Justified - 5x01 A Murder of Crowes - Recap/Review (Spoilers)

Previously on Justified

Last night’s episode starts with a 2 minute tribute to the late, great author Elmore Leonard with interviews with Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins, Joelle Carter, and Graham Yost.

When the episode starts, Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) is on the witness stand being crossed by a lawyer for Dewey Crowe’s (Damon Herriman) defense. The lawyer, Marsha Keyhoe (Jeannetta Arnette) recounts that Raylan has broken Dewey’s nose twice and accuses him of assaulting Dewey over a dozen times. She claims that she has many more inmates abused by Raylan which AUSA David Vasquez (Rick Gomez) calls bullshit. Judge Reardon (Stephen Root) is back as the moderating judge. He offers Dewey a sum of money which Dewey $300 instead of $300,000. The judge interprets his silence as acceptance.

Boyd (Walton Goggins) and Ava (Joelle Carter) are being counseled by their lawyer when Boyd instructs the lawyer to put his headphones in so they can talk unobserved. Boyd tells her he is ready for whatever judgment they settle on. The judge in her case is apparently honest and Boyd plans on threatening his family as part of his plan to do everything in his power to get her out. Another note of interest is that he’s bought the house they were looking at, but it feels like a prison.

Late that night, Boyd goes to meet with a new set of characters to exchange money for heroin. Boyd attempts to change the rules of the game, but Buckley pulls a gun on him. The man seemingly in charge threatens to shoot him and one of Boyd’s men fires first. Boyd kills both men before going for the one still in the car. Detroit has been having trouble getting the dope shipment in. And just to prove that they’re not done, Boyd gets shot in the ear.

“Boyd, your ear.”
"I know, I'm the one who got shot."

Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns) gets a phone call from Boyd about the fubar on the bridge and Boyd tells him to pack a bag as they’re going to Detroit.

Two men are met at the docks by a third and are told about the shipment from Miami. The man called Simon Lee (Ron Yuan) asked what they did this time. The two men tell him they sold all the candy that they got. (Whether they mean actual candy or not is not made immediately clear.) Simon says he wants to deal with “the other Crowe” if he’s gonna deal with Crowes. One of the two underlings kills Simon being “tired of him makin’ fun of me.”

Art (Nick Searcy) tells Raylan he has good news for him. He’s to investigate a missing coast guard officer the sole suspects being Dylan “Dilly” Crowe and a Cuban man called Elvis Manuel Machado (Amaury Nolasco.) Raylan figures Dewey owes him a favor. Art sees him owing about 300,000 favors. Raylan goes to Audrey’s to talk to Dewey and ends up talking with Wade Messer. Boyd no longer owns the bar having sold it to Dewey. Could this have something to do with the fact Ava told him no whores?

Dewey’s playing Marco Polo with a couple of girls in a pool installed in the back. Raylan orders the girls out of the pool and Dewey orders them to stay. Raylan orders him out of the pool. Raylan asks if it was Boyd’s idea to sell him the bar or Dewey’s idea to take it over. Raylan finds an engraved gun with Dewey’s name on it and he claims that his name is a common one. Dewey tells Raylan he owes him an apology. Raylan tells him the money was the apology. Dewey asks for a proper apology and for the first time in five seasons, Raylan apologizes to Dewey Crowe. He doesn’t specify for what, but he apologized. Dewey tells him the Florida Crowes are bad news and he doesn’t want to associate with them. Raylan takes his word on it and shoots the pool anyways. Poor Dewey is left calling for a bucket for his hemorrhaging pool.

Raylan goes to the office in Miami where Chief Deputy Dan Grant (Matt Craven) gives him a chauffeur-shash-baby sitter, Deputy Sutter (David Koechner.) Raylan has been brought in as a Crowe tracker. He calls back to the pilot with Belle Glade and poaching gators (it’s safer.)

Dilly (Jason Gray-Stanford) is telling Darryl Crowe (Michael Rapaport) about the shipment and Darryl’s telling him what he’s gonna do about it. He’s none too happy to hear that they’ve killed Simon and asks where the body is. The body is still in the boat. They try to justify it to Darryl and Darryl is having none of it. He tells him he will bury both of them before he lets them ruin the family and order him to take the body to “the Haitian.”

In Detroit, Boyd has to hand over his driver’s license as proof of ID. It’s sent up in a bucket to an upper level. “What texting would have been too slow?” Both Duffy and Boyd are given clearance to go up, but their third member is ordered to stay while they go up until they run out of stairs.

Raylan is talking with the Haitian, Jean Baptiste (Edi Gathegi) about the previous time they met and how Raylan had to miss a concert with ZZ Top to find Darryl Crowe in the shitter. He spills the beans on Dewey’s sudden influx of money while making conversation with Deputy Sutter. They go to lunch and tell Jean they’re coming back with a warrant. Jean Baptiste calls Darryl.

Boyd and Wynn are walking along an abandoned hallway when they meet a man asking what they’re doing. Boyd tells him to ask the man downstairs. Picker then comes out of a room where a man is seemingly being tortured by chainsaw. Picker (John Kapelos) tells them that they needed to put 14 floors between the floor and Sammy Tonin because of recent dope disputes. He asks if Boyd has the money. Boyd does, but he will only give it to Sammy. Picker calls for him. Wynn makes introductions. Boyd testily tells him they’re there to buy the dope they were promised and Picker kills Sammy after telling him to go after the money Boyd has. He also dispatches of the guy with the chainsaw and the guy he was torturing. He makes a phone call and the person on the other end is well aware of the situation. Picker asks for the brief case again. Wynn and Boyd put up a fight resulting in Boyd jamming a gun in Pickers mouth. He made a deal with the Canadians that he would kill Sammy and give them Boyd’s money in exchange for them not killing him. These Canadians sound intriguing…wonder where they came from all of the sudden....

Raylan is having a chat with Deputy Sutter when a lawyer, Wendy (Alicia Witt) comes up to them and tells them that Darryl would like to help them in exchange for his parole being shortened. Raylan tells her they don’t have that power. She reminds them that they could talk to the judge in the case and put in a favorable word. They make the deal.

Raylan goes to talk to Darryl. Darryl makes sure to tell him he had no weapons and says that he took a load of classes on the tax payers’ dime while incarcerated. Raylan asks over Dilly. Sutter tells him that if he doesn’t cooperate, they will revoke his parole because he vacated his last address without notification. Darryl assures them he wants nothing other than to provide full cooperation.

“Now here I thought all Canadians were supposed to be nice.”

The Canadians are talking about Tim Horton’s donut shops when Boyd meets with them. Boyd wants to talk about business. When one of them finally asks about his ear, Boyd is less than happy with the situation and tartly replies his new wound is courtesy of a ceiling fan. The one guy (Dave Foley) tells him that organized crime is supposed to be organized. Boyd makes it clear that he has no interest in whether Picker lives or dies. The Canadian ask for the briefcase with the promise of the dope in 2-3 days. Boyd is reluctant, but after prompting from Duffy, he hands it over. Picker tells him that they just lost their Canadian pipeline and suggest they look to Mexico. Boyd asks if he knows a lot of people in Mexico. Remember in season three when Raylan was under the impression Boyd wouldn't like working with Mexico, "[b]ecause of all the Mexicans." I have a feeling times have changed.

Wendy and Darryl Crowe are having a conversation out on the porch when they yell at Dilly for not watching Machado. Darryl tells Machado that he is out because they don’t have any more sugar business. He tells them that they don’t have any sugar business because they screwed it up. Machado demands money to get out. Darryl isn’t too whipped up over the idea, but his sister convinces him. He tells Machado to go to a hotel and wait for the money, but he can’t take his car in case the marshals recognize it. He pats him down and sends him on his way.

Darryl calls Raylan to tell him about Machado being moved to the hotel. Some of Darryl’s compatriots think this is a bad move. Darryl, knowing both Raylan and Machado, thinks it was the wisest thing for him. Dilly, sadly, doesn’t make it past the scene.

Sutter asks how Raylan would feel if his daughter wanted to be a marshal. Raylan says he doesn’t know and the guy tells Raylan his daughter first wanted to be a marshal at age nine when she and he’s been whispering for her to go business school instead.

On the way to the hotel, Machado’s car is in a hit and run. Wendy calls Raylan and tells him that Elvis is now headed for Cuba. Raylan and Deputy Sutter cut off Machado at the docks. They both shoot him as he raises a gun at them and he falls into the water.

Darryl asks Raylan if it all worked out. He tells him that it did and Darryl offers him a beer to celebrate his release from parole. Wendy has gone back to Miami “It’s almost as if family don’t mean shit to some people.” He tells Raylan about how he promised his daddy on his deathbed that he would keep the family afloat. Raylan points out that Darryl’s daddy didn’t die in his bed, he flipped his own boat.

Sutter offers Raylan a ride and tells him about how he was transferred to Kansas City (hey!!!) and says that the hardest part was saying good bye to the kids on Sunday night. To the point that if work kept him in Kansas City, he wouldn’t fight it.

Darryl talks with Jean Baptiste about what he’s gonna do about the situation. The Haitian suggests a revival of the sugar business. He tells Jean that Florida is all tapped out for the Crowes. “Don’t you have a family remember name Dewey in Kentucky?”

Boyd’s case with Ava is not going well. He’s found out that the judge whose family he was planning on threatening, doesn’t have a family. Well, shit.

Raylan gets a Skype-like call from Winona about the baby. She tells him about how cute the little girl is and Raylan bets Winona was cute from the get go. Winona is a little less certain and Raylan promises to spend some time with his daughter as the sad music indicates that he’s taking the other marshal’s words to heart.

Boyd drives up to Paxton’s house and asks to speak with him. Paxton asks if he needs a casket and Boyd tells him he does not. Paxton tells Boyd that his plans for his death now include his much younger wife, Mina (Aubrey Wood.) Paxton surmises that Boyd is there to buy him because he couldn’t buy the judge. Boyd offers him a large sum of money to be delivered within the next few days. Paxton tells him it is almost gratifying to see him on his knees “metaphorically speaking” and then tells him to beg. Boyd does. Paxton refused his money and tells him that he was never going to let “a low life piece of shit turn the tables on [him.]” He tells Boyd that he will convince everyone involved to testify Ava had nothing to do with Delroy’s death. On the condition that Boyd will take the fall. Boyd glares at him and Paxton accuses him of “not loving his white trash fiancée that much.” Boyd does the logical thing and kicks the ever lovin’ shit out of him.

"I'm not a violent man..."

Paxton’s wife comes in and accuses him of killing her husband. Boyd offers her the 100,000 to make the case disappear and Paxton’s death not his fault. She accepts and says she’ll say a burglar did it. Boyd seems to have a moment of considering what he did before he leaves. Mina goes over to Paxton and makes it seem like he’s not quite dead.

Next time: The Kids Aren't All Right. (I cannot tell you how hard it to type it correctly. I mean I type it alright, but not perfect.)

The good:
♥Really well written
♥Beautiful tribute to Elmore Leonard at the beginning
♥The new actors fit in perfectly
♥Well paced episode (I had trouble believing 45 minutes had passed at one point, felt more like 15!)

The neutral:
○ The advanced reviews calling this a darker episode were not wrong, aside from Dewey and pool and Boyd’s constant annoyance about having answer for the ear, there weren’t many funny moments. Unusual for a season opener, but I think it worked very well.
○ Also the body count seems more in line with a season finale than an opener…not that I’m complaining.

Well, we’re back for another thirteen weeks, what did you guys think of the start?

About the Author - Robin Smyth

Robin Smyth is an avid watcher of television; her favourite show is Justified. Her current focus is writing her novel, working on justifiedfansite, and working towards a doctorate in English.