It’s not as if Justified has never put on a party like this before, but it’s certainly the biggest the show has ever done. Director Don Kent lets the camera pinball around the set along with the characters, and it’s a delight. Every corner of the place is crawling with excitement. Like any good party, the conversation crackles and sparks, whether it’s Raylan advising Earl to take a smoke break (“it’d be good for your health”), or Boyd playing catch-up to his overeager new partner (“have you ever heard that a whisper will get you a hell of a lot further than a roar?”). It’s an incredible display of crackerjack writing (credit to series regulars Andron, Chang and DeArmitt), staging, and acting that recalls the whirl-a-gig hoedown the Bennett’s hosted in “Brother’s Keeper,” one of the finest hours Justified has ever produced.
Two particular exchanges stand out, one that’s a culmination of the season so far, and one that gives the season a dangerous new wrinkle. Boon (Jonathan Tucker), the hired hand with a quick draw and a terrible haircut, is introduced earlier in the episode. Markham’s new muscle makes threats casually but loudly; he’s the kind of trash that’ll offer to help remove the decapitated snake he’s left in your living room. Question is: did Markham find this guy in a psych ward with a gun range, or in a time machine? Boon (down to the folklore-inspired last name) is even more of a throwback than Raylan. Already, he’s eyeing Raylan’s Stetson as the last piece of his Old West ensemble, which includes a button vest, and a Smith & Wesson.
“Man, you are everything I’d hoped for,” Boon says to Raylan, clearly starstruck by the tales he’s been told of an old school lawman. With his twitchy eyes and excitable voice, Boon approaches Raylan like a fanboy who’s just met his favorite celebrity at a convention. His aesthetic seems modeled on a fashion Raylan actually embodies, so like any deranged fanboy, he’s itching to prove he’s got the goods. That alone is enough to make him a threat. But admitting he doesn’t care for television or movies? If ever there were a greater sign of inhumanity in the universe of Elmore Leonard, I haven’t seen it.
When “Burned” starts winding up its gut punch is as soon as Boyd heads out to start the heist (“I need to go see a man about a vault”), only to have things literally and figuratively blowup in his face. Even as Ava’s well and truly selling Boyd out to Raylan, the dialogue stays smooth as ice. But the silences the two share, as they size one another up, are long and pained. “How’d you figure,” Ava asks, knowing the jig’s up, and playing the best hand she has, though not the one she wants. “Something in your way,” Raylan says back, like the start of a prairie haiku.
Raylan can spare some pity for Ava, and were he aware of the full situation, he might even have a little leftover for Boyd. There’s nothing but pain waiting for him down in the mine, even if Zachariah’s betrayal inadvertently saves him from a waiting Raylan. The greater tragedy is that this leads Boyd to immediately assume Ava’s working against him, a truth he arrives at along the wrong path. Even $10 million worth of couples counseling wouldn’t be enough to repair the damage paranoia and distrust have wreaked upon their relationship. “Brother’s Keeper” ended with Boyd and Ava dancing together; “Burned” ends with them drifting even further apart.
With the clutter of the TigerHawk story now out of the way, and the Dixie Mafia rat finally revealed, everything now hangs on Markham’s stash. It’s in these final hours, when the endgame of the season comes to light, that Justified always hits another gear. That this is the final endgame of Justified makes it as exciting to anticipate as it will be difficult to predict. Among the best qualities that it shares with Deadwood is that, despite occupying a familiar genre, Justified isn’t afraid to subvert expectations, and take the story into uncharted territory. We’ve only got four hours, and four days left to see where that might be.
- Stray Thoughts
-And the rat is…Wynn Duffy! Should have seen it coming, given the synergy between the name of the episode and Jere Burns. This is another of those “of course” moments where you realize the perfect answer to a mystery was staring you in the face the whole time. Mikey doesn’t take the reveal well, however. “It’s like catching daddy cheating with the woman next door, huh?” Tim salts.
-Poor Seabass clearly never learned to not let a Leonard woman look in her handbag. Much as Katherine looks the picture of elegance dressed to the nines next to a bloodstained hotel wall, Seabass’ abrupt demise really just seemed like the show taking out some leftover trash. Good thing Katherine knows a discrete (and French) cleaning service.
-Much as last week felt like a horror movie at times, the soundtrack and blinking lights in Pizza Portal after Ava pulled the alarm had me wondering how Raylan would fare in an Alien movie.
-“Doing what I got to do.” “Care to elaborate?” I fear Markham’s investigation into Loretta’s kin won’t dig up much…but an investigation into Raylan’s will reveal an ex-wife and bouncing baby girl.
-Raylan offers to sell Arlo’s property to Loretta for “what it’s worth.” She probably doesn’t even know just how low that figure goes.
-“Here comes the douche-mobile.” Tim’s comment might be mean, but what about Wynn’s little game of telephone isn’t douchey?
-Love the way Loretta stepping at Markham during her speech brings Boon into the background right as she mentions the dead snake in her house. The guy’s even creepier out of focus than in.
Published: Mar 17, 2015 10:00 pm