‘Justified’ Kill The Messenger Recap: ‘Why Make an Enemy When You Can Make a Friend’

Boyd finds a new ally in his effort to protect Ava inside and Raylan goes gunning for a Crowe that stepped over the line with his lady Allison….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

When season six of Justified started, the promise from producers of the show was that the Crowe family was coming to town and they would create all kinds of misery for both Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder. Now, admittedly outside of a fun confrontation last week where Daryl and Boyd finally came face to face for the first time, the Crowes have been readily defeated thus far by common sense and a social worker.

This week, however, on the latest episode titled ‘Kill the Messenger’, the Crowe family finally got to show more bite than bark thanks in part to teaming up with Boyd in budding relationship that will surely crumble within a few weeks, but it will certainly be fun while it lasts. Ava’s situation goes from bad to worse and Raylan’s thirst for revenge is trumped only by his rocky relationship with a woman and his boss.

Saving Ava

The start of this season opened with Joelle Carter’s Ava Crowder still behind bars for the murder of Delroy Baker and the subsequent stealing of his body, but just a couple of episodes in as Boyd moved the pieces in Harlan County around like a master Tetris player, I felt there was no way she would spend more than four episodes in lock up. Here we are in episode six and much to my surprise, Ava is still sitting in jail. Her latest stint caused by a pint sized guard named Albert, who shived himself but passed the blame off on Ava after she refused to bend over and bow to his will in jail. Her punishment is being sent off to the Federal penitentiary, far away from Boyd and the easy protection he can buy off from local guards.

Ava’s only visitor this week is her lawyer (sans headphones for once), who promises that he’s good at what he does, but it’s going to be a long climb to dig out of the hole she’s currently sitting in. Boyd does at least pass her a message of comfort although the one common theme that’s been running throughout this season is the once powerfully strong, inseparable couple is only growing more distant each week they are apart.

“Baby –
I’m sorry I’m not there. Everything will be alright. You’re safe, stay strong.
All my love, Boyd” ~ his letter to Ava

Boyd’s plan to keep Ava safe includes making a deal with an old Aryan friend of his named Gunnar, whose sister Gretchen happens to be the Nazi leader inside the prison and she’s the one to protect his lady love. Boyd offers up some cash to make sure Gretchen gets the job done and he’s confident his white power brother will come through in the clutch. The only problem is during this particular exchange Gunnar happens to question Boyd’s loyalty to the cause after hearing about his ministry from a few seasons back that was open to all races. It’s easy to see this relationship is going to be rocky.

To New Business

Mr. Picker comes through on his promise to get Boyd and Wynn hooked up with a new heroin supplier so that’s where we meet Alberto Ruiz and Mr. Yoon (played by Heroes James Kyson Lee). Upon entering the room, Wynn breaks the tension by introducing himself to Yoon, who fires back based upon his perceived racism. Of course leave it to Boyd to ratchet up the heat a few notches.

Yoon: “Oh the one wonton among the tortillas?
Boyd: “I would have said kimchi and the salsa”

Boyd and Wynn come to an agreement with their new suppliers — they deliver and then get paid, but given the tenuous nature of this infant relationship, the margin for error seems small. Also, considering one of Yoon’s words of warning included telling the boys that he didn’t want to have to cut off any heads, Body and Wynn just got in deep with the worst kind of gangsters. If you’re unsure how the cartels work in Mexico just watch ‘Sons of Anarchy’ when someone gets blown up by a land mine or listen to Rust Cohle explain his dealings on ‘True Detective’. http://youtu.be/ReYwm7RHm-4

The Welfare of the Child

Allison shows up at the new Crowe estate to check on Kendall, but she’s greeted by Danny’s overexcited canine instead. Daryl backs him off and invites her in where she conducts her inspection now that Wendy and Kendall are all living under the same roof. On her way out, Danny once again has to creep her out by reminding her the worst thing she could do right now is run because his dog Chelsea will give chase and it’s a guarantee which one is faster.

Disturbed by her run in with the Crowes, Allison takes off and lights up some green to calm her nerves with a truck comes up and bumps her from behind. As the headlights bear down on her, Allison loses control and skids off the road. After exiting the car, she looks back up at the road and sees a shadow standing by the truck barking at her just like the dog she left a moment ago. Not since DMX has anybody had a bark as loud as Danny Crowe.

War Wounds

The show’s open this week was a silent affair for the most part as Raylan goes to visit Art, undoubtedly as a follow up from last week’s confrontation over the truth of the Nicky Augustine murder. He walks into the bar, Art stands up from his seat and a second later he swings and connects on Raylan’s face. Art doesn’t say a word and just leaves the bar. And off we go.

Back at the Marshal station, Raylan and Rachel volunteer to go through ammunition inventory, a notoriously thankless job that no one is supposed to raise their hand to do, but here we have two outstanding citizens just waiting to do a good deed. Just as they are about to go down and get to work, Raylan runs into a cut up and bruised Allison exiting the elevator. Their eyes meet and then both shift to the other’s beat up face.

Allison: “What the hell happened to your face?”
Raylan: “You first”

A few seconds later, Raylan is off to Harlan County to exact a little revenge on Danny Crowe, but Rachel isn’t letting him go alone.

A Genius Plan Unravels

Dewey Crowe is obviously the comic relief on this show, but there are moments where you kind of root for him and others where you just feel sad for the guy. This week he tries and fails miserably to sell off his pool — his dream come true in case you were curious — to get some money so he can hit the road. Once his potential buyer sees the hole ripped in the side courtesy of Raylan’s bullets, he passes. That’s when Dewey snaps and says he’s not giving up his dream!

Dewey’s new plan to get the money back from Boyd that he gave him to buy Audrey’s? Work with cousin Danny, kidnap Boyd and make him give it up. There’s no way that could go wrong.

At Boyd’s bar, Danny and Dewey run into Karl, who is cleaning up and who also has to break the news to them that the boss isn’t around. So instead of waiting or finding Boyd, Danny and Dewey opt for plan B — kidnap Karl and see how much Boyd will pay for him. There’s no way that could go wrong.

The ransom call may take the cake for one of the funniest scenes all season as Dewey and Danny, with the combined IQ of a pine cone, call to demand their money. Unfortunately, cell reception in the hills of Kentucky isn’t all that fantastic (that’s not a TV ploy, that’s real) and their attempt to soak Boyd of his cash ends miserably because he never knows it’s actually them on the phone.

At the same time this comedy of errors is happening, Raylan has arrived to look for Danny and have a few words about Allison’s mishap. The first go round, Wendy — the one sensible Crowe — intercedes and plays her attorney (she’s only a paralegal) card and keeps Raylan at bay. Why would Danny run Allison off the road she asks?

“Well, your brother’s a world class dumb ass, no offense, so I hesitate trying to analyze what goes on in his head, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s his way of trying to call me out” ~ Raylan

Before Raylan can bust in and find Danny waiting on him with a knife in hand is his realization that this house belongs to a hardware store owner named Mike. His curiosity gets the best of him wondering how the Crowes managed to get this house rented to them. Was this the ‘old thing’ that Wendy spoke about last week?

Raylan and Rachel go off to the hardware store to find Kendall tending to the shop, ringing out customers, far away from the school he’s supposed to be attending. It’s a holiday he tells them to which Rache asks which one? Ask a smart ass a question and he’ll offer up a smart ass answer.

“I don’t know some multicultural bullshit. Greek New Years, Chinese Easter” ~ Kendall

Daryl is also nearby and after a brief talk with Raylan, he takes him to the back to show him that Mike is still alive and well and not cut up into little itty bitty pieces. Mike tells Raylan that Wendy and the kid showed up telling him they were living in their car, and had no place to go so the only good Christian thing to do was to give them his house, his hunting lodge and jobs in his store — the other brothers just showed up after that. Raylan isn’t amused by this arrangement so he asks Mike to give them the boot before he heads back up to the cabin for one last check to find Danny.

Consexual Situations

At the cabin, Danny has Karl stashed away, tied to a chair with duct tape when Raylan and Rachel arrive. He has his knife out ready to attack but when he opens the door, it’s Rachel that greets him with a shot to the stomach and he drops like a stone. This one seems gift wrapped — Danny Crowe wielding a knife while a man sits taped to a chair inside his house that he coerced out of an old man. Karl has other ideas.

Karl: “Well Danny and I here we never did settle on a safe word did we?”
Danny: “Yeah, we share some things in common”

Karl would rather get cut loose, avoid pressing charges and settle this his own way.

At Audrey’s, Daryl is none too amused by Danny’s story after Dewey broke the news to him about the Marshals. The news would have traveled faster but Dewey had trouble getting back to the bar after leaving the hunting cabin.

“I went to get help but I got lost in the woods” ~ Dewey

Danny explains that Karl didn’t press charges and only wanted to get free, while also managing to let Raylan and Rachel think they were only having a little bit of adult fun at the time.

“Karl said he ain’t gonna press charges. He said we were up there doing some sex thing. It was consexual” ~ Danny

What better time for Boyd and his boys to bust through to have a chat with the entire Crowe family. The arguments between siblings only makes way for Boyd to offer up his own brand of justice and a job to go along with it.

“Family and dysfunction go together like peanut butter and chocolate” ~ Boyd

Boyd has an offer for the Crowes to finally stop wandering around, stirring up trouble with no money being made. He has a job for them to help him out with and they are just the kind of people that he can count on for the situation he has to deal with.

Ava’s Initiation

Remember Boyd’s protection for Ava inside? Well she shows up and has a few rough patches the first day, but just when it looks like she’s about to be shaken down by one group, Gretchen Swift shows up like a knight in shining armor to back them off. She’s the sister of the Aryan fellah that Boyd paid off. Only remember the problems he had with Boyd welcoming in other races to his fold? Gretchen has the same issues and instead of protecting Ava, she attacks her and proceeds to cut her hair with a razor as punishment.

Boyd gets word of the attack by Gretchen and that’s when he decides to pay his old friend Gunnar a second visit. This time, however, he has back up.

The Best Buddy Cop Team Up in Ages

Boyd arrives at Gunnar’s Nazi compound where he’s surrounded by muscle, taunting the former white power leader, who entered his home alone and unarmed. One whistle later, and Boyd isn’t so alone anymore. With a pack of guns pointed at every skinhead in the room, Boyd lets Gunnar in on a little secret.

“One lesson you could never understand – is why make an enemy when you can make a friend. Now I want you to meet my new friend – Darryl Crowe Jr.” ~ Boyd

Darryl unloads on Gunnar with both barrels (metaphorically speaking this time) and after he drops to the ground, he opens up a barrage of left hands that burst and bust up the turncoat’s face, painting everything red. It’s the first time we see just how formidable Darryl can be in a physical confrontation and why Danny — who has the psychotic portion of the Crowe family DNA on lockdown — still fears and bows to his big brother.

Boyd’s warning to Gunnar is simple — Gretchen either protects Ava inside or he will revisit him again and anything that happens to his woman will happen to him 100 times over.

Maybe it’s my love of bad buddy cop movies like Tango & Cash or The Last Boy Scout, but there’s something about this pairing of Boyd and Darryl that makes me love the prospect of them working together for at least the next few weeks. Sure, it’s destined to fall apart and there’s no way they can coexist for ever, but it’s going to be a fun ride for a little while. The scene where Darryl pops out of nowhere to surprise the Aryan group is something straight out of a Bruce Willis movie, and it was bloody brilliant TV.

Another Job

Boyd gets a call from Hot Rod, who is ready to deliver the heroin to him once it comes up from Mexico. Of course he does this while one of Johnny’s triggermen has their gun on him, but he manages to slip in one little detail — Hot Rod wants this deal to go as smooth as the last one they did while working with Dickie Bennett. Boyd gets the message because the last time they did a deal together, he robbed Hot Rod of his shipment. He knows that this is set up to be a trap, and so he again enlists the services of the Crowe family to help him in his endeavor.

Darryl is sure this job won’t be nearly as much fun as beating down a skinhead, but Boyd isn’t ready to cut down the odds on the excitement level of this particular piece of work just yet.

“That depends on your definition of fun Darryl Crowe Jr. I want you to help me kill my cousin Johnny” ~ Boyd

Tainted

On the way back to Lexington from Harlan, Rachel attempts to get Raylan to confide in her the awful thing he did that forced Art to hit him. He’s not going to tell her anything and she quickly figures out that he’s keeping his secret so it doesn’t stain the entire U.S. Marshals office in Kentucky.

At home with Allison, Raylan is about four beers in when she begins to see through his swagger and ultra cool façade. She calls Raylan a hero, to which he shuts down that notion, but her response is probably the best explanation about the long suffering character that’s been uttered in the show’s five season history.

“I can tell you’re a man that would run into burning building without blinking an eye. Thing is I think you’re the one setting the fire” ~ Allison

One finale note — after Ava’s attack she decides to take everything one step further and give herself a new haircut courtesy of a razor she gets from her bunkmate. Actress Joelle Carter posted a picture on Twitter of her shortened hair — needless to say she looks great, but I’m guessing the final results of her doo didn’t come from a makeshift prison haircut.

‘Justified’ is off next week as the Winter Olympics air opposite the show, but we return in two weeks time for the next episode titled ‘Raw Deal’ at 10pm ET/PT on FX.