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Justified: Starvation

Boyd: "Raylan Givens, I'm extending my hand to you. Why are you baring your teeth?"

Can this substandard season be saved by an episodefull of Raylan/Boyd bitter-banter, plus a bit of great comic relief from Dewey Crowe? Possibly. Depends on whether or not the finale hits the target, I suppose.

I think I've just internalized how much of this season was about the trials and tribulations of our favorite outlaw couple, Boyd and Ava. Boyd has been struggling all season to set up a criminal empire, and has apparently decided that maybe he'd rather live instead. Now he's going to let the marshals and the Mexicans fight it out without him.

Clever Boyd, or so I thought. I've grown to like Boyd's minions, and now it looks like snake-in-the-face Jimmy might die a horrible death. And that poor bartender. No job is worth what he's been going through.

There's Ava, too. Boyd didn't even try to negotiate for her release, and now that ship has sailed. Raylan's visits to Ava made me very uncomfortable. It wasn't that long ago that Raylan and Ava were a couple, after all. And now that Ava's ally Penny has been murdered and the evil Gretchen is out for revenge, I'm starting to think Ava might not make it to season six. It would make sense for the final season of Justified to be all about Raylan versus Boyd. Is that what they're setting up here? Will the catalyst for a final season of conflict be about Boyd losing Ava, and blaming Raylan for it?

Raylan played a huge, untake-backable card: he got Judge Reardon and AUSA Vasquez to agree to try Kendal as an adult. I have no doubt that it won't do anything to pressure Darryl, but Wendy is another matter. Much of my disappointment with this season has been my lack of interest in the Crowes. Darryl, who has been about as despicable as a man can be, had the utter gall to blame Wendy's parenting skills for Kendal's situation. Then he made it worse by sending Wendy to pick up the drugs. Geez, how bad can he get?

Possibly not as bad as Mr. Yoon and the Mexican cartel. Mr. Yoon prefers skin? Go get the machete? Really? They don't usually set up something like this without paying it off. I would deeply prefer that they don't pay it off, especially on poor snake-in-the-face Jimmy.

Surprising for an episode as dark as this one, but the comic relief pretty much made it all work for me. Wynn Duffy lost his beloved motor home, but at least he survived the Mexicans. And Dewey Crowe lost pretty much everything and is now heading to jail for murder and possession of a cheap car full of heroin. At least he's finally learning how to use a parking brake.

Bits:

-- Art is still alive. That makes me think he just might make it. Even if he does, I wonder if Nick Searcy will be in the final season?

-- Rachel and Tim looked shocked to hear what Boyd said about Raylan's involvement in the death of Nicky Augustine, but they still backed Raylan up. It'll be interesting to see where that one goes.

-- Dewey Crowe trying to rip off the nice grandma and having the nerve to expect her to cook for him was pretty funny. I was sure she'd come out with a gun, and she did.

Quotes:

Wynn: "I'm not one to niggle over management styles, but let's say you would have let me know you were coming, I would have preserved some proof for you. A head, say, or a set of teeth?"

Rachel: "Someone put metal in the science oven?"
Tim: "I finally saw that."
Rachel: "What'd you think?"
Tim: "Needs more Jason Statham."
Raylan: "What doesn't?"
I'll agree with that. Even though he doesn't make my kind of movie, I like Jason Statham. Maybe it's hormonal.

Raylan: "See, cases like this, we make Darryl's life and that of everyone around him a goddam calamity. We squeeze and we squeeze until one of his road dogs raises a paw and says, 'I'll help!'."

Dewey: "I give you a gift, the anus is on you to take care of it!"
Possibly the best Deweyism ever.

Dewey: "This it then, Raylan? No final words, put Dewey Crowe in his place?"
Raylan: "My advice? Stop talking about yourself in the third person. Makes you sound like a fool."
Dewey: "Third person? This guy?" (indicating the driver)

Judge Reardon: "Jesus Christ on a lunch box."

So what did you all think? This episode felt a bit more like Justified of old, so I'm holding out hope that the season finale will be terrific,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

6 comments:

  1. I liked the Boyd-Raylan dynamic this week, and was pretty bored with the Ava-in-prison stuff (even though her scenes with Raylan were good). But overall, like you, I'm kind of in a holding pattern with how I feel about everything right now. I'm reserving judgment until after the finale.

    I was surprisingly upset about Jimmy's situation. I know he's one of Boyd's henchmen, and has done terrible things, but seeing him with that tear running down his cheek as the cartel goons held their guns on him really bummed me out. Poor, Jimmy.

    And poor Caleb. Working for (or being in any way associated with) Boyd really doesn't seem to lead to happiness, comfort, or stability. Raylan is slightly ahead of him in that department. Hopefully Tim, Rachel, Winona, and Raylan's baby girl stay well, and Art gets better soon.

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  2. I'm surprised you found this episode subpar. I think this was one of the best episodes this season. All of the threads have been connected in this episode. And all we need to do now is see where all of the choices have brought us.

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  3. Like Freeman, I thought this was the best episode of the season. I loved all the interactions between people who have been apart for a long time (when is the last time Raylan and Ava talked?).

    The highlight for me, however, was watching dark Raylan -- again, without his hat. To see this usually placid guy so manipulative, so enraged, so willing to do anything to get what he wants is fascinating to me.

    That final scene was intense. I am really looking forward to next week.

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  4. I'd choose 'Shot All to Hell' (the one where Art gets Tonin) and 'Wrong Roads' (the one with DEA Agent Miller) as my favorite episodes of this season.

    I'm not saying this one was bad; it certainly had some great moments. I just feel like I'm waiting so much for the final shoe to drop next week that I can't yet assess how I feel about what spooled out this week.

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  5. I haven't loved this season of Justified. I don't enjoy the Crowes at all, and watching Raylan screw up his life even more has been disappointing. But I did really enjoy this episode, especially watching Boyd play what he thought was a trump card--and losing.

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  6. >>"And now that Ava's ally Penny has been murdered and the evil Gretchen is out for revenge, I'm starting to think Ava might not make it to season six."
    No fucking way. I'm gonna be pissed if all this prison nonsense taking up the show's precious screen time ends with Ava dying anyway. Poor Penny. What a horrible story-line, it does not belong in this show.

    Wendy's a loser. She talked a big game but she still bows down to DARRYL JR at the end of the day. I felt some evil satisfaction from what Raylan did at the end of the episode.

    And Jimmy... D: Though the bartender screaming out "Baby Jesus!" when he got almost-kneecapped made me laugh.

    Not missing Art as much as I thought I would. He hasn't been very fun lately anyway.

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