Justified Season Five - Through Seven Episodes

Crowders

1. Boyd is frustrated with efforts to get Eva out of prison
2. Boyd’s supplier tries to double cross him so he heads to Detroit to confront them
3. Turns out the supplier (Sammy Tonin) operation is in disarray. Tonin is double crossed/murdered by Picker. Boyd gets picker to take him and Duffy to the Canadian wholesalers
4. Canadians offer one final shipment to Boyd. Picker to make introduction to new Mexican wholesaler for Boyd
5. Boyd visits Paxter for help with Evan, becomes enraged by him. Does the murder to him. Wife sees but they are like let’s exchange cash for a NDB here.
6. Sheriff Mooney tries to pin Paxton's beating on Boyd but Paxton's wife, Mara, purposefully does not identify Boyd as the culprit and tries to strike a deal with Boyd
7.  Still no progress on getting Ava out of prison, as the judge is not buyable or threatenable
8. Boyd quells a minor uprising by his dealers by offering free drinks and a timetable for fresh drugs, after Duffy's attempt to do so fails
9.  Sheriff Mooney tracks Mara down to threaten her into identifying Boyd
10. Boyd's shipment gets hijacked and all his people get dead. 
11. Boyd gets angry at Duffy, accusing him of stealing the shipment 
12. Paxton instructs Mooney to kill Boyd
13. Boyd and Ava have a falling out of sorts during his visit, where he's more concerned with what information Ava can provide him about the drug caravan robbery than about how they are going to get her out of prison .  She's mad he's not even giving her a "hey holding up okay?" and more or less blaming her (rightfully, but he doesn't need to say it) for the whole situation
14. Boyd and Mara get the drop on Mooney and get him to report to Paxton he killed Boyd
15. Which leads to an upset Boyd and Mara having tattoo touching time.  A reminder of Boyd's Aryan beliefs, which I'm sure he still holds but doesn't practice actively.
16. Boyd traces the hijacking to Johnny
17. Paxton apparently goes for the fake Boyd hand as proof Boyd is dead but will still proceed against Eva
18. Eva is under female guard protection at prison.  The guard gives another hack what for after getting out of line with Eva
19. Boyd, who is aware Messer is a CI, gives Raylan the phone number to track him
20.  Boyd makes Johnny an offer which Johnny rebuffs.
21. Boyd stages Paxton's suicide, getting Eva out of prison, w/ a side of revenge
22. The hack who has it in for Eva stages his own stabbing to keep Eva in prison
23. HR has it in for Johnny who turns the tables on him by giving his henchmen his own share of the hijacking
24. Boyd pays for Eva's protection in prison
25. Eva's protection double crosses her
26.  Carl is kidnapped by the Crowes
27. HR under gunpoint covertly notifies Boyd that he's under duress and the Johnny exchange isn't going to go as planned
28. After Carl makes his way back, Boyd proposes a Crowe-Crowder alliance
29. Boyd restores Eva's protection
30. Ava is pulled into the religious circle in prison as a means of protection
31. Ava gets the smuggler plumber caught w/ drugs so she doesn't have to bang him
32. Johnny and Boyd both, separately, go to Mexico to gain the favor of the Cartel
33. Cartel chooses Boyd, doesn't want dead Americans on their side of the Rio Grande
34. Danny and Dewey for some reason start a shootout in the Mexican desert, killing Johnny and his crew

Crowe

I think the Crowe family is working along the lines of a classic bad guy group, albeit with some combined roles. 

• Darryl: The Big Bad 
• The Haitian: The Dragon. The person Darryl directs his idiots to in order to deal with their problem.  Completely unrattled by the marshals.  Advises Darryl on their next cash cow.
• Danny: Could be The Dragon if The Haitian stays in Florida, but most likely The Brute.  If he did take on Dragon responsibilities, I get the sense he'd fail at them.  Does the dirty work taking out Dylan.  Preoccupied for much of his scenes with firecrackers.
• Wendy: The Dark Chick.  A city mouse while the rest of the family are country/swamp mice.  Resourceful (causing the car crash) and able to act like a person in order to speak to the marshals.  This is low bar, but it is relative to the rest of the swamp people
• This is Justified/Elmore Leonard so there isn't a clear Evil Genius, but it appears most of the brain power is supplied by a team effort between Darryl and Wendy (per their conversation they shooed Dylan away from)

1. Dewey: Given a settlement for being operating on and punched in the face a bunch of times
2. Dilly & associate: Kill Coast Guard Officer
3. Darryl & sister: Makes deal with marshals to end his parole and hand over the CubanSister: drives Cuban to the marshals until he takes her hostage, but causes a car accident and escapes
4. Cuban: Tries to escape, but caught up by the marshals and shot and killed 
5. Darryl's parole is lifted due to his cooperation.  Advised by Haitian to get a hand into Dewey's $300k
6. Darryl & Co. surprise Dewey by showing up in Harlan, with a reminder of Dewey's Aryan beliefs
7. Darryl eggs Dewey on to get a rebate from Boyd for Audrey's
8. Boyd turns Dewey right back at Daryl telling him to stand up for himself
9. Darryl is amused and impressed by Dewey's newfound confidence.  He side steps it though and shows Dewey he's sussed out Messer's skimming and eggs Dewey on to kill him
10. This attempt goes badly and Dewey has to hunt Messer down in the woods
11. Dewey is picked up by some hikers
12. Darryl gets Dewey and takes him to finish the job, but Messer has died and his body is found by the police 
13. The littlest Crowe is taken by Raylan to put pressure on them to leave Harlan
14. Danny takes everything in the world as an insult and sucker shoots the Haitian
15. The Crowe sister visits Harlan to help with Kendall's case
16. Raylans GF checks in on Kendall
17. GF is run off the road by Danny 
18. Danny & Dewey kidnap Carl
19. Carl is let out by Raylan 
20. Boyd and Carl come back at the Crowes 
21. Boyd Proposes the Crowes and Crowders link up rather than fight.   
22. Danny and Dewey kill a bunch of Johnny's crew in Mexico, putting them/Boyd on the bad side of the Cartel
23. Wendy neutralizes the child services threat by complaining to Alison's boss 

Raylan

1. Last season, arranges hit on Augustine via Tonin/Picker
2. Goes to Florida to track down Dilly and the Cuba (and can see his kid in the process).  Casually mentions Dewey's windfall in earshot of The Haitian
3. Makes a deal with Darryl to find the Cuban
4. Talks with Sutter about how Sutter would find reasons to avoid his family so he wouldn't have to leave his family at the end the weekend (Raylan then avoids seeing his kid)
5. Goes to meet the Cuban, shoots Cuban when he tries to escape
6. Fails to mention he was in town when Skyping with Winona and the baby 
7. Art asks him about why Sammy Tonin would contact him and secretyly investigates into Sammy
8. Raylan is called to jail by Loretta and also meets her social worker.  Doesn't get Loretta out of jail.  Decides to "have a talk" with her boyfriend, Derrick
9. Raylan moves into the seized house of a Detroit money launderer
10. Raylan tries to bang the social worker
11. Raylan talks to Derrick but ultimately has to rescue him and Loretta from drug dealers
12. Raylan eggs on the money launderer, flaunting that he's living in his house and drinking his wine
13. Rachel and Raylan flip the bangmaid and get her to rile up the money launderer by telling him his gold is stolen, directing his ire at Wynn Duffy (installer of the safe which housed said gold)
14. Raylan offers protection to Duffy as he is a target, even though Raylan engineered the whole situation as a ploy to draw out the money launderer
15. Money launderer tries to kill Duffy, is shot by Mike
16. Ultimately, Tonin being dead severs the direct connection between Raylan and Nicky Augustine's death, but perhaps someone like Picker could link them and create a world of trouble for Raylan.
17. Vasquez and Art inform Raylan Messer, who is a CI, is missing, and Raylan has to track him down
18. Raylan runs across the Crowes  and Boyd in his investigation, including a 14 year old bartender at Audrey's
19. Boyd connects Raylan to Messer's phone, which has a GPS
20. Raylan connects the buzzards to Messer's body
21. Raylan's new gal pal mentions a child she had to seize
22. Raylan goes back to Audrey's to take the littlest Crowe into state custody
23. Art speaks with one of the Canadian heroin suppliers who tells him Sammy Tonin used to brag about having a "Kentucky lawman in his pocket" and directs him to Picker who is hanging with Wynn Duffy as of late
24.  A Tonin hitman takes out the Canadian who directed Art to Picker
25. Art brings Picker in, Raylan speaks with Picker, Picker directs Art to the dead FBI agent
26. Picker directs them to a warehouse where the Tonin hitman goes crazy with an automatic weapon
27. Art and Raylan catch Theo Tonin
28. Raylan has a talk with Art...all but admitting his part in Augustine's death
29. Art cannot even look at Raylan except when he is punching him in the face
30. Raylan and Rachel bond a bit.  
31. Raylan tries tracking down the Crowe who ran his GF off this road, but is blocked by a safe word
32. Art put Raylan on garbage duty
33. Raylan and Art have it out, Raylan asks for a transfer 

Raw Deal - Justified

Justified
Episode 05-07
"Raw Deal"

Written by VJ Boyd who wrote the great "Get Drew" last season

Directed by Bill Johnson, of "Hatless" mentioned below

After a layoff for the Olympics, Justified returns.

As a general rule, when someone is sold religion, they have to be skeptical at first and then gradually buy into it or the organization.  House of Cards played on this in Season Two.  It's sort of like this.  Boyd went through a Christian revival after he got out of prison in Season One, and now Ava may fall under that umbrella as well.  If not for the religion, for the benefits of being with the group preaching it.

Skeptical > Curious/In need > Zealot > Lose faith again

Rachel is acting like Art's deputy chief deputy, and it's pretty clear she's the frontrunner again to be the new chief deputy following Art's mandatory retirement.  If nothing else, Art has made her a buffer zone between him and Raylan so they don't have to speak.  Not only that, but Art is giving him the least desirable assignments.  Apparently the marshals take walk ins*, like a police station.  I don't know if I could find the local marshal office to be honest, even though the marshals play a bit more prominently in the District, as there's no sheriff.  The end game is for Raylan to quit, or at minimum for Art to never deal with him again.  Essentially, Art put Raylan on McNulty's boat or in Lester's pawn shop.

* Hearken back to Art introducing Raylan to the office, explaining it's a small office so they all do all the marshal jobs (prisoner transport, witness security, etc).  If there is one thing Raylan is really good at, besides absurd accuracy when he's shooting people, is finding people.  Except when they are right in front of him, like in "The Gunfighter" or this episode.

Unfortunately, he's not the best at prison transport, whether on or off the clock., either.

Wendy makes the first savvy move in going to Allison's supervisor.  So often those in public positions want to take the path of least resistance (e.g. Vasquez), and that's what Allison's unseen boss does by suspending her.

The interaction between TJ and Raylan provided a lot of insight to Raylan's mood

Raylan goes down a LemonLyman rabbit hole responding to T.J's blog post.  Unfortunately he pokes the bear a bit and gets his bank accounts drained.  Raylan seems utterly unconcerned by this, which probably means he only has a few bucks in there.  Turns out he was on a date of sorts when the card was declined, as TJ hoped.  But the dude is so self assured his reaction is to follow up on locating TJ rather than betray a hint of embarrassment to Allison.  Contrast this with Wendy who so often immediately becomes defensive when opposed, probably due to insecurity and unrealized potential.

The hacker must have found his talent and enjoyment for hacking when he was confined to bed rest recovering from cancer at 14, the same age he mentions he started "freaking phones" at.

For maybe the first time, Raylan is impressed at a criminal, particularly TJ's one legged escape.

It does renew a sense of competitiveness in Raylan, trying to find a pressure point on the Crowes, even as he takes vacation time.  He does this via Wendy (Dylan, unrealized potential, drag on her life).  And the bonds are already weakened with the youngest Crowe, trying to find someone outside his immediate family circle to take him in.  The voice on the other end of the line, calling him "Kiddo" didn't seem to have an accent, at least not a thick one.  And the corny joke that he pre-empts seems like the kind a Little League coaching wholesome family patriarch may use.

Really, Raylan is annoyed and pissed off at the whole Art situation, and everything involving TJ cooks his grits even further, making Raylan look a bit smaller and more dickish than usual.  We probably haven't seen him in this state of mind since Season One's "Hatless".

Body Count
Champion backgammon player
RIP Johnny Crowder, who we thought was dead a whole bunch of times prior to him laughing his way to the great holler in the sky at Boyd's hand.

Odds & Ends
The marshals office is growing.  They have an IT guy, Chris, and another marshal (Nelson?)Most disturbing part of the episode was in retrospect the toothpaste that the 'nice' guard providedThe sort of things only Justfied does: One legged computer hacker,  online backgammon ring (instead of poker)I think the Richard Kimball reference is the sort of lousy joke marshals hear all the time and have to pretend to laugh at, or view with total contempt.  Like when Michael Scott refers Oscar as "Oscar the Grouch"  Anyone who works a service job with nametag feels this pain.Again, thinking Ava is going to bite it...not willing to do what it takes to survive and upsetting the status quo can't bode well for her seeing Season Six.  I think I would also like to see a totally unhinged Boyd for thirteen or fourteen episodes.One of the problems with Raylan implicating himself as an FYI to Art, but not enough for Art to be required to turn him in is that Art lacks the context which led Raylan to his decision.Art's great but I didn't appreciate his "own dime" reference to Raylan visiting Florida, considering Art was the one who pushed him to go to Florida and see them, while Raylan, albeit not for noble reasons of being a good steward of taxpayer funds, did all he could to avoid making that tripRaylan could be well suited for air marshal duty.  We know he would meet the firearms requirement.  And he wouldn't have to interact with people much anymore.  Further research indicateds air marshals fall under TSA, under DHS.  So, no.

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Haunted Houses - True Detective

Okay here we go.  Episode Six.  The dots aren't so much connecting as converging.

2002
Marty and Rust are diverging at this point already, as indicated in the previous episode, and this week we see the events leading up to their split.  A lot of characters from the first half of the series pop up again, creating a symmetry to the series.

Cohle
Cohle is still digging for information to see if the Yellow King killings are still covertly happening, and still pissing off everyone within the state of Louisiana.  He questions

1) Father of a missing boy Rust suspects may be another victim of the Yellow King.  The boy went to a Tuttle school which causes Rust to look into further

2) The, now former, currently alcoholic, tent revival preacher we saw in Episode Three, who lets him know he parted ways after finding photographs indicating boys are being "interfered" with, which the leadership (Tuttle) decided to handle internally, i.e. not handle.

3) The surviving girl who they pulled out of Ledoux's hideout in Episode Five.  She is now mostly catatonic, but she responds to Rust enough to indicate there is a third man, a giant, who was the worst of all when it came to torture.  This makes Rust think more than ever that the Yellow King is still out there.

3A) Cohle gives his theory to Marty and the major, linking Tuttle schools to the murders.  The major tells him to steer clear of victims families.  No need to create murders where there are no murders.  Which Cohle technically follows.  But, he goes and sees

4) Tuttle, who we saw trample on the original investigation under the guise of pulling it under the umbrella of anti-Christian crimes back in Episode Two.  Rust speaks to Tuttle under the auspices of digging up some records he was unable to find from the individual administrators of the Tuttle schools.  Rust knows he's not doing to get anything of use from Tuttle, and confirms this when Tuttle pretends to offer a clerk to help him under the caveat that they conveniently lost some records to flooding.  Rather than be there to get records, Rust is probably there to get a read on Tuttle

When Cohle, having done the opposite of the spirit of the major's orders, is suspended for 30 days and 30 hours of counseling, which even Marty thinks his harsh.  Rust goes on hiatus from the Five O.

Marty
Marty beats up the boys his daughter was with, telling them prison is not going to treat them well.

Living the family life and running running family-type errands, he runs into the girl from the Bunny Ranch back in Episode Two, now a sales associate at T-Mobile, and looking remarkably like Lisa.  She sees him at the bar across the strip mall, probably not coincidentally, which leads to them talking, catching up, and banging.

His brand new T-Mobile phone accepts pictures because its 2002.  Unfortunately it does not have a keyguard and Maggie finds the pictures after she becomes suspicious about Marty washing his own clothes.  She goes to revenge bang some dude in a bar.  She can't go through with it. 

Final Countdown
Rust gets a confession from a mother who keeps killing her kids.  He helpfully suggests she commit suicide, as prison will not treat her well.

Maggie settles on revenge banging Rust instead in a setting that recalls Rust mowing the lawn.  She tells Marty.

Marty attacks Rust, currently suspended, in the parking lot.  They have it out.  The post fight breakdown in the major's office concludes with Rust resigning.

2012
We get a POV from Maggie as well, as the detectives try to get to the root of the Rust-Marty split.  She doesn't provide any information.  Nor does Marty.  The only thing Maty gives the detectives is he mentions a case that may speak to Rust's state of mind (the aforementioned mother).  It seems like the sort of thing that may be plausible enough for a cop to believe, without giving them any useful information. 

We find out that Tuttle overdosed in 2010, following two unreported break ins at his residences.

Marty winds up leaving the interview unimpressed and tired of these detectives.  Rust catches up with Marty on the side of the road and they go off to get a beer.

Thoughts

• Marty and Cohle have been together in the past and separate in the future.  At this point in the story, that is reverse, as their partnership ends in 2002, and they meet back up for the first time in 2012.  
• I think 2002Marty's daughters are watching The Simple Life (Dumb blondes in cracker country)  EDIT: Probably not, that show debuted in 2003
• Marty gave the girl (Beth) at the Bunny Ranch $20, which Rust posited was a down payment.  Turns out, that was the case.  She clearly feels indebted to him, along with some other issues.  Beth is aware of Marty's family because of his errands
• Two very clear shots of devil and angel figurines in Beth's apartment
• We as the Tralmafadorians viewing this get to see Rust's suggestion to the SIDS mother, something no one else is aware of besides Rust.  We don't know if the mother followed through or not, but it brings to mind the secret phone call that leads to the Yellow King informant-wannabe killing himself (which the 2012Detectives believe Rust made). 
• Where do they find these girls? 
• I hope we get to see The Giant.  Perhaps a nod to Twin Peaks?
• Sad to see the captain replaced by the major.  Big fan of the actor,Kevin Dunn.  But there needs to be someone who likes Cohle even less to jump to the suspension.
• Man, Marty got that mad about Rust mowing his lawn.  No surprise he lost his mind.
• Rust's tailight which was broken during the fight with Marty is still broken, ten years later, when we see him drive off at the end of the episode.  
• Those wounds are still open
• Reggie Ledoux is not even mentioned by name.
• Rust could actually think he is looking out for the SIDS mom in a twisted way.  But there's also always been a premium placed on saving kids in this series, and this could be just an unforgivable sin in Rust's eyes, wanting to exact justice, her death, in some direct way.  
• They way he says it is so unexpected
• Both Beth and Maggie order dirty martinis. Maggie's is "extra" dirty

Q&A

• Will the show stick with this format, telling the story entirely through interviews with Marty and Rust?
• So far, but if we wrap up the old case next week I wouldn't be surprised if there's a shift afterwards.
• Would not be surprised is Marty walks out of the interview.  He seems more uneasy with everything.  Cohle seems to be more at peace and willing to stick to his story, even as they catch some lies, willing to accept whatever consequences come his way...even though he's the one they're looking at. 
• Turns out it is Cohle who walks out once he sees the thin file and learns he is a suspect.  Nothing more for him to gain.  Cohle went in there with a specific objective, and accomplished it
• Marty and Rust have both ended the interviews.  Maggie is interviewed, but not taped, so we don't get a date stamp.  She's as reticent as Rust and Marty to tell them anything they don't already know, including her relations with Rust.
• Who is the mean looking old man uniform cop?  He stormed into the major's office (through Marty who muttered "...dick...") and slammed the door, stood prevalently at the press conference and ushered the reverend around.
• Still unnamed, but he is in the room when Rust is suspended.  It's unclear his actual rank, but his pull and political positioning is enough to put him there, unquestioned by anyone.
• This is the second time he's popped up in a situation directly related to Tuttle.  
• I've been wondering what he's said to the captain when he ran in after Marty, and now I imagine it was something about Tuttle.  
• Did Marty and Rust arrest the right guy?
• Didn't arrest anyone.  Shot the dude.
• Looking more and more like a big 'no'.  And by arrest, we mean murder
• What caused the split between Marty and Rust after a seven year partnership?
• Ultimately, the fist fight in the parking lot, directly spurned from Maggie banging Rust and telling Marty, spurning from Marty banging Beth. spurning from him giving her a twenty seven years prior
• What happened with Rust to put him where he is now?
• See above.  Also ingesting drugs, chemicals via his undercover and narco work. 
• I'm sure eating all those drugs with the biker gang didn't help 
• Ending his partnership with Marty, frustrated at the roadblocks to what he believes is a case that should be reopened
• Where is Marty's wife in 2012?
• Not with Marty, fo sho.
•  What's the revival minster's involvement with the task force? 
• Working for the Tuttle school/task force is spurned by Tuttle.  They ended their relationship shortly after due to the photos he finds, and the Penn State-ish investigation

New Questions

• What evidence has Rust gathered over the last ten years?
• What did Tuttle know and when did he know it?
• Was the boy found at Ledoux's connected to the Tuttle schools?
• Just how Penn State are the Tuttle schools?
• What is the connection between the Yellow King and Tuttle?
• Did Rust murder Tuttle? 
• More from last week's episode, but what was it that happened with Marty's daughter to result in the drawings, Barbies and now the dudes in the car?

The Secret Fate of All Things - True Detective

Episode Five (only three more!)

"The Secret Fate of All Things"

I write these timeline updates for my own sake more than anything, as I find it helps me put the pieces together.

1995
A meeting brokered by Ginger with the Jesse Pinkman of mid 90s Louisiana, Reggie Ledoux's assistant cook, renders little.  Except for the chance to tail the guy to his hideout.  Cohle irritates Hart even as they dodge booby traps surrounding the stick sculpture laden hideout.  Getting the drop on Ledoux, Cohle identifies himself as a police officer, gets Ledoux on the ground and handcuffs him, while Ledoux spouts some Carcosa-related nonsense.  Cohle asks him about the antlers to which he gets no response.

Hart pokes around until he finds some starving slave children locked away and decides to blow Ledoux's head off, circumventing the judicial system.  This is unfortunate.  Jesse Pinkman tries to escape but trips his own booby trap and his body is separated into two large parts, with many other smaller parts, rather than the normal version of his body which is one large structure.

Hart and Cohle go about setting the scene to make it look like they faced heavy fire to justify the shooting, along with concocting the plan for why they could not call for back up and generally getting their stories straight.  They are greeted as heroes and even the CO is congratulatory of Cohle. No one thinks twice about it. 

Marty and his wife begin to reconcile.  Cohle meets a woman who manages his nonsense well.

2002
We have a new timeframe to add to the mix.  This may be in addition to 1995 or it may be in place of 1995 going forward.

Marty's oldest daughter is dressing very goth-ish and being a general pain to him.

Cohle's reputation as the master interrogator brings him to be called in like a closer in a baseball game to get a confession out of whoever the cops can't get over the hump for the admission of guilt.  One subject in a double murder confesses and then immediately looks to make a deal in exchange for telling Cohle about the real Dora Lang killer who is, according to him, still out there murdering.  Cohle brushes this off but when the guy mentions the Yellow King, it opens the old wounds and Cohle begins smacking the guy around until the other cops pull him off. 

Cohle enlists Marty to help him run down this lead.  It appears they are still partners, as their desks remain across from one another.  The suspect commits suicide shortly thereafter.  He opens his wrists on his cell's bed frame after fielding a call from, ostensibly, his lawyer.  Which is obviously a lie as the call is from a payphone in the middle of no where. 

Cohle begins retracing his steps through the investigation, going back to the shuttered school where they got some guidance from a guy cutting the grass.  He finds that either someone has returned to this location or the stick sculptures are breeding.

2012
The questions from the detectives get more pointed and they get more dialogue than ever before.  Rust continues to push to see their file on the new murder and they continue to push Rust about his comings and goings.  The barren file leaves Rust dissapointed and feeling his time is wasted.  This coincides with the detectives actively pointing the finger at him.  With nothing else to gain, Rust walks out.

This was more a background interview than interrogation considering how little they have to go on.  But it's clear they find Cohle's tale more specious than anyone ever before.  The detectives are trying to feel Cohle out and hope he messes up, while Cohle is trying to pull any information possible from the detectives about the fresh case. 

In the end, Cohle spends a day talking a lot about nothing and giving the detectives nothing.  Not that it would be admissable anyways, dudes been pounding beers all morning*.  However, he now knows exactly how lost and hopeless they are on this case, and they they like him for the murders.  The big reveal before he walks is that he's been hanging around murder scenes a lot lately.  Cohle 1, Detectives 0.

* For those criticizing the dialogue in these scenes, Cohle is basically filibustering without letting them know he is filibustering.  One of those criticisms where what you see on screen is clearly a conscious choice of the author, done to bring about a certain result.  Criticizing before seeing the picture is one of the biggest faults of television writing there is.  The criticisms of the show in general seem to be a result of it not being in line with the the preferences of the individual, rather than stemming from well founded opinions on the state of the storytelling or development of the characters.  It harkens back to my biggest criticism of television discussion: a show/series not meeting your personal expectations or taste is in no way indicative of the quality of the show/series.  It is why I don't presume to review or critique (both are prone to bias of personal opinions/preferences, as well as difficult to do piecemeal) shows, but rather observe and discuss.  Besides, some people are only happy when their miserable.  A friend and former food server, commented once about complaining restaurant diners, stating simply "some people go out to have a bad time" and I think that's the crux of much criticism directed at a show like this.

The interview with Marty goes similarly, and he resists any suggestion that Cohle may have something to do with the murders. But he stays.  And chuckles, letting the detectives know Cohle got one over on them.

Odds and Ends

• Robert Chambers' Yellow King causes insanity and suicide to many who encounter it.  
• The mention of the Yellow King drives Cohle to immediately assault the suspect.
• The suspect commits suicide shortly after a phone call, perhaps from the so-called Yellow King
• Interestingly, it does not appear the detectives are going to pursue the largest lie of all, that Marty murdered Ledoux and he and Cohle covered it up.
• The 2012 detectives are constructing a narrative and asking them to buy in.  A few episodes back Cohle commented on how their 1995 investigation was about constructing a narrative.
• The lack of response on the antlers is telling
• Ledoux sounded more like a follower than a leader when spouting his nonsense.
• The Ledoux shooting doesn't get a Rob Riggle "in the faaaace!" because his face was completely blown off.  I don't think it can be in the face when the face is now gone.  The face has to still be in place.
• Cohle isn't even upset at Marty, he's just kind of like "Well get the cuffs off him, let's figure this out"
• There is something to be said for their partnership, despite all their sniping.  Even as they get going, Cohle irritates Hart to no end by putting down his "hunting".
• Hilarious moments like that are made more hilarious by the placement of a joke in such a non-jokey show.
• The King in Yellow wasn't enough.  I have some physics reading to do.
• I vehemently do not believe there is any sort of 1:1 connection between Chambers' (or Bierce's or Lovecraft's) work, and the series.  If the strongest connection is the oblique, vague references Chambers makes to the Yellow King and the oblique vague references Pizzolatto makes to it.  
• Ledoux has to be dead in order for the new killings to be a mystery
• Reading Chambers has brought to mind Vonnegut, as has this series on occasion.  Cohle is getting into the fourth dimension and multiple existences and the role time plays in that.  I think he is a Tralfamadorian
• No one would doubt this guy is an alien
• Or maybe WE ARE THE TRALFAMADORIANS!* 
• Possibly Rust knows he's a fictional character? Living the same story over and over, in syndication?

* Now, think about all the things Cohle is talking about,"[...] "Is he a man railing against an uncaring god? Or is he a character in a TV show railing against his audience? Aren't we the creatures of that higher dimension? The creatures who can see the totality of his world? After all, we get to see all eight episodes of his life. On a flat screen. And we can watch him live that same life over and over again, the exact same way." 
 
Ahhhhhhhhh! 

Questions/Answers

• Will the show stick with this format, telling the story entirely through interviews with Marty and Rust?
• So far, but if we wrap up the old case next week I wouldn't be surprised if there's a shift afterwards.
• Would not be surprised is Marty walks out of the interview.  He seems more uneasy with everything.  Cohle seems to be more at peace and willing to stick to his story, even as they catch some lies, willing to accept whatever consequences come his way...even though he's the one they're looking at. 
• Turns out it is Cohle who walks out once he sees the thin file and learns he is a suspect.  Nothing more for him to gain.  Cohle went in there with a specific objective, and accomplished it

• Is there a cover up that Marty and Rust are complicit in? 
• They surely fed some lies to people to do Rust's UC work, and I'm sure they weren't the last fibs they spread in the interest of solving the case.   
• Murdering Ledoux.  They have a wild tail to cover that.  

• What happened with Rust to put him where he is now?
• See above.  Also ingesting drugs, chemicals via his undercover and narco work. 
• I'm sure eating all those drugs with the biker gang didn't help 
• Maybe this is an act?  He's going on and off the grid conducting his rogue investigation.  Maybe he is under freaking cover again.  It could be anything.

• Will Marty and Rust have differing accounts? 
• So far they are covering different ground it seems, rather than giving accounts from different perspectives on the same particular events. 
• Even as they start to point the finger at Cohle, it seems like Marty will stick to the story.  If not for some shred of loyalty remaining to Cohle, but to avoid implicating himself. 
• Nope!  They have this practiced.  They practically make the same sound effects.

• It seemed like we should take what they are saying at face value.  How reliable are the narrators?
• Hmm.  Well we have the first fib we're aware of, with Cohle's alibi.  Now he's getting into his survivalist dad, and while it sounds plausible it seems like anything related to this has to be taken with a grain of salt
• Reading The King in Yellow, particularly the first story "The Repairer of Reputations", unreliable narration has to be considered.  The narrator in that story makes Arthur Anderson accounting look legit.
• Very unrelated, but making my way through this book it seems like Vonnegut took a lot of inspiration from it
• Little lies crack the stories throughout, until the big one where the dialogue from Hart and Cohle completely detaches from reality.  They are in no way reliable narrators at this point.  
• Many of the lies are based in truths.  Cohle tells them he got a tip from an old CI on Ledoux's twenty.  Which he did.  Except he doesn't tell them about the rouge undercover stash house heist and Ginger kidnapping which led to it. 
• What does the "throwdown in the woods" refer to?  
• Apparently the marshals, troopers and Rust and Marty heading down to this meth lab of Reggie Ladue.  Nothing like a Walter White whitey tightey gas mask get up to set the scene 
• Nerp.   Just Hart and Cohle sidestepping booby traps, murdering Ledoux, and covering their tracks with and epic story

• When will they reveal to us the 1992 murderer? 
• It could be next week, it could be the finale, the way this is set up
• Unless there's some interesting timeline adjustments, Episode Four is a big week 
• The revealed who is named as the murderer in 1992, Ledoux
• As far as everyone except for the two detectives, Cohle, and maybe Hart who simply doesn't want to believe it,this is the accepted truth
• The two detectives may not believe it was Ledoux, but that doesn't mean they have the right suspect now
• Oh, also, who is doing the murdering?  Both in 1992 and 2012?
• Reggie Ledoux?
• Maybe not?
• Did Marty and Rust arrest the right guy?
• Didn't arrest anyone.  Shot the dude.
• What caused the split between Marty and Rust after a seven year partnership?
• An 'altercation'.  Possibly either staged by Cohle to give him a reason to go rogue, or sincere parting, possible due to Cohle's desire to re-open the case
• 
  
• When will they reveal to us the 1992 murderer? 
• It could be next week, it could be the finale, the way this is set up
• Episode Five.  Maybe

 New Questions

• What does the crown symbolize?  
• Are Cohle's hallucinations going to reappear?
• Is Marty's daughter going to bite it?  Or disappear/get murdered by Ledoux 2012?
• Are the new investigators looking into the shootout in the woods, or are they primarily focused on Cohle? 
• It seems like the lie has little to do with the story going forward, except that the result is Ledoux is dead.

It was clear the show was never just about apprehending the 1995 killer, based on all the other threads they opened up early on.  The series would not live and die with the reveal of whodunnit back then.  Thus, the ability to reveal the throwdown in the woods merely four and a half hours into the eight hour series. 

Justified Season Five - Through Six Episodes

Crowders

1. Boyd is frustrated with efforts to get Eva out of prison
2. Boyd’s supplier tries to double cross him so he heads to Detroit to confront them
3. Turns out the supplier (Sammy Tonin) operation is in disarray. Tonin is double crossed/murdered by Picker. Boyd gets picker to take him and Duffy to the Canadian wholesalers
4. Canadians offer one final shipment to Boyd. Picker to make introduction to new Mexican wholesaler for Boyd
5. Boyd visits Paxter for help with Evan, becomes enraged by him. Does the murder to him. Wife sees but they are like let’s exchange cash for a NDB here.
6. Sheriff Mooney tries to pin Paxton's beating on Boyd but Paxton's wife, Mara, purposefully does not identify Boyd as the culprit and tries to strike a deal with Boyd
7.  Still no progress on getting Ava out of prison, as the judge is not buyable or threatenable
8. Boyd quells a minor uprising by his dealers by offering free drinks and a timetable for fresh drugs, after Duffy's attempt to do so fails
9.  Sheriff Mooney tracks Mara down to threaten her into identifying Boyd
10. Boyd's shipment gets hijacked and all his people get dead. 
11. Boyd gets angry at Duffy, accusing him of stealing the shipment 
12. Paxton instructs Mooney to kill Boyd
13. Boyd and Ava have a falling out of sorts during his visit, where he's more concerned with what information Ava can provide him about the drug caravan robbery than about how they are going to get her out of prison .  She's mad he's not even giving her a "hey holding up okay?" and more or less blaming her (rightfully, but he doesn't need to say it) for the whole situation
14. Boyd and Mara get the drop on Mooney and get him to report to Paxton he killed Boyd
15. Which leads to an upset Boyd and Mara having tattoo touching time.  A reminder of Boyd's Aryan beliefs, which I'm sure he still holds but doesn't practice actively.
16. Boyd traces the hijacking to Johnny
17. Paxton apparently goes for the fake Boyd hand as proof Boyd is dead but will still proceed against Eva
18. Eva is under female guard protection at prison.  The guard gives another hack what for after getting out of line with Eva
19. Boyd, who is aware Messer is a CI, gives Raylan the phone number to track him
20.  Boyd makes Johnny an offer which Johnny rebuffs.
21. Boyd stages Paxton's suicide, getting Eva out of prison, w/ a side of revenge
22. The hack who has it in for Eva stages his own stabbing to keep Eva in prison
23. HR has it in for Johnny who turns the tables on him by giving his henchmen his own share of the hijacking
24. Boyd pays for Eva's protection in prison
25. Eva's protection double crosses her
26.  Carl is kidnapped by the Crowes
27. HR under gunpoint covertly notifies Boyd that he's under duress and the Johnny exchange isn't going to go as planned
28. After Carl makes his way back, Boyd proposes a Crowe-Crowder alliance
29. Boyd restores Eva's protection

Crowe

I think the Crowe family is working along the lines of a classic bad guy group, albeit with some combined roles. 

• Darryl: The Big Bad 
• The Haitian: The Dragon. The person Darryl directs his idiots to in order to deal with their problem.  Completely unrattled by the marshals.  Advises Darryl on their next cash cow.
• Danny: Could be The Dragon if The Haitian stays in Florida, but most likely The Brute.  If he did take on Dragon responsibilities, I get the sense he'd fail at them.  Does the dirty work taking out Dylan.  Preoccupied for much of his scenes with firecrackers.
• Wendy: The Dark Chick.  A city mouse while the rest of the family are country/swamp mice.  Resourceful (causing the car crash) and able to act like a person in order to speak to the marshals.  This is low bar, but it is relative to the rest of the swamp people
• This is Justified/Elmore Leonard so there isn't a clear Evil Genius, but it appears most of the brain power is supplied by a team effort between Darryl and Wendy (per their conversation they shooed Dylan away from)

1. Dewey: Given a settlement for being operating on and punched in the face a bunch of times
2. Dilly & associate: Kill Coast Guard Officer
3. Darryl & sister: Makes deal with marshals to end his parole and hand over the CubanSister: drives Cuban to the marshals until he takes her hostage, but causes a car accident and escapes
4. Cuban: Tries to escape, but caught up by the marshals and shot and killed 
5. Darryl's parole is lifted due to his cooperation.  Advised by Haitian to get a hand into Dewey's $300k
6. Darryl & Co. surprise Dewey by showing up in Harlan, with a reminder of Dewey's Aryan beliefs
7. Darryl eggs Dewey on to get a rebate from Boyd for Audrey's
8. Boyd turns Dewey right back at Daryl telling him to stand up for himself
9. Darryl is amused and impressed by Dewey's newfound confidence.  He side steps it though and shows Dewey he's sussed out Messer's skimming and eggs Dewey on to kill him
10. This attempt goes badly and Dewey has to hunt Messer down in the woods
11. Dewey is picked up by some hikers
12. Darryl gets Dewey and takes him to finish the job, but Messer has died and his body is found by the police 
13. The littlest Crowe is taken by Raylan to put pressure on them to leave Harlan
14. Danny takes everything in the world as an insult and sucker shoots the Haitian
15. The Crowe sister visits Harlan to help with Kendall's case
16. Raylans GF checks in on Kendall
17. GF is run off the road by Danny 
18. Danny & Dewey kidnap Carl
19. Carl is let out by Raylan 
20. Boyd and Carl come back at the Crowes 
21. Boyd Proposes the Crowes and Crowders link up rather than fight.   
22.  

Raylan

1. Last season, arranges hit on Augustine via Tonin/Picker
2. Goes to Florida to track down Dilly and the Cuba (and can see his kid in the process).  Casually mentions Dewey's windfall in earshot of The Haitian
3. Makes a deal with Darryl to find the Cuban
4. Talks with Sutter about how Sutter would find reasons to avoid his family so he wouldn't have to leave his family at the end the weekend (Raylan then avoids seeing his kid)
5. Goes to meet the Cuban, shoots Cuban when he tries to escape
6. Fails to mention he was in town when Skyping with Winona and the baby 
7. Art asks him about why Sammy Tonin would contact him and secretyly investigates into Sammy
8. Raylan is called to jail by Loretta and also meets her social worker.  Doesn't get Loretta out of jail.  Decides to "have a talk" with her boyfriend, Derrick
9. Raylan moves into the seized house of a Detroit money launderer
10. Raylan tries to bang the social worker
11. Raylan talks to Derrick but ultimately has to rescue him and Loretta from drug dealers
12. Raylan eggs on the money launderer, flaunting that he's living in his house and drinking his wine
13. Rachel and Raylan flip the bangmaid and get her to rile up the money launderer by telling him his gold is stolen, directing his ire at Wynn Duffy (installer of the safe which housed said gold)
14. Raylan offers protection to Duffy as he is a target, even though Raylan engineered the whole situation as a ploy to draw out the money launderer
15. Money launderer tries to kill Duffy, is shot by Mike
16. Ultimately, Tonin being dead severs the direct connection between Raylan and Nicky Augustine's death, but perhaps someone like Picker could link them and create a world of trouble for Raylan.
17. Vasquez and Art inform Raylan Messer, who is a CI, is missing, and Raylan has to track him down
18. Raylan runs across the Crowes  and Boyd in his investigation, including a 14 year old bartender at Audrey's
19. Boyd connects Raylan to Messer's phone, which has a GPS
20. Raylan connects the buzzards to Messer's body
21. Raylan's new gal pal mentions a child she had to seize
22. Raylan goes back to Audrey's to take the littlest Crowe into state custody
23. Art speaks with one of the Canadian heroin suppliers who tells him Sammy Tonin used to brag about having a "Kentucky lawman in his pocket" and directs him to Picker who is hanging with Wynn Duffy as of late
24.  A Tonin hitman takes out the Canadian who directed Art to Picker
25. Art brings Picker in, Raylan speaks with Picker, Picker directs Art to the dead FBI agent
26. Picker directs them to a warehouse where the Tonin hitman goes crazy with an automatic weapon
27. Art and Raylan catch Theo Tonin
28. Raylan has a talk with Art...all but admitting his part in Augustine's death
29. Art cannot even look at Raylan except when he is punching him in the face
30. Raylan and Rachel bond a bit.  
31. Raylan tries tracking down the Crowe who ran his GF off this road, but is blocked by a safe word

Kill the Messenger - Justified

Justified
Episode 5-06

"Kill the Messenger"
Written by Ingrid Escajeda (who penned last season's self explanatory pun of "Foot Chase")
Directed by Don Kurt (who helmed last season's "Money Trap" where Raylan has to chase down the fugitive from the premiere, again)

One of the things I love about Justified is that it subverts expectations like no other show on television.  Subverting expectations is a necessary tenet of television, especially in the current era, but Justified takes it to a new level.  It does it within scenes, with the episodes and within the season.  This episode had several examples:

Crowe-Crowder (within the season)
We spent the last five episodes assuming things between Boyd and Darryl are going to come to a head by the end of the season.  I imagine it will still be a major source of conflict throughout Season Five, and may still ultimately culminate with a showdown between the two.  However, one thing we did not see coming in the "this holler ain't big enough for both of us" is a Crowe-Crowder alliance.

Eva's "protection" (within the episode)
Boyd pays a sizable amount to an old chum for Eva's protection*.  Her protector approaches her in the yard, dispersing what would be a bad situation for her.  What we don't expect is for her to immediately begin wailing on Eva, resulting this being a whole other set of problems that need solved.

*You have to appreciate Boyd describing her as his wife, "for the sake of simplicity".  Why?  Because she already has his last name despite being his fiance.  So it keeps Boyd from having to go into the whole "she's my brother's wife/widow/murderer and now I'm with her".

Carl's phone (within the episode/scene)
When Boyd reaches out to Carl, we expect Danny or Dewey to make the classic "if you ever want to see your friend again" type response.  But in one of the most Dewey-appropriate moments in the show, the phone reception cuts out giving a half garbled message to Boyd, who doesn't even realize who he is talking to.  When the call is done he's more pissed at Carl than before and has no idea what Dewey is trying to do.  It's hilarious, appropriate and sets up another scene.

Safe word (within the scene)
Raylan and Rachel bust through Danny and find a man bloodied and taped to a chair.  Of course, you expect law enforcement to take Danny in at this point.  But Carl reveals there's more going on above the neck than unnecessary facial piercings and comes up with the safe word (brisket?) idea so he can exact revenge on Danny himself.  Again, hilarious and allows a bunch of other stuff to happen in the episode.

I also love how when Danny explains this to Daryl, Daryl is all like "huh, good idea!"  And "consexual" is one of the best malaprops this side of The Sopranos.

Asian/Mexican (within the scene/season)
The cartel guy is Asian, despite it being a Mexican cartel.  This is based in reality based on the story he told about laborers.  A surprising visual as you await the Mexican cartel to show up.  I read that this character appears again later this season.

Two Things from Last Week
I failed to mention the hilarious "Hang in There!" poster at Audrey's

Know the old thing about bringing a knife to a gun fight?  There's a thought that within 21 feet a knife can defeat an armed assailant, provided the gun is holstered.  Mythbusters did an experiment on it.  Danny vaguely mentions this to Kendall.

What I Did Before the Blog

Used to spend all my time emailing and gchatting about television.  Here's an email exchange on the conversation between Amy Smart and Raylan on his hero status.  Something we've touched on here before.   I'll post my email exchange verbatim, but she summed it up much better with " can tell you’re a man who would run into a burning building without batting the eye. Thing is, I think you’re the one setting the fire.”

Q: Fellow Television Aficionado

Random thought:

Is Raylan an anti-hero? We're in a Golden Age of Television that goes hand in hand with anti-heroes like Walter White, Tony Soprano, Don Draper, etc - does Raylan fit that mold? Sure, he does what he does for law and order, but he also treats women terribly, has mob hitmen kill other mob hitmen to suit his own purposes, uses/looks the other away at many (but not all) of Boyd's crimes, abused Marshall/US Government powers and privileges, etc.

Is Raylan Givens a 'good person?" I don't think he is. If we were playing D&D would he be "lawful evil" or "lawful good?"

A: My response
I think of Raylan as a classic hero rather than anti-hero, very different than the guys you mentioned.  But he is flawed and dickish.  Which it is totally fine for a hero to be.  Otherwise, they are Superman, which is boring.  Like, he shoots Dewey's pool.  Just to be a dick.  But to us, it's hilarious.

Raylan's clearly not the most responsible person in the world.  He is a total flake, but that doesn't make him evil (assuming he doesn't completely disappear from Winona and unnamed baby's life...).  And he has a bad time choosing the women he spends time with.  Which is probably more of a judgement on his decision making skills than character.  It's funny how that is limited to women though.  I think back to the school he and Bob and Drew were hanging out in, and he wouldnt give Drew the murderer/criminal a weapon but gave one to Bob, despite their obvious gap in competencies.  Because Raylan's values clearly set Bob above Drew at that point.  And even facing the Detroit thugs, he wasn't going to arm Drew.

Raylan doesn't skirt the edge of legality for his own benefit, but to get the job done, or to help the people he cares about (like the counterfeit evidence thing w/ Winona, or killing Augustine to protect his family).  It's more about "for my family" than anything Walter White ever did.  He doesn't line his pockets with cash (like Vic Mackey from The Shield) from a seized safe, but he takes seized assets for personal use, which is kind of like the marshal version of stealing office supplies/misusing company Internets. 

He kind of has his own view of what right/wrong is, and while it doesn't exist outside society like a sociopath, it doesn't exactly line up with the letter of the law.  I think choosing to overlook a certain crime here or there is just about doing police work, like a murder police not caring about drugs in order to get some information.  I looked up your D&D reference and coupling that with what I just wrote, it seems to fall into the chaotic good  which is kind of like "play by your own rules for the greater good".  

And maybe that is the point.  This is a modern day Western.  Westerns were set up outside of civilization and society (The whole point of Deadwood!!!!).  So Raylan operates slightly out of the norm, but still believes in law and order. 

This show was originally titled Lawman, rather than Justified.  And I think Raylan operates more as a 'lawman' than a 'law enforcement officer' where his interest is general order and safety rather than enforcing the exact letters and statutes.
Round up

• I can't say how tired I am of the argument that the anti-hero is played out (not that I believe Raylan to be an anti-hero).  The Byronic hero has been around since, well at least since Byron, so a few bad shows can't wreck it.  You know what lousy anti-heroes are evidence of?  Lousy shows.
• Raylan has placed Art into a terrible position, casting a pall on Art's big career capping achievement.
• "BTW, I am a good lawyer." 
• Two things reminded me of the pilot.  #1 was the bar where Art awaited Raylan.  Looked a lot like the honky tonk where he first told him about Boyd Crowder.  #2 was when Boyd went to see his old friend, it looked like he may have been holed up in the old church where Boyd first met up with the returning Raylan 
• I am not a big fan of Wendy, or really any character who so obviously insecure and uncomfortable with who they are that they try and be something else.  It's why I never got on the train for Stringer Bell.
• Crowe Brain Trust: "Let's put a gun to his head until he gives us the money."  "Brilliant!"
• Prediction: A major character is going to bit it at the end of this season.  I'm guessing Eva, around episode 12.
• Cue it. Eva may be the best example of the title.
• Rappaport's accent.  I don't think it's Floridian, Southern, Everglades-ish, or really anything.  Except hilarious and fitting the character like a glove.  This episode, more than anything, made Daryll's character for me.  From his respect of good ideas to his exchange with Raylan in the hardware store to taking down Boyd's foe for him, he stole the show this episode.  
• The way he says "twisted", with the saw in his hand, in "Got yourself a dark twisted mind, don't you Raylan?" sums it up

Who Goes There? - True Detective

Episode Four
"Who Goes There?"

First half, Marty. Second half, COHLE!  Really really Cohle.

After a Super Bowl hiatus and then an excruciating extension to the hiatus as I get my cable hooked up, here we are.

Based on the end to episode three, I thought we were heading straight into the showdown in the woods, with the sirens blaring and back up being called, but there's some in between action.

1995
Marty and Rust interrogate Dora's ex, as he is an associate/housemate of Ledoux.  After some prodding, they get a lead on Ledoux who is cooking meth wholesale for a single client (a biker gang), beating Walter White to the punch by fifteen years.

They need to track down Reggie so through a investigative chain of events it goes Reggie -> Jay Z -> Tupac and Biggie -> Andre from Outkast -> Jada -> Kurupt -> Nas and then me.

Actually, it goes Reggie -> housemate/in jail Charlie -> stripper girlfriend -> guy at a rave* with an onomatopoetic name of Weebs or something like that -> Biker gang

* When are raves not great in a crime story?  Today, it's what an illegal casino would be in a Dashiell Hammet.  See Community's “Basic Intergluteal Numismatics”


It's apparent they are not going to get close to Ledoux/biker gang through conventional methods (Marty's ways) so Rust re-assumes his undercover identity.  Rust has spoken of his UC work before but when we see it in action, it's jarring.  Rust meets his old contacts under the auspices of trading coke for crank and gets pulled into a stash house robbery, which of course goes terribly wrong (as if it could go right) and results in a riot throughout the projects.  Rust has to blow his cover but manages to kidnap his contact and will no doubt coerce him into connecting them with Ledoux.

In the episode's first, less interesting, half, Marty's life falls apart when he's tesitifying in another case and has a run in with Lisa, who tries to make a scene.  Marty tries to put space between them but she's still upset about him wacking around the guy she was with.  Lisa goes to see Maggie and is like "Guess what?!" , resulting in Maggie leaving Marty.  Marty goes to pieces, stalking her at work and shacking up with Cohle.

Wait, Lisa and Maggie?

2012
It's apparent that the detectives are looking into Cohle for something related to this case.  He's suspicious.  They've looked into his absence when he was supposedly seeing his sick dad, and there are no hospital records to back up his alibi.  Because Cohle's UC work was off the books, only Marty knew about it apparently.  So it all looks very uncool.  Actually, the fact that they looked into it in the first place is a dead giveaway they are liking Cohle for this or other murders.

Past Questions

• Will the show stick with this format, telling the story entirely through interviews with Marty and Rust?
• So far, but if we wrap up the old case next week I wouldn't be surprised if there's a shift afterwards.
• Would not be surprised is Marty walks out of the interview.  He seems more uneasy with everything.  Cohle seems to be more at peace and willing to stick to his story, even as they catch some lies, willing to accept whatever consequences come his way...even though he's the one they're looking at.

• Is there a cover up that Marty and Rust are complicit in? 
• They surely fed some lies to people to do Rust's UC work, and I'm sure they weren't the last fibs they spread in the interest of solving the case.  

• What happened with Rust to put him where he is now?
• See above.  Also ingesting drugs, chemicals via his undercover and narco work. 
• I'm sure eating all those drugs with the biker gang didn't help

• Will Marty and Rust have differing accounts? 
• So far they are covering different ground it seems, rather than giving accounts from different perspectives on the same particular events. 
• Even as they start to point the finger at Cohle, it seems like Marty will stick to the story.  If not for some shred of loyalty remaining to Cohle, but to avoid implicating himself.

• It seemed like we should take what they are saying at face value.  How reliable are the narrators?
• Hmm.  Well we have the first fib we're aware of, with Cohle's alibi.  Now he's getting into his survivalist dad, and while it sounds plausible it seems like anything related to this has to be taken with a grain of salt
• Reading The King in Yellow, particularly the first story "The Repairer of Reputations", unreliable narration has to be considered.  The narrator in that story makes Arthur Anderson accounting look legit.
• Very unrelated, but making my way through this book it seems like Vonnegut took a lot of inspiration from it

Round Up

• Lots of masks removed in this episode
• Marty's mask of normal family life is torn off by Lisa, leaving him with no kids, no wife and no home
• Cohle is done interacting with the humans at the opportunity to reassume his UC identity, Crash Virginia
• Even the bikers wear police uniforms when they head into the projects to rob the stash house, but that lasts a hot second before it all goes pear shaped 
• Meanwhile, Cohle, is a cop, undercover as an associate of the biker gang, who are posing as cops in the worst disguises ever 

• Six plus minutes of a single shot, the camera following Cohle in and out of rooms and buildings, tracking helicopters, going over fences, etc. Has to be seen to appreciate.  Consider the actions involved, it makes the tracking shot in Goodfellas look easy (they go in a big square, people)
• Getting it over the fence alone was a feat 
• EDIT: Here it is!!!! 
• If it reminded me of something, it was Kima's undercover work in The Wire's "The Cost"
• Actually, maybe it wasn't only Rust and Marty, considering that helicopter was there.  Or maybe it got called over to the fracas
• Rust tells Marty he thinks Marty and Maggie will get back together, but I think he just needs him stable as his back up
• Another mention of the Yellow King and Carcosa, first in the diary and now Charlie talking about the nonsense Reggie was spewing
• Reggie also claims the spiral symbol as his
• And leads satan worship
• Something about stones and Carcosa.  Could be the gravestones mentioned in "An Inhabitant of Carcosa"?

• Unsure of the passage of time.  Thought it started in '92 but must be '95.  Cohle mentions Mogadishu, which happened in '93 and the way they are counting the years doesn't work with 1992.  Not sure where I got 1992.
• Marty made a wisecrack!  Found it hilarious when he gives Cohle a look as he and Charlie commiserate over spending all day with someone spouting nonsense 
• “Gotta be tough, living with somebody spoutin’ insane shit in your ear all day long,”
• One of the great things about this show is that there is so much more leg work to be done in the absence of Google machines.
• I think there will be some whining that the shootout didn't happen in this episode.  And knowing that they catch the guy eliminates some of the suspense.  But there are so many facets to this show which they set up early on so that catching this one guy is not the sole purpose of the show.  Not only that, there are only eight episodes, so we know it's only delayed a month at most, rather than say, years.  Cohle's UC work was far more than just a side adventure, it was filling in the middle of the investigation.  If you're only concerned about the start and end points, then you are likely to be disappointed.  But seeing Cohle in his element was well worth the delay, as was the 6+ minute unbroken shot. 
• One of the other facets they set up early on was having characters after all.  And this was the character episode of character episodes for Cohle. 
• Maybe I just enjoy things differently, but why skip to the last chapter of the book?
• Whining probably exacerbated by the two week layoff.  But c'mon, it's eight episodes.  Any shorter and it'd be a movie.
• Also...
• Crazy about this show, folks. 

Justified Season Five - Through Episode Five

Crowders

1. Boyd is frustrated with efforts to get Eva out of prison
2. Boyd’s supplier tries to double cross him so he heads to Detroit to confront them
3. Turns out the supplier (Sammy Tonin) operation is in disarray. Tonin is double crossed/murdered by Picker. Boyd gets picker to take him and Duffy to the Canadian wholesalers
4. Canadians offer one final shipment to Boyd. Picker to make introduction to new Mexican wholesaler for Boyd
5. Boyd visits Paxter for help with Evan, becomes enraged by him. Does the murder to him. Wife sees but they are like let’s exchange cash for a NDB here.
6. Sheriff Mooney tries to pin Paxton's beating on Boyd but Paxton's wife, Mara, purposefully does not identify Boyd as the culprit and tries to strike a deal with Boyd
7.  Still no progress on getting Ava out of prison, as the judge is not buyable or threatenable
8. Boyd quells a minor uprising by his dealers by offering free drinks and a timetable for fresh drugs, after Duffy's attempt to do so fails
9.  Sheriff Mooney tracks Mara down to threaten her into identifying Boyd
10. Boyd's shipment gets hijacked and all his people get dead. 
11. Boyd gets angry at Duffy, accusing him of stealing the shipment 
12. Paxton instructs Mooney to kill Boyd
13. Boyd and Ava have a falling out of sorts during his visit, where he's more concerned with what information Ava can provide him about the drug caravan robbery than about how they are going to get her out of prison .  She's mad he's not even giving her a "hey holding up okay?" and more or less blaming her (rightfully, but he doesn't need to say it) for the whole situation
14. Boyd and Mara get the drop on Mooney and get him to report to Paxton he killed Boyd
15. Which leads to an upset Boyd and Mara having tattoo touching time.  A reminder of Boyd's Aryan beliefs, which I'm sure he still holds but doesn't practice actively.
16. Boyd traces the hijacking to Johnny
17. Paxton apparently goes for the fake Boyd hand as proof Boyd is dead but will still proceed against Eva
18. Eva is under female guard protection at prison.  The guard gives another hack what for after getting out of line with Eva
19. Boyd, who is aware Messer is a CI, gives Raylan the phone number to track him
20.  Boyd makes Johnny an offer which Johnny rebuffs.
21. Boyd stages Paxton's suicide, getting Eva out of prison, w/ a side of revenge
22. The hack who has it in for Eva stages his own stabbing to keep Eva in prison
23. HR has it in for Johnny who turns the tables on him by giving his henchmen his own share of the hijacking

Crowe

I think the Crowe family is working along the lines of a classic bad guy group, albeit with some combined roles. 

• Darryl: The Big Bad 
• The Haitian: The Dragon. The person Darryl directs his idiots to in order to deal with their problem.  Completely unrattled by the marshals.  Advises Darryl on their next cash cow.
• Danny: Could be The Dragon if The Haitian stays in Florida, but most likely The Brute.  If he did take on Dragon responsibilities, I get the sense he'd fail at them.  Does the dirty work taking out Dylan.  Preoccupied for much of his scenes with firecrackers.
• Wendy: The Dark Chick.  A city mouse while the rest of the family are country/swamp mice.  Resourceful (causing the car crash) and able to act like a person in order to speak to the marshals.  This is low bar, but it is relative to the rest of the swamp people
• This is Justified/Elmore Leonard so there isn't a clear Evil Genius, but it appears most of the brain power is supplied by a team effort between Darryl and Wendy (per their conversation they shooed Dylan away from)

1. Dewey: Given a settlement for being operating on and punched in the face a bunch of times
2. Dilly & associate: Kill Coast Guard Officer
3. Darryl & sister: Makes deal with marshals to end his parole and hand over the CubanSister: drives Cuban to the marshals until he takes her hostage, but causes a car accident and escapes
4. Cuban: Tries to escape, but caught up by the marshals and shot and killed 
5. Darryl's parole is lifted due to his cooperation.  Advised by Haitian to get a hand into Dewey's $300k
6. Darryl & Co. surprise Dewey by showing up in Harlan, with a reminder of Dewey's Aryan beliefs
7. Darryl eggs Dewey on to get a rebate from Boyd for Audrey's
8. Boyd turns Dewey right back at Daryl telling him to stand up for himself
9. Darryl is amused and impressed by Dewey's newfound confidence.  He side steps it though and shows Dewey he's sussed out Messer's skimming and eggs Dewey on to kill him
10. This attempt goes badly and Dewey has to hunt Messer down in the woods
11. Dewey is picked up by some hikers
12. Darryl gets Dewey and takes him to finish the job, but Messer has died and his body is found by the police 
13. The littlest Crowe is taken by Raylan to put pressure on them to leave Harlan
14. Danny takes everything in the world as an insult and sucker shoots the Haitian

Raylan

1. Last season, arranges hit on Augustine via Tonin/Picker
2. Goes to Florida to track down Dilly and the Cuba (and can see his kid in the process).  Casually mentions Dewey's windfall in earshot of The Haitian
3. Makes a deal with Darryl to find the Cuban
4. Talks with Sutter about how Sutter would find reasons to avoid his family so he wouldn't have to leave his family at the end the weekend (Raylan then avoids seeing his kid)
5. Goes to meet the Cuban, shoots Cuban when he tries to escape
6. Fails to mention he was in town when Skyping with Winona and the baby 
7. Art asks him about why Sammy Tonin would contact him and secretyly investigates into Sammy
8. Raylan is called to jail by Loretta and also meets her social worker.  Doesn't get Loretta out of jail.  Decides to "have a talk" with her boyfriend, Derrick
9. Raylan moves into the seized house of a Detroit money launderer
10. Raylan tries to bang the social worker
11. Raylan talks to Derrick but ultimately has to rescue him and Loretta from drug dealers
12. Raylan eggs on the money launderer, flaunting that he's living in his house and drinking his wine
13. Rachel and Raylan flip the bangmaid and get her to rile up the money launderer by telling him his gold is stolen, directing his ire at Wynn Duffy (installer of the safe which housed said gold)
14. Raylan offers protection to Duffy as he is a target, even though Raylan engineered the whole situation as a ploy to draw out the money launderer
15. Money launderer tries to kill Duffy, is shot by Mike
16. Ultimately, Tonin being dead severs the direct connection between Raylan and Nicky Augustine's death, but perhaps someone like Picker could link them and create a world of trouble for Raylan.
17. Vasquez and Art inform Raylan Messer, who is a CI, is missing, and Raylan has to track him down
18. Raylan runs across the Crowes  and Boyd in his investigation, including a 14 year old bartender at Audrey's
19. Boyd connects Raylan to Messer's phone, which has a GPS
20. Raylan connects the buzzards to Messer's body
21. Raylan's new gal pal mentions a child she had to seize
22. Raylan goes back to Audrey's to take the littlest Crowe into state custody
23. Art speaks with one of the Canadian heroin suppliers who tells him Sammy Tonin used to brag about having a "Kentucky lawman in his pocket" and directs him to Picker who is hanging with Wynn Duffy as of late
24.  A Tonin hitman takes out the Canadian who directed Art to Picker
25. Art brings Picker in, Raylan speaks with Picker, Picker directs Art to the dead FBI agent
26. Picker directs them to a warehouse where the Tonin hitman goes crazy with an automatic weapon
27. Art and Raylan catch Theo Tonin
28. Raylan has a talk with Art...

Shot to Hell - Justified

Justified
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.

* Except for the side jobs to save money to give to Winona for the baby

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.