Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Walker: Independence Season 1 finale "Let Him Hang." Read at your own risk!
Walker: Independence finally gave us the real answers behind who killed Liam Collins, and surprise, Sheriff Tom Davidson wasn't quite as innocent as he led everyone to believe! Granted, the only person he truly seemed to fool was Abby Walker, but she eventually had the wool pulled from her eyes in a Season 1 finale twist that's so good I need another season to know what happens next.
It seems that The CW series intentionally set up the audience to view Tom Davidson as the misunderstood sheriff, and despite me knowing from Jared Padalecki's flagship series that the Walker and Davidson families never get along, I wanted to think Walker: Independence was flipping the script. After all, wouldn't it be a good twist for Tom not to be the bad guy after all?
I thought so, and when Walker: Independence introduced that Tom had a brother, Shane Davidson, who looked very similar to him, it seemed the show etched its path in stone. Clearly, it was going to be Shane that was responsible for Liam's murder, and poor Tom would be miserable for the rest of the season and torn between bringing his brother to justice or betraying his budding romance with Abby.
In reality, Tom revealed that he was involved in the plot to kill Liam the entire time. What Abby didn't realize was that both Tom and Shane attacked Liam together. Shane shot Liam, and Tom intentionally only wounded Abby, known then as Mary Collins, and said he felt confident that she would survive. When "Mary" arrived in town under her new persona Abby Walker, Tom pretended he didn't recognize her.
So, when Abby thought she was being sneaky in taking a job offer from Tom, it was actually Tom trying to pull her in closer. I think back to the whole romance between them, and man, it's all so much creepier since he was exactly the person she originally thought he was! It makes my skin crawl just thinking about him. The show couldn't have pulled this off any better, and working to make the audience like Tom definitely made the reveal that much more satisfying.
Tom Davidson was brought to justice toward the end of the episode and shipped away in a buggy to a place where Deputy Augustus found a judge seemingly free of the influence of the powerful Davidson family. Sheriff Tom was taken away, and it seemed as though everything would be okay in Independence for a time.
Unfortunately, the buggy was overtaken shortly into its travel by a man who had a similar hand tattoo to what Tom had seen on a man who stabbed him weeks before. Walker: Independence didn't show what happened because Tom was knocked out, but a scene at the very end of the Season 1 finale showed him in a forest sitting by a campfire. A man approached him and handed him a knife, and Tom thanked him and indicated the man was his father before the credits rolled.
Clearly, this is not the last we've heard of the Davidson family or Tom Davidson. Independence is still needed for that railroad deal, and it may take more than a widow with a thirst for justice and her ragtag gang of misfits to stop them. Or, maybe that's all this town needs! We won't know without a Season 2, so I'm begging The CW to keep this show going because I have to know what happens next.
Unfortunately, the renewal situation for Walker: Independence is still very much up in the air. It seems folks will just have to cross their fingers, hope for the best, and maybe kill some time checking out other shows on the 2023 TV schedule while we await news on whether it's cancelled or renewed.
