There are two reasons that I’ve decided to do recaps for “Justified”:1.) If I continue ONLY writing about “America’s Next Top Desperate Idol”, my head is going to explode. (But not before I break into a song about it.)
2.) “Justified” is one of the best shows on TV right now.
Obviously, there are plenty of other quality TV shows out there I enjoy immensely that I’m not recapping for one (lame) reason or another. Some of these reasons include, “I’m too poor to afford Showtime” (Sorry, “Dexter.”), “I’m not smart enough to recap ‘Mad Men’” (I actually just like to have a day or two to digest each episode) or “I’m too lazy to consistently watch ‘Parenthood’ live.” (I had a career-best streak of watching three consecutive “P-hood” episodes live snapped this week. Another reason is that I’d potentially start calling the show “P-hood”, and no one wants that.)
“Justified” is different. Though there are serialized elements to the show — the Miami cartel’s continued annoyance with Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, season 1’s Crowder family saga, season 2’s impending Bennett family saga — each episode works extremely well as its own, Scumbag of the Week episodic drama.
Last night’s season 2 premiere, “The Moonshine War”, was pretty much a perfect combination of all those elements. Actually, I was instantly hooked when I saw that the episode started by replaying the final moments from season 1 finale “Bulletville,” which is simply one of the best season finales I’ve ever seen.
Before properly jumping into season 2, the first 15 or so minutes of the episode were dedicated to wrapping up the business with the Miami cartel and Boyd Crowder — or at least putting them on the backburner for now.
As he promised, Boyd (the great Walton Goggins) went after Pilar because he wanted to be the one to kill the person responsible for keeping him from killing his own father. (Raylan helpfully informed him that her partner Ernesto had actually shot daddy Bo, but now we’re “splitting hairs.”) Boyd was about to execute Pilar much to Raylan’s chagrin when a quick shootout ensued, leaving Boyd and Pilar wounded.
Boyd was driven to a hospital from which he escaped to cause trouble at a later date. Goggins and Timothy Olyphant have the best chemistry out of anyone on this show, so I enjoyed their quick scene in this episode, and I look forward to Boyd popping up down the line. Meanwhile, Raylan turned up on the doorstep of Miami crime boss Gio Reyes with a dying Pilar and offered him a truce.
Or he could just shoot Gio in the head.
At that moment, Raylan’s old boss Dan Grant showed up and told Gio that if he didn’t leave Raylan alone, then Dan would kill Gio himself. Let’s not forget this is the same guy who shipped Raylan back to Kentucky in the first place. Now, it seems Raylan’s current boss Art is trying to ship him back out of town and back to Dan’s office. (Olyphant showed just the right amount of bemusement.)
So now it looks like the Miami business is settled, but I won’t be shocked if Gio rears is greasy head at some inconvenient time down the line.
It seems like Raylan is going to have his hands full with the Bennett crime family, which is comprised of oldest son Doyle, who appears to be some sort of law enforcement officer, Dickey, who has a prominent limp that I’m pretty sure we’ll hear more about down the line, and Coover, the dumbest, biggest, most outwardly psychopathic of the lot. (Throwing dead rats at someone’s car is RUDE!)
I say “outwardly” psychopathic because the head of the family is mamma Mags (Margo Martindale), who may turn out to be the most dangerous of all. Her three sons (except maybe Doyle) are obvious creeps that’ll shoot you and put your foot in a bear trap. Mags, on the other hand, can pull off being maternal and sweet, but she’ll also poison you with apple-flavored moonshine and hold your hand as you die.
The episode smartly gave us a scumbag of the week (fugitive sex offender Jimmy Earl Dean) that nicely dovetailed into an introduction to the Bennetts. (Jimmy Earl Dean worked for them.)
It took me a while to get used to the rhythm of “Justified.” Timothy Olyphant is absolutely wonderful in this show, and he’s CLEARLY the main character. He’s a good, decent guy, who does good things. Yes, he shoots lots of people, but so far they’ve all been bad. He’s not Dexter, he’s not House, he’s not Don Draper (bad guys or jerks who struggle to do the right thing). Basically, there isn’t as much to Raylan Given as there is to other primetime protagonists.
The good news is that this often creates an excellent showcase for each episode’s guest star/scumbag du jour. The show isn’t actually hurt all that much when Raylan isn’t on screen for a long stretch of time. (It took me a while to get used to that.) That also leads to fantastically tense scenes like the one between Jimmy Earl Dean (his charm gave you a sense as to how he could be good at being a sex offender) and Loretta (a very impressive Kaitlyn Dever).
Raylan and Marshal Rachel Brooks spent the episode trying to find Jimmy Earl Dean and tangling with the Bennett family before catching up with him (and a kidnapped Loretta) at a gas station for a terrific, bullet-free confrontation. (LOVED that Raylan turned out to be BSing the guy.) I was also encouraged to see Raylan working with Marshal Brooks because if there’s one complaint I had about season 1 is that the rest of the marshals weren’t developed very well. (Or at all.)
So what’d you think of this episode? Can you think of someone with three first names that you can actually trust? Do you want to see Raylan with Ava or Winona? (I think Olyphant’s chemistry with Winona/Natalie Zea is off the charts.) Finally, will you ever call a tip line after watching this episode?
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