‘Justified’ Season 5 Episode 2 ‘The Kids Aren’t All Right’ Recap: Everybody Plays the Fool

Boyd’s problems continue to mount while Raylan runs into an old friend who is dragging his name into a drug deal gone bad on the latest Justified…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

It’s going to be a long season ahead for Boyd Crowder if the first two episodes of season 5 of Justified are any indication. Last week our favorite drug dealing philosopher dealt with the fall out of the disintegration of the Detroit mob, which cost him his long term heroin connection out of Canada. On top of that, Boyd had to continue his visits behind bars with the love of his life Ava while she awaits trial on murder charges. The cherry on the sundae was Boyd — usually as calm, cool and collected as a Buddhist monk — came unhinged at the veiled undertones spewed at him courtesy of Clover Hill elitist Lee Paxton and took him apart with a vicious beat down.

As the second episode ‘The Kids Aren’t All Right’ picks up, the problems falling on Boyd’s head seem to get heavier and heavier. Ava is still in jail and she’s beginning to question his methods and desire to set her free. With the trial just a scant 10 days away, her panic is setting in and there’s no amount of fancy lawyering that will set her mind at ease. Boyd promises that she’ll never see the inside of a courtroom, but how he will accomplish this miraculous feat remains to be seen.

The add onto his misery, Boyd’s assault on Paxton didn’t quite kill the manipulative socialite but instead left him in a comatose state with his wife Maura close by his side. Deputy Mooney (who helped set up Ava in the first place) wants nothing more than to pin Paxton’s brutal beating on Boyd and it appears the grieving wife will play ball so he picks her up and charges into the bar ready to arrest Harlan’s most wanted.

One look at Boyd’s face and Maura is convinced — he’s not the man that assaulted her husband. Mooney is floored and Boyd is clearly relieved. A while later at the hospital, Boyd arranges a private meeting with Maura where she reveals the terms of her deal — she wants to go home, far away from Paxton, Harlan and his dead body business with a cool $300,000 she’s been promised and Boyd will never face a day in jail for the crime. Boyd is happy to deliver that sum once he’s got it in hand. See his heroin business is still lacking right now so funds are at a shortage but he assures her plans are in the works to make sure she’s paid and sent packing.

Mooney is none too pleased and later stops Maura while out driving and puts it to her point blank — her recollection of who assaulted Paxton needs to get clearer or her life is going to get an awful lot harder. Things only get more complicated when at the end of the episode, Paxton’s fingers twitch and his one good eye opens as he asks for his wife who is sitting by his bedside. As the nurse arrives to check on him, Boyd’s life just got tied up in a few more knots.

This predicament might seem like enough to make anyone run for the Maalox, but Boyd’s problems are only mounting. The heroin supply in Harlan county is running dry and no matter how much Wynn Duffy in his slick suits and sharp tongue try to assure the dealers working for them that the drugs are en route, no one is listening. Luckily Boyd shows up in time to win back over the mountain crowd with an offer of free booze and a promise that the dope will be there day after tomorrow. When Boyd and his boys arrive at the pickup where they are supposed to meet the Canadians with their supply, the cars are shot up, everybody’s dead and there isn’t a drop of heroin to be found.

If you’re having heroin problems I got news for you son — Boyd’s got 99 problems plus Ava is another one.

On the other side of the law, Raylan is dealing with his own brushes with criminality. If you remember last season when he handed over Nicky Augustine to Sammy Tonin, who then immediately shot and killed the Detroit enforcer after he threatened Raylan’s family, it appears that case isn’t quite closed yet. Just days earlier while Raylan was still in Florida, Sammy called him at the office and hours later he was shot dead. Raylan does his best to play it off as an offer he made to turn himself in if the heat ever got to be too much, but Art is smart enough to sift through a load of bullshit.

Art makes a call to another U.S. Marshal’s office to have them dig into Sammy’s whereabouts on the day that Nicky Augustine was murdered in Lexington. It appears Art suspects Raylan had more to do with this situation than he’s letting on.

Before Raylan gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he firsts helps execute a warrant on a criminal named Monroe (played by Xander Berkeley) — he helps out with Detroit’s dirty laundry (I’m guessing he’s involved in money laundering although they never quite specify). The U.S. Marshal’s have seized his property as part of the ongoing criminal proceedings. In the midst of making the arrest, Raylan receives a call from a lieutenant in the Lexington police department demanding he make an appearance because he helped get his son hooked on dope (there’s more to that story in a second). Rachel needs the car to transport the prisoner so Raylan helps himself to Monroe’s Mercedes (not to mention Art and U.S. Attorney Vasquez are sweet enough to even offer up Monroe’s house to Raylan for temporary safe keeping).

The call Raylan received was due to his name being dropped by a teenager arrested in connection with drug dealing — say hello to Loretta again. Sure enough she’s gotten mixed up with another local boy and they have been dealing for Rodney ‘Hot Rod’ Dunham — the marijuana kingpin out of Memphis. He’s not getting the money he’s owed so Hot Rod sends some of his guys to shake down the teens and find the cash. Loretta just happens to be the real mastermind behind this entire nefarious plot and she’s using Raylan’s attachment to her as an advantage. The interaction with Loretta does yield one interesting meeting — enter social worker Allison (played by Amy Smart) who immediately catches Raylan’s eye. He’s flirty, she’s flirty — oh it’s so cute when beautiful people get together on TV! He even manages to get her back to his borrowed palatial estate for a date where she balks at his advances but with only 11 episodes to go in the season, I’m thinking her clothes will be coming off in the very near future.

Meanwhile, Raylan cracks down on Hot Rod’s incursion into Harlan county and his harsh methods of doling out punishment to teenage drug dealers. He ends up in a stand off with Hot Rod and his boys while offering him a zero negotiation deal to walk away from this situation — he leaves Loretta and the other boy alone, he leaves Kentucky for good and keeps his business in Memphis far out of Raylan’s considerable reach. Hot Rod tries to talk back, but Raylan quickly reminds him that he’s been dealing with criminal threats like him since he was old enough to walk courtesy of having a father like Arlo Givens. Raylan promises if this thing goes south, he’ll kill Hot Rod and at least three of his boys before the first one can draw their weapon, and good chances are he’ll kill the rest as well without ever being truly threatened and because of the badge on his hip, it will all be legal.

Hot Rod backs down and backs away while Raylan is left to return Loretta to her foster home. She played him to her advantage to help get her out from under Hot Rod’s thumb while still holding onto the money she owed him. Raylan is wise to her game, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be there for her when she needs him again. Loretta lost her father and the surrogate mother she came to know was the one who killed him. She’s already behind the 8-ball, no reason to slam the door shut on her before she even gets to turn 18.

Before we exit Harlan this week, Dewey is knee deep in whores when his club manager Messer knocks on his trailer and notifies him that he has a visitor back in Audrey’s that says he’s kin and all of his charges are on the house. Dewey walks in and comes face to face with cousin Daryl, who has made the long trip from Florida to Kentucky to see his family. Daryl embraces Dewey with a hug, but it’s clear he’s not happy to see his cousin’s arrival.

You know it’s hard out here for a pimp.

Best Line of the Week:

Justified always has a few zingers each week so for episode 2 I compiled a few of them. Talk amongst yourselves to decide which is actually the best.

Boyd’s patience is tested

“You get paid to tell me shit I already know?” – Boyd to Jimmy when speaking about the current mud they are mired in.

How can we get Dewey out of the office?

“Tell him one of the whores is on fire, I don’t care” — One of Boyd’s men talking to Messer at Audrey’s when he can’t get to the payoff money for his boss because Dewey is occupying the office where the cash is stashed.

Don’t remind Raylan what happens when you draw down on him

“You gonna make me do the paperwork?” — Raylan to Hot Rod’s enforcers who earlier said they didn’t want to be cops because when you kill somebody there’s all that paperwork to do. When Raylan is staring them down with his own gun, he reminds them of their earlier statement.

Sweet try Loretta

“Next time lead with that. It’s bullshit but at least it’s an attempt” — Raylan to Loretta when she looks at him with a doe-eyed stare promising that if he gets her out of jail she’ll never cross the law again.

Hot Rod’s not the brightest crayon in the box

“You the type of fellah that walks under a flock of birds and is surprised when he ends up with shit on his face?” — Raylan to Hot Rod when explaining the harsh realities of depending on teenagers to help run his drug trade.

Dewey is in the middle of two prostitutes and doesn’t want to be disturbed

Unless Hitler has risen from the grave and is in my whorehouse, go away right now, Messer