There's a reunion of former Texas Rangers and there's a shooting competition with cops from all over the country coming to take part in. An old friend of Alex's, a Senator who is rumored to be running for President is also in town. A retired Ranger and friend of Walker's is also in town and is looking for a man whom he believes is involved in the killing of a cop in another city. When Walker learns of this, he thinks the man is some kind of Black cop who faked his death is now a gun for hire. The group whom he is with is in town to do a job and the one in charge killed a cop who was coming for the competition and assumed his identity. Eventually, they learn that they're in town to kill the Senator. This is a standout episode of the series and notable chiefly due to some incredible performances by two of the very finest actors ever to grace the small screen. Jonathan Banks is superb in what would be an otherwise less than noteworthy villain role. He gives his character depth and realism in a way that has been a trademark in his career. The other is the magnificent Stewart Whitman as an aging Ranger who is a friend of Norris. It is a performance of power, poignancy, and stunning perfection. These two gifted actors make for a very special two-part presentation that should not be missed by anyone who appreciates acting greatness. Damn fine two-part episode has a well cast Stuart Whitman as an ex-Ranger appearing at a shooting competition trying to find the murderer of his cop son, Shelby Valentine (Jonathan Banks). Whitman's Laredo Jake Boyd (what a name!) doesn't realize that the man in a photograph with a stripper isn't the killer, later discovering (much to his fate) that it is someone else entirely: Shelby, a professional hit-man who loves to use a particular knife to puncture the kidneys from behind of victims before using it on their heart so that they die from internal bleeding! Banks can do heavy as good as anyone, and a cold-blooded hired assassin is just his forte. The episode also has RG Armstrong and LQ Jones as retired Rangers, also, buddies with Noble Willingham's CD Parker. So the show is packed with faces, but Whitman and Banks are all that it really needed in regards to guest stars. Even a gut bullet doesn't stop Whitman from his mission and Walker is right there with him hoping to find Shelby who masquerades as a Kansas City cop in town for the competition, paid by a racist megalomaniac, Miles Douglas (William Prince) to assassinate a Presidential hopeful (Ben Masters, a cocky Senator with eyes on Alex). Even as early as 1994, the show was hinting at Walker and Alex's potential as a couple as he doesn't wish to talk about how feels to Laredo who notices his pain as she escorts Masters' Senator Knox around (he doesn't exactly hide his interest in her). On Walker, Texas Ranger, hit men targeting folks was nothing new so the episode's appeal derives from Banks' effortless ability to be a chilling killer with a face of a snake and icy resolve. Whitman's grace is such a blessing to the episode and his wounded heart, driving him to see the blood spilled from his boy doesn't go unpunished, gives "On Deadly Ground" (or also known as "The Reunion") an emotional potency it desperately needs to keep it from being just another "assassination plot". Whitman's swan song at the end of the episode is powerful and touching. The shooting competition might remind Dirty Harry fans of Magnum Force (1973).
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