Raylan’s version of the aphorism differs slightly, as a mining community like Harlan has always kept its history squarely underfoot. “It ain’t behind you. It’s vertical. Dig down another layer, turn up some horror,” he corrects, and there’s plenty of horror to be found in “Dark As a Dungeon.” The abandoned Givens shack would seem a fitting hidey-hole for Arlo’s skeletons, the ruinous, empty Xanadu being worthy of such a miserable soul. But it’s not where the real secrets and horrors of Arlo’s legacy lie. Listen to how the music shifts once Boyd gives up Walker, as low, droning strings accompany the sound of a heartbeat: it’s like something out of Thomas Harris, not Elmore Leonard. There’s morbid awe in the music, and to Horder-Payton’s chilly direction, with the crescendo being the sight of Raylan quickly and coldly shooting Walker in the back.
“All for what, money?” Raylan proposes, riffing on a Coen brothers quote so as to put a smile on his dark business. “No…not just money….no,” Walker begins, unable to finish before breathing his last. Watch Raylan’s reaction, and how the self-assured smirk drains off his face in the absence of Walker’s answer. Would any reply have mattered? Freedom? Family? Rosebud? Walker, defiant to his last, shakes one of Raylan’s long held beliefs, the one he tells Zachariah, and then Markham of: “it’s always about money. Jesus Christ, the one thing every shit-apple redneck is guaranteed to take with both hands and a left foot is money.”
“Dark As a Dungeon” is a sublimely entertaining episode of Justified, full of unlikely alliances, wit, and action. But it’s the repetition of the script, by Chris Provenzano & VJ Boyd, that leaves you to linger on the hour’s haunting echoes. The way Raylan flashes his badge to Zachariah, then Markham; how we see him leave one, then meet the other from a distance, and how that distance is glimpsed again when Walker is gunned down; how everyone has a different read on what the past and future are supposed to be; how Raylan proves his own logic, and redneck identity, when rubbernecking along with Boyd at the sight of Avery’s stash.
It all harmonizes to make “Dark As a Dungeon” a song not by, but for Raylan, lyrical in its structure, and ominous with its words. Think of how many times over the years that Raylan’s been told his vision of the future isn’t going to be how things play out. It was just two weeks ago that Boyd suggested “maybe this time, things end different,” in reference to taking a seat at the Crowder dinner table once more. Zachariah makes similar portents triply known this week: “Maybe you in for a little surprise, maybe this ain’t what you think it is, maybe it ain’t gonna turn out the way you think it will.” As proven in the pizza portal, Raylan can read the signs, but he just doesn’t care.
Ava was the one who did theatre in school, but surely even Raylan should be able to hear all these warnings for the Greek chorus they add up to. Tim jokes about a ritual sacrifice on Arlo’s front lawn, yet it’s Raylan who’ll give less pause to killing a man than he will the animals he suspected Arlo of slaughtering in his shake. He breaks an oath on his mother’s grave, then digs his own with a backhoe. Raylan isn’t just tempting fate anymore, he’s taking it to bed. With only five hours left, Justified has pulled off its most remarkable caper yet: it’s robbed the hero of his immortality.
- Stray Thoughts
-I fear all this doom saying may have distracted from what a dang pleasure “Dark As a Dungeon” is. Every minute of Boyd and Raylan going at it is pure gold. “I gotta admit, there’s a small part of me that’s going to miss this when it’s all over,” says Raylan, speaking on behalf of everyone.
-Boyd and Ava’s time together helps clarify my mild misgivings about “The Hunt.” Mainly: I like watching these two working together far more than seeing them in conflict. Horder-Payton gets so much out of the simple things, like two shots of Ava and Boyd when Walker makes his proposal, or the unspoken exchange they share before giving him up to Raylan.
-Even if things are still a little fuzzy with Art’s investigation, his scene with Katherine was dynamite. It’s great to see a show recognize that flirty interrogation can work for more than just the younger cast.
-Love the use of that mirror in the scene of Ava patching up Walker. It’s a clever misdirect as to just how clued in Walker is to the power dynamic between Ava and Boyd.
-It’s a real shame we don’t get to see Wynn Duffy’s reaction to spilling guac on his shirt at 9:30 in the morning. Seeing Katherine’s reaction to Mikey’s offer of doubles tennis was a small consolation.
-I don’t know if there’s an actor out there who gets more out of the sound “it” than Walton Goggins. The amount of emphasis he puts into the last syllable of “bullet” would be enough to choke most other men.
