Justified Season 6, Episode 2 recap.
Two episodes into the final season of Justified and I'm strongly reminded of the beginning of season four when the Drew Thompson mystery was laid out. If Justified can go out on a note as strong as season four, I will be very satisfied. We start by officially meeting Garrett Dillahunt's black hat, Ty Walker. He's the head of a private security force called Tiger Hawk, which, yes, those paramilitary security companies always have names that sound vaguely like summer camps. Like all the best Justified villains, Ty is a smooth talker and a cool customer and he follows through on his threats—just seeing an armful of plastic sheeting is enough to tell me what he did to the nice people who got in his way.
We met the big bad this week, too, in the form of Sam Elliott's Avery, who is literally in bed with Katherine Hale. (How did it take six years to get Sam Elliott on Justified? This is obvious but perfect casting.) I'd wager that Avery is Ty's mysterious source of money. The overall plot is pretty Stygian, but here's what we know so far: Ty Walker is buying up land in Harlan for as yet unknown reasons, using smarmy real estate agent Calhoun to do so, but Boyd stole Calhoun’s records of their shady deals in the bank robbery. Calhoun is definitely toast—Realtors don't fare well on Justified (see also: Gary Hawkins). One of Boyd’s stolen papers is a deed for a pizza restaurant that used to be a bank, which is where Ty has set up shop. Obviously there's something still inside everyone wants, so it's going to be a free for all going after whatever's in the pizza bank. It's Drew Thompson all over again.
This episode is full of the stuff that makes Justified great—witty rejoinders, smart criminals, dumb criminals, beautiful shots of Boyd sitting in his office, Gutterson. There's some really great dialogue in this episode, and the best comes not from loquacious Boyd but slow-as-molasses Choo Choo, part of Ty's Tiger Hawk crew. The exchanges between Choo Choo and Raylan, and Choo Choo and Gutterson were genuinely funny. He's going to fill Dewey Crowe's spot as bad guy comedy relief. And the opening conversation between Gutterson and Raylan about “random internet babies” is why we love Gutterson—he can never not be a sassy bitch. He got another great moment later in the episode when he delivers a clueless Choo Choo to the pizza bank, giving him an earful of Tiger Hawk’s intentions in Harlan. It was a really fun and clever way to set up a Marshals vs. Tiger Hawk conflict.
We still have to find out what's in the pizza bank, and how Boyd intends to crawl out from under his current woes, and where Ava’s loyalties really lie, but the final season of Justified is shaping up nicely. Boyd and Raylan are back to talking about whether or not a man can change—maybe, but these men definitely can't—Gutterson has some fellow veterans to square off against, and it's a criminal race to the finish line down in Harlan. These are the best ingredients for Peak Justified. Here's hoping they make for a glorious sunset into which Raylan can ride his white horse.
Raylan's body count so far: 0/19
