Wildfire: The Home Stretch

Wildfire: "The Ties That Bind Part 2"

Monday night marked the last race of Wildfire (the horse) and the last episode of Wildfire (the show), and both were bittersweet.

I have to admit that I was let down that the whole "Wildfire's been stolen" story line quickly turned into "Wildfire just wandered away for three days because some dumbass named Ernie forgot to lock his stall and then made it look like there was a break-in to cover his butt." Perhaps the switch wouldn't have seemed quite as abrupt if we'd ever met Ernie before or at least heard someone mention him and his questionable moral code before. But, at the same time, I understand that opening the Junior's-dad-is-so-awful-that-he'd-resort-to-stealing-horses-who-are-more-like-family-members can of worms might have been a bit much, as it was the series finale and all.

The miraculous return of Wildfire allowed Kris to have her "last race" (which turned out to not be her last race at all) and said race turned out to be so lengthy that it took what felt like a good 10 minutes to finish. I remember them mentioning last episode that the Tucker Stakes was a long race, but this was ridiculous. It did made it all the more amazing that the race essentially ended in a three-horse tie. If I were Wildfire (a formerly retired horse with a broken leg who had just gone AWOL for three days), I'd be pretty proud just of finishing in the front with hot shot Tamarack and Dani's promising filly. However, as is appropriate on the series finale of a show called Wildfire, Wildfire ended up prevailing on the photo finish. A sincere congratulations to both Wildfire and Kris. (And the scene of Junior in the airport bar was really cute.)

After the race, we could all refocus on resolving Kris' off-track life with a "surprise" wedding to Junior (more of a surprise to her than it was to us, since they've been showing clips of it in promos for months). The decidedly no-frills ceremony was performed with the alacrity of a wedding ceremony in the last five minutes of a series finale, and that was that.

There was nothing particularly shocking or revelatory about this series finale, but it was filled with exactly what we wanted to see.

Highlights and (final) observations:

• It's no use trying to talk sense to Kris when Wildfire's missing. She accuses you of giving up on her and then she shoves you.
• There are still wild mustangs in the vicinity?
• It's nice that Matt's friend Pete keeps up-to-date tabs on the mustangs' location.
• It was kind of weird that no one seemed to be wondering who took this too-famous-to-sell horse and set it free/made it disappear and why.
• Junior: "If I thought Dad stole Wildfire, I wouldn't be out here looking for wild mustangs. I'd be in a gun shop."
• If Kris is Junior's priority now, it's too bad that she seems to have gone nuts.
• I was already hard on him, but I'll say it again: Ernie is such an idiot! Where does Raintree find its employees? We know Kris is an ex-con, but I didn't know all the staff members were.
• Poor Kris, she thought Junior vs. Matt was a tough decision, but Junior vs. Wildfire is even worse.
• Junior's taking a lot of suitcases to Alaska. More than Blair Waldorf took to France, I believe.
• The horrific Mr. Davis did manage to deliver a fairly lovely apology to Kris.
• Riley, the jockey on Dani's horse, needed to stop looking around at Wildfire and concentrate on riding her own horse. Geez, focus.
• Wildfire won $1 million! Yikes! I never want to hear any complaining about Raintree's finances ever again. (And I might get that wish, but only because this is the series finale.)
• The "final ride" around the ranch was a nice Matt/Kris moment.
• People randomly appearing in the forest is creepily reminiscent of Lost. I definitely found it unsettling when Pablo just popped out from behind the tree. I expected the Smoke Monster to show up next.
• Did Kris have to change clothes in the middle of the field? That's awkward
• Dani: "I never had a sister, which is probably a good thing because I would have eaten her alive."
• Ha, when Kris said "someone's missing" from the wedding (meaning Mr. Davis), I thought she meant Wildfire and that Junior was supposed to go call Wildfire.
• Wildfire was quite decked out in a lovely array of flowers for the occasion. Who dressed him up? Matt? Pablo?
• Good, I'm glad Junior and Kris are not moving to Alaska. That was a dumb idea. I really expected Mr. Davie to redeem himself by finding Junior a similar, better job close to home.
• Is Matt serving as Kris' Man of Honor?
• The wedding ceremony was shorter than the horse race!

Wow, even with wrapping up story lines as hard as it could for 5 episodes, Wildfire still had to power through a lot of stuff at break-neck speed in the final few minutes to complete the story (the wedding, Junior reconciling with his dad, Pablo and Jean giving Wildfire to Kris, the decision to not move, etc.). I was expecting more Kris/Matt stuff or more Junior/Matt stuff (since they were beating the hell out of each other just a few episodes ago) and more of Kris protesting Junior's decision not to move, etc. But that's ok; it was still a lovely finale for a show that was better--and more addictive--than you would expect.

Happy trails, Wildfire.