Justified: Devil with the Deal

Previously, I've written (at length) about this show's marvelous ability to be interesting and exciting and scary and hilarious even when it's main/best character is off-screen for significant stretches of time.

In focusing on the prison break of Dickie Bennett (and, sure, you can come too Dewey Crowe), the banking practices of Ellstin Limehouse and a betrayal within Boyd Crowder's crew, Raylan was once again more on the periphery than most prime time dramas would ever dare put their protagonist. And for the first time, it started to annoy me.

And it's not just Raylan I'm missing. Art, Winona and Tim (who has now appeared in just 1 out of 4 episodes this season...yes, I'm continuing to keep track!) also sat out last night's episode. We can argue about the merits of each of those characters (except, for Tim...there's no arguing what he brings to the show), but I'd absolutely rather watch them than corrupt prison guard Ash Murphy or corrupt prison nurse...or the two ill-fated yokels they dragged into their plan. Oh well, at least Raylan got to know more about Rachel last night (while chatting in front of Limehouse) than he did during the previous two seasons. We also learned the connection between Limehouse and the Givens. (After Arlo beat Raylan's mom, who sought refuge in Noble's Holler. A younger Ellstin administered his own beat down when Arlo came looking for her...and a 10-year-old Raylan witnessed it.)

I'm not saying I want "Justified" to wrap up stand-alone cases each week with the same cast ala "Law & Order"...I just miss these characters I've gotten attached to.

The other problem I had with last night's episode is that it was abundantly clear (at least to me) from the very beginning that Devil would be dead by the end of the hour. He would either be killed before the opening credits by Quarles if he rejected his offer (can I get an amen?!) or he would be killed before the end credits by Boyd for betraying him. It was also abundantly clear that Johnny wouldn't turn on Boyd and was just playing him. The reason I'm a bit bummed is because "Justified" doesn't usually tip its hand in such an obvious way. I DO give the show credit for staging Devil's death in a way that evoked Boyd's own shooting in the pilot...and for once again managing to make Boyd seem both brutal and merciful.

Just as Devil's death referenced Boyd's shooting, I liked the way Raylan running over Ash evoked both "Pulp Fiction" (Butch running over Marcellus) and Elmore Leonard's own pulpy fiction (having Raylan run over Ash twice, and comically withhold medical attention to get info was hilariously absurd). Of course, Raylan was able to find Ash after an all-too-brief meeting with Boyd. (Please keep finding reasons for Raylan to go see Boyd, writers.)

Seeing that everyone (Boyd, Ash and his crew) wants Mags Bennett's money, I totally understand why Dickie insisted that Limehouse keep the meager amount that is left of the $3 million: as long as people think this mythical amount of money is out there (and that Dickie is the only one who can get to it) he gets to live. And thank goodness, because Jeremy Davies is awesome (especially when he sarcastically acted like he'd tipped Raylan off to his whereabouts).

So what'd you think of this episode? Do you think Limehouse is telling the truth about the amount of money that's left? Were you as glad to check in on Loretta as I was? (Just a fantastically-played scene: her unhappiness AND gratitude were palpable.) Was I the only one a bit underwhelmed by this episode? Finally, could the show really kill off Dewey Crowe? (It looks like the prison nurse removes some organs, so it's not looking good.)

Justified: Wicked Games

What is up with the bad guys on "Justified" this season and the twisted games they play?

(And I'm not even talking about whatever the hell Quarles is doing with the half naked man blindfolded, gagged and tied up to that bed; the fact that he was barely bothered by Wynn Duffy stumbling onto that sight made it 10 times weirder/scarier.)

I apologize for leaving you recap-less so far this season, but I assure you that it's not because I think any less of "Justified." Here's my quick rundown of the first two episodes, in case you care: I thought the season premiere was as good as season premieres can possibly get, but I thought the second episode with "Assistant Director Goodall/Not Karen Sisco (Wink, Wink)" was merely very good. But then again, we got to see Art Mullen be badass and make a legit (non-comical) arrest. Plus, you'll NEVER hear me complain about seeing Carla Gugino.

Last night's episode, "Harlan Roulette," got its title from the even more sadistic version of Russian Roulette pawn shop owner (and Dixie Mafia lackey) Glen Fogle (scary guest star Pruitt Taylor Vince) likes to play with his underlings. While the Harlan Roulette scene was incredibly tense and wonderfully hard to watch, I still have to rank it behind Fletcher "The Ice Pick" Nicks' Final Countdown.

As Trooper Tom Bergen helpfully reminded Raylan (and us) a marshal's primary duty is to catch fugitives. And though I enjoy the one-off episodes that mostly focus on a criminal of the week, I think the show is at its best when it delves into the generations-spanning conflict within Harlan and its inhabitants.

Fortunately, "Harlan Roulette" managed to have it both ways: turns out Raylan's old pal Wade Messer (who you may remember as the guy who set Raylan up to be strung up to a tree and tortured by Dickie in the season 2 finale and who is played by an impressively scumbag-gy James LeGros) and a fellow oxy addict were committing a string of robberies for Fogle, who was feeding their oxy habit. The Dixie Mafia's oxy business has been hovering in the background throughout the show's run (most notably the oxy bus episode with Dewey from last season), and I'm delighted to see the writers finally cash those chips in.

I also think it's a brilliant move to make this year's Big Bad (Quarles) the exact opposite of last year's. That's no slight to Emmy winner Margo Martindale, I just think it would've been tough to top homegrown Mags Bennett, so why not bring in an arrogant, flashy, psychotic outsider who's in Kentucky to show the hicks why it's called "organized crime"? (Plus, I suppose the people who miss Mags have Ellstin Limehouse to keep them warm at night.)

It was hilarious seeing the job of killing Raylan get delegated from Duffy to Fogle to Messer with the idea that if the assassin fails a loose end is tied up, but if he succeeds even better.

In the past, I've pointed out (with admiration) that each episode of "Justified" can afford to go long stretches without showing Raylan (and developing its colorful bad guys) because there isn't that much to him. (At least not from a dramatic standpoint.) That said, Timothy Olyphant's florid monologue about not going into someone's house uninvited was a great call back to the pilot (when he met Dewey at Ava's house) and a funny twist when it turned out he'd gone into Wade's house and removed his gun. (I was probably the only fool who was worried for Raylan as he nonchalantly turned his back to Wade's doorway, while Wade scrambled to find his gun...I should've known better.) Raylan's "We all got lines we gotta cross" is pretty much as on-the-nose explanation of what "Justified" is all about as we're ever going to get.

Raylan was able to use Wade to lure Fogle and the stooge who'd apparently seen him torture one too many victims. The ensuing standoff was classic Elmore Leonard, from Raylan casually mentioning his house hunt to the two bad guys shooting and killing each other. (RIP Glen Fogle and, um, Other Guy.)

Before Fogle died he pointed Raylan in Wynn Duffy's direction and the two got to have the unpleasant conversation Raylan had warned him about. More importantly, Raylan came face-to-face with a smiling Quarles for the first time this season. Their first meeting was genius precisely because Raylan had no idea he was meeting his main adversary...or that said adversary has a nasty "Taxi Driver" surprise up his sleeve.

I wanted to end the recap with Raylan's fantastic "the next one's coming faster" line to Wynn after tossing him a bullet, but I suppose I should talk about Boyd and his efforts to completely take over crime in Harlan.

Though Walton Goggins continues to make Boyd a magnetically articulate and nasty piece of work (pulling that double move on the guys at Johnny's old bar was a neat trick), like Arlo I wasn't fully engaged in his speechifying and promises to make his crew rich...at least not yet. Still, it's plain to see there's a showdown coming with Limehouse/Raylan (and possibly Quarles).

Few more quick thoughts: it's good to see Johnny Crowder back, I'm kind of obsessed with Jeremy Davies' skittery, ignorant, false confident, cagey(?) performance as Dickie and I don't believe Devil is long for this world.

So what'd you think of this episode? Can Wade Messer give Dewey Crowe a run for his money in the "Lovably/Hilariously Incompetent Bad Guy" Sweepstakes? Is the corrupt prison guard blackmailing Dickie one too many story threads? (It feels superfluous right now, but I have a ton of confidence that these writers will make it pay off.) Finally, we've had three episodes of "Justified" so far this season and Marshal Tim Gutterson has only been in one: unacceptable.

Justified: Bloody, Good Finale

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: “Bulletville” — the episode that capped season 1 of “Justified” — is one of the best season finales I’ve ever seen. The shootout in that cabin is the stuff of legend.

So how could I not have sky-high expectations for the show’s latest season-ender? The episode was called “Bloody Harlan,” for cripes sake!

Though I don’t think it topped “Bulletville,” “Bloody Harlan” ABSOLUTELY delivered on the promise of its title. There was an explosion, a couple of shootouts, the deaths of several prominent characters and several lives (literally and figuratively) hanging in the balance.

Winona seemed to have a sense of what was coming. After Raylan formally asked a still-terse Art for a transfer to Glynco, Winona casually revealed to Raylan that she was pregnant. (I was WAY early in calling this one, but I was right! Eventually.) Even though Winona has caused more than her fair share of trouble for Raylan this season, every scene between Timothy Olyphant and Natalie Zea has a natural, live-in quality that’s very appealing.

Unfortunately for the not-quite-destined-to-be-happy couple, Raylan received a phone call from Loretta’s cell phone. Instead of Loretta, there was a police officer on the other side of the line: Loretta was missing. After the cop left, Raylan got the foster dad to confess that he kept a gun and about $300 hidden away, both of which were now gone.

Raylan quickly deduced that Loretta was on her way to Harlan to avenge her father’s death. (As soon as they kept showing Loretta at that foster home — instead of never showing her again once she was gone — you just knew that she’d be pointing a gun at Mags by the end of the season.) Winona begged him not to go — Raylan was still persona non grata in Bennett-run Harlan — but Raylan feels a (fatherly) kinship to Loretta that Winona wasn’t privy to. When trying to stop Raylan didn’t work, Winona went to the marshal’s office to beg Art for help. Let’s just say that having a pushy ex-wife paid off big time for Raylan.

Meanwhile, Boyd had requested a sit-down with Mags to hash out their issues. (I loved that these redneck-y Kentucky folk insisted on calling their meeting a “parley.”) Boyd and Mags had agreed that Boyd would run all the crime in Harlan, except for weed. Dickie (acting independently) had gotten in Boyd’s face, so Boyd decided to break the deal he’d made with Dickie’s mom and ripped Dickie off. Boyd was obviously a force to contend with, but he was badly outnumbered by the Bennett’s manpower, which was why he requested the meeting.

Of course, the genius of the parley scene was that both parties believed they knew something the other didn’t know. The Mags and Doyle believed they were keeping Boyd (and Arlo) busy while their small army killed the wheelchair-bound Johnny Crowder in his home and assaulted the home Boyd now shared with Ava. On the other side, Boyd had found out about the assault from Doyle’s colleague that he’d bribed (and that was unhappy about Mags’ Black Pike deal), so Boyd’s people were ready for the assault. Johnny blew up the thugs who were supposed to kill him, and Devil was mostly able to fend off the people who’d come to Ava’s house.

Except that Ava just couldn’t help being Ava. Most of season 1, the character seemed to mostly exist so that she could get in trouble and Raylan could pull her out of it. This time, after being instructed to hide in the cellar, Ava insisted on making herself coffee. She was supposed to be watching the back of the house, but she was too distracted to see the Bennetts’ people pull up. (That shot through the kitchen window was awesome.)

Since they were ready for the assault, Boyd’s people were in good shape…until Dickie somehow slipped in and shot Ava in her kitchen. (He’s been doing a lot of that lately.) I literally gasped when Ava got shot. When that happened, it was impossible to think of her quick bonding scene with Helen, and how alike those two ended up being. Fortunately, Ava was hit in the right side of her abdomen. Last we saw of her, she was being tended to by a doctor who Boyd had paid to come to the house.

So at this point, Raylan was looking for Loretta while Boyd was looking for Dickie: luckily for Raylan both men wound up at the same place. Raylan had found the man who’d driven Loretta close to Harlan, but that guy was so terrified of the Bennetts that he’d made a deal with Dickie. Dickie got the drop on Raylan and knocked him on the head with a baseball bat. (My second gasp of the episode.)

When Raylan woke up, he was hanging upside down by one leg as Dickie treated him like a piñata. This scene was fantastic in so many ways. I loved that even though it was very likely he was going to be beaten to death, Raylan was still cracking jokes to piss Dickie off. (To make Dickie lose his cool so that Raylan could escape…or so that Dickie would kill him fast?) I also loved that Dickie was wielding a baseball bat, which we all know is what Raylan used to cripple Dickie 20 years earlier. Unfortunately for Dickie, Boyd popped out from behind a tree and helped free Raylan. (And handed him his hat.)

The button on the scene was that, although Raylan couldn’t kill Dickie himself last week, he’d “sleep like a baby” by allowing Boyd to do it. The only problem is that he needed Dickie to find Loretta.

Cut to the confrontation at Mags’ house. The place was being guarded by Doyle and a bunch of his men. First, Loretta arrived and she was allowed through because Mags still considers her somewhat of a daughter. Then Raylan arrived with a gun to Dickie’s head and wanting to get Loretta back. It was kind of perfect that Loretta shooting Mags in the head is what incited the shootout outside. Raylan was shot in the abdomen and was about to be killed by Doyle. Unfortunately, Doyle couldn’t help but say something before shooting his enemy (too many action movies). So right after he told Raylan that the bullet he was about to put in him had been on the way for 20 years…he was shot in the head.

The cavalry…I mean, the marshals had arrived! I thoroughly enjoyed everything that this scene implied. I love that the clean headshot on Doyle almost certainly means that Tim is the one who took the shot. (That’s how he killed the human trafficker earlier this season.) I also love that, as disappointed as he was in Raylan, Art couldn’t just leave him twisting in the wind by himself. It must’ve been particularly difficult for Winona to convince him since he was probably pissed at her too for her part in the $100 bill/evidence locker saga.

Now all (a wounded) Raylan had to do was stop Loretta from becoming a killer. He eventually talked the girl into not shooting Mags. Everything seemed ok until we got another horrifying callback to the season premiere: Mags pulled out two different glasses and sat down with Raylan for some apple pie. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been mildly terrified every time Mags has offered anybody something to drink this season after the way she poisoned Loretta’s dad. Watching both Mags and Raylan drink some moonshine out of their glasses was a punch to the gut.

Having Raylan ask “Mags, what did you do?” didn’t help matters. It turns out that Mags had poisoned herself and died while Raylan held her hand. At first, I didn’t love Mags’ suicide. I thought it was a copout for her character and I was selfishly annoyed that we were losing such a great character. (All the credit in the world should go to Margo Martindale.) But the more I thought about it, the more I liked and accepted the idea that Mags just wanted to be reunited with her boys. (That reunion doesn’t include Dickie, who is now in custody. Ouch!)

So what’d you think of this episode? How long was Boyd hiding behind that tree while Dickie treated Raylan like a piñata? Do you think we’ll see Dickie next season? Is there any chance that Ava doesn’t survive? Finally, is there any chance Raylan actually goes through with his transfer to Glynco? (Winona is still pregnant, and Harlan is obviously still not baby-friendly.)

Thanks for hanging with me and putting up with all my nonsense throughout this season of “Justified.” It was a blast!

Justified: To Helen Back

It doesn’t matter how old you are — no one has the ability to get under your skin in quite the same way your parents can.

Marshal Raylan Givens is generally a cool customer when he’s dealing with the lowest of Kentucky lowlifes…but he pretty much loses his s--- whenever he has to deal with his dad.

Usually, Raylan’s anger takes the form of barely-concealed disdain and impatience. Last night, we finally saw Raylan let go of that anger and unleash what seemed like decades of rage and resentment on his father. And remember: we’ve seen Raylan actually shoot this man before! (Kudos to Timothy Olyphant for not going over the top in the scene where Raylan beats and chokes Arlo in his prison cell.)

Then again, Arlo is a particularly nasty piece of work isn’t he? The cruel joke throughout the first half of last night’s episode is that Arlo knew full well that Helen was dead — thank you, writers, for not having her death be a fake-out, which would’ve been tempting to do since we didn’t see her get at the end of last week — because of him. (Arlo was part of the group that ripped off Dickie, and Dickie came looking for Arlo to get revenge.) So what did Arlo decide to do? He made Raylan believe that Helen had been killed by the Bennetts in response for Raylan killing Coover.

I continue to be floored by the way the show has established a rich, decades-spanning family rivalry between the Givens and the Bennetts in a little more than 10 episodes. More importantly, the show has found a way to have that rivalry inform this season’s storylines and characters. (Boyd, for example, has been an ally or foe to Raylan, Arlo, Mags and Dickie.)

I’m also impressed by the restraint the writers have shown in handling their hero. Throughout season 1, Raylan earned a reputation for being extremely quick to shoot bad guys. (The first thing we saw him do was gun down a criminal in Miami.) The FX promos leading up to season 2 — especially the great “Star Wars”-themed spot — even seemed to play up that reputation. Instead, Raylan (having been scolded by superiors) has been a lot more reluctant to fire his weapon this year.

That was never more apparent than it was in this week’s “Reckoning.” After the death of Helen, surely Raylan (or Arlo or ANYBODY) would shoot someone in this hour. So it was a surprise to see that not a single shot was fired, though I’m making the bold prediction right now that WON’T be the case during next week’s finale.

Raylan, working in an unofficial capacity, used his best detective skills in this hour. He figured the Bennetts were involved, so he went to see Mags, who told him about the truce she and Helen had reached. She also told Raylan that he might find Dickie in Coover’s house, but instead he found Arlo, which led to another wonderfully-bitter scene between father and son. At this point, Arlo was still laying the guilt trip very heavily on Raylan, but we got a lot more insight into Raylan’s family history. Turns out that after Raylan’s mom died, her sister (Aunt Helen) came to take care of both Raylan and Arlo. More importantly, it was Helen who insisted that Raylan get the hell out of Harlan and make something of himself.

Arlo couldn’t help but get mouthy, so Raylan had him arrested…but not before getting some useful information about Dickie’s whereabouts. It was through this information (we assume) that Raylan learned about Jed, Dickie’s accomplice who had been shot by Helen before she died. Since Jed’s blood was at the crime scene, Dickie had convinced Mags and Doyle to pin Helen’s murder on him and kill Jed as he was “resisting arrest.”

And he would’ve gotten away with it too if it hadn’t been for an annoyingly-stubborn wife…and Raylan coolly walking up and foiling the plan. This scene was fantastic for so many reasons. As soon as Jed opened the door and learned that Doyle wanted to see him alone, Jed knew he was a dead man. When Jed’s wife wouldn’t let her husband go off by himself, I started to worry that Doyle was just going to kill Jed, his wife and their kids. I don’t even think I exhaled until Raylan showed up and sent a fuming Doyle away.

Raylan promised that he could protect Jed if he could deliver Dickie. Jed promised to testify, but claimed that there was no way to know in which of the Bennetts’ many cabins he was hiding.

Enter this season’s Black Pike storyline. Jed had also informed Raylan that Dickie came looking for Arlo after being ripped off by Boyd. So Raylan rolled up to Boyd’s house…only to find Boyd pointing his weapon on him. The one false note in this episode for me was the fact that Ava was also pointing her gun at Raylan. We get it: Ava’s with Boyd VERY comfortable being an outlaw’s woman now. I just thought it was over the top.

Anyway, Boyd informed Raylan that the Black Pike deal hadn’t been finalized, so Raylan convinced Arlo to back out of the deal that had made Mags an extremely rich woman. Mags didn’t want to do that, so she decided to sell her son out instead.

Raylan ordered Doyle to handcuff Dickie…and then knocked Doyle out so he and Dickie could talk alone in the woods. Now, we all knew that there was almost no way that Raylan was going to actually kill Dickie. However, what made this scene great is that, if Raylan wasn’t exactly planning on killing Dickie, he at least wanted to leave himself that option. (Why else would he knock Doyle out?) More importantly, Olyphant’s great performance as he told a whimpering Dickie what he’d taken away from him by killing Helen really made you believe that Raylan didn’t know what he wanted to do. In the end, Raylan arrested him and calmly attended Helen’s wedding.

Except that the calmness won’t last long now that badass Mags is back. I liked the little hint of foreshadowing when she offered Arlo some moonshine. By the end of the episode, she’d embraced a broken Dickie (awesome work from Jeremy Davies, by the way) back into the fold after she got him out of jail. The moment set up what will likely be an all-out war in the season finale.

If it even comes close to season 1’s classic finale “Bulletville”, it should be a doozy!

So what’d you think of this episode? What did you make of the quick, conspicuous shot of Raylan’s headstone at the Givens family plot? What will Loretta’s role be in the season finale? (There’s GOT to be a reason we checked in on the unhappy girl in the foster home this week, right?) Finally, who was that mysterious visitor that got Jed to retract his testimony against Dickie?

Justified: My Bodyguard

At the risk of sounding indelicate, let’s just say I enjoyed this episode of “Justified” about as much as Marshal Tim was enjoying the challenge of protecting/keeping an eye on Raylan.

(“This s--- gets me hard.”)

Ok, so maybe not quite THAT much.

Watching this episode unfold gave me a new appreciation for the patience and detail that’s been paid to developing the relationships between this season’s characters. (Raylan and Boyd, Raylan and the Bennetts, Boyd and the Bennetts, etc.)

In fact, the one relationship I wasn’t completely feeling was the one between Raylan and Winona.

Last week, I thought they had some lovely moments, but I also noted that it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Winona was in the car with Raylan both times those hitmen appeared. This week, after spotting a careless, shivering, urinating gentleman outside Gary and Winona’s old house, Raylan was able to discover the Wynn Duffy connection…which meant Gary was behind it after all.

Turns out Gary had ordered the hit, but had second thoughts and tried to back out. Duffy wasn’t about to let him do that since Gary could link him to the hit, so Gary needed to go. Gary, being the true gentleman that he is, decided to piggyback on Raylan and Winona’s protective detail (courtesy of Tim and Rachel).

There were some darkly comic moments during the showdown in Duffy’s RV — I particularly enjoyed the straight-out-of-“Dexter” plastic sheet, and I’m generally a fan of Jere Burns’ creepy performance on this show — but overall, the scene was a letdown. It’s a shame because when Raylan declined calling for backup because all they’d do is arrest Duffy, we were set up for something really good.

Instead, nobody got shot and Gary was kindly asked to leave the country. On one hand, I like that Duffy is still out there to cause trouble. On the other hand, I had a big problem with Raylan’s reasoning for note telling Winona what Gary had done. He said that it would “tear her apart.” Would it though? Winona and Gary’s marriage is over and we saw them in a contentious divorce proceeding last week. On top of that, she KNOWS about his shady dealings. Does she care enough about Gary at this point that this would “tear her apart”? Would this latest scumbag-y move from Gary really shock her enough to “tear her apart”? I didn’t buy it. It seemed like the writers went out of their way to make Raylan look like a good guy. We KNOW Raylan is a good guy.

Fortunately, everything that led up to that (and the episode’s final scene) more than made up for that deficiency.

Some of the best stuff in this episode centered around the interplay between Tim and Raylan, who was admirably honest about his intentions to sneak away from Tim. The structure of this storyline — Raylan has SO many people that would want to kill him that he has to make multiple phone calls/visits — was inherently funny. Then again, the sight of Raylan walking in and finding Winona, Gary, Tim and Rachel lazily watching a Western on TV was more outwardly funny.

After confirming that the Miami cartel wasn’t responsible (don’t forget about them), Raylan visited a still beaten-down Mags (feat. the Oak Ridge Boys), who continues to take crap for making the Black Pike deal. Doyle popped in and stopped just short of whipping out a ruler in an attempt to intimidate Raylan, but the Bennett brother who was busiest last night was Dickie.

Dickie had recruited a new crew (with questionable aim) only to get ripped off by Boyd and his guys — including a gimpy Arlo — in the middle of a pot deal. Dickie wanted to get revenge, but two of his muscleheads didn’t really want to be in a gang war, so they quit. Unfortunately, their severance package was a couple of bullets to their heads by Dickie. I would’ve accepted this at face value, but this makes even more sense when you consider Dickie’s mounting frustration at not being allowed to avenge Coover. He’ll be damned if he’s not going to avenge being ripped off.

Since Dickie recognized that the masked, limping figure was Arlo, he took his remaining henchman and went to confront him. Instead, he found a shotgun wielding Helen. The tension and dread in this scene was both terrible and fantastic. As soon as Helen realized that Dickie intended to kill Arlo no matter what, she made her move. Cut to the outside of the house with two shots being fired and Helen letting out a cry. (That’s a cruel way to end an episode, “Justified”!)

This wasn’t a complete surprise after a wonderful moment of foreshadowing earlier in the episode where Helen tried to advise Ava on the proper etiquette of being the significant other of an outlaw.

Here’s why I’m loving all this stuff? Dickie may have been denied the chance to kill Raylan, but he still found a way to hurt the Givens. Meanwhile, Arlo’s partnership with Boyd is what got Helen shot, so I’m imagining Raylan is going to be almost as pissed at his own dad and Boyd as he will be at Dickie.

Speaking of Boyd, I can’t help but feel like he’s lying to Ava when he’s telling her that he’s going to be completely honest with her. The fact that his swastika tattoo was so prominently displayed in their bedroom scene together was a strong reminder that this is a bad guy.

So what’d you think of this episode? Why does Raylan know so much about ice cream? Have we really seen the last of Gary? Which pop culture reference from Tim did you prefer — “The Bodyguard” or “The Big Chill”? Finally, do we think that Helen actually survived and is NOT the person we saw being rolled out in that body bag in the previews for next week’s episode? (Instead, that’d be Dickie’s remaining flunky.)

Justified: Follow Me

You know what I realized watching the latest episode of “Justified”? We haven’t actually seen very much of Boyd Crowder in full-on outlaw mode.

Sure, the very first time we saw him in the show’s pilot he was blowing up a church and by the time that episode ended he’d come close to killing sister-in-law Ava. (Will ya look at how far those two have come?!) But after that, Boyd had his religious conversion for the rest of season 1 — which turned out to be mostly sincere — and he’s spent the entirety of this season fighting off multiple temptation to return to a life of crime.

Indeed, Boyd’s reputation as a VERY.BAD.MAN was mostly earned off-screen and before the events of this show. That’s made it a little easier for us to root for him because the Boyd we’ve seen is the one who trades witty banter with Raylan and struggles to do the right thing.

That’s why it was simultaneously tragic and a little electrifying to return to a life of crime after being offered the non-weed criminal business in Harlan by a grieving Mags Bennett.

After seeing the end of last week’s episode, it would’ve been perfectly reasonable to expect Mags to declare an all-out war on Raylan and the Givens. Instead, we got a great, sad scene with two concerned mother figures when Mags met with Helen. Helen (like us) was concerned about Mags striking back against Raylan. Instead, Mags agreed to squash the family feud, lest more blood be spilled.

In case you were afraid that Mags was going soft, she coolly slapped and threatened to kill that boor from last week’s party after he gave her crap for selling out to Black Pike. We also learned that she holds Dickie responsible for Coover’s death, since Dickie was the one who told Raylan were Coover had taken Loretta. As punishment, Dickie got to keep the weed business, but he was banned from all other criminal activity (now under Boyd’s watch) and cut off from the rest of the Bennetts. (I don’t think he’ll be getting Black Pike money in his Christmas cards.)

Poor Dickie. He almost gets choked to death by his own brother, then the man who crippled him kills his brother. Now, not only has he been prohibited from exacting revenge, but he’s been isolated from his family. No wonder he’s making the extremely foolish decision of taking on Boyd, his cousin Johnny and new muscle Devil/Milkshake.

To be completely honest, I’d completely forgotten that Johnny Crowder — the cousin that Boyd shot and mostly crippled during last season’s finale — even existed. It’s weird because I remember liking the relatively sensible character in season 1. Now, he’s literally a broken man, so it didn’t take very much for Boyd to sell him into joining him on his new criminal enterprise (make no mistake…Boyd WAS selling him) since Johnny had experience working with Boyd’s father, Bo. Also, I enjoyed the aggressive Devil. (Too bad he’ll almost certainly be killed very soon.)

Even though Boyd would probably list “full-time criminal” as his occupation, he’s not completely letting go of his life as a decent guy. As soon as he showed up at Ava’s house and Ava approached him, we knew they were going to kiss.

I’m not saying that Ava is ONLY attracted to bad boys — although her ex, Bowman, was no prize. I just think it’s curious that there wasn’t any kind of heat between the two until after they started lying to the police together (after Boyd’s heist) or Boyd went back to being a crook. When Boyd was being “good”, Ava naturally seemed distrustful…but also completely turned-off by him.

But enough about the criminals: let’s talk about the lawmen in this episode.

The scene where Raylan confronted Art with what he knew/didn’t know about the money Winona had stolen was probably my favorite scene in the episode. Art never seemed more like Raylan’s disapproving dad than when he was scolding him for being so stupid and telling him how disappointed he was in him. These guys give each other a lot of crap as boss/employee, but seeing how angry Art was with Raylan (and seeing how embarrassed Raylan was to let Art down) gave us a great look at how much they care for each other.

In fact, for a guy as relentlessly decent as Raylan, he has some considerably psychological scarring that Timothy Olyphan fantastically keeps under the surface. We saw it again during the great scene in which he told Winona that he’d been afraid that he’d helped her with the money caper because he was an outlaw at heart (like his dad), but it turned out that he just loved her.

The Raylan/Winona scenes in this episode were pretty great. I loved the way they ping-ponged between Raylan still being pissed with her to Winona trying to use humor to diffuse the situation (joking about needing a ride to rob a bank). Their no-fuss “I love yous” were also pretty refreshing.

I also liked that the writers allowed Winona to admit that maybe she’s just openly messed up in the head. In movies and TV shows people (including me) usually demand that characters do things for very clear reasons that make sense. In real life, sometimes stress causes people to not think clearly and do truly stupid things. (Like steal money from an evidence locker.)

With Art upset with him, Raylan didn’t see a terribly compelling reason to stick around his job, so he agreed to transfer to Glynco, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center where he could teach people how to shoot and Winona wouldn’t have to worry about him being killed in the line of duty.

Unfortunately, the two guys who Raylan had schooled earlier in the episode (“I got right, you go left = badass) resurfaced, crashed into Raylan’s car and initiated a shootout. Raylan took out a guys’ legs before killing him. He got the other guy right as he was about to shoot Winona, who was making a run for the exit.

I think it’s great that, after not shooting anyone all year, Raylan has now shot three people in the last two episodes. With the season coming to a close, I have a feeling that number will continue to go up.

So what’d you think of this episode? Have we seen the last of Loretta this year after Raylan talked her into giving her foster home a chance? Finally, who hired those guys to try and kill Raylan? And are we entirely sure those guys were after Raylan? (All I’m saying is that Winona happened to be in the car with him both times they showed up. Also, the scene with Winona and Gary at their divorce proceeding felt inessential.)

Justified: Oh Brother

Are we 100% sure that Mags Bennett is a villain.

Sure, we know that —as the head of the Bennett weed/moonshine crime empire — she’s ultimately the main antagonist to our hero, Raylan Givens. And if you’ve seen the end of the latest episode, you know that those two won’t be getting any chummier with each other.

Still, “Brother’s Keeper” displayed that, as terrifying as Mags may be to her full-grown, no-good sons, she’s not all bad.

By the way, this was also the episode where the proverbial s--- hit the fan.

Many of the season’s important storylines — Mags killing Loretta’s father and lying to the girl about it, the Black Pike mining company deal, the escalating feud between the Givens and the Bennetts — came to a head in this episode. Now “Justified” has less than a handful of episodes to make sense of this mess.

The episode was mostly set at a day-long party thrown by the Bennetts at their home. Among the guests were Raylan and Carol Johnson, as well as Boyd and Ava.

For the entire episode, I tried to figure out the devious reason that Boyd had for bringing Ava to the party. My conclusion: sure, he figured he’d seem less threatening if he brought her along, but I think he mostly wanted to show her a good time. Who knew Walton Goggins could clog. It also seems like Ava has fallen pray to the charms of another Crowder.

Of course, Boyd had some business to discuss before his happy dance. Having acquired the signature for Arlo’s valuable land, Boyd sat in on a meeting with Carol and Mags and Carol made one final offer to buy Mags’ land before the mining company inevitably descended on Harlan and blew the top off the mountain.

Mags played her trump card: blowing the top off the mountain would be worthless if the company didn’t also own the land where the necessary access roads are located. At first, I thought it was silly that a big-time company wouldn’t think of something so important, but the show made a point of mentioning the fact that it was Carol who had been sent in blind to this negotiation. Since we learned last week that Carol kind of hates her life as a mining company honcho, I can totally buy that she didn’t do her due diligence.

The thing that struck me hardest about this scene — even harder than Raylan struck Dickie when he tried to barge in — was the fact that Mags didn’t just want money to make herself richer. She wanted enough money to make sure that her family and her town were taken care of long-term. Sure, she’s Harlan’s reigning criminal mastermind, but that doesn’t make the invading mining company the good guys.

So Boyd was dancing, Mags was singing: there was absolutely no doubt that things were going to go to hell.

The episode’s opening scene had Mags getting Loretta ready for the party and basically telling her that she was the daughter she never had. (And the child she WISHES she’d had, instead of the three stooges.) Mags also had to dodge another request by Loretta to talk to her dad.

Later, Loretta was helping an increasingly jealous Coover with a chore when she noticed what looked like her dad’s watch.

Loretta wanted to make sure, so she gave Coover a poisoned joint. When he was unconscious, she crept into a bedroom (oh, hi passed-out Dickie) and confirmed that it was her father’s watch. Of course, having her sneakily poison Coover makes Loretta more like Mags than she’ll ever know given what Mags did to Loretta’s father.

She quickly activated the bat signal by calling Raylan’s cell phone. Unfortunately for her, Coover had been pretending (you can’t fool him that easily…he’s a goddamn professional!) and was about to kill Loretta when Dickie intervened. Unfortunately for Dickie, Coover is a human mountain and easily choked out his gimpy brother.

I thought director Tony Goldwyn (the actor who’s also directed some great episodes of “Dexter”) did a great job of staging the scene at Coover’s — and the following scene at the site where the had disposed of Lroetta’s dad’s body — like a horror movie. (The way he snuck up on Loretta in that darkened room was chilling.)

Brad William Henke also deserves credit for giving a great performance. The dumbest and deadliest of the Bennett clan could’ve been a one-note character, but Henke injected just enough pride and jealousy to make him interesting.

I’m speaking in the past tense because Raylan ended up killing Coover. Raylan was about to join Loretta’s father, but Loretta distracted Coover long enough for Raylan to shoot him and send him to his death.

Margo Martindale has been excellent all year and was great in this episode. However, she has never been better than she was in the final scene of this episode. The way she flipped the switch from begging Raylan to see Loretta (not Coover) one last time to coldly walking away was absolutely chilling.

So what’d you think of this episode? Am I the only one that kind of wishes that the show hadn’t definitively told us that Raylan and Carol didn’t sleep together? Finally, what do you think Boyd promised Arlo to get him to sign over the land?

Justified: Mad Mags

Poor Charlie. Not, not him.

I’m talking about Coover Bennett’s unseen pet, which was unceremoniously killed by Ava’s shotgun blast as she came to Boyd Crowder’s rescue.

Unfortunately for us — and for a despondent Coover — Charlie was killed before we got a chance to see what kind of animal the two nastiest Bennett Bros. were using to threaten people working with Black Pike (like Boyd) or considering signing an agreement that would allow the company to mine in Harlan County (like Reggie, Harlan County’s black guy). The actual answer is here. I would’ve guessed a raccoon.

I thought “The Spoil” was a return to form for “Justified” after the previous two episodes, which focused heavily on the contrived Winona/money bag drama. It was a return to form because it was a return to the season’s main villains: the Bennetts.

Of course, as Raylan amusingly pointed out, between the Bennetts, the greedy/shady mining company and Boyd (who, despite his sturdy righteousness, could strike back at any moment), Harlan County isn’t short on bad guys. Raylan’s job is just to clean up the bodies in the aftermath.

Then again, Raylan may not be in a position to cleanup for anybody else, since he’s dealing with his own mess…and he’s kind of a mess himself. Although, I still stand by my opinion that the some of the drama in the previous two episodes was annoyingly artificial, it served its purpose of putting our main character in a fascinating place.

Early on we got a fantastic scene in a batting cage — that poor teen was just trying to do his job — where Art gave Raylan his assignment for the week: protecting Black Pike bigwig Carol Johnson while she was in Harlan for a town hall meeting. Obviously, the scene was dripping in subtext — and played beautifully by Nick Searcy and Timothy Olyphant — since we knew that Art had busted Raylan and Winona scurrying out of the evidence locker toward the end of the missing money drama. Apparently, the subtext wasn’t lost on Raylan either, since he went back to his hotel and informed Winona that Art knew.

At the end of last week, Raylan seemed utterly disgusted and angry at the predicament he was in, and those feelings seemed to spill over onto this week because he appeared to be hungover for most of the episode. As we learned from last season’s “Hatless”, a drunk/hungover Raylan is a Raylan that will get into (and lose) a fight. This time, it was Coover giving him a vicious beating until Mags (hilariously) tapped him on the head with a shovel to stop. I’m sure a lot of people are shocked that nothing happened to Coover as a result of assaulting a federal marshal, but I figure Raylan’s going to want to handle that one on his own down the line.

With Raylan at his most vulnerable, it was probably more difficult than usual for him to resist the comically-forward advances from Carol, who tempted our hero while in various states of (basic cable) undress. But even Carol’s mild sluttiness was given proper context, as we learned that she was an English major in school who wound up in the mining business because of family. She strikes me as a generally unhappy, severe person who occasionally throws herself at an attractive guy out of boredom.

We also got the story on the Givens/Bennett family feud, which started in the moonshining days and reached its peak during the modern age during a baseball game in which Dickie beaned Raylan with a fastball and Raylan broke his leg with a bat. (And that explains the limp.)

There was a little more Givens family drama as Helen offered to give Raylan the rest of the marshals money that Arlo had stolen if Raylan promised to stay out of Harlan and leave the Bennett alone. Obviously, there’s always the chance that Arlo might have something cooking on the side with the Bennetts (though unlikely because of the family history), but I’m choosing to see this as Helen’s way of showing concern for Raylan and trying to keep him safe. Still, that’s a pretty big gesture.

After an explosive town hall meeting (relax, they were just firecrackers) which was, in effect, “won” by Mags’ powerful and charismatic speech — Margo Martindale (pictured, left) killed it — Raylan accompanied Carol to Arlo and Helen’s house as she tried to get their signature on Black Pike’s behalf.

At that point, the sniper from last week’s episode returned, leading to the episode’s climactic action scene. Though Arlo was shot in the leg — there IS a little hero in the old bastard after all, as he jumped to protect Carol — the tenses moment came when the sniper was about to shoot Helen. Fortunately, Raylan neutralized (but didn’t shoot) the sniper, who turned out to be Kirby Jr’s sister. (Kirby Jr. himself was apprehended off-screen outside of Judge Reardon’s home, so that seems to be the end of that…unless their mom re-surfaces.)

Overall, I thought this was a strong episode, and next week’s looks even better.

So what’d you think of this episode? Who DID set off those firecrackers? (Do we believe Carol when we said it wasn’t her…I don’t.) I know that this is a TV show, but if the Bennetts are such a notorious crime family, how come we didn’t hear about them at all last season? Finally, is there anything on TV right now that’s better than any scene between Raylan and Boyd?

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?

Justified: Art-istic Pursuits

I can accept that coincidences happen in real life.

And I can certainly accept that coincidences happen in movies and TV shows. I can even live with the fact that things often happen in works of fiction for the sole purpose of advancing the plot or creating conflict.

I guess I expected a little more from “Justified.” The latest episode — “Blaze of Glory” — was WAY too contrived for my taste.

I mean, it wasn’t bad enough that our scumbags of the week robbed a bank, shot a guard in the leg and kicked a woman in the face…that woman had to be Winona. It wasn’t bad enough that Winona was violently attacked and molested during the robbery (which you figure would give Raylan more than enough motivation to track these guys down)…but Winona lost a $100 bill that she had swiped from the evidence cage.

Winona was at the bank with that $100 bill because…well, we’re not exactly sure what the hell she was thinking. We know that she told Raylan that she wanted to find out whether or not it was real. It’s hard to believe that she was doing this in any sort of official capacity because it doesn’t really seem like something in a court reporter’s job description.

We DO know that she was frazzled from an earlier conversation with Gary in which he revealed that he’d taken out a second mortgage on their home to buy a horse and (in a shocking turn of events) that deal had gone south. So, more than likely Winona — in a desperate moment — swiped some cash to test if she could get away with taking money from the evidence cage. Of course, her conscience got the better of her, and she began walking away when the bank robbery broke out.

My main problem is that I thought the bank robbery plotline was interesting enough in its own right. I liked the bit of misdirection of having the creep take center stage during the rivalry, leaving the old guy with the oxygen tank as a sort of afterthought. That old guy turned out to be a notorious bank robber named Frank who’d just served 30 years in prison, but was dying of emphysema. When his wife suggested that maybe Frank was being forced to take part in the heist by his younger accomplices, I thought she might have a point since we’d just seen a reluctant Boyd get strong-armed into a heist. I liked that the episode subtly used knowledge of a prior episode to potentially influence our expectations.

I should’ve known better. Frank wasn’t on the 10 Most Wanted List for nothing. His plan was to allow his two other accomplices to hit another bank while Frank tipped off the police and escaped in a plane to Puerto Vallarta. The only problem I saw was when Frank seemingly faked a heart attack while he was pointing his gun at the hothead. I’m guessing the idea was that they would leave him there to die, but how could he be sure that the hothead wouldn’t put a bullet in him. I guess he was counting on “the smart one” to save him.

It’s small gaps in logic like that which made this the weakest episode of a great season of “Justified” so far. I’m also not a fan of the fact that Winona (so strong, sassy and an equal match for Raylan in season 1) is becoming more like season 1 Ava: a vehicle for the writers to create conflict for Raylan.

Don’t get me wrong: there WERE things I liked in this episode. Speaking of Ava, I liked the tense interrogation scenes as the authorities grilled Boyd and Ava over last week’s heist. Those two presented an impressively united front just as Raylan and Winona’s relationship is starting to get more fractious. (It seems like they both want to have a kid, but Winona wants him to stop being a marshal so the kid doesn’t have to worry about daddy coming home every night.)

I also liked that Raylan once again found a way to neutralize a bad guy without firing his weapon. (Although I DO kind of miss him shooting people.)

My favorite part of this episode was the fact that it was Nick Searcy’s best work to date. I’ve praised “Justified” this year for giving Raylan’s fellow marshals more to do, but I’ve glossed over the fact that Art usually has little more to do than banter with Raylan and bust his chops. (Which he does very well.) I enjoyed the detail that Raylan doesn’t really consider him a marshal — he didn’t include Art in his head count of available marshals — and I loved that Searcy got extended screen time and that Art was the one who got the man. Also, that “foot chase” between Art and Frank was hilariously pathetic. It was like the foot chase at the beginning of “Casino Royale”…only the exact opposite.

So what’d you think of this episode? What is that IT guy? An asshole? (No.) Can you tell the difference between a road flare and a stick of dynamite? Finally, where was Raylan’s hat this episode?

Justified: Don't Tase Me Bro!

I’m a major multi-tasker.

I shave while I shower. I talk on the phone while I cook. (Note: I do NOT text and drive. Ever.)

I fold laundry while I watch “Justified”…well, not anymore after last night.

Because I was so distracted with folding my towels and underwear, I missed two of the best moments in last night’s episode. Actually, I’m not entirely sure I would’ve caught them even if the show had my undivided attention.

You had to have been paying really close attention to see Boyd use his cell phone to dial his own (well, Ava’s) house number so that he’d have an excuse to go in the other room and spy on his armored car heist cohorts. In fact, watching Walton Goggins’ face in this scene was practically a master class in understated acting. (You can understand why the other guys found his calm so infuriating.) If you watched closely enough, you could probably catch the moment where he decided he wasn’t going to go through with the job. (I’m guessing it was around the time he found out he’d have to kill security guard Shelby.)

The fake phone conversation allowed Boyd to hear that his accomplices intended to kill him and make off with the money. Fortunately for Boyd, he’s a criminal mastermind so he was able to devise a plan that would allow both he and Shelby to survive. I thought it was a little contrived that the writers made the success of the plan mostly contingent on Ava trusting him, but in the end it worked. Boyd found an ingenious way of making the morons blow themselves up by switching out the bag with the explosives during the tense heist.

And just in case you hadn’t gotten the whole Ava-trusting-Boyd point, their storyline ended with police sirens blaring toward them and Ava having to decide whether she was going to turn him in or not. I like to think that even if Boyd hadn’t handed her the $20,000 she needed to keep her house — which he snagged from the heist — that Ava wouldn’t have ratted him out because Boyd really does seem to be trying to do the right thing.

But she probably would have.

The other scene that I should’ve been paying closer attention to was when Raylan paid a visit to a gentleman he suspected of helping the Bennett boys cash deadman Walt McCready’s checks. In this instance (unlike the scene with Boyd) I probably could’ve seen him reaching for the taser — or whatever weapon was on him — but it was still a jolt (get it?!) to see Raylan get taken by surprise like that. Fortunately, Raylan was able to get a shot off on the guy’s foot, which allowed him to turn the taser on the guy’s nuts. The button on this tense, darkly-hilarious scene was watching both guys crumple to the ground in agony.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed that Raylan let someone who he believed to be a criminal get close enough to tase him. Then again, it once proves once again that, as awesome as he is, Raylan isn’t infallible. Even The Hillbilly Whisperer gets temporarily bested by one of his people every once in while.

Raylan was snooping around the missing Walt McCready’s cashed checks because he knows that the Bennetts are looking out for his daughter — young Loretta is literally minding the store for Mags — and he suspects that the Bennetts had something to do with Walt’s disappearance. (Of course, we know that Mags poisoned him, and her boys dumped the body.)

Thanks to sudden snitch Dewey Crowe (who just wants to get to a halfway house) Raylan knows that the Bennetts are planning something big. Meanwhile, Mags found out about two of her sons’ secret, dirty dealings for the second time. First it was the hijacking of the Oxy bus, now the cashing of Walt’s checks.

Both crimes caught Raylan’s attention — Raylan knows the Bennetts are cashing Walt McCready’s checks, and he’s pretty sure they killed him…he just can’t prove it — which SEVERELY upset Mama Bennett because it’s putting these big plans in serious jeopardy.

That final scene with Mags smashing Coover’s fingers with a hammer was absolutely brutal, and it goes to show you exactly why these bad boys are scared of their mom. She’s not a monster though…she took out his non-gun hand.

So what’d you think of this episode? Will Arlo pay back the $20,000 by the end of the season? (I hope he does it little by little so that we continue to see the great Raymond Barry every once in a while.) Finally, is Boyd destined to go back to a life of crime?

Justified: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother(-in-Law)

Never try to keep a man from his estranged son’s birthday party.

That’s the lesson we learned on the latest episode of “Justified”, and it’s especially true if that man is a desperate killer trying to put his life back together in a halfway house.

When we first met Clinton, he was trying to get himself (if not the bathroom) clean and spiffy so that he’d be granted his day-pass to see visit his son on his 12th birthday. Unfortunately, the director of the halfway house was a hardass stickler who took Clinton’s day pass away, leading an irate Clinton to beat him savagely and escape.

Now I liked Clinton, and I felt bad for him. At first it was because he was played by Larenz Tate (an incredibly likable actor most recently seen on “Rescue Me”). On top of that, the halfway house director WAS being pretty harsh. Even though it became increasingly difficult to sympathize with Clinton as he left more gunshot victims in his wake — including drug dealer/aspiring magician Flex — I still didn’t get the sense that this was a sick, criminal mastermind. (Or an “eight heads in a dufflebag” kind of guy, as Raylan might put it.)

This was confirmed when we found out that he was Rachel’s brother-in-law and responsible for the death of Rachel’s sister. That revelation accomplished two things: 1.) It allowed us to get to know, arguably, the most underused member of this ensemble a little better. (Even Art called Rachel, pictured, right, his best marshal.) 2.) By letting us know that Clinton had gotten into a car accident while he was high, killing Rachel’s sister, it confirmed that he wasn’t necessarily evil…he’s just one of those unfortunate souls who seem to live under a gray cloud their entire lives. I mean, even Rachel’s mom felt bad for the guy…after he’d tied her up in her own house!

The climactic scene at the pizza place where all of Clinton’s victims converged veered a bit too far into the ridiculous for my taste. (The only thing missing was Rachel’s mom showing up.) I thought the dark comedy in a later scene with all the suddenly gun-happy marshals was much more effective. (Tim was jealous that Raylan got to shoot his own dad, and the humor was designed to help Rachel cope with shooting Flex.)

“For Blood or Money” was both jam-packed and a breezy hour.

The temptation of Boyd Crowder seems to be complete, since he now appears to have been roped into an armored car job. It’s terrible timing for him because it seemed like lonely Ava was beginning to warm up to him in more ways than one, but I can’t really blame Boyd. He desperately wanted to stay clean, but the pitch for the armored car job — capped off with him looking like a hero — really did seem like it was too good to be true…which it probably is.

We also got some idea as to how Gary plans to win back Winona: he’s going the martyr route. He summoned her to his office and asked for a divorce. That meant he’d take the house and all the debt that comes along with it. Winona, who is already confused about which of her husbands she wants to be with, was especially susceptible to Gary’s mind games. Raylan saw right through them. Unfortunately, Raylan appears to be getting so wrapped up in his competition with Gary (and vice versa), that he’s pushing Winona’s interests in the back burner.

Finally, I suspected that we hadn’t heard the last of the oxy bus after last week. This show has a penchant for keeping certain plot threads unresolved and read to wreak havoc for Raylan and Co. In fact, Raylan used one of those plot threads — the guys who were threatening Gary last season — to send a message to the oxy bus hijacking victims (aka the Dixie Mafia): don’t look for revenge and stay out of Harlan.

Of course, we all know there’s a zero percent chance that’ll happen, and I’m guessing the Dixie Mafia will clash with the Bennetts toward the end of this season. (Maybe the Miami cartel will also put in an appearance for old times sake.)

The episode opened with a terrific scene that once again brought Raylan face to face with Mags Bennett and her boys. Timothy Olyphant’s effortless cool and authority was on full display, and Margo Martindale matched him every step of the way as Mags’ gentility believably melted away to defensiveness and rage (the rage coming when Raylan was gone).

More importantly, I’m officially paranoid every time she offers anyone something to drink or eat.

So what’d you think of this episode? Do you think Dickie and Coover will try to take Raylan out anyway? (They are in dire need of reading comprehension skills.) Which guy do you think Winona will choose? Finally, will Boyd go through with the armored car job or will he drop out/have a change of heart?

Justified: Bus Boy

Can a guy just have a quiet drink by himself?

That’s what Boyd Crowder was undoubtedly asking himself throughout last night’s episode. After a bus full of criminals and drugs — mostly Oxycodone — was hijacked by another couple of crooks, Boyd was everyone’s #1 suspect. (The bus hijacking only featured a straight-up, brutal murder. The colorful capers we’ve seen from Boyd tend to involve an explosion, so this heist was actually low key by comparison.)

Whether it was the hapless Dewey Crowe stopping by to ask Boyd about the hijacking — Dewey was part of the original group of crooks who got hijacked — or whether it was Raylan sniffing around Ava’s house so he could interrogate Boyd (and, it turns out, Ava), Walton Goggins’ reformed(?) bad man was front and center last night.

And I haven’t even mentioned the president of the Boyd Crowder Fan Club, who hounded his idol so much that he ended up going for a very unpleasant, hot-footed ride at the end of the episode.

Did I see a smile creep across Boyd’s face at the end of the episode? Was it regret? I can’t tell, and that’s the great thing about Goggins’ performance last night. I can’t exactly tell how he felt about finally getting back in touch with his inner badass.

The rest of the time, Goggins’ work was impressive in its blank-faced economy. Last season, when no one believed that Boyd was reformed, it turned out that he kind of was. Based on that, I should’ve believed him when he said that he had nothing to do with the bus hijacking, and I mostly did. However, there was a small nagging part of me that wouldn’t have been surprised if Boyd HAD orchestrateD the whole thing. That’s due, in no small part, to the edge Goggins brings to this role, even when he’s being good or he’s not saying very much.

This week, we learned a lot more about why he’s living at Ava’s place. He’s helping her out financially (and doing an honest night’s work), while she provides him a place to stay (as long as he doesn’t look at her funny). They’re both the only kin the other person has left, so it’s mutually beneficial in a really depressing way.

Despite what he may say, Raylan was being at least a little arrogant when he insisted that Ava was only shacking up with Boyd to get back at him. When Ava asked him to go inside the house to talk about it, I actually thought for more than a moment that Raylan was going to cave in, especially after his less than delightful dinner with the still-married Winona at the start of the episode. Even though Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan is a thoroughly decent guy, I can see him slipping up and hooking up with Ava again.

What I could never see is him slapping on his signature hat, and ripping off a couple of hijackers. Yet this is exactly what Dewey Crowe’s brilliant plan came down to when he dressed up as Raylan, stole back the drugs from the hijackers, and made sure those two guys knew that it was “Raylan Givens” who had ripped him off.

The episode’s funniest scene was probably the one that came immediately after that with Doyle Bennett clumsily feeling out the real Raylan — who he believed to be a criminal — as a potential future partner-in-crime. We know that Raylan knows that the Bennett family isn’t to be trusted, but it was fun to see him be totally put off by Doyle’s overtures and making the guy squirm. (Raylan was so annoyed, in fact, that he was actually kind of rude to the female criminal informant who cleared his name by repeatedly closing that car door in her face.)

Of course, the hijackers didn’t know that the real Raylan Givens would never steal drugs, so they came looking for him and they found him with faux Raylan Givens (aka Dewey), who was using his Oxy money to enjoy the company of some lady friends. As far as the shootouts on this show go, this one ranks pretty low.

Doyle is partly to blame for that because when he found out that the two hijackers were hired by Doyle’s brother Dickie, he shot them dead. (Can’t have them getting caught and blabbing to the police.) I was under the impression that Dickie was the criminal mastermind among the three brothers (and that may still be the case), but last night it was Doyle who gave his two brothers a stern talking to. Of course, when Doyle threatened to tell their mom and Dickie started wavering, we were reminded of who’s REALLY in charge.

So what’d you think of this episode? Is Marshal Tim more than “a little off”? (The way he was staring at Raylan and Winona on their date was at least a little creepy.)Will Winona divorce Gary? Have we heard the last of this Oxy bus business, or will it pop up again the way the Miami cartel storyline occasionally reared its head last season? Finally, has Boyd gone back to the dark side?

Justified: Pregnant Pause

Damn you, plot summary on my cable system.

Here was the description I read as I sat down to watch last night’s episode of “Justified”: “Raylan chases a pregnant fugitive who has fallen into the hands of human trafficke” (That’s not a typo…it cut off the last word.

So as I watched Raylan and fellow marshal Tim Gutterson escort Jamie (guest star Sarah Jones, looking like Emilie de Ravin on “Lost”), their latest charge, to the gynecologist’s office, I knew she would somehow escape. That being said, the waiting room breakout was wonderfully tense, and it showed our hero once again using both his charm and smarts (getting Jess’ print on the handcuff), even as he let his fugitive momentarily get away.

It also meant that the twist involving the helpful former EMT and his more deranged friend intending to sell the Jamie’s baby (white babies mean prime coin) was also slightly spoiled. Thanks for nothing, cable plot summary! (Although there IS a small chance that it’s my own fault for reading the description in the first place.)

Fortunately, the episode’s prisoner of the week plot still delivered plenty of satisfying twist and turns. It turned out that the prisoner had actually been busted out by the prison guard who knocked Jamie up and had hired a couple of guys to kill her. (The men would make some extra coin by selling her baby on the black market.) The guard was actually pretty convincing in his steadfast denial, until Tim revealed that they knew about the many phone calls between he and Jess. (That sound was the prison guard’s wife’s heart breaking…ooh, “Prison Guard’s Wife” sounds like a country song.)

More importantly, the plot allowed Raylan to interact with a colleague at the marshal’s office (that isn’t Art) for the second week in a row. Last week, it was Rachel Brooks, this week it was Jacob Pitts’ Tim Gutterson. And it turns out that Pitts/Gutterson is kind of a badass. I’ll never look at an apricot the same way again.

The rest of the episode did a nice job of advancing and deepening plot threads introduced in the season premiere.

In a quick scene between Raylan, his bastard of a father Arlo, and Raylan’s “Aunt”, it was quickly confirmed that the Bennetts (led by Mags) are likely to step in and fill the crime family void in Harlan. It was also established that they have a bit of a history with the Givens’ men. (But who doesn’t.)

Speaking of which, I just can’t believe Boyd when he says that he’s absolutely stopped going after the Miami cartel after they deprived him of his right to kill his own daddy. I realize that when Boyd claimed he was a righteous man last season, he was telling the truth (in his own twisted way), but I just can’t believe he’d pass up a chance to kill the person who killed his dad. Then again, maybe his tender scene with Ava(?!) in the end suggests he really IS a changed man.

Finally, there’s Winona who gently applied pressure on Raylan to make a commitment to Harlan (and to her) early on for reasons that became clear in the episode’s last scene. That last scene was fantastic in so many ways, chief among them the way Winona encouraged Raylan to open up about his horrific day and her refusal to let her shut him out. (Which, it doesn’t take a genius to guess, is what led to their marriage failing.)

Also, the switch earlier from having Winona wearing Raylan’s shirt to him wearing it in the elevator in the very next shot was sly and sexy.

So what’d you think of this episode? Does Gary have absolutely any chance of getting back with Winona? Have you ever spoiled a TV show for yourself by reading the plot description beforehand? Finally, Winona is pregnant, right?