In 'Wolverine: The Long Night' Logan Goes to War in an All-New Way
In Episode 5 of Wolverine: The Long Night, a manhunt becomes a bearhunt when the entire town of Burns, Alaska turns up to hunt down a supposedly man-eating bear. But perhaps the most interesting thing going on is how Logan — still very much a tertiary character on his own podcast — seemingly avoids direct confrontation to engage in a bit of guerrilla warfare against the Langrocks. This is so not Logan’s style, but it makes for an unexpected twist that does make sense considering he’s trying to keep a low profile.
Monday’s episode, called “Into the Woods,” finally introduced us to the hunter Brent Langrock, who seems like a total sociopath/psychopath that’ll probably wind up fighting Logan directly if we ever get some bonafide Wolverine action. The sheriff uses a wild bear as a scapegoat to distract the town, with Brent spearheading the hunt. Instead of going in fully-equipped, Brent lays traps, uses himself as bait, and makes the kill with a Bowie knife.
Consider that this is a giant, man-eating bear, and this guy goes at it with a knife.
'Wolverine: The Long Night' Episode 5 has a huge bear in it.
“Into the Woods” also firmly establishes that Logan is allied with Mallory, the bartended he defended at The Dirty Shame, and also the Strawberry Kids. Logan’s working with these local feral children to sabotage Langrock lumber operations after Brent bailed him out of jail and tried to force him into becoming hired muscle.
Cutting break lines in trucks is one thing, but bombing an entire truck full of lumber and severely wounding several people — domestic terrorism — does not seem like something Logan would do or support, even if he’s going to war against the Langrocks. The more likely culprit would be that creepy cult.
Remember that in last week’s episode, we met the elder Joseph Langrock, the patriarchal magnate in town who controls everything with a fortune acquired through his lumber empire.
In a way, the show seems like it’s building towards some bigger four-sided conflict: You’ve got the Aurora Cult on one side with mysterious motives, the Langrocks bent on maintaining control, Logan and his supporters opposing them both, and then Agents Pierce and Marshall trying to keep the peace. Amidst the brewing war, we still don’t know who’s doing all the murdering?
This seems like a new kind of war for Logan that’s almost political. He hasn’t been able to slash his problems away with adamantium claws so far, so what’s he going to do? And what’s he going to tell these federal agents when they do inevitably catch up with him?
