Lawmen: Bass Reeves EP Explains Why Jennie’s KKK Confrontation Was Cut From the Finale
If you watched Lawmen: Bass Reeves‘ finale Sunday and wondered where a highly charged scene from the trailer went, we’ve got your answer.
The scene in question appeared in the full-length trailer released before Bass Reeves‘ season premiere; it also was referenced in a teaser trailer. In the exchange, a group of men wearing white cloth over their faces and bearing torches and weapons stand in front of the Reeves house at night. “You’ve got to the count of five to get the hell off my land,” Jennie warns them from the porch. “Lady, you’ve got two shells in that bird-killer,” one of the hooded men taunts her. “Then I’ll just shoot you twice,” she says, lifting the gun to her shoulder and cocking it as she advances toward the man, “just to be certain.”
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“It was a moment that we shot that actually worked quite well,” series creator and showrunner Chad Feehan tells TVLine, adding that the group’s appearance was related to Sally’s experience at the town carnival, and that the scene was intended for the finale. “But inevitably, we decided that having Jennie and Bass both be revisited by ghosts of Christmas past, to use a very timely analogy, was more of an impactful and more of a mirrored image experience for the two of them.”
He refers to Bass’ trip to Texas to confront Esau Pierce and Jennie’s unexpected, unpleasant call from the wife of the plantation owner, Rachel Reeves. (Read a full recap.)
“Having Rachel revisit Jennie in the finale and having Bass visit Esau, it felt harmonious to end the show in that manner,” he adds.
The Paramount+ series’ inaugural season covered a fraction of the legendary lawman’s life, a decision that Feehan says was made for several reasons. “It was important for me to start with his enslavement so the audience had a grasp for why justice was so important to him. I felt like watching the injustice he endured would help the audience grab hold of this thing that became so paramount in his life, which is justice for all,” he explains. “We tried to hit some of the highlights, and I think we did a good job of that, some of the more well-known moments of his life. But then I wanted a serialized narrative to take the audience home. I felt that beginning with his enslavement, ending with Jim Crow turning this country back several years felt like a natural framework to build the narrative off of.”
In addition, though there’s been no discussion yet with the network about making another season, “I’m also hopeful there’s an appetite for more Bass Reeves so we can explore some of those great stories from later in his life in another iteration,” Feehan says. “There’s definitely meat on the bone.”
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