Justified: Hundred Dollar Baby

If you like hijinks then I’m assuming you’ve really enjoyed “Justified” the last couple of weeks.

Anyone who reads this column knows I wasn’t a big fan of last week’s episode. And while I still stand by every word of that review I think that previous installment prepared me for (and made me more receptive of) this week’s “Save My Love.”

It’s not that I consider this is a humorless show. Hell, dark humor is just as big a staple in Elmore Leonard’s writing as inept scumbags.

The latest episode featured even broader moments and more intentionally comedic coincidences than last week’s “Blaze of Glory” as Winona’s gym bag wound its way throughout the courthouse where she works and the marshal’s office. (A big assist should also go to the great Stephen Root returning as the outlandish, gun-toting, sexual-harrassin’ Judge Michael Reardon, who now has a giant man-crush on Raylan.)

“Save My Love” began with Winona waking with a start at the realization that Raylan had NOT recovered the $100 bill she’d swiped from the evidence cage. (The one she took had a corner torn off. I’m ok with her not initially remembering this detail since she was probably traumatized by the robbery…and had other things on her mind.)

Raylan assuredly but begrudgingly put on his clothes (and skipped his coffee) and set about tracking it down. He found the $100 bill (one of the robbers had it on him) with no help from a lazy, online poker-playing evidence guy and from a proactive Tim, who had already scanned the bill into the system. Since it had been scanned, Raylan had to put the bill back, which is good because two terse FBI guys arrived to collect it.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I let out an audible yelp during the next scene. Raylan was trying to assure Winona that the worst that would happen if the FBI found out that she’d taken the $100 bill would be that she would pay a fine. That’s when Winona whipped out her gym bag and showed Raylan (and us) that she’d taken ALL THE MONEY. (Cue the yelp!) I’m not sure why I was surprised, but I was. It would make sense for Winona to take all the money on her first trip — rather than checking to see if one bill was real then coming back to grab the rest — but it was still a shocker.

After the commercial break, Timothy Olyphant did his first OUSTANDING bit of non-verbal acting in this episode. As Winona was explaining the sequence of events that led to her taking all the money, Olyphant’s face went from complete shock to…a smile?! Laughter?! What Winona did was so completely unbelievable that he actually laughed.

Half the fun and tension of the episode came from watching that gym bag ALMOST make its way to the evidence cage. (But can we agree that the bomb squad guy nearly opening the bag was too much?) It turned out that the money was from a bank job 20 years ago and that (I won’t bore you with the details) it was unaccounted for and didn’t belong to anyone.

My favorite bit of non-verbal acting from Olyphant came toward the end. As Winona was hastily and clumsily (nice touch) putting the money back in the evidence cage, Raylan was keeping a lookout for her, but had a look of wall-punching anger and complete disgust on his face. I can’t decide if he was angrier at her betrayal or at himself for risking his career (and what he loves) for someone that would do something so stupid.

And that final, near silent scene where Art walked in on them after they were done and they hastily walked away? Chilling. I mean, is there any way at all that Art didn’t put two and two together?

I almost forgot to mention the part where this episode somehow found away to circle back to the Bennett family (who we haven’t seen in two weeks).

Boyd was fired from his job at the mine after not-quite heroically foiling the robbery from a few weeks ago. He was quickly hired by Carol Johnson (Rebecca Creskoff), a higher-up at the mining company, as part of her security team.

Watching Boyd cram into his uncomfortable suit and trade pleasantries with Raylan at the courthouse was gold. Unfortunately, Boyd quickly figured out that Carol didn’t really want him for security at a trial. She wants him as an enforcer since the Bennetts are causing trouble for her company.

Poor Boyd. In the space of a one-hour episode he goes from awestruck at potentially being offered a legitimate job to gloomily accepting that he was being tempted back to his wicked ways all along.

It was also a really clever move putting Boyd’s latest temptation in a sleeker package that acts like it might have sex with him. (As opposed to his previous temptation which came in the form of a group of mining morons.)

So what’d you think of this episode? Did you like Boyd’s suit? Who else got a kick out of seeing the return of the smarmily menacing Wynn Duffy? (Let’s call him Mr. Duffy, just to be safe). Would you join Tim’s cult? Finally, do you think we’ll see the return of the sniper/plaintiff who tried to take a shot at Carol Johnson/Judge Reardon?