“No, we don’t wanna do this,” Wade Garrett says as he takes Dalton by the hand as only a fellow cooler can: by stopping the punch the younger man just aimed at his face. Toughness and tenderness in a single gesture.
But there’s more.
“I wanna tell you something else,” says the old man: “You taught me as much as I ever taught you.” The teacher has become the student. The Way of Wade Garrett, shaped by the Dalton Path as it shapes the Dalton Path. Applied Philosophy 101.
But there’s still more, and it means more than anything.
“I love you, mijo.”
At last, at long last, the subtext is text. More than a teacher, advisor, mentor, friend. Mijo means “son.” A father’s love, bestowed mere seconds after the son tried to kill the father. There is no love greater.
“I’ll see you.” Wade Garrett departs, leaving his mijo, his Dalton, to contemplate his words, and to succeed or fail in the quest he has chosen to take on. He is armed in Wade Garrett’s love, now.
We will soon see what happens when that love is taken away.
Tags: dalton, road house, wade garrett