Ransom Canyon episode 5 recap: the rodeo's in town

Set in the Texas Hill Country, it was only a matter of time before fans got a good rodeo episode from Ransom Canyon. And it's arrived with Ransom Canyon episode 5, entitled "I Love a Good Secret," which sees Yancy (Jack Schumacher) training for the big tri-county rodeo tournament to win the $20,000 that will get Freddie (Kenneth Miller) and his cronies off his back and out of Ransom.

Along with that adrenaline-pumping cowboy action, there's even more excitement coming to town when an old face from Davis' (Eoin Macken) romantic past pops up to complicate his burgeoning romance with Quinn (Minka Kelly). (As if that love triangle with Josh Duhamel's Staten wasn't complicated enough.) Add to that some concerning snooping by Sheriff Dan (Philip Winchester) into the whereabouts of Reid (Andrew Liner) and Tim (Niko Guardado) on the night of Randall's death, and you've got a pretty packed episode.

Here's everything that went down in Ransom Canyon episode 5.

Wrangling the ex

Things are going smoothly for Quinn and Davis after their night together. He wants to take her on a romantic trip to New York, during which she can audition for that Philharmonic gig, but she wants to leave that part of her life behind her. From the dance hall to her soap line, things are going well for her now, she explains, and he's a part of that.

However, Quinn gets a rude awakening the next morning when Davis' fiery ex-wife, Paula Jo (Meta Golding), arrives. She's there to check up on what's going on with her son Reid — and insult Quinn in the process.

Though Quinn is initially worried about Paula Joe's reappearance, it seems the latter is in town on business, not pleasure: Austin Water & Power has apparently given her a seat on their board, she tells Davis. Since control isn't exactly her ex's strong suit, she says she's taking the pipeline negotiations into her own hands to secure Reid's financial future.

That means sidling up to Staten in the hopes he'll agree to the pipeline deal. She shows up at his house with tequila to thank him for taking in and supporting Reid — and makes suggestive nods to their own romantic past — before bringing up the issue of Quinn and Davis new relationship. Staten lies and says he doesn't really care about their relationship, though it's quite clear he does.

Odd couple

After bonding during the cattle drive last episode, Reid and Lucas (Garrett Wareing) are practically bosom buddies, watching old rodeo clips together and hanging out at school.

That does not go unnoticed by Lauren (Lizzy Greene), who complains to Lucas that it's weird for her to see the two of them acting chummy. He, on the other hand, is still upset she wants to hide their relationship from everyone and use Reid as a ruse. "He's a good guy who doesn't deserve this, and neither do I," he tells her.

For his part, Reid is busy fielding panicked texts from Tim that Sheriff Dan — who now believes someone ran Randall off the road that tragic night — asking questions about the car accident. When they run into the sheriff later, both boys offer up alibis for that evening: Tim was at home and Reid was with Lauren, they say.

Later, at the rodeo, Tim shows up (well, hobbles up — he's still on crutches) to confront Reid and plan what they're going to do about the sheriffs. Lucas overhears Tim and Reid talking but pretends not to. Lauren makes things worse by picking then and there to tell Reid that she's officially breaking it off between them. When he asks if the split is because of Lucas, she admits it is, which leads him to immediately storm over and punch his new buddy Lucas in the face.

One wild ride

Yancy has elected to compete in the All-Around, a particularly brutal competition that has Ellie (Marianly Tejada) worried. "Three days is not a lot of time" to train, she warns him. Adding to the stress of it all is Freddie breathing down his back about the money Yancy owes him. If he doesn't fork up the $20,000, "everybody in there is gonna find out who you really are," the criminal tells him.

The first round is a rough ride, with Ellie and Cap (James Brolin) watching worriedly from the stands, but Yancy does well and is right behind the score leader. Giving the cowboy an extra dose of good luck, Ellie gives him a big kiss between sets, which Kai spots — he tells her he has had suspicions about Yancy ever since Sheriff Dan picked him up from the side of the road. She says she was skeptical, too, but she was wrong, and so is he.

Yancy does well in round two, until Freddie tells him that he'll actually make more than $20,000 if he bets against him and Yancy purposefully gets bucked off the bull. Yancy doesn't want to throw the competition but if he doesn't, Freddie threatens that he'll kidnap Ellie next.

In the last run, he chooses not to throw the tournament and ends up winning the All-Around, getting the $20,000. However, right when Freddie comes up angry that he lost out on all of the money he could have made, Kai and the other sheriffs come and arrest Freddie — Cap identifies Freddie as the Angus dealer who sold him Staten's cattle, and he's taken away in handcuffs.

While being hauled off, though, Freddie tells Ellie that she fell for a con man and that she doesn't even know Yancy's real name. Uh-oh.

Elsewhere at the rodeo, Davis assures Quinn that whatever happened with Paula Jo in the past is in the past. "That ended before you and me, and that's how it's going to stay," he promises her.

However, there's still Staten to deal with. Seeing Quinn with Davis clearly hasn't been easy on him. During a private moment at the rodeo, he finally comes clean about his feelings for the dance hall owner. He knows he's broken and still grieving, "but if someday I'm not, it'll be because of you," he tells her, saying that she should be with him instead of Davis. In tears, she tells him it's too late and rushes off.

Soothing his sorrows with drink later, Staten later encounters a tempting Paula Jo — and the episode ends with the two of them getting intimate in a car in the rodeo parking lot. Double uh-oh.

All 10 episodes of Ransom Canyon season 1 are now available to stream on Netflix.