‘Sheriff Country’: Christopher Gorham Breaks Down ‘Traumatic’ Midseason Premiere (Exclusive)

Sheriff Country is back from its midseason hiatus, and star Christopher Gorham spoke to PopCulture.com all about the new episode.

Friday’s episode, “Crucible, Part 2,” picks up with the events of the midseason finale, after powerful rancher Enoch Barlow is arrested and taken into custody.

His people end up taking out the power at the station and ambushing the place, with Gorham’s Travis getting caught in the crossfire. The entire hour sees Travis literally fighting for his life as Cassidy stays by his side. Boone and Mickey, meanwhile, try their best to make sure none of Enoch’s people make it past the doors. It was an intense way to kick off the second half of Sheriff Country’s inaugural season, and Gorham had a lot to say about it. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

PopCulture: Were you aware that this was where the writers would be taking Travis before you read the midseason finale script, or were you just as shocked as everyone else when you got to those final words that reveal that he had been shot?

Christopher Gorham: Thankfully, Tony Phelan [co-creator] sat me down when we were shooting the very first episode and gave me a heads-up as to what was coming. He was telling me, This is what’s happening, and this happens, and this happens. And then there’s the siege, and Travis gets shot.” And I’m just waiting for him to continue. “And he… survives?” He was like, “Yeah. He’s gonna be okay.” But he left me hanging there for a minute.

PC: The midseason premiere starts off five minutes before the shootout and the blackout, and we find out exactly what happened with Travis, including the kiss with Mickey, and that he was shot in the chest because he was trying to de-escalate everything. It was a pretty sudden turn of events. What do you think was running through his mind during everything?

Gorham: I think in that moment before the shot, he was trying to be a responsible man and calm everybody down. But what he should have been doing is listening to the deputy who is telling him to get back, but because he was being a dude, and really, it wasn’t smart. And then he gets shot, and then the rest of the episode is literally just trying to stay alive. That’s what he’s trying to do the rest of the time. He’s no use to anybody at that point. But he desperately wants to stay alive.

PC: Going off of that, throughout the episode, Cassidy tries her hardest to keep him alive, and they even share a moment after she realizes just how happy Travis is with Mickey. Will this affect their relationship at all moving forward?

Gorham: I think we do a really nice job of letting those two characters reset. They have a chance to talk about what happened, because they haven’t really seen each other since Cassidy broke up with him. I get Travis likes to think that it was mutual, but it wasn’t. And so they have a nice time to reset, and I think actually, the function of those scenes is going forward. I think now they can find a new relationship just as friends.

PC: At one point in the episode, Enoch is let out just to see how things will go with him. And as Travis is getting worse, so much so to the point where he’s struggling to breathe, Enoch helps Cassidy through how to save him and ends up saving him himself. Were you surprised by his help at all?

Gorham: I think Travis is less surprised than Cassidy.I think that’s because he comes at this stuff from just a different perspective. I think, like Mickey, Travis knows who this guy is. Cassidy is not as familiar with him because Travis grew up in this town, too. So I think he’s less nervous about it than Cassidy is. But, in that moment, he just is desperate for help. And if it’s that guy can help, then please let him help. Like, let him help. But he’s so far down the road, he can’t voice that, but I think that’s what he would say. He would tell Cassidy, “Let him do it.”

PC: Eventually, actual help does come, and everything goes back to semi-normal by the end of the episode. Travis is taken to the hospital, but not before Mickey kisses him. What will the aftermath look like?

Gorham: Well, you’re gonna find out in the very next episode, and it’s great. One of my favorite scenes in the whole season is in the next episode with Travis and Mickey and Skye. I think you see at the beginning why they were great together. And then I think there are real consequences to what happened in that siege because I think that was really traumatic, what they went through. And it does have an effect on both of them. And you’re gonna see what that effect is on their relationship right away.

PC: In these last couple of episodes and in the midseason premiere, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at seeing how close Mickey and Travis are getting. What has it been like playing off this complex dynamic with Morena [Baccarin]?

Gorham: She’s great. She’s such a wonderful actor and just a kind person. So really easy to work with, really creative, highly collaborative. And I think we both bring a lot of life experience into this and can draw on that. I think one of the things that I love about how their relationship is portrayed on the show is that when they’re fighting, it feels like a married couple fighting, not a divorced couple fighting. And it’s a subtle difference, I think, but I think it’s important because I do think these are two characters who’ve been together so long.

I think they’re just bound together, whether or not they’re in a romantic relationship. I think these two people are just tied together for life, and there is a love and an intimacy between them that I just think is really nice. Even when they’re going like this, you can still see that they care for each other. It’s great.

PC: Even though you were given reassurance before filming that Travis was going to be okay, were you ever concerned at all about his fate during the episode?

Gorham: No. I mean, only if I did a terrible job, maybe they could just rewrite the episode and be like, “Oops. Oh, look. You’re back. Oh, that’s so sad.” But no. I know enough about how this sausage gets made. It would be a big change like that late in the day, which would be way too expensive.

PC: What would you say was the most challenging part about filming the episode?

Gorham: I had never done a scene quite like these scenes, where he’s so close to death and can’t breathe. And so physically creating what that looks and sounds like was actually really exhausting physically and emotionally. Because I’ve never done it quite to that extent before, I think it was a bit of a surprise, actually.

PC: Hopefully, he won’t be in this situation again anytime soon.

Gorham: Right? Yeah. Seriously. Give the poor guy a break. Travis needs a win.

PC: Is there anything else you can tease to the fans for the rest of the season?

Gorham: Episode 11, we get to see the real emotional consequences of what we just went through. Not just with Travis and Mickey. But Episode 11 has one of my favorite scenes from the whole season, so I’m excited for people to see it.

New episodes of Sheriff Country air on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.