Buried Alive: One of the most terrifying in all of episodic television ... a 15-year-old girl, the daughter of a state senator, is buried in a small coffin in a rural Texas field – the farmstead and boyhood home of the episode's villain, Lyle Eckert, an escaped felon wanted for murder and armed robbery, among other things – and kept there to ensure her father's cooperation with an extortion and escape attempt. Even worse: He buries her with a flashlight and a supply of oxygen, all to make this a very slow, traumatizing torture. She barely survives.
Convenient Eclipse ... or convenient storm that thwarts Eckert's middle-of-the-night escape by helicopter. Eckert had remained one step ahead of Walker and the Rangers before, but this time, a severe thunderstorm passing through the area where Eckert's escape pilot is stationed delays the takeoff. Knowing he's losing time trying to escape, Eckert pleads with his pilot to take off anyway but the pilot has been denied clearance. By the time the helicopter finally arrives, the Rangers have, too.
Disney Death: When Walker and his team finally find Eckert and arrest him, Lindsay had finally run out of air in her makeshift coffin, but the coffin is dug up in time and she eventually regains consciousness.
Dying Alone: In the first few seconds of the final act, Lindsey – still buried and conscious – likely begins pondering her death as she is beginning to struggle for air.
Just in Time: A recurring trope in the series itself, Walker literally arrives just in time to save Lindsey Hughes' life, moments after losing consciousness while trapped inside a coffin in a shallow grave. (And, of course, just moments before Eckert's escape transportation arrives.)
Manly Tears: When a gravesite and casket are found empty – thanks to Eckert's deliberately false tip to throw authorities off his trail – Sen. Hughes breaks down, fearing worst than the worst.
Missing Mom and Disappeared Dad: Lyle Eckert, who is revealed to have been orphaned, is raised by his Evil Uncle and grows from juvenile delinquent into a life of a master jewel thief and murderer. Despite his upbringing, Eckert admires his uncle and lives with him as he grows into a "10 Most Wanted" criminal.
Missing Mom only for Lindsey, which her father makes reference to in rebuffing Walker's offer to help: "I already lost my wife. If I lose my daughter, I've lost everything!"
Papa Wolf: Sen. Hughes refuses the help of the Texas Rangers, thinking them ineffective in modern police work. Later, after Walker stops Eckert from escaping and demands to know Lindsey's whereabouts, Hughes jumps onto Eckert and begins choking him; Trivette and an FBI officer have to pull him away.
Sadist: Eckert is more sadistic than usual, and has no remorse and loses no sleep in the suffering of Lindsey, or the mental anguish her father is going through frantically trying to search for her. Perhaps no more evident than actually providing Linsdey a short supply of oxygen and a flashlight while she is buried inside the coffin ... to allow her to remain conscious (for potentially hours) as she screams in vain for help and eventually has to contemplate her certain death.
"Too Young to Die" Lamentation: Imagine you're a (very attractive) 16-year-old girl, locked in a coffin and buried in a shallow grave but fully conscious the entire time. Then, picture yourself thinking about what you're about to lose ... no, have stolen from you: Your hopes, your dreams, graduating from high school and going to college, eventually meeting and marrying the man of your dreams and having children, having a career ... seeing your friends and your father again ... the fact that if by lucky chance you're saved you will living with PTSD for the rest of your life and that you will have to face the evil man that did this to you in court ... . And that now, you may have less than an hour, or maybe a little bit longer (what certainly seems like forever, you don't know) before you suffocate to death and that nobody may be able to save you in time. When the episode begins its final act, we get a brief glimpse of Lindsey locked in the coffin, desperately gasping for air and certainly contemplating her death and thinking the trope exactly.
