Ellen May shoots a client. Ava gets pisses. Boyd says to kill her. Colt fails to. Shelby helps her. Raylan gets a bag from his father’s wall which leads him to Waldo Truth’s name but not the man. In the course of things Raylan learns of Drew Thompson’s name as well. Boyd bargains to capture Drew in exchange for half the cocaine business in Kentucky. Arlo’s been offered a get-out of jail free card if he gives up where Drew Thompson is. Josiah lost a foot. Caught up?
Dale leads the masked Boyd to a box of bad poetry which is supposed to be the proof he is who he says he is. An old newspaper clipping confirms it and places him a 20-year old senior. He apparently failed 3rd and 6th grades. Boyd tells Dale he believes him and to keep the box handy in case other people come around.
The morning after discovering the foot, Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) is waiting for the local PD to get their heads out of their asses. Who would cut off their own foot? The LEOs know that Raylan isn’t happy with them as he takes the call from Art who tells him that the lawyer is trying to delay the deal for Raylan’s daddy. One of the officers nearly steps on the crime scene and Raylan finds blood.
Colton (Ron Eldard), in the bathroom, decides that “more drugs” is a good idea. Out in the main part of the bar Boyd is worried about how anxious Ava (Joelle Carter)is and how long Colt is taking meanwhile having a conversation with Johnny (David Meunier)about how they plan to find Drew in Cloverhill. Johnny thinks that Duffy (Jere Burns)won’t go thru with the deal. Of course he knows that Duffy won’t, but that’s another matter. Perhaps he’s having a crisis of conscious? Ava tells Boyd that she’s worried about him.
“Baby there ain’t nothin’ gonna happen to me.”
Boyd continues to reassure Ava while Johnny keeps banging on the bathroom door to get Colt.
At a trailer park, Raylan knocks on one of the mobile homes before going around back to see the guy from the pilot.
“Oh great. The man in the hat. What the hell do you want?”
Shelby says everyone in Harlan has heard of Drew Thompson but he’s dead. Raylan starts to go to talk to Boyd but Shelby stops him by telling him his “loyalty’s to the law.” Raylan wants to call bullshit but Shelby won’t let him; his reputation has been tarnished enough by Crowder’s reputation. He tells the marshal that Josiah being missing makes the case his purview and goddamnit he brought Raylan to Roz.
Marshal Tim (Jacob Pitts)goes to the VA and talks to an old friend, Mark. Mark tells him that he has a debt to pay but he doesn’t want Tim’s money. He only wants Tim to come with him so that he can settle it.
“Hey Boyd Crowder’s ride.”
Tim has a brief conversation with Colton and Mark tells Tim that the other man is “in a world of hurt”. Colt goes to the bathroom and holds up a man in the bathroom so that he can get a new heroin dealer. At that time, Colt gets a buzz from Boyd.
At the bar, Ava tells Boyd about her new plan to go to Napier’s party. She suggests using one of the wife of the man Ellen May shot to go to the swinger’s party saying that she wouldn’t want to know how her husband was injured. Shelby walks in the back room and demands that Boyd come with him despite Boyd telling him in no uncertain terms that he’s busy. Shelby handcuffs Boyd against Ava’s righteous indignation.
At Audrey’s, Colt is rummaging thru Ellen May’s old trailer and the new occupant (Cathy Baron) walks in. He claims to be looking for her and then asks her to get Ellen May for a threesome. The girl replies that Ellen May is gone and he accuses her of lying to him. She tries to comfort Colton by saying that she can do the same things that Ellen May. Somehow Colton thinks the solution is to smack her in the face. He asks if any of the other girls would know where Ellen May is and she doesn’t think so. She starts to leave and he grabs her by the hair and threatens to cut out her tongue if she tells anyone about this.
Terry, the hooker from earlier, walks into Johnny’s bar and he gently requests of her who hit her so that whoever did it knows that he is not welcome. She lies and says it’s her Tuesday night regular, Max.
And it’s official; because of Wynn Duffy, Josiah lost his foot. His accomplice isn’t happy that his van is covered in blood and Duffy is getting toenails all over his floor. Josiah thinks that he’s dying and when the accomplice checks the leg, it starts bleeding again. In walks Boyd-and-Arlo’s-lawyer. It’s suggested by the fourth man (and the fourth conspirator) in the room that they cauterize the wound which I’m surprised they didn’t do earlier.
At a big estate type house a nice looking man named Arnold walks in and is introduced to Ava in his kitchen by his wife April. Ava says April inspired her to become a cheerleader and they’ve been reliving their high school days thru a scrapbook. As soon as Arnold leaves, he asks her what they hell she’s doing there. She tells him not to get his bear claws out. He considers himself lucky that all she wants is an invitation the party saying he’ll take care of everything.
Shelby and Raylan pull up outside a house. A rental car drives by which Raylan reckons was hired by Detroit. Inside the garage, the foursome attempt to cauterize the wound against the will of Josiah. Shelby and Raylan burst in the door. One of the foursome threatens the officers with the blowtorch. Shelby shoots him and Josiah tells everyone that he’s not Drew; he had planned to find Drew himself with the help of a lawman from Harlan. Apparently said lawman is in jail for trying to have Raylan killed.
Shelby offers his help to Raylan asking how long it’s been since he shot someone. It’d been a while for Raylan but longer for Shelby; twenty years. He was going to propose to his girlfriend when this guy sped past him and he went after him instead of going to the cafe. The conflict ended in a gunshot and a perfect attempt at hitting the man in the chest with his solitary bullet. Raylan warns that since Shelby knows about Ellen May, Boyd’s going to come after him sooner rather than later. Shelby seems unconcerned.
Mark and Tim arrive outside Mark’s former drug dealer’s house. The dealer invites them in and demands the pair of them strip so that he can be sure he is the only one with a piece and that no one has a wire. The last time he saw Mark, he was ripped off $800. Mark takes off the top half of his clothes. The dealer wants double what he took to make it square. Tim pulls his gun when the other man nearly shoots his friend and tells him that since Mark intends to make them square, they can make a deal for everything Mark has on him.
Meanwhile Max (Billy Finnigan) calls for another guy named Robbie as Colt and Johnny walk in to confront Terry’s Tuesday. Max tries to kick them out but is forced to the ground where Johnny continues his assault with nightstick before Colt joins in with his fists. Johnny orders Colton to stop then checks Max’s pulse before they leave as Colt is unconcerned he nearly killed a man over his own crime.
Ava walks into the backroom wearing a sexy red dress. Boyd tells her he’ll do it her way this time after not much pleading on her part. She tells him she loves him before saying that she’s having a time of it being responsible for Ellen May’s death in a way she just wasn’t after her other murders. He tells her that killing Ellen May was necessary. Ava wants to know where they’re headed. Boyd asks her to meet him at the truck in two minutes and she reluctantly agrees. Boyd looks after her with a sorrowful look on his face.
Boyd drives Ava to a field telling her that when he was younger he used to look up at the stars and imagine he was in a spaceship. He gives her a small tin box which he says will answer her question. In it is all the money Boyd’s stashed from her for the past two months which he says is a down payment on a house anywhere she wants maybe even with a view like the one they are currently looking at. He tells her that three generations from her now, ‘Crowder’ will be a family name and people won’t think twice before letting their kids play with a Crowder kid. She asks what he means and he tells her to look underneath. Underneath is a simple but beautifully perfect ring. Boyd says that it may not be a conventional proposal and you can just tell he means every word of it. He gets down on one knee and while he nearly puts her ring on the wrong hand, he asks her properly and she accepts. Such a beautiful scene, it literally brought tears to my eyes.
Next time: Art does his eyebrow thing and Raylan’s old friend Jodie threatens a woman with a knife.
What went well:
♥Everything. I had trouble believing that that was a full hour it was so well paced. The proposal was perfectly Boyd and Ava and we got to learn a little bit more about my favorite Crowder. Unfortunately, according to Joelle, things won’t stay this good for the happy couple.
