(Spoiler alert: Do not keep reading if you haven’t seen the season finale of “Outsiders”)
The first season of WGN America’s “Outsiders” closed with a major bang.
As the episode begins, Big Foster (David Morse) gathers his men to track down the conspirators who escaped with Asa’s (Joe Anderson) help in the last episode.
Down in town, most of the men who agreed to help Wade (Thomas M. Wright) in going up the mountain have begun to back out. On top of that, Hayley (Francie Swift) gets bailed out of jail and slaps Wade with a civil suit for wrongful imprisonment.
Wade’s arc this season has been among the best on the show, and Kyle Gallner believes the character has truly turned a corner.
“I think he’s really stepping into his own as a man and as a police officer,” Gallner told TheWrap. “Breece died and now it’s very personal … I think he also maybe realizes that it’s inevitable and if he’s a part of it he can keep it from going too far. But I don’t think he can hide anymore and he has to do his job no matter what.”
Little Foster (Ryan Hurst) visits G’Win (Gillian Alexy), who reveals that she can’t bring herself to kill Big Foster, as Farrells can’t kill other Farrells. But when G’win presses Little Foster about how he was able to kill Asa, she begins to suspect that Asa is still alive.
Big Foster goes to a still-imprisoned Krake (Mark Jeffrey Miller) and tries to get him to give up information on where the others are hiding. When Krake refuses, Foster readies to kill him before Hasil interrupts and offers to lead him to the conspirators.
Despite the civil suit, Hayley agrees to help Wade get state help to go up the mountain. With plenty of additional men now at his disposal, he gathers his team and briefs them on the Farrells. He says they are going up with a warrant for Asa’s arrest, but are not to engage in any violence.
Hasil’s attempt to kill Big Foster fails. He prepares to banish those who opposed him when Hasil says that everyone knows Big Foster killed Lady Ray (Phyllis Somerville). Foster is furious, but gets distracted when one of the conspirators tries to kill herself by eating foxglove, a poisonous plant.
When she become violently ill, Foster recognizes the symptoms as the same he’s experienced and realizes G’win has been poisoning him. G’Win then confronts Little Foster and he admits that Asa is still alive. Foster then goes to Asa, who is hiding out near a stream on the mountain, and tells him he needs to leave immediately.
Big Foster confronts G’Win at her greenhouse. He begins to violently beat her but can’t bring himself to kill her, saying he has loved her her whole life. G’win stabs him with a gardening tool and escapes. She seeks out Little Foster, telling him that only Asa can kill Big Foster since he has been gone from the mountain for so long and is no longer a part of the family. Little Foster reveals Asa’s hiding place and G’win goes to him.
Asa initially refuses but finally agrees to kill Big Foster. When Asa arrives at Big Foster’s home, Foster doesn’t believe Asa is real, mistaking him for another hallucination. Asa pulls out a gun and shoots Foster down.
And despite the fact that Morse is the perfect villain that you love to hate, Christina Jackson believes it was perfectly appropriate for him to die.
“If someone has to go, you would think logically it would be Big Foster,” she said. “He got everything that was coming to him. I mean, he tried a couple of times to kill his mother. He has done everything the opposite of what the family has done to preserve the family.”
Wade and his men continue up the mountain, but their progress is slow. Suddenly, they find Sally Ann (Christina Jackson), who has been lost since the end of the last episode. She points them in the right direction.
Asa finally prepares to leave the mountain for good, but G’win stops him, telling him he’s part of the family. But when Big Foster’s men arrive and tell her he’s dead, she assumes the role of brenin and orders Asa thrown in the box. According to Jackson, Asa’s mysterious past may keep him from ever finding any peace on the mountain.
“I think that Asa’s been gone for a long time,” she said. “Realistically we still don’t know what he was doing off the mountain or what sent him back. I think that Asa has a lot of untold story there. So I don’t know if he will ever find his place in the world, either on the mountain or off the mountain.”
G’win rallies the family and gets them to confront Wade and his men. She throws away his arrest warrant for Asa and the family begins to chant. Suddenly the skies turn dark. The episode ends with a bolt of lighting bursting out of the clouds just over Wade’s head.