Justified Recap “Dark as a Dungeon”: The Fox and the Rabbit

In the latest Justified recap, Raylan hatches a plan to catch Ty Walker while also forcing Boyd to finally make a move on Markham’s millions….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

As the final season of ‘Justified’ rolls into the second half of the last episodes, there’s a real sense of closure starting to envelope many of the characters and stories that built up over the last six years. On Tuesday night’s episode, it was time for Raylan to finally bury the past with his father and the house he owned in Harlan where the U.S. Marshal grew up and grew to hate the man that gave him life.

Arlo Givens wasn’t a good man trapped in a bad situation. He was just a bad man who did bad things. So as Raylan finally put the house up for sale and worked with a construction company to help him relocate the remains of his father and mother to new plots, he started to slowly but surely inch his way out of Kentucky while leaving the ghosts who have haunted him for so many years behind.

Raylan even burned Arlo’s military footlocker filled with old photos and letters he shared with his wife while he was at war. The only thing he kept was a single key he found around his father’s dog tags because he knew it belonged to the lock on a building where Arlo spent many nights while his family shivered at the thought of what he was doing inside this dungeon. When Raylan finally gathered the gumption to open the door, all he found was a dusty, dingy old shed with nothing inside but rotted wood and the musty smell of bad memories. Arlo’s ‘ghost’ even paid him a visit (it was nice to see Raymond J. Barry back one last time) to taunt his son about how much he was scared of this building growing up and now that he finally got the strength to open the door, there was never anything to frightened of inside.

It was just the last remnants of a father who never knew how to love or raise his son and when Raylan finally gave the go ahead to move the graves, it was the last nail in Arlo’s coffin and his final goodbye to the Givens legacy in Harlan County.

With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Justified’ titled ‘Dark as a Dungeon’

The Hunt for Walker

When Tim shows up to the Givens house he’s there to recruit Raylan in the manhunt for Ty Walker, but our favorite hat wearing Marshall isn’t quite ready to join the search party just yet. First things first, Raylan has to visit Ava’s uncle Zachariah to see what it is exactly he’s doing under Boyd’s command. A friendly exchange — and a few punches later — and Raylan finds the dynamite that Zachariah will use to blow through the bottom of the mine shaft floor to gain access to the safe in the basement of the Pizza Portal where Avery Markham’s millions are hidden.

Now Raylan knows which direction Boyd is going, but he still has to flush him out and make him take the bait. Knowing where Boyd is going doesn’t help Raylan put him away. Boyd has to get there first.

So Raylan concocts a plan to use Markham and an offer of a $100,000 cash reward to anybody who helps find and capture Ty Walker before he skips town. Raylan knows he just made the Marshals job a lot easier while making Walker’s ability to leave Kentucky just about impossible. Raylan has other ideas about what that money will do, but stay tuned for that.

While Raylan is setting things in money to find Walker, the bearded fugitive found Ava’s house instead. Walker takes Ava and Earl hostage before asking Harlan’s favorite hair stylist to sew him up and patch the bullet wound he received in the shootout with Marshals two weeks ago. When Boyd comes home, Walker isn’t there to ambush him or hold Ava for ransom.

Instead, Walker is there with an offer to help Boyd break into Markham’s safe using nothing more than the combination and with the special forces hit squad down and out, there’s nobody left to protect it. Walker isn’t selfless in his mission to help Boyd steal the money, he gets a big chunk as well, which will afford him an exit out of Kentucky and out of harm’s way.

Boyd is calculating when dealing with Walker because as much as he wants to believe him, there’s some part of him that has to say if it’s too good to be true that’s probably because it is. Walker knows his only chance of stealing the money is with someone like Boyd at the helm because he’s not only smart enough to pull it off — he’s got the balls to go right after Markham without giving a damn about the repercussions.

Boyd: “You trying to manipulate me Mr. Walker? Because I’m long past the point of needing my ego stroked”
Walker: “Let’s just say I don’t see you pulling thrill-seeker hold ups with a born to lose tattoo on your chest.”
(Great reference to the movie ‘Heat’ and the tabled exchange between Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro)

Just when it seems Boyd and Walker are about to team up, Raylan arrives for a visit. If Boyd and Walker going face to face was compelling, there’s no better two-man team on all of television than watching Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins exchange barbs as Raylan and Boyd. These two sound like bickering old school friends who are in the middle of a political debate except far, far more fascinating.

The end game comes down to this — Raylan finally reveals the reason he stuck around Harlan wasn’t for any other reason than to bring down Boyd and once he’s behind bars, he’s leaving Kentucky for good. But first he has to put a bow on this story and find some closure.

Boyd: “I do like happy endings”
Raylan: “Well this is one of those classic stories where the hero gets his man and he rides off into the sunset.”
Boyd: “Or maybe it’s like that other classic — where a guy chases a whale to the ends of the Earth only to drown for his troubles.”
Raylan: “I’ve got to admit there’s a small part of me that’s going to miss this when it’s over.”

We are all going to miss this when it’s over.

Before Boyd can exchange any more words with his old mining buddy, Ava comes out and offers Raylan to come indoors and have a drink. Once they are inside, Raylan finally lets the cat out of the bag on why he showed up when he did. There’s a $100,000 reward on the table for anyone who helps lead to the capture of Ty Walker. Boyd would have loved nothing more than to say he had no idea where Walker was hiding, but there was no other move but to give him up and save a much bigger headache down the road if the authorities find out he was harboring a fugitive.

“He’s in the back,” Boyd tells Raylan and like a flash, Walker punches Earl and tries to make a run for it. Tries being the operative word. Two bullets later from Raylan’s gun and that’s the end of Mr. Walker. He does try to tell Raylan before dying he wasn’t doing it all for the money. Is there some other secret that Walker or maybe Markham is hiding in that safe?

It’s unfortunate we never got to know Ty Walker better. He was one of the best additions to the show in recent memory and here’s hoping his portrayer Garret Dillahunt gets a call back to appear on another FX series in the future because he’s fantastic.

Rat Hunt

In the only other major story this week, Wynn Duffy gives Catherine Hale the proof he believes indicts Avery Markham as the rat who put Grady Hale behind bars. It all leads back to a gunman who worked for Markham back in the day who he believes not only killed Assistant District Attorney Simon Poole, but then landed in jail just long enough to murder Grady before Markham bailed him out again.

Katherine still isn’t confident that the evidence is enough, but either way she’s going to come out on top because even if she has to marry Markham, she will eventually bleed him dry for every penny he’s worth. Wynn doesn’t seem to amused at the idea that they might abandon Boyd robbing Markham right here and now and instead wait around for Katherine to go through with the marriage. The suggestion alone might have put Katherine at odds with Wynn Duffy so keep an eye on that going forward.

To try and get more answers, Katherine calls on Art for a little extra information. Once again the back and forth exchanges between these two is nothing short of stunning as they engage in a careful game of cat and mouse. At first it seems Art just believes Katherine is fishing for information that could keep her out of jail, but by the end while she’s walking away and slyly unzipping her skirt while he’s watching, he’s starting to think that maybe she really wasn’t the one behind everything. Maybe Markham was the rat who set this whole mess in motion?

The Fox and the Rabbit

With Walker dead it’s time for Boyd to collect his reward and Raylan’s plan finally comes full circle. To get the money they have to go to the Pizza Portal together where Avery is forced to not only allow the coyote into the hen house, but he has to walk down into the basement and open the safe to retriever the $100,000 reward. The money is sweet, but Boyd’s eyes go as big as saucers when he sees that what Markham is playing with is far more than the $3 million estimation he received from Katherine and Wynn.

Just after Boyd and Markham exit, Raylan hears a rather loud rumbling from beneath his feet and he knows it was Zachariah setting off the dynamite to gain access to the safe. Raylan’s plan to catch Boyd in the act is going faster by the minute.

Back at home, Boyd and Ava have a meeting of the minds although they aren’t on the same page. Boyd sees that $10 million and believes by leaving with only $100,000 it’s like losing $9.9 million where as Ava sees this as the exact kind of windfall they need to get the hell out of Harlan. She also has a great point when she asks Boyd when will any amount ever truly be enough? He wonders just how long it will be before the fox goes after the rabbit. Boyd Crowder is a hunting man and he smells money from a mile away.

He finally convinces her this is the right move because all she was going to get out of the government deal with Raylan was a condo somewhere in Arizona and $50,000. He grabs half of his cash from Markham and offers it to her if she truly wants to go, but Ava stays put. She might regret that decision in a moment.

Ava finally goes to meet with Raylan for the first time since she told Boyd about her deal as a confidential informant. She doesn’t tell Raylan that Boyd knows and instead gets angry with him about going after Boyd through Walker and costing her $100,000 when she’s only getting $50,000 from the government. She gives Raylan the location of the mine where Boyd is digging to get to the safe, although it would seem he probably already knew that.

Before he heads back home for the night, Raylan puts a call into Rachel to tell her the news. He knows that Boyd isn’t coming after Markham’s money from the Pizza Portal and instead he’s digging up from underneath through the minds. The bad news is Ava’s burned — he knows she’s lying to him and Boyd is aware that she’s an informant.

Things just never seem to go Ava’s way and that doesn’t appear to be changing as ‘Justified’ barrels towards the home stretch.

Best Lines of the Week:

Harlan cults are a thing?
“What happened to your lawn? Did I interrupt a goat sacrifice?”
~ Tim

Raylan needs to talk to Zachariah
“Let me guess local boy? How come no one down here’s ever named Steve or Justin?”
~ Tim

It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.
“It’s always about money. Jesus Christ, the one thing every shit-apple redneck is guaranteed to take with both hands and a left foot is money.”
~ Raylan

9:30 in the morning or 9:30 at night, Wynn Duffy is a guacamole man.
“He loves guac!”
~ Mikey

Law enforcement 101
“You see this star? Kiss my ass, Markham”
~ Raylan

Walker is upset he got shot in the back
“You want to get hit in the front you should have run toward me”
~ Raylan

Make sure to tune into the next episode of ‘Justified’ on Tuesday night at 10pm ET as we come closer and closer to the final few weeks.