Good Intentions - Justified

Justifed Episode 5-03 "Good Intentions"

Written by Benjamin Cavell, has his name on a lot of Justified episodes, like last season's "Ghosts"

Directed by Dean Parisot, of the Season Three finale "Slaughterhouse".  He does comedy too and directed the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode "Shaq", which involves Larry David and a Lakers game.

Was wrong about Raylan and TCW, though interrupted by the car alarm, which was helped along by a guy on his was to the batting cages.  We've heard this song before where a meathead is not particularly please with Raylan in some way related to the blonde he is seeing at the moment.  About this time last season, the MMA guy was trying to put a hitch in his Gary Cooper walk.

The bang maid shows up to collect some gold coins at the house Raylan and Rachel are marshal-sitting.  Unfortunately, the bang maid has a pretty bad day overall.  After being caught by Rachel and Raylan, she's almost murdered like four times in various ways by Xander Berkely and it is funny in that dark sick Justified humor that calls to mind Breaking Bad and an ATM falling on someone's head.

 
Time to ratchet up the body count again.  

• Boyd's drug caravan.  We'll call it six guys for now. 

After a bloody first episode, Justified has continued the blood but hasn't gone all the way for a while.  Paxton is beaten half to death.  Then Wade Messer's head is stuffed in a dryer and Daryl is going to peer pressure Dewey into killing him.  Then you have Xander Berkely who may not actually be dead by the quick draw of Mike.  So lot's of people almost getting dead, but just not willing to commit.

When Xander Berkely is shot by Mike, Duffy explains he keeps Mike around because Mike is a stone killer, but I think we all thought it was his employee with benefits.  Turns out he has a quick draw and maybe a gunfighter who can go toe to toe with Raylan, whose been outdrawing folks since he and Wild Bill Hickock took down a ruffian in the early Deadwood days.

So, Dewey Crowe is a hilarious character and probably has the single best line of the entire series.  But you have to feel for the guy.  I don't think he actually has an evil bone in his body, despite allegiances to certain groups.  But he's just a simple minded guy who is easily co-opted and taken advantage of.  He'll fall into whatever group is filling a vaccum.  In another life, he may just as easily wind up with a cult.  With Boyd having taken advantage of him in the sale of Audrey's (of course he did) Dewey is forced to confront him about it as a proxy for Daryl.  Both Boyd and Daryl here are pumping Dewey up full of confidence to deal with his problems, while not exactly equipping him with the right tools and back up to do so.  Unfortunately, even though Dewey knows in his pea brain that nothing anyone is telling him is for his own good, or even a good idea, he still goes back and forth between the two guys, who I'm sure will inevitably clash by season's end, each trying to establish dominance in the holler.

As an aside though, as opportunistic as he is, Daryl is getting money for Dewey that Dewey would not otherwise have.  He is working on Boyd refunding $100k, and while he's taking half, that's $50k mroe that Dewey will have than he did a week ago.  Also, Daryl does seem to have some underworld business sense in that he sussed out Messer's skimming and gave him what for.  So while the pie is split more ways now, it's a bigger pie.  So...maybe it is in Dewey's interest after all to work with this guy?