There are plenty of shows on TV right now with great ensembles – Game of Thrones, Archer, Parks and Recreation, and Orange is the New Black, just to name a few – but none of them can touch Justified. This show’s ensemble is so well cast, and so well directed, that even in its darkest moments it’s a joy to watch. Plainly put, there’s no character on the air right now as cool as Raylan Givens, as played by Timothy Olyphant; and Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) has long since entered the pantheon of great television bad guys. Even in Justified‘s weaker seasons – namely three and five, which were still damn good, all things considered – it’s remained one of the most compulsively watchable shows on any network. It’s a shame that this season will be its last.
“Fate’s Right Hand,” the first episode of Justified‘s final season, picks up right where last season left off – with the US Marshals’ office declaring war on Boyd Crowder. Raylan is on the front line, and this episode finds him traveling to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to interrogate a federale about Boyd’s aborted, bloody attempt at smuggling heroin last season. Olyphant remains the coolest customer on TV, as he basically kidnaps the corrupt cop and takes him across the border to the US, where his Marshal badge actually carries weight (this whole sojourn into Mexico calls to mind FX’s late, great show The Bridge, which was cancelled just as it was getting good). That’s not all that happens; indeed, Raylan’s trip to Mexico is wrapped up before the credits roll.
Boyd is still robbing banks, rather successfully, at the behest of Wynn Duffy (tragically unseen) and Mary Steenburgen’s Katherine Hale. Ava is still reluctantly snitching on Boyd, and to further complicate matters, Dewey Crowe is thrown back into the mix. Beyond that, a mysterious real estate broker (played by Garrett Dillahunt, Olyphant’s old Deadwood costar) shows up to place an offer on Arlo’s house.
“Fate’s Right Hand” hits the ground running, and doesn’t let up. It shows Raylan doing the two things he does best – tracking down lawbreakers, and being an irascible bastard (when Dewey protests that Raylan needs to be a thousand yards away from him, Raylan coolly deadpans, “Well you’d best back up”).
I could spend a thousand words outlining the plot of this episode, but this is a review, not a recap. Suffice it to say that “Fate’s Right Hand” felt like classic Justified, mixing Raylan’s smart-ass approach to law enforcement with genuine pathos (I’m thinking in particular of the scene with Art, which was perfectly played).
There was one big “holy shit” moment, and I’m sure you all know what I’m referring to – the death of Dewey Crowe. I’ll admit that it caught me off guard, and I had to rewind the episode to reaffirm what I’d just seen. Dewey’s death has been coming for a long time, but to execute it (no pun intended) so early in the season shows, if nothing else, that Justified has firmly entered endgame and no one is safe.
Which brings me to my next point – this whole season, and indeed the show as a whole, seems to be building to a fatal confrontation between Raylan and Boyd. But do we really want Boyd to die? He’s become an integral part of the show, not just as its most persistent villain, but as the embodiment of so many Elmore Leonard (who wrote the story “Fire in the Hole,” on which Justified is based) morals – criminals are really stupid, and they never come out on top. To that end, Boyd is both the quintessence and the inverse of the archetypal Leonard bad guy. He’s smarter than anyone in the room – and yes, that sometimes includes Raylan – and raises more questions than he answers, like “Is a criminal born or bred?” The fact that a show like Justified, which at its heart is pulpy and exaggerated, can raise such questions makes it a damn shame that it will soon be gone forever.
A Few Thoughts
- After Raylan tells Tim that Dewey used to play Goofy at DisneyWorld, Tim says: “Some guys just peak too early”
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I forgot that Rachel was running the department now. Good for her
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“I think I couldn’t trust him anymore” – Boyd
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So long, Damon Herriman, aka Dewey Crowe. Dewey could have been a comic relief caricature, but you make him so much more, by imbuing him with pathos and relatability. You will be missed these next twelve episodes
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“Fate’s Right Hand” was directed by Michael Dinner, who did such great work on Justified‘s series premiere
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“Oh, Christ! Raylan??” – Dewey
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