“Alive Day” was a pretty talky episode of Justified; as a rule, those are pretty good, because this show’s ensemble and writing staff are insanely strong, and this episode is no exception. Hell, there was only one gunfight; everything else was about characters just talking to each other in increasingly threatening tones, which is just fine by me.
For instance, the opening – how fucking great was that? Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins are never better than when they get to act opposite each other, and the beginning of “Alive Day” was another classic Raylan vs. Boyd verbal showdown.
What Justified is doing so well in its final season is telling a focused, cohesive story, which they haven’t really attempted since season four’s Drew Thompson mystery (season five’s arc of Raylan vs. every Crowe who ever lived didn’t capture audiences the same way). In short, Justified is nailing its swan song, and it’s thrilling to watch.
Trying to review “Alive Day” is basically asking yourself, which was your favorite conversation? Was it Avery proposing to Katherine, and demanding that she out herself as the one who snitched on her late husband Grady? Or how about Art coming to Rachel to talk shop (read: Raylan)? Or maybe Ty Walker and his amazing beard helping Choo Choo and Sea Bass clean up a murder scene?
The only problem with conversation-heavy episodes is that they don’t typically achieve any narrative momentum (for a recent example, watch this week’s Better Call Saul). That is and isn’t true of “Alive Day.”
The only real developments come courtesy of Boyd and Choo Choo. The latter goes to kill the call girl that saw him and Sea Bass show up at Calhoun Schreier’s office. But she’s nice to him so he has second thoughts. Bad idea, buddy, cause here comes Ty and his beard to kill both of you. A slight digression: I can’t help but think that Ty and his crew are meant to be some kind of comment on how America treats its veterans. Veterans benefits are a fucking joke, and I think the moral here is that if we don’t take better care of the men and women in our armed forces, they could end up trying to murder hookers on the behest of a marijuana kingpin.
Elsewhere, Boyd and Ava’s uncle Zachariah finally make it into the mineshaft, where unbeknownst to Boyd, Zachariah tries to kill him, so I guess that Randolph vs. Crowder rivalry is alive and well, at least in Zachariah’s mind.
I can’t say enough how much I’m enjoying Justified‘s Southern-fried brand of noir. Graham Yost and his crew of writers and directors are making sure this show goes out on a high note.
A Few Thoughts
- Shit is about to hit the fan for Ava, as Limehouse calls Boyd and asks how much he knows. Poor Ava is not getting out of this unscathed
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