THIS WEEK ON Justified: When the Guns Come Out
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Two hookers try to get oxy from a crooked doctor. The doctor only wants to part with a little, so the hookers try to use his “little part” to get a bigger share. Then, out of the blue Tanner pops in a kills all but one of the hookers. I know, the joke starts out strong but falls apart during the punch line. However, this shit is Justified, where we can always go for quality stories.
Tanner done fucked up. He left a witness alive from his little triple murder. Now that’s something you never want to hear later on.
When we last left Raylan, he was looking for Winona. He continues his search my making phone calls and searching around her job. Or at least what used to be her job. As it turns out the court has a new reporter. Raylan follows a hunch and checks the bank robbery money that caused quite a stir last season and wouldn’t you know, the money is gone. Looks like we gots ourselves a mystery on our hands.
Tim drops the FBI file on Quarles on Raylan’s desk. This is a little innocuous event that will come back in the episode. Art calls Raylan into his office and informs Raylan that there was an incident at his aunt Helen’s old place. Great, one more thing for Raylan to worry about.
Super Team Crowder sits around their bar and wonder if they are dealing with the first few shot of a full blown drug war. This is the kind of thing they were looking to avoid until they were stronger. Boyd’s a planner though. I’m sure he was expecting Quarles to strike at Boyd quickly after Boyd turn down Quarles’ offer. After all, the worst thing you can do to an enemy is give him time to grow stronger.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Delroy. Delroy is kind of a scumbag … seeing as he runs a brothel and beats on women. Now if he looks like Tom Cruise with downs, there’s a reason for that; William Mapother is his cousin. If you watched LOST, you’d know him better as Ethan. Now, Ella May, just having watched her best friend gunned down has to deal with this shitbird (Sorry, I’ve watched three seasons of the Wire in a week and “shitbird” is now permanently lodged in my vocabulary). Delroy’s response to watching your best friend being gunned downed? To ask if you completed a drug deal and then kick you out until you return with said drugs. If Delroy keeps this up he’s a shoe in for Rookie Asshole of the Year.
Raylan is still on the lookout for Winona when he arrives at the scene. Raylan is clearly unhappy at the amount of bullshit he has to juggle due to his father.
Ella May arrives at one of Quarles’ drug trailers when she spots Tanner. This puts her in a sticky situation. Deal with a man that you know will kill you if you crack, or head back to tell your pimp that you failed. Now, I know we’ve all been in this very predicament before, so it comes as no surprise that Ella May bolts back home.
Boyd and Ava head over to Limehouse to gain perspective on the players on the board. Limehouse informs Boyd that he is woefully under informed when it comes to his trade. Boyd wanting to rectify this situation decides to move his money with Limehouse. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have the start of a partnership. After they are informed that the dead girl was Trixie, Boyd sends Ava to look for her friend Ella May.
Arlo might be losing his mind. I mean, he’s been shot, beaten, lied to, blackmailed, and ridiculed … and that’s just from his son. When Helen was killed, he lost a part of him. Arlo is by no means a strong man. He’s a survivor yes, but when you get to be his age, just survival doesn’t mean much anymore. Is obvious he’s dealing with his demons as he talks to himself like he did Helen. Raylan drops by to inform Arlo that he won’t be a part of any of Arlo’s schemes.
Delroy is quite a charmer. I haven’t seen a ladies man this irresistible since Chris Brown. Ella May returns from the clinic and before she can say “The reason I don’t have any drugs is because the man who was giving them out shot three people including my best friend” she’s met with a knuckle sandwich.
Quarles was tipped off that Raylan pulled his FBI file. Told you this little tid-bit would come back. Quarles likes to know his enemy. He seems the type to have read “The Art of War”. He sends Duffy out to gather information on the wheelings and dealing of one Marshal Raylan Givens. As a side note, it’s the little shit that writers and actor do that make me enjoy something. When we first met Duffy he was an uncontrollable sociopath who almost got the better of Raylan. Now when we see him with Quarles, we see he can be controlled; cowed in fact. When Quarles goes back into his little “murder room” the look on Duffy’s face says more than any lines of dialogue could about who Quarles is as a person.
Ava arrives at Audrey’s and promptly meets Delroy. Delroy can’t resist being as sleazy as possible. Ava tells a tale about owing Ella May some cash. She spots some bruising around Delroy’s knuckles and instantly know she’s dealing with a world class shitbird (fuck, there it is again.) Another girl, J.J., tells Ava that Ella May was actually a witness to the crime. Ava can’t go near Ella May’s trailer without ruffling some feathers. Boyd has a plan to deal with that particular problem. Boyd rather overtly uses Raylan’s job as a means to get by Delroy.
Raylan arrives on the scene and makes his way to Ella May. Right before Ella May is about to spill the beans about what she saw, Delroy pokes his nose in. Raylan, done with dealing with bullshit all day, sends him on his merry way. After a short conversation Raylan rationally explains to Delroy, gentleman to gentleman, that Ella May needs to be protected and it would be unwise to lay hands on her. Delroy reluctantly agrees.
Raylan has one more stop to make on his “I’m pissed off and that is not going to end well for you” tour. Tanner tells his driver to take off the second Raylan gets in the back. Raylan is no fool, he makes Tanner go in first. The driver in this scene should have been wearing a red shirt. It was never going to end well for him. After a brief fight, a round went off and struck the driver in the neck. Raylan tosses Tanner out of the trailer and then waits for it to come to a stop. Tanner wisely hightails it outta there while Raylan waits for backup. At this point, Raylan is informed that Winona actually tried to leave Raylan after he was shot in the Bennett fiasco. Its just not his day.
Duffy has to give bad news to Quarles. This cannot be a fun thing to have to do on a regular basis. Duffy tells Quarles that Raylan took down Tanner’s drug clinic. Quarles being the scary bright criminal that he is sees this as an operating expense. He believes that Raylan acted on word from Boyd to take down the clinic rather than following up on Ella May’s story. Its misunderstandings like this that usually leads to war. Good thing we have front row seats and can’t catch strays.
However, we’re let onto what really happened. Turns out one of Limehouse’s underling sent Tanner to attack Boyd’s clinic to set up a war, and then swoop in and fill the vacuum. Limehouse is not happy. He knows that war was going to happen between the two anyway, and they had no reason to fire the first shot. What his man doesn’t understand is that by involving Limehouse in the war, it means that they have to follow this path until the end. Its going to be messy.
Raylan shows up at Winona’s sister’s house. I guess being a biatch runs in the family. Raylan tells Winona that she’s on the hook for taking the bank robbery money. She of course denies it. Then they get to their real issues. Things have changed since the pregnancy. Introducing a baby into the mix of an unhappy relationship does not make things better. Looks like it will not be a happy ending for the family Givens. I guess that’s par for the course.
Raylan ends his day sipping for booze and talking with the vast pit of wisdom that is Art. Art informs Raylan that he knows the bank robbery money is missing. Turns out Charlie in the evidence room may have taken an early retirement. We close with Charlie in Mexico driving a sports car. I honestly can’t tell if the money will be an issue or not later on. I’m chalking this up to my favorite literary device; the dark happy ending.
This was my least favorite episode of the season so far and it was still very good. It got more on track with the Raylan narrative and pulled back from Boyd a bit. We’re at presumably the half-way point in the season and it seems like so much shit has gone into the setup that I can’t wait to see the fireworks.