries to calm her down, but suddenly she goes into labor and now we gotta tune in for Part 2. Well played. 4/5
#6. Was anyone hospitalized?
Obviously I already mentioned that Trivette was clinging to life in the hospital. But “The Final Showdown” triples down on the hospitalizations…
After undergoing an emergency cesarean section, Alex is recovering in the hospital. Baby Walker having been born prematurely is in critical condition… but fortunately Baby Walker has an angel in her corner and she pulls through and is not surprisingly named Angela.
Three loved ones in the hospital!??! That deserves a bonus point! 6/6
#7. Did they reference C.D. Parker?
With this being the final episode of Walker, Texas Ranger it felt fitting that they should at least reference Noble Willingham’s character C.D. Parker, who was a series regular for the majority of the run before his character was killed off via heart attack.
Not only do they reference C.D. they dig up his corpse to perform an autopsy and learn that C.D. did not die from a heart attack, but Lovocat actually poisoned him! There’s also a nice C.D. highlight reel as Walker and Trivette remember the good times they had with C.D. 7/7
#8. Were there any car chases?
A staple of action adventure television series is the car chase… but with a chunk of the episode taking place in the Old West (of course it was just known as the West to Hayes Cooper) that seriously limited the opportunity for any car chases. 7/8
#9. Did we get a Norris vs. Teague final showdown?
Parallel storylines means we get TWO Chuck Norris and Marshall Teague final showdowns. One in the Old West between Moon and Hayes inside a barn and one between Emile and Walker in and around Lovocat’s lair complete with an explosive ending. Two for the price of one sounds like another excuse to award a bonus point! 9/9
#10. Was there a happy ending?
The series ends with Walker bringing Alex and Angela home from the hospital, greeted by their friends (who weren’t killed off) and then there’s a shot of a cast photo with the words Until We Meet Again narrated by Chuck Norris himself. 10/10.
- Final Score = 10/10 (100%) “The Final Showdown” was aptly named and marked the end of an era in epic fashion.
