Episode 5-05
"Shot to Hell"
Directed by Theo Tonin himself
- Is Art listening to Rush Limbaugh? That's disappointing. Let's pretend he's listening to the unintentional hilarity of it all as he sits for hours on a stakeout.
- Taking a page from Raylan, which he even pointed to later, Art stares down Steve the Pirate in a showdown at the diner.
- Glad that Steve the Pirate, aka the pilot from Firefly, got work after being bumped off Suburgatory
- Picker is indeed the link between Tonin/Augustine and Raylan
- I figured Daryl was communicating to Boyd via subtext, I didn't actually think he didn't know who Boyd was, or would allow Boyd to get the drop on him. So Daryl's competencies go down a bit from where I'm standing
- Classic Justified-type scenes
- Super violent "Suicide"
- Near shootout in a diner
- Shootout in a warehouse
- Body count -3
- Boyd suicides Paxton
- Art & Raylan take out Washburne from Firefly in a warehouse shootout
- Danny sucker shoots the Haitian. Definitely stemming from some inferiority/jealous feelings of the Haitian's status in the pecking order
There's a three relationships between three people that may dictate how the rest of this season/series plays out, so I thought I'd scribble down some thoughts on where I see them standing
Art-Raylan
Art and Raylan knew each other previously from firearms training at Glencoe. Art knows he's getting a good marshal, but with a lot of baggage, and he does with it what he can. Knowing Raylan's penchant for shooting people, he often makes light of it. Probably because each of the shootings are justified (except for the one that put him back in Kentucky, and even that one gets justified on paper).
Art may be frustrated or disappointed with Raylan, probably both. Going back to Season Three when Raylan tried to replace the counterfeit bills for Winona, Art always knew something was up. He, and the other marshals, are aware of Raylan's side business at the start of Season Four, but don't care enough to do anything about it. So far, there's been enough smoke since then for Art to always have a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind, but no fire in that he still defends Raylan when Lexington Homicide or the FBI come knocking. While he's intrigued at what he's hearing about Raylan-Augustine/Tonin, he's not telling anyone what he's doing or looking for.
Art gets that marshal services, and being a lawman, is not a by the numbers things. He didn't hesitate to take a phone book to a suspect's face in order to get some information. He also commented to his fellow marshal that Raylan is some sort of karmic punishment for Art's early days, so we know he probably gave his own chief deputy some grief back then, which is why his tolerance for Raylan is higher than it probably should be.
Vasquez-Art
Art and Vasquez are professionals. They get along well enough but don't share friendship bracelets. Vasquez has no problem working with Art on something like Messer being a CI. They both know how frustrating Raylan is, but their defaults on that issue are slightly far apart. Art defaults to letting Raylan be Raylan and Vasquez defaults to being super annoyed by Raylan. While Vasquez isn't going out of his way any more to put paper on Raylan, he would not hesitate to do so if something fell into his lap.
Raylan-Vasquez
Vasquez has the characteristics of a modern age television lawyer/prosecutor, in that he is realistic about the cases he takes and he is career oriented. Both of which point him toward often taking the path of least resistance. He has no problem getting in Raylan's face early in the series while investigating him for the poolside shooting, both because he doesn't like Raylan and to make a mark on his own career. It lays the foundation for an general uneasiness between them, as well as simply not getting along.
Recently Vasquez, admitted he probably should have told Raylan about Messer being a CI. He also called Raylan a dick. That pretty much sums up their relationship.
Raylan is not corrupt, but he's
not completely above board either. The thing about where Raylan walks
that gray line is that he doesn't do anything for the purpose of lining
his own pockets* or advancing his own interests. Corners cut are in the
interest of what he believes to be upholding the law (being lawman) and
putting himself in the mix of illegal activities are to protect the
people he cares about.
That all said, I could see Raylan putting himself and Art in a position where Raylan has to walk away from the Marshal Service at series end, not unlike Detective Jimmy McNulty.
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