Did you see the way Boyd was looking at Ava while she slept? He knows something, or at the very least he suspects. Walton Goggins says so much with just a look, and it really speaks not only to how well he knows Boyd, but how well we know Boyd. That simple, perfect look was the strong opening to “The Trash and the Snake,” a seriously strong episode of Justified.
As Raylan points out – he all but says it to the camera – this season is structured like a classic Western, just with Graham Yost’s fingerprints on it. Avery Markham is the villain literally driving landowners off of their homesteads, and Raylan is the sheriff who has to stop it. For Christ’s sake, Raylan literally wears a white hat.
“Snake” really focused on Harlan’s history; Markham had a nice monologue about all the Bennetts and Markhams and Crowders peppering the county’s annals, pointing out that he’d never met a Givens. Raylan and Tim also pay a visit to Dickie Bennett, and Jeremy Davies has not lost a step. His hair is even crazier than Boyd’s, and he has absolutely not forgotten how to play Dickie. It sounds cliched to say – because it is – but Harlan is as much a character on this show as Raylan or Art, and I’m sure going to miss visiting every week.
Elsewhere, Boyd and Wynn meet with the Whiz (Jake Busey), who’s supposed to be a, well, whiz with safe cracking. They need his help to break into the safe at the pizza place (a phrase I never get tired of hearing), and he seems to know what he’s doing – until he blows himself up, leaving Boyd and Wynn covered in blood, which is a pretty funny image.
Katherine Hale surprises Ava in her hotel room, inviting her to lunch, with cocaine for desert. They get coked out and steal a tennis bracelet from a jewelry store, and the whole thing is actually pretty delightful – Mary Steenburgen and Joelle Carter have good chemistry, and it’s nice to see Justified‘s only two prominent female characters sharing scenes together – but ultimately Katherine has an ulterior motive, because this is Justified and fucking everyone has an ulterior motive.
Katherine intimates that she knows about Albert Fekus, the prison guard who accused Ava of stabbing him before recanting. The noose is tightening around Ava, and she’s starting to lose her shit. There’s some serious bloodshed coming, as Katherine and Boyd are both planning on robbing Markham, and I can’t imagine he’s going to take that lying down. Frankly I don’t see Ava making it out alive; she’s dug herself in too deep.
A Few Thoughts
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“This pain bullshit gets in the way of clear thinking” – Art Mullen. So true
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“Occam’s Razor, Thor’s hammer, who gives a shit?” Less true
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Nice to see Loretta Macready again, and nice to see that Raylan still sucks at talking to kids
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Pretty sure Garret Dillahunt was designed in a lab to play roles like Ty Walker. I’ve compared him before to Dillahunt’s character Frances Woolcott on Deadwood, but damn it, the comparison is apt. APT!
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“Pizza place full of dough. See what I did there?” – Wynn Duffy
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