Justified - 4.08 Outlaw - Recap/Review

Y’all remember where we left off…

The former sheriff of Harlan, Hunter Mosley (Brent Sexton), wants to know how Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) hasn’t been killed yet. Good question but not the one of the hour. Raylan asks about Drew Thompson. Hunter doesn’t want to talk after having heard what happened to Josiah. Raylan tries to leverage his father’s deal to get him to confess. The former sheriff sees right thru this.
“I tried to kill you.”
“I still like you better.”
Raylan retorts that he thought the other man still has enough lawman in him that he wouldn’t want Arlo to win. Hunter makes no effort to tell Raylan what he wants to hear, so the handsome marshal leaves.

Boyd (Walton Goggins) is talking with a strategist, Gerald Johns (Ned Bellamy), about how to kill Frank Browning. Boyd thinks that perhaps the swingers intend for him to be killed by some “Johnny on the spot lawman”. Gerald assures Boyd they see him as an asset and rethreatens my favorite criminal. Boyd asks what would happen if he just killed him right then and there and a third threat is levied.

In Tramble, Arlo (Raymond J. Barry) is getting his hair cut but the prisoner in charge of haircuts wasn’t expecting him. Mosley hits the barber with a sock full of rocks and he and the guard talk about how they dosed Arlo with double whatever he’s on so that it wouldn’t look weird in the tox screen. Mosley is to kill Arlo and when the other guards notice the cameras are off, the guard will come in and pulls Hunter of off Arlo. The plan is to tell the investigators that Hunter slipped into the room after the guard went to the bathroom. And that he was working alone. Arlo sits up having faked being knocked out. He hits Mosley with a comb jar full of barcide and then starts bashing the guard. Despite some beautiful cinematography, Arlo didn’t quite hit Mosley hard enough to knock him out so Hunter comes back with a pair of scissors and gets Arlo square in the chest not far from the heart.

Drew Thompson’s wife (Julia Campbell)is going thru mug books saying that people have changed so much in 30 years, she used to look like Ava Gardner. Raylan suggests running her hand over each photo to see if she gets any psychic vibes. Arlo gets the news that his father was shived in the chest with a pair of scissors. He’s alive for now but they don’t think he’ll make it thru the night. Raylan tells the not-widow that someone who knew where Drew was stabbed not telling her the familial relation.

A woman named Trish (Peggy Dunne) lets Boyd into her house. Boyd tells him that the swingers have nothing on him and the man, Frank (Rocky McMurray), replies that the swingers only have two hobbies; screwing and money. Boyd offers Frank a chance the opportunity to beat their price. Frank asks if Boyd does much hunting and alludes to Doctor Moreau's isle before a friend named Deke comes out from the shadows with a high powered rifle. Boyd is not intimidated. The man lets Boyd leave after levying a fourth threat to Crowder this episode.

Ava (Joelle Carter) sees the news as a celebratory bit. Boyd in the backroom tells Colton (Ron Eldard) about this and Colt gets a text from someone asking him if he’s told Boyd about something. Odds are on Johnny (David Meunier) and Ellen May’s not-death. Boyd is annoyed that Colt is busy sending notes to “the cheerleader in class”. Speaking of the cheerleader, Ava knocks to inform Boyd that Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns) is at the bar. Duffy tells him that Tonin is sending down a man who has killed more men than malaria and asks if they’ve got a named to give him when he comes. Boyd says he’s narrowed it down to two and that they should play it safe and have the man kill both.

Mr. Browning and Deke (James Ferris) are having a conversation when a man dressed as a deputy (Matthew John Armstrong) knocks and asks for Frank. Finding him, he shoots Deke and sends a photo to someone. Frank claims he doesn’t know what Shelby’s plan is and the assassin says he doesn’t know who Shelby (Jim Beaver) is. Well of course not.

Ellen May (Abby Miller) is still a little antsy about staying with Shelby. Shelby mentions his St. Christopher’s metal belongs to his ex-wife who left him 25 years ago. Ellen May says that her mother did the same thing. She comments on how different clothes can make you feel like a different person and Shelby replies that it took a year for him to get used to his uniform. Ellen says he looks handsome. She asks if she could ever be the person that people wouldn’t wonder when she walked into church about the “whore come to be saved”. Shelby dances around this issue of what Ellen May did with Ava without outright asking her.

The drug dealer (Michael Stoyanov) from a couple of episodes back opens the door to Colton and asks him to strip. After a back and forth, Colton shoots the man and takes some of his stuff. Before he goes, he meets Tim’s friend from the VA, Mark (Ian Reed Kesler), who claims to have not recognized him. Mark and Colt sit down to a cigarette. They make conversation and then Colt shoots him as well. I think my friend may have been on to something this episode.

Raylan is sitting next to his father’s bed side asking him to give him something on the Thompson case. He says he doesn’t want an apology and he doesn’t want advice, just something. He wants his kids to hear something about their grandfather other than that he was a son of a bitch. Arlo asks Raylan to stay before telling him to “kiss my ass.” The greater Lexington area of?

Some dude (Sam Keener, one of the swingers played by Grainger Hines) is tying some girl to a bed before he starts to pour some candle wax on his torso. The door bell rings aggressively so he goes to answer it. And who should he find but the assassin. The fake deputy takes a photo before calling someone and then shooting the man.

Shelby is not happy that less than a day after Raylan gave Shelby a list, one of the men on it showed up dead. Only now a second unrelated body has turned up and Shelby wants to know what the list is. Raylan tells him about the widows’ list. The first guy’s widow tells him about Boyd’s visit.

Johnny goes to see Duffy about the bodies and tells Duffy that only one of the men could have been Thompson and then the other guy was a drinking buddy of his daddies long before Drew even arrived. Duffy gets it finally that “Boyd just handed me his enemies list?” He then informs Johnny that he is about to get his wish about his cousin getting shuffled off the mortal coil but that means he has to deliver Drew.

Raylan walks into the bar and as he does so the deputy is dragging Boyd off and so Raylan, who just saw Shelby halts the proceedings to ask about the engagement ring and Boyd says that Raylan is still on the guest list. The deputy starts to act as if he’s going to pull and finally, Raylan delivers some gunfire this episode saying he hopes he get that right. “Jesus, I hope I got that right.” The other man also fired but all of his shots went wide.

Colt walks behind a field where people are cheering while he waits to drop off a package. He enters a storage room and drops off a bundle of money. Johnny sees the exchange. Tonin’s man Nicky Augustine (Mike O’Malley) calls Boyd and Boyd asks why he would want a man who was taken when he can have the man who took him. The man on the other end of the line says that he should call him when he gets Thompson. Boyd asks for something first.

Raylan strands photocopying something n the marshal’s office when Shelby comes up to tell him that he’s in the clear for the shooting. Browning has been Browning since at least 1972. 26 people still remain on the widow’s list and Shelby suggests a couple of names to potentially add to the list stating that they’re the men Boyd been hanging around. The only one they know for sure is that Boyd is Thompson’s only loose end now that Arlo has died. Art passes the case off to some people temporarily and Raylan replies that since he found it in his wall, it’s his case. He makes his case saying that he has a better chance than anyone else of solving Art’s career making case. He takes a few days to go claim the body and as a waits for the elevator processes the news in an acting tour de force.

Boyd sits down in Johnny’s bar talking to a few of the swingers offering them something to drink. Boyd informs them that their friends Sam and Frank are both dead and that the police think the same man killed both. The man threatens Boyd (Jesus, how many does that make) and Boyd suggests they call their boss. They do and the number’s been disconnected. Boyd informs him that that number ain’t never gonna pick up because he used his connections to scare the people on the other end before ordering them to sit back down. He replies what they’ve done makes them criminals but not outlaws. “I am the outlaw” and Boyd demands a hundred thousand each from them before also requesting a Dairy Queen franchise.

Boyd takes Ava into the backroom saying this is how three generations down the road, they’ll be legit. Ava asks if they’ll be alive in three. She asks if there’s anybody bigger than Theo. There isn’t but Boyd still thinks he’s got control of the situation and asks her to have faith while they break thru that glass ceiling.

In the morgue, Raylan looks upset over his daddy’s death.

Next Tuesday: Boyd’s gone after some missing puzzle pieces and Raylan is in a car with his father’s killer. Oh and we finally get to meet Drew Thompson.

What worked:
This episode was amazing on so many levels, let’s start at the top:
♥ I loved that Arlo got to have a pretty cool fight scene before he got killed. All we usually saw of the man was crabbiness which worked well but this time we finally got to see a little bit of who he was like when he was younger which helps to color what type of crimes he did. As Raymond Barry said in his interview, when you’re 70, fights just don’t happen that much on TV for you.
♥ I liked the reference to Ava Gardner because in the short story Fire in the Hole, Ava Crowder says that that’s where she got her name from and that Bowman used to tell her she looked nothing like Gardner.
♥ I loved that Boyd finally seemed to get his edge back this episode and I loved Duffy’s realization of who he’s dealing with.
♥ I loved Timothy Olyphant’s subtle reaction to Arlo’s death and the pleading with him ahead of time.

What didn’t:
Nothing. Nothing didn’t work.

And if you haven’t seen it already and would like to know what some of my stray thoughts were during this episode, you can read my collection of tweets. Either way, drop me a line in the comments.