Main cast: Bo Hopkins (Lew Bridgeman), John Ireland (Jack Guttman), Kim Lankford (Rae Bridgeman), Stephen McHattie (Joe Caldwell), and Page Fletcher (The Hitchhiker)
Director: David Wickes

Bring the redneck tropes out, because A Time for Rifles is taking everyone to this middle of the nowhere, surrounded by the woods, where business is booming in Lew’s Truck Stop to such an extent that Rae Bridgeman can have a shag with Joe Caldwell on the snooker table in the afternoon without worrying about people walking in on them. Seriously, the Hitchhiker walks around the area in his opening narration, but even he doesn’t want to step inside. How sad, really.

Anyway, Rae is married to Lew Bridgman but she is also sleeping with his best friend Joe. She claims that she loves them both and can’t leave without any of them, but Joe is fed up with the whole down low thing and wants to only get out of town. Naturally, Rae tries her best to get him to stay the good old fashioned way. What these two don’t realize is that Lew is on to them. His favorite past time, it seems, is to lie in the woods with his rifle and scope out Joe as he leaves the diner after a shag with Rae, although he never is able to pull the trigger.

Well, that changes one day when a rare customer, Jack Guttman, drops by and talks about Lew’s time serving in the Vietnam War that convinces the man that he needs to man up and seek closure. Hence, he challenges Joe to a deer-hunting contest in the woods around them. They all know, Rae included, that Lew has all but announced that he is on to them, and he is likely going to kill Joe before the night is over. Joe, however, isn’t one to shy away from a competition, especially when his relationship with Lew is already strained by his feelings for Rae.

This episode is an odd duck in that, for once, it seems like the sex scene doesn’t dictate the plot. Indeed, the obligatory sex scene seems to be plonked in at the very start of the episode so that it can be done with and the actual story can begin after that. The acting is above average for the most part, too. Hence, this could have been easily one of the better episodes of this season… were not for the story itself.

It’s pretty evident early on that this is another Ugh, Down with Yoko Ono-type stories, and Rae is a very unsympathetic character here. In fact, she comes off as a pretty selfish twat determined to have her cake and eat it too, even egging both men against one another at times. Her motivations are all over the place, and I feel like the show just wants me to empathize with the two men instead. After all, it is women like Rae that ruin an otherwise fine friendship between bros, you know.

Then, there is that bizarre final scene. What is with that?

At any rate, A Time for Rifles is a pretty mediocre bros before hos story carried by pretty good acting by the cast. It’s still one of the more watchable episodes so far in the season, which says more about the season than this episode really.