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?