Justified - Money Trap - Review/Recap (SPOILERS)

Justified. Everyone remember last week? If you don’t, no one will blame you for checking out some of my past recaps…

6 Days Ago

Raylan has pulled over Jody and is having him loaded into a black van in return for money from the hot bounty hunter in the first episode. She says he has “Hollywood looks” and is not wrong. In the van, the woman and her companion discuss Raylan being an “emotional disaster” as Jody works his way free in the back. They throw a tire. The girl goes to pee and the guy keeps watch. Someone pulls up and offers to call AAA but the man sends him on his way. Unlocking the back, he’s kicked in the face by Jody and strangled with the handcuffs. The man in the car just stands by and watches while Jody may have just killed a man. Jody asks where the woman went as he undoes his handcuffs. The car guy is reluctant but upon threat of death, he reveals where the girl bounty hunter is. Jody shoots her in the side of the neck. She gets a shot off as well but it’s not immediately clear where hers hits.

Raylan picks up a folder from his desk and delivers it to Art’s office. Art says that the folder, about the Thompson case, is bullshit but they can’t do anything about it and he’s doing that eyebrow thing. Along the way, they’ve noticed that Agent Barkley hasn’t been into work. Raylan goes to talk to Arlo to get the rest of the information about Drew Thompson taking the folder of take out menus with him to make it look like he has more info than he does. As if Arlo would ever be fooled by such a simple trick employed by his son.

Johnny Crowder tells Terry the hooker that he took care of the man that hit her the other day. Except we all remember that he took care of a client as opposed to the man who actually hit her. She comes close to ‘fessing up but ends up playfully asking him to leave it alone. He guesses ‘Colt’ which is correct and then she tells him about the threat and the fact he was asking about Ellen May. And now Johnny knows Ellen May ain’t dead. The question becomes what is he doing to do with this new found information?

Raylan drives down to Tramble to talk to his father and eats an ice cream cone. Then he gets a phone call from a deputy sheriff’s department to talk to him about Miss Evan’s death. Raylan somehow thinks that driving, eating an ice cream, and talking on the phone at the same time is a good idea. This isn’t the time in an episode for an accident but just sayin’, that’s not cool. Raylan tells the deputy about Jody.

Kenneth, Jody’s associate, tells him that he has to leave and get off his couch. Jody is a little less happy about this but his filmmaker friend tells him that he’s going to get blood all over his sofa so Jody decides to go for the money he’s stashed at his ex-wife Katrina’s house. The bullet hit Jody in the shoulder by the way and when Jody removes the bandage, he’s already healed. What was he smoking? Magic weed?

Raylan goes to see Jackie Nevada, Katrina’s sister, about Jody. She already knows that he’s an asshole. Alright sorted. Now when are you two going to get to the book plot part?

Ava tells Boyd that he looks all nice with his hair combed like that. Boyd still isn’t happy about going to go see the singers but will do it for Ava. Not without telling her that the prospect of her with another man is offensive to him but she says he can give all the handjobs he needs to get the information they’re looking for. Boyd doesn’t see the humor in that statement but goes along with her because well, she’s Ava and he’s Boyd.

Boyd’s happy that he doesn’t have to see most of the people there naked. I’m inclined to agree. A man openly flirts with Ava and Boyd sidles up to him all intimidating like before walking off without laying a hand on him. Still the man looks rattled. A woman tells Ava that women hold all the power before telling her that she doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to do. I think those days ended when Ava concluded her shotgun marriage.

Boyd bonds with some of the men including Sam Anderson. The other man has earned his car dealership by a hand of poker and according to one of the men passing by, they don’t take kindly to people not swinging. Okay… The more important of that information is that these men know who Boyd is which is either really good or really bad for my favorite antagonist.

Jackie reveals that she gambles at UK and reads people exceptionally well. Now how much longer before she crosses the marshal’s path again? She gets a beer from the fridge and drops it when she sees Jody. And here I thought Raylan was smarter than to let her in the apartment by herself….Raylan bursts thru the door and tells Jody he’ll count to one for him to drop the gun. Jackie serves as a diversion when she hits Jody and the other man jumps thru her closed window.

Kenneth says he wants to go to the doctor and blames Jody for his breaking of his own car. Jody threatens to kill Raylan and says that since he knows where Raylan lives, he has an advantage and that it’s going to be the greatest movie ever. If he actually could get the drop on Raylan maybe but with all the formidable foes Raylan’s fought on the show and in the novels by Elmore Leonard, I highly doubt someone as small potatoes as Jody could kill the marshal.

Ava calls for Boyd but instead meets a drunken boy or two. She does her best to send them off including telling them that she killed the last man who tried to force her to do something. Boyd comes up behind one of the men and threatens to twist until he hears a pop in the man’s arm. Ava yells at him for not coming to her aid sooner. But I think she could have taken care of herself. Boyd has not found out which one of his new friends Drew is but they want him to take Ava home so they can discuss business. Do they know who they’re talking about? Boyd takes her home.

Jackie gets to see her first crime scene as Raylan goes to see Kenny. The woman Ken was with tries to leave as Kenny becomes the guy in the book who took video of Delroy. Since Delroy is dead, they invented Jody.

Jackie tells Raylan that she has a crush on him as he gets the idea in his head to stop at the bar. Raylan sets off the fire alarm as he scopes the bar and the bartender pours him a finger of whiskey before asking if it’s a drill. Confirming it isn’t, he calls everyone to leave the bar. Raylan tells Jody he’s still alive before asking how long. Jody thinks about pulling so Raylan shoots him a few times and the man drops to the floor. Time to call it in.

Colton walks into Johnny’s bar and Johnny says he looks like “ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag.” So the usual? He interrogates the war veteran but Colt just wants to go to bed. He asks if Colton gets those fever dreams that men in the service tend to get. Colt says that everyone does and that the beer is “warm as piss”. Johnny asks if Colt sees Ellen May’s face before letting him off the hook saying Ellen May wasn’t innocent. But what she is, is as close to innocent as the people in Justified's world get.

Back at the swinger’s party, the three men tell Boyd their beef with Frank Browning before asking Boyd to kill the man. Boyd looks a little surprised sitting on the antique style settee. He didn’t expect this to be easy did he? They tell him that they’re responsible for his success down in Harlan and threaten to take it all away should Boyd decide not to kill Browning.

Raylan tells Jackie he knows about the money in her school bag. If he finds it, he has to turn it in but if it finds its way back to Katrina and the kids, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Art calls to ask what’s up. Art asks if the girl is interested in Raylan yet and Raylan lies saying that she wouldn’t in the least bit be interested in “an old fart like me.” Apparently there’s an alternate version ofevents where Raylan gets into the shower with Jackie. You mean they don’t show every bit of naked Timothy Olyphant? They could have had me fooled.

Raylan gives Arlo the folder full of take-out menus telling him exactly what it is. He then informs Arlo of his latest kill before saying that to cut a deal, it needs to benefit both of them. Raylan informs Arlo of Boyd working for Theo to find Drew, and offers him a country club jail in exchange for the info.

“I’ve considered it, eat shit.”

Raylan goes to talk to the lawman that he put in jail in season one telling Arlo that he’s going to die in prison before telling Arlo that it will be soon and he will be glad when he hears the news. Arlo walks back to his cell solemnly.

Next week: Boyd is the alpha and Raylan likes the lawman who tried to kill him better than his own daddy.

So more than half way thru the season and we’ve been introduced to wayward teens, a former flame from Raylan’s past, two characters from Elmore Leonard’s book Raylan, a proposal of marriage from Boyd, and a morally dubious cousin carried over from last season. This is the part of the season where everything is equally clear as unclear and like in past seasons, Justified has served up some interesting side cases to go along with the season long arc.

A few things to note:
Is Boyd becoming dumber because of his association of Ava? I think he could be because the Boyd of season one or two would not have gotten trapped into the swinger’s threat. Also, why hasn’t he sussed out Johnny yet? The man never liked Boyd so why would the younger Crowder trust his crippled cousin?

Is Ava becoming more dependent on Boyd? She could have gotten away from the swingers but she didn’t. She acted as if she was going to be in serious danger if Boyd hadn’t reappeared. How could this be the same Ava that took care of her husband in season one, Delroy in season three, or even how she attempted to clean house with Ellen May.

Will Raylan ever learn from past mistakes? Just because a girl’s pretty doesn’t mean she has to be someone you sleep with, even if she is into you.

Alright gunslingers, what did you love about this episode? What did you hate? And most importantly how much would you give for it to be next Tuesday already?