WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Walker Episode 1, "Pilot," which aired Thursday on The CW.
After ending his fifteen-season run starring on Supernatural, Jared Padalecki is back with a new series on The CW: Walker. A revival of the cult classic series Walker, Texas Ranger, the new show puts the focus squarely on family as elite lawman Cordell Walker and his children endure tragedy and estrangement.
After bidding farewell to his wife Emily, portrayed by Padalecki's actual wife Genevieve Valentine -- reminding her to take an approved safe route -- Cordell Walker enjoys a family game night with his teenage children and parents back at the homestead. However, this evening of domestic camaraderie is interrupted by a frantic phone call from Emily, audibly distressed before apparently being executed by two gunshots ringing out over the line. Realizing that his wife has just been murdered as a means to get back at him due to his law enforcement career, Cordell roars in grief-stricken fury.
As Walkers reconvene several months later, including Cordell's younger brother Liam, an Assistant District Attorney, with Cordell visibly absent, finding himself at the bottom of a liquor bottle in a public park in his pickup truck's flatbed. Picked up by a state trooper, she decides to take pity on him after learning he's a Texas Ranger, dropping him off at his home so he can pick up his truck the next morning after he sobers up. As she drives off, the cop remarks that she is about to be promoted to a new job the next day herself.
After recovering his truck and driving into Austin, Cordell reunites with his parents Bonham and Abeline and reveals that he was undercover in Austin for the past ten months to bust up a crime ring. While Cordell's son August is more understanding about his father's absence and obsessively works to make him proud, Stella is more estranged from her father than she had been during game night. Meeting his boss Captain Larry James, Cordell discovers his new partner is the cop that picked him up the night before, newly promoted Texas Ranger Micki Ramirez.
As Walker picks up Stella from the police station for being found with controlled substances to numb the pain of her mother's death, Micki returns home and talks to her Army medic boyfriend, Trey Barnett. Micki reveals that Walker joined the Marines fresh out of high school and right after 9/11. After returning from overseas, he joined the Rangers. The following day, Micki and Walker follow up on a lead about a heroin operation linked to the cartels at a novelty shop. Walker beats a suspect after he is taunted over his dead wife and is bandaged up by Trey after the suspects are brought in.
Walker steps up to call in a favor from Liam to stop the parents of one of Stella's friends from being deported after their immigration status is checked due to Stella's earlier bust. Sympathizing with their plight as the daughter of a Mexican mother, Micki reveals she is estranged from her mother due to her military and law enforcement career. For their success in busting the heroin ring, Walker is offered to lead a special task force in South Texas. Concerned about the potential move's effect on his children and still haunted by Emily's murder, Walker turns down the offer and continues on at home.
With plenty of exposition and a whole line of character introductions, Walker has brought its main cast together to celebrate the importance of family in the face of duty. Cordell and his family still grieve Emily's murder, with the drug cartels likely far from done menacing the Texas family, but Walker is doing everything he can to mend fences back home as he settles back into life as a Texas Ranger.
Walker stars Jared Padalecki, Lindsey Morgan, Keegan Allen, Mitch Pileggi, Molly Hagan and Coby Bell. New episodes air Thursdays on The CW.
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