(Author’s note: Sorry this is going up late. As you may or may not know – of course you don’t, why would you? – I recently relocated to Denver, and have found myself encountering serious WiFi issues. I’m doing my best to find a workaround, so hopefully this won’t be a problem in the future. With that said, let’s talk Justified.)
I don’t care how shitty your day might have been – extremely, in my case – you can’t help but crack a smile when watching Justified, especially when the installment is as smart, funny, and Elmore Leonard-esque as “Cash Game.” For a show as consistently well-written as this one is, it takes a lot for an episode’s dialogue to stand out, so I’ll offer a tip of my giant Raylan Givens hat to the writers room. Congratulations, guys, you’ve got the GAMbIT bump, straight from the kingmaker.
“Cash Game” is an apt title for this episode, as it revolves around shady dealing and blackmail, at the hands of Boyd Crowder and Garret Dillahunt’s Ty Walker. Dillahunt is fantastic, imbuing Walker with the perfect balance of charm and menace; the combination isn’t a new one, but these are the kinds of characters that Dillahunt has built his career on, and Walker is shaping up to be his best creation yet. There are definite shades of his sociopathic Deadwood character Frances Woolcott. Plus, the guy can rock the shit out of a beard.
Which is more than I can say for Sam Elliott, who shows up distressingly clean shaven, which just makes him look like Herman Munster. Elliott plays Avery, who smokes pot with Katherine Hale and advises overpaying employees to ensure loyalty, and cutting out eyes if that doesn’t work. Since Hale doesn’t trust Boyd at the moment, that, uh, doesn’t bode well for our favorite outlaw.
Graham Yost, and his murderer’s row of writers and directors (Justified vet Dean Parisot handled directing duties on “Cash Game”), has tapped into Elmore Leonard’s cadence and style perfectly. I mean, there are henchmen tonight named Sea Bass and Choo Choo – that’s straight out of Leonard’s playbook. It’s pretty incredible to see these words come to life on screen, even if Justified‘s source material (Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole”) wraps up around the end of the pilot episode, and Boyd dies at the end. How lucky are we to have Boyd and Raylan to play off of each other? And how do Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins not have shelves full of Emmys? Their one scene together in “Cash Game” was nothing short of electric, and you could feel all the hate and respect these men have for each other. It’s a damn shame that Justified is ending, but at least it has the good sense to go out on a high note.
A Few Thoughts
- Wynn Duffy alert: still awesome
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Katherine Hale alert: Mary Steenburgen is still amazingly gorgeous
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Ty Walker (along with Sea Bass and Choo Choo) work for a sinister organization called Tiger Hawk Security
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