Justified 2x11, "Full Commitment"

All right, it's come down to this. Only one man can stand victorious.

WHO HAS THE HIGHEST HAIR?

Tim Gutterson

 or

Boyd Crowder

 The winner gets to get laid; the loser only gets to watch a movie with his ladyfriend while in the midst of marital strife and various Raylan shenanigans.

See, wasn't that fun? Almost helps you ignore the brutal, wrenching last moments of the ep, right?


Right?

Sorry, Boyd's Hair; you take a back seat to this Google search string

Dear Justified-loving stranger: You are my favorite out of all the Justified-loving strangers:

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Justified 2x10, "Debts and Accounts"

The episode opened with the two maternal titans of the show's universe sitting down across from one another in a homey family-style cafe. Cash money was on the table within seconds, and Helen Givens began the delicate political process of appealing to history, grief, love, and strength to keep the peace in her corner of Kentucky. By episode's end, the wheels were in motion by the spurned son, Dickie, to create another clusterfuck. It's like a sort of gender-reversed "King Lear."

I found it interesting how quickly Mags dissolved her connection with Dickie, almost as though her affection--such as it was--for Coover was what kept Dickie within the fold. Whether Mags blames Dickie for Coover's demise or whether it is truly a decision borne out of months of thought, as Brother Corrupt Sheriff implies, is murky. Either way, the dissolution of the Bennett family connection was brutal and carried with it immediate, predictable fallout.

Boyd using stupid people to his own means generally doesn't work out well for the stupid person.

The Raylan and Loretta reunion was unexpected, and I thought it really spoke to both characters well: Raylan did not do the regular-adult thing and correct Loretta when she expressed relief at Coover's death and her empty apathy regarding her father's passing, and he did not sell her fairy tales about her life in foster care. And Loretta's facade barely cracked but showed the many conflicting and strong emotions she was feeling, even as an Art-dubbed "tough cookie."

While that pseudo-family transaction went well, the other opening scene between Art and Raylan...wasn't so super-dupe. Art's amused-irritated paternal patience seems to have run out, and his blunt hand-waving dismissal of Raylan as a person and a professional seemed to have very little impact on Raylan, other than inspiring him to his usual petulant-12-year-old deliquent face. It's not a mentor-mentee relationship, per se, but it's had elements of a different kind of personal and professional foster care--the good-hearted Christian sarcasm generator case worker and his perpetually-in-trouble killing machine of a ward--and to see it so seemingly irreparable is pretty heartbreaking, at least to me.

I liked the way the ep showed Raylan and Boyd, Winona and Ava all at a sort of parallel crossroads with their hearts, and it was cool how the show implied that all four continue to walk that very thin line between domestic and wild, criminal and lawman(or woman): while Raylan and Winona were chased through an office building and shot at, Winona discovering that "running away together" had more implications than she realized at the beginning, though Raylan's heart seemed to remain true; meanwhile, in a quieter, no less heavy scene, after returning to his empire-building, Boyd took station outside Ava's house, wistfully watching and pining for her, as she had been doing for him earlier in the ep... only to find that she was not in the house, but out wandering the moors "looking at the stars."

And then, and pardon me while I abandon all pretentions to treat this show with the dignity and respect it clearly deserves as a well-written and powerful show about the bonds and dangers of family and history, the differences between loyalty and criminality, BOYD AND AVA KISSED OMG OMG OMG OMG.

It was pretty awesome, and I'll spare us all embarrassment by not describing the vapors induced by seeing the subtle flicker of tongue during the kiss before Boyd and Ava melted into a hug. (Oh, my gosh, and the previews for next episode where they turn towards the camera in an implication of breaking a heated embrace like they are auditioning for the opening credits of General Hospital or something? Awesome.)

In conclusion: Mags Bennett. Titans. Um. Other...smart stuff.

ETA: Never mind...

The best thing I have seen turn up in my Google search terms thus far

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Justified 2x09, "Brother's Keeper"

I didn't know exactly how to tackle the latest Justified ep, because so much happened, both with the storyline and with specific character relationships. But I do want to address this:

Shoulder to shoulder. Boy, I bet Harlan County doesn't even know what it's in for. Especially when Ava is wearing red shoes.

Justified 2x08, "The Spoil"

After a filler ep last week, this week's ep wasted no time in getting the avalanche rolling downhill: Art knows Raylan and Winona were up to something (you can tell by his snarkiness combined with his Disappointed Dad face); the Bennetts and Black Pike Coal are not-so-quietly struggling for control of the land surrounding the mountain; and Aunt Helen, knowledgeable of what the meaning is behind the land struggle, gives Raylan the rest of the stolen front money to get him the heck out of the county.

If I didn't know this was based on an Elmore Leonard story, I'd guess Robert B Parker had a hand in it by the way Carol, the Black Pike exec, and Raylan interacted: she's an eloquent, tough, unsubtle single gal, and he's the muscle hired to protect her, though he spends most of his time resisting her verbal advances when he's not drinking with her at the end of a long day. Raylan, like Spenser, is a one-gal guy, but if we were comparing the gals, I think Susan is overall a more together, mature individual. Don't know if she's hotter--Susan is a goddess based on Spenser's descriptions--but Carol's pretty damn hot with her long flame-colored hair and her pretty intense bazooms. I'm not a fan of the way she went about displaying the bazooms--people who feel free to strut about displaying their underthings may be "very comfortable" with their bodies, but mostly I think they are "very comfortable" trying to get people to notice their round, voluptuous "comforts" (ladies) or [eeh-nnnnnnnngh-pointing-at-that-area] (menfolk).

Mags Bennett moments of note: tapping Coover with a shovel to get him to stop pounding on Raylan, of course, and most definitely her friendly neighbor proselytizing at the town hall meeting. What a tremendous performance, and I loved the touch of her singling out the gentleman who sold to Black Pike earlier in the ep. It was a chilling reminder that the show has been very, very good at insulating Mags from the dirty work: you never see her giving the orders to sic Charlie (my guess: some kind of sharp-toothed rodent, like in The Big Lebowski--"Hey, nice marmot") on folks, but knowing her relationship of command-and-control with her boys, you have to infer she's behind it.

I'm afraid for Loretta. Her bravado and resourcefulness seem to almost shrink in comparison to scenes like Coover's violent attack or Mags's grand scheme. She looked like a prop in that town hall meeting, which, you know, basically everyone is between the machinations of the coal company and the Bennetts. But her most of all, since she's smack in the middle of the Bennetts' web.

And finally, Boyd and Ava: who would have thought, back in season 1, that having the opinion "You know, Ava's sexy and feisty, but I think she may be a little too crazy for Raylan" would work itself out this way, with Boyd and Ava moving from antagonists who routinely threatened the other's life to pseudo-domestic partners and partners-in-crime. Frankly, I find Ava exactly the kind of partner that Boyd needs. She talks; he listens. When he needs care or support, she gives it; in return, he has begun speaking of the things "we" need, as though he and Ava are a unit.

And she's still wicked fast with that shotgun. I knew she'd be there to chase off the Bennetts.

I loved the callback to Boyd's sermon from the pulpit in season 1 with his bravura performance at the town hall meeting. And I love that once again, he's the smartest guy in the room. Raylan's no dummy, but I think with his discombobulation over Winona's dumb decisions and Art's obvious awareness of the dumbness, he's not exactly on his game (thus the ass-beating he received from Coover) (well, that and the hangover).

It's going to be interesting to see where all this leads, but it's obvious bodies will fall in the last four episodes.

Justified 2x07, "Save the Love"

I guess there was bound to be one episode that wasn't all that great. Beyond Art knowing shenanigans had been up and Boyd getting a new suit for the now-all-too-familiar racket of being pulled into a criminal enterprise, this mini-arc of Winona stealing a bunch of money and her and Raylan Yakety Sax'ing their way through a veritable convenience-of-storytelling gauntlet of near-misses and delays was a-nnoying.

So much so that I'm not going to dl a video file to make a screencap of Boyd in his suit.

Justified 2x06, "Blaze of Glory"

Let me get this out of my system first:
Take me now! But know the truth!
I'm going out!
In a blaze of glory!
Lord, I never drew first but I drew first blood
I'm no one's son
Call me Young Guns II!!!

To start off this post,  I have to say I thought all day about ndnickerson's funny Tweet about Boyd's hair. But what bothered me was if the scale was based solely on Boyd's hair, or if it was a more general scale based on wildness and height of hair of film and tv characters. The scale I came up with was:

Note: some objects may be fuzzier than they appear.

I like the feeling that we're in the part of the chess game where the pawns are moving back and forth on the board before the onslaught of rook-to-whatever-I-didn't-really-pay-attention-to-the-chess-in-Chess begins. Boyd and Ava appear in the beginning, the Bennetts don't appear at all, and we're left with Raylan and Winona continuing their personal drama--and am I a dummy, or are they hinting Winona may be pregnant?--and an interesting b-story for Art and the old-timer convict.

I love Art's dialogue for the "chase" (of the convict who was oxygen tank-less, not shown) was basically "Shit," "Ass-hole," and "Was that necessary?" I love spending time with Art. He's a good boss and mentor to Raylan--knows when to respect Raylan's skills and when to call him on his hotheaded, petulant bullshit--and the rest of the team. He's a pragmatic, patient, smart man, and for once, I actually bought the scene where he magically shows up at the right time and the right place to catch the fleeing convict.

Speaking of Mister Raylan Givens and his hotheaded ways, sometimes I forget how good Tim Olypants looks when he's full of barely controlled rage. It was hard to miss while watching Deadwood, because Seth Bullock's default setting was "barely controlled rage." But last night, when that idiot bank robber was talking gross sass about Winona, and Raylan gave him one of these:

And this:

Yeah, that's the stuff.

(The conclusion of that picture story: Raylan socked that guy, then kicked him in the mug while he was down.)

So a good standard, biding-our-time-until-the-Harlan-implosion stuff starts rolling.

Roll credits:

I always forget Alan Ruck is in Young Guns II! And who is Brad Whitford? Surely not Emmy Award-winning Josh Lyman portrayer Bradley Whitford.

Justified 2x05, "Cottonmouth" (in just a few brief screencaps)

Greater than or equal to...

You decide.

I don't know what it is about his glasses, but nearly every shot of him makes me laugh like I'm a performer in The Mikado.

That did not make me laugh like a G&S schoolgirl. Something about Boyd in this ep made me so sad, even as I admired how very much smarter than everyone else he was. When he sat across from Ava and said, "Because it's what I do. It's who I am... as hard as I've been trying to pretend otherwise. Everybody else seems to know that but me," my heart broke, even though I knew he'd just murdered four men in pretty cold blood (well, they were planning to kill him AND another innocent man played by ELLSWORTH, no less, and if you can save Ellsworth from getting shot twice in this lifetime...).

Hey, speaking of things that did not make me laugh like a G&S schoolgirl:

d

Tough Love: Parenting Via Ball-Peen Hammer Beatings by Mags Bennett.

Eat it, Dr. Spock.

Justified, 2x04 "For Blood or Money"

"I call this little number 'The Oxy Bus Cleanup Breakdown!'"

Who knew a hoedown could be such a dramatic and tense dance? The opening scene did more table-setting for what will probably be a big ol' mess by season's end: Mags Bennett's idiot boys and their criminal tomfoolery have brought out both curiosity and suspicion in Raylan. Though he enters the scene quietly enough, with his mix of charm and polite manners...

Aww, he brought a pie and a smile (and a bunch of veiled accusations)!

...it ends in a tense exchange between Raylan and Mags, uncovering bad blood, truth, and lies. Before Mags's returns to her former position of hospitality--her offers of food and drink come with equal parts maternal warmth and insidious intention--it's clear that Raylan won't be backing down and Mags has something brewing that she is eager to protect.

It was good to see Loretta, if only briefly, and know she's still safe. I imagine her loyalty to Raylan will be a pivot point as the season progresses.

Boyd and Ava continue their equally tense dance of domesticity and whatever-the-heck-else is going on between the two of them:

Come into my parlor (or my front porch) said the spider to the fly... (though which one is which is up for debate)

I particularly liked the scene on the porch, how it was a combination of comfortable small talk and getting-to-know-you, all with the added bonus of the reminder that Boyd and Ava are both fairly dangerous individuals.

This episode seemed particularly Elmore Leonardy. I'll be really honest: I would have enthusiastically watched a Flex spinoff in a minute. That's really what The Wire was missing: a not-remotely-reformed drug-dealer cum self-taught magician with a muscle car and a flair for marketing (really, why would you want to add a "the Amazing" tag to Flex? Genius).

But the biggest surprise of the night, besides the fact that Chief Art Mullen has a wife we have yet to meet:

I'm pretty sure that next to Mags Bennett, she's likely the most awe-inspiring woman ever (but in a much better, non-poisoning way)

...is that resident sharpshooter and Iraq War veteran Tim has, apparently, the total hots for his Marshal cohort, Rachel.

I suddenly feel compelled to revisit every single episode to look for clues for this. Even during my first viewing of this ep, I missed how vigilant Tim is about looking at Rachel. In the Billy the Kidverse pizza joint, while Raylan's gaze is locked, for the most part, on Clinton, Tim's eyes never stray from Rachel. But seriously, when they cut to that shot in the third panel, it was like getting hit with a ton of bricks imprinted with bluebirds and sparkly hearts. His expression as Rachel talks about her family is like the Southern gun-toting dude version of Mr. Darcy restraining himself from comforting Elizabeth in the '95 P&P.

I feel like a dummy. I always catch stuff like this early. Where was I?

This one is for my pal KF, if she's reading. She loves when a group of individuals become a makeshift family. Chief Art as papa, of course, and his kidlets (I love how Timothy Olyphant characters in these makeshift families are invariably the prodigal son with a temperament problem--Deadwood lives on still).

A Justified mini-post (2x03, "I of the Storm")

They've threatened each other's lives (repeatedly), so of course they're roommates, and of course when Ava looks at Boyd like this...

...he readily follows through and obeys.

(It's just too, too bad I can't capture my favorite moment of the ep, but as great as Art's expressions are as he gives Raylan a hard time, it doesn't fully capture the greatness of the tone in his voice--the paternal snap when he asks if it's Rachel that Raylan is sneaking around with, the silky teasing about how if it was him, he'd remember; and the giddy schadenfreude when he realizes it's Winona.)