‘Longmire’ Update: Is Branch Connally Dead? New Photo Indicates ‘Maybe So’

Longmire ended with a cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers in its Season 3 finale, and when A&E decided not to pick up a Season 4 continuance, they became the most hated network in America for the show’s 3 million or so fans.

Thankfully, Netflix came along to pick up the slack and green-lit a new run of 13 episodes, which will premiere September 10 on the streaming platform.

If you haven’t started Longmire yet, but intend to, you should probably, at this point, back out of the article because it’s about to get somewhat spoiler-heavy.

At this point, the assumption is that you’re still here because you want to know whether Branch Connally (Bailey Chase) bit the dust at the end of the episode.

While the Inquisitr cannot give you a definitive answer at this point, there is some news that some of you Branch fans may find disturbing.

Today, Huffington Post obtained an exclusive look at some set photos from Netflix. In one of the photos, Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) is standing in the doorway of a cabin. In the foreground at a piano, there sits the living, breathing Barlow Connally (Gerald McRaney).

If you are familiar with the Season 3 finale — again, SPOILERS — then you know that Barlow said something ominous to his rebellious son (Branch) right before the camera cut away to Walt and left viewers with the sound of a gunshot.

The implication was that one of the men was about to die — Branch or Barlow — and viewers were led to think that it could be Branch since his back was turned to his father.

The fact that Barlow is sitting there in a new picture from Season 4 seems to imply that he got the drop on his son and that Branch Connally is no more.

Still, don’t fret, Branch fans. Not yet anyway.

Because if you visit the IMDb page for Longmire and look at the cast list, you will see that Branch (Chase) is featured in all 43 episodes. This would include the 13 episodes that premiere in September.

So, either someone at IMDb is trying to fool you into thinking that Branch survived with a purposely subtle hint on the cast list, or Netflix is trying to fool you into thinking he did die with this photo from Season 4, which could also possibly be a flashback implying the reverse, or Branch really is dead.

One more discouraging thing for Branch fans, though: he isn’t featured in any of the other photos at HuffPo.

For more from Season 4, check out these two fresh Longmire trailers.

[Image via Netflix]