WACO

SERIES IN REVIEW

DIRECTOR MAKES FINDINGS OF GUILT AND INNOCENCE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The dangerous teeter-totter between the government and the militia is unraveled in detail in the sequel to the Showtime streaming series Waco (2018).

Michael Shannon reprises his role as the lead negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigations during the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas in the Spring of 1993.

Waco: The Aftermath (2023) costars Shannon as Gary Noesner and Giovanni Ribisi as defence counsel Dan Cogdell tasked with defending several survivors of the Waco siege.

Branch Davidian leader David Koresh had assembled a loyal following with his personalized teachings of the Book of Revelations and Seven Seals.

The FBI siege of Koresh’s Branch Davidian Compound at Mount Carmel began on February 28, 1993 and lasted 51 days until the center caught fire after tear gas was inserted into the main buildings. 79 Branch Davidians perished in the blaze, including 21 children.

Two years to the day later, in a clear act of reprisal by the militia, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed the Alfred P. Murrah  Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 and injuring 680 on April 19, 1995.

In Waco, Taylor Kitsch plays Koresh as a persuasive religious leader who had almost total psychological control over his followers. Paul Sparks plays Koresh’s loyal lieutenant.

The scenes continually tumble from inside the compound to inside the tents of the FBI command post and between the lead negotiator, who was often at odds with the FBI commander, and Koresh. The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) law enforcement unit started the crises. But the series shows that the FBI acted irresponsibility and made matters much worse than was necessary after taking over the police action.

The series directors have little need to dramatize the events that unfolded to make the situation more interesting. Instead, Drew Dowdle and John Erick Dowdle take a journalistic approach to telling both sides of the story with some analyses embedded within the narrative that allows viewers to draw their own conclusions.

Tensions build as the siege continues on, but Koresh’s leadership is never really challenged with many followers refusing to leave the compound without him, even when he becomes seen as unreasonable and stubborn to the series audience.

Shannon plays the leading role, costarring with Kitsch, as the two test the other’s honesty and trust and reasonableness through a series of rationalizations that bolster either side of the standoff. Kitsch does a good job of portraying a devout Christian tending to his carefully chosen flock.

Shannon continues on with a bit of a lessor role in The Aftermath as the storyline of the standoff gives way to the courtroom drama and the pursuit of justice for those few Branch Davidian survivors.

But the Branch Davidians fare no better with the justice system than they did with law enforcement at the Mount Carmel Center.

Directors Drew Dowdle and John Erick Dowdle show the justice system as not seeking the truth so much as needing a conviction on behalf of the government and law enforcement to close a most horrid chapter on domestic terrorism.

The inner demon becomes useful as a narrative device while the camera explores the inner motivations of the characters and the inevitable outcome of how each perceives reasonableness within the ongoing religious discourse.

Ribisi portrays the defense counsel as genuinely wanting the accused to be acquitted, showing how Cogdell struggled personally and professionally with the decisions from the bench that go the other way.

In the end the jury acquits Ruth Riddle, Livingstone Fagan, Michael Cassidy and Paul Fatta. But again, the final results of that acquittal end up being unrewarding.