Originally aired Tuesday January 14, 2014 at 10 p.m.
Written by Dave Andron, who wrote last season's great "Get Drew"
Directed by Bill Johnson, who directed last season's finale "Ghosts"
As suspected, next season will be Justified's last. Early on in Season Four, a colleague from another field office stopped by to see Art under the guise of visiting his old friend. He brought him a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle, which is like the Johnny Walker Blue of Kentucky bourbons, and was designed to ingratiate him to Art to think of him for the soon to be open marshal spot in Eastern Kentucky. It was a small plant in Season Four in the interest of their likely conclusion at the end of Season Six. The U.S. Marshals Service has a mandatory retirement age of 57 and Art is creeping up on that soon. He waxed about candidates to take over (Rachel, Tim, Raylan) and their various shortcomings. With Raylan's kid on the way and newfound ambition to close the Drew Thompson case, he was looking to move up. The success of the case was no doubt tempered by his 30 day suspension. With just under two seasons to go, I wonder if we'll see more and more about the possible promotion for Raylan and how he can go about screwing it up.
Almost immediately in this episode, the Raylan's vulnerable spots are prodded at. Not so much the small issue of Raylan borrowing the seized Audi (and his moving into the seized house) but Art's curiosity at Sammy Tonin's attempt to contact Raylan immediately before his demise. Art chalks the delay in relaying this information to Raylan's as due to his need to verify the source, but I think there's more there.
Raylan's able to brush off the unanswerable question as to what Sammy wanted with the entirely plausible explanation of him wanting to cut a deal. Art's not satisfied though and contacts his marshal buddy in Detroit to get some more information.
Having been under fire and investigation for the following, throughout the series:
- By the media for shooting Tommy Bucks in a restaurant
- the FBI who thought him dirty
- The court system for his relationship with Eva despite their involvement in Boyd's shooting
- U.S. Attorney Vasquez for his various shootings
- Lexington Homicide for being set up for Gary's murder
- The court system again in conjunction with various abuses incurred by Dewey Crowe
- Internal Affairs, always for everything. As Art said, they have him on speed dial.
Tons and tons of characters
The old: Not the parade of old faces we saw last week, but we still get Vasquez again. H.R. (short for Hot Rod) the Tennessee weed dealer is back. I mostly remember the actor, Mickey Jones, from being one of Tim's friends on Home Improvement, but he's been in approximately everything exactly once each for the last thirty years. Candy, Johnny's favorite whore from Audrey's, is looking to score some oxy. When you think about it, she's impovershed and drug addicted so she works as a prostitute for a whorehouse Boyd once owned. She spends her little money on buying drugs which ulitmatley come from Boyd's operation.
Most significantly returning is Loretta, one of the great Season Two stars, who we saw bookending Season Three in yet another example of using a character in a perfectly precise manner, rather than forcing it. Messer and Dewey are back again, as is a coma-tized Paxter (not dead! But may end up being a turnip).
Speaking of comas, Tasty Coma Wife (TCW) appears as Raylan's blonde of the moment. For the first time in possibly television history, a character who said "I'm not going to bone you" actually followed through on the promise, rather than smash cut to the couple doing just that.
The two random thugs of the week are Avon Barksdale and his familiar-but-not-on-IMDB friend. Less stupid than hilarious, they actually seem semi-competent and are more out muscled than outsmarted by Raylan. All the same, they don't seem too upset at him personally and are glad to shoot the shit with him while they wait for HR (handcuffed to each other), despite Raylan's threats to put them in the trunk.
Xander Berkley is the target of an asset forfeiture. There's not many things better than a rich guy losing all his stuff, and not many things public servants would enjoy more than being the ones to take it from him (and joy ride in). To make him completely unsympathetic, this guy is obviously a racist under the guise of being a Civil War enthusiast (guess which side?). He employs both a maid and a bangmaid. They will likely lose their jobs, but probably for the best in the case of the bangmaid. I could see this guy popping up again, as he's going into the clink for laundering Detroit money. Also, it's Xander Berkley.
Round up
- It's not a cops and criminals show, it's a show about lawmen and outlaws (i.e. Raylan & Boyd).
- On the Walter White scale of hero to villain progression, Raylan is a good guy who occasionally does bad things but for good reasons and in the true best interests of others he cares about
- Raylan & Boyd are entirely separate, let's guess episode six for when their paths cross
- Raylan's hillbilly whisperer ability is on display with HR and his thugs.
- Similar showdown scene to "Long in the Tooth" but Rayland doesn't have to shoot any body. Probably because HR is a rational actor, a rarity.
- Lots of shots of Raylan holstering a weapon this season
- Possibly the first time an electronic cigarette has been featured in a television show?
- One of those things that will mark the times of the day down the line when rewatching this show
- Tim and Rachel are present for the seizure, which is nice. They could easily carry their own show or shows. I do not understand the indignation though that follows episodes they are not featured in, or the inevitable minimal involvement they'll have in the season overall. Justified's writers are nothing if not prudent and have never shown a desire to shoehorn anything in that doesn't fit the story.
- This is a good example of how Justified can have a tiny tidbit toward (what I think is) the overall story, but also have a largely self contained, nearly standalone, episode. It does this better than anyone.
- After an episode that introduced a lot of new characters and stories, while being light on Raylan, we're back in Kentucky mostly following Raylan around in his quests
- Anytime Raylan tells a story about his childhood is a good time.
- Raylan's rarely funnier than when he's giving his blase reactions to people who are angry at him
- Darryl's in town and as we've learned, the holler ain't big enough for Boyd and other folk
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