Justified Recap ‘Noblesse Oblige’: The Big Bad Wolf

In the latest Justified recap, Boyd comes face to face with the real bad man in Harlan County this season as Ava tries to find a way to get back in his good graces while keeping Raylan from tossing her back in jail…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

It’s not easy to instill fear into the heart of a man like Boyd Crowder.

Through five-plus seasons of ‘Justified’, his calm in the face of situations that would have most people on the floor begging for mercy is almost unnerving. When he’s being held hostage, Boyd tries to bribe his captors with expensive trips to Las Vegas or smiling in the face of danger before (literally) blowing up the competition.

In the latest episode titled ‘Noblesse Oblige’, Boyd looked scared for the first time in a long time, but when push came to shove, he was still unafraid. It’s a subtle difference in the actual definition and use of those two words. Boyd was scared when two masked men took him from his bar, tied his hands behind his back and threatened to remove one of his fingers. He may have gotten even more scared when they offered to make his very pretty fiancée Ava not so pretty if Boyd persisted to get in their business.

Despite those scary moments, Boyd was not afraid.

You see afraid means a state of mind, like being afraid of spiders — there’s never a time whether spiders are present or nowhere nearby that you’re not positively mortified by them. Boyd isn’t afraid to go up against any man, but in this moment he got scared and rightly so. Coming face to face with the biggest bad Harlan has ever known in the form of Avery Markham (played perfectly by Sam Elliott) scared Boyd, but if this gangster turned real estate tycoon is half of what he’s been advertised as so far, maybe our favorite wild haired outlaw should be afraid.

Very afraid.

A Meeting of the Minds

Following Ava’s revelation about the big safe currently sitting inside the Pizza Portal restaurant where Boyd believes over $3 million dollars is hiding, the almost-couple decides to dine on some fine bourbon in a dinner affair that goes all night long. Six hours later, Ava gets a call that forced her to cut the party short because she has to go into work although her rouse only seems to work on Boyd because he’s one-part human and one-part alcohol currently. In reality, Ava is off to meet with Raylan and as it turns out his boss Rachel along with USADA Vasquez.

It seems the new head of the Lexington Marshals office and the district attorney in charge of putting Boyd Crowder on trial aren’t happy with the results Ava’s giving them so far. They both erupt and demand something tangible within a week or she’s going back to jail. While Raylan has been tough and unsympathetic towards Ava since first drawing her into this situation last season finally shows his cards because even he doesn’t like to see the woman he once cared about so much get hammered with the scared straight treatment. He goes to bat for Ava and reminds Rachel that her plan to get Boyd the legal way by slowly building a case tied his hands so this is the path they’ve chosen and there’s no getting off now.

There’s tension between Raylan and his boss, but he has an idea that might lead them to the next stage of the foundation against Boyd and his crew for pulling off the robbery in Harlan. A coalminer named Luther Kent, who used to work with both Raylan and Boyd, is now in charge of the local station and part of his responsibility is managing the explosives. Boyd used mining explosives to tear through the bank and open up the safe deposit boxes he stole so Raylan belives it stands to reason he probably obtained the material from somebody near and dear to them both.

A quick scan of the books proves that the job site has gone missing some key explosives over the last month and an even bigger problem arises for Luther when Raylan reveals that the signature next to the log is his own.

Back at Boyd’s bar while he’s nursing a hangover with the ultimate comfort food — a greasy cheeseburger and a pile of fries — he receives a visit from a bearded man named Mr. Ty Walker. It seems Mr. Walker has been clued into who hit the bank just days ago and what they were after at the time. Walker is there to inform them that the money they seek to steal actually belongs to his boss and not some real estate hustler named Calhoun. He also delievers the message to cease and desist any plans to try and rob his employer or things will get messy in a hurry.

While Walker carries his own air of quiet intimidation, Boyd knows this man is still just a sacrificial lamb dressed up as a henchman so while his words may speak for the guy in charge, he’s still just passing along a message. So Boyd dismisses him with little regard.

“Well maybe I did the things you think I did and maybe I didn’t. Either way, I don’t give a shit about you or the fella you work for. Now many a men have come through that door ringing a similar bell and most of those men are dead now, one way or another.”
~ Boyd

Walker heads out of the bar but it’s not the last time he’ll see Boyd before this day is officially over.

A Safe Place

With the authorities breathing down her neck for results and a fiancé who still barely trusts her, Ava needs to take matters into her own hands. So she decides to take it upon herself to visit the Pizza Portal and get some answers. She finds the safe hidden down in the basement, snaps some pictures on her phone before a rather large figure emerges from the shadows and we meet Choo-Choo aka Mundo for the second time. Now Choo-Choo was ready to let Raylan meet the express train that double as his fists a week ago, but when a pretty thing like Ava bats her eyelashes, well even this savage beast can’t help but be charmed. Her inquisition into the safe and its contents ends in a hurry, however, when Ty Walker shows up and has Choo-Choo escort her from the building.

Now she knows all about the safe and the group of men hired to protect it. Unfortunately, these bad men now know who she is and what she was there to do.

Ava forwards over her intel to Boyd, who surmises that there are likely five men sleeping in shifts guarding the safe, which out numbers his crew by one, but the bigger problem is breaking into a steel structure that he saw take a hit from a tank while he was serving in Kuwait and it stayed standing. To crack this open he’s going to need a hell of a lot more explosive, which is where Carl’s brother Earl comes into play.

Earl got the explosives for the first job by blackmailing his old pal Tyler Kent — Luther Kent’s not so bright son. When he goes back to ask for more, Tyler shuts him down out of fear that they’ll get busted or his father will get into trouble. Even a visit mid-conversation from Raylan and Rachel that ends with Earl on the floor grabbing his balls doesn’t dissuade this pair of geniuses from slapping on some dime-store masks, pulling out their guns and going to the job site to rob the place of the explosives.

Like clockwork, Raylan and Rachel are there waiting for them. Earl’s clearly not a scholar, but he does remind Tyler what snitches get in Harlan County. So Raylan’s plan goes to hell in a hand basket when Tyler’s father, his old mining buddy Luther, goes to bat for his son and says that it was him who stole the explosives. Luther commits the act of noblesse oblige (thus the title of the episode), which means ‘the obligation of nobility’. Luther knows if his son goes to jail and rats out Boyd Crowder, he’s as good as dead. So a father steps up to save his son even if it means Raylan’s investigation gets screwed in the process.

The Big Bad Wolf

It’s been a rollercoaster day for Ava so far. She started out with a bourbon buzz that was killed when the district attorney threatened to throw her back in jail. Ava brought her spirits back up again when she scoped out the Pizza Portal and got pictures to help Boyd out with his robbery (or potentially set him up if she shared it with Raylan). The good feelings can only last so long when Avery Markham along with Ty Walker show up at her house asking for a little alone time.

The most frightening thing about Markham isn’t the way he waves a gun around or screams at the top of his lungs. It’s his calm, creepy demeanor that’s usually followed by a smirk that turns into a devilish grin. Sam Elliott was a major land for ‘Justified’ this season and the more scenery he chews up, the better this final run for the show is going to get. He quietly observes Ava and then explains her role in this entire situation. She’s either the Bonnie to Boyd’s Clyde or she’s a hostage just waiting to happen.

“I know for a woman to survive in this line of work, she’s got to be harder than the men. Ready to do the things he won’t. I know women who have that in them. My question is — are you that kind of woman, Ava? Because if you ain’t, you’ll never be more than a token. Something that can be threatened or hurt just to keep your man in line.”
~ Avery Markham

Case in point — while Boyd’s crew are out doing whatever it is they do when not sitting in the bar drinking at noon on a Tuesday, he runs into a pair of thugs dressed all in black wearing ski masks who tie him up and carry him to an unnamed barn somewhere in Harlan. When Boyd’s mask is removed, the assailants (let’s call them Seabass and Choo-Choo) tell him that he needs to listen to his previous warning or bad things are going to happen to him and those nearest and dearest to his heart — namely the pretty blonde who did a little recognizance for him at the Pizza Portal earlier in the day. She might be pretty to look at now, but if he keeps this up, Ava will get stared at for an entirely different reason.

When Boyd gets cut loose and heads back to Ava’s where he finally comes face to face with Markham, he’s singing a much different tune. It seems Markham’s name carries some serious weight in Harlan County, despite the fact that he hasn’t lived there in years. In his former life, Markham even knew Boyd when he was a kid because the old school gangster used to work with his father Bo when he was still tearing through Kentucky alongside Grady Hale.

It doesn’t take long for Boyd to concede to Markham’s demands to stay the hell away from the Pizza Portal and any of his other businesses or else. Boyd apologizes for the misunderstanding and promises it will never happen again. In this confrontation, you start to wonder did Boyd bow down and act scared because Ava was in the room and clearly in harm’s way or was he truly afraid of this master criminal with a flare for the violently dramatic?

The question is answered minutes later when Boyd requests a meeting with an underdressed, over tanned Wynn Duffy and Katherine Hale to discuss what he’s just found out about the real man in charge of the growing criminal empire festering up to the surface in Harlan.

Katherine reveals her association — which includes sleeping with Markham — and tells Boyd that she knew all along that the money they were going after was his. Boyd is not amused at the truths being kept from him because now he’s the target at the center of Markham’s ire while Katherine and Duffy are protected behind a wall of secrecy. Duffy assumes Boyd is on his way out, scared to go head-to-head with such a powerful enemy.

On the contrary.

Wynn Duffy: “So you’re out right? That’s what you’re saying? Let’s just set aside all this poetic, down home, hillbilly bullshit. Bottom line is you’re backing down”
Boyd: “Oh, I ain’t backing down. I’m gonna rob him and then I’m gonna stick a bullet in your boyfriend’s head.”

Back in their own room, Boyd assures Ava that everything is going to work out for the best, but when she presses him for details, he keeps quiet. Something inside is telling Boyd that Ava’s just a little too curious for her own good right now, but it’s hard to imagine he knows she’s in cahoots with the cops. Still, Ava needs to convince her man that she’s on his side and so she pulls back a sheet, reveals a whole lot of skin and draws him into bed to remind him what he’s been missing these past few months. In her arms he finds comfort and she washes away his brief moment of trepidation and fear.

Boyd may not be scared of Ava yet, but he should be deathly afraid of what she’s actually hiding from him.

Review:

A deliciously effective episode with a real introduction to Sam Elliott as the new big bad for this season playing Avery Markham. Teaming him up with Garret Dillahunt was a particularly effective way to get both of their talents on screen together while the scenes they share with Walton Goggins is nothing short of award worthy. It seems the writers have also taken note that the real pulse of this series has become the criminal element and that’s where the adrenaline lies week to week because the only parts of the show that came up just short of exhilarating were the ones focused on Raylan. Those scenes weren’t bad by any means, just not fraught with the same kind of tension as those involving our cavalcade of villains in this final season. And once again, Joelle Carter was just outstanding. The show is really making up for keeping her in a dank prison all last year where fear and anger decorated everything she did for 13 episodes. Now she’s the central focus, playing both ends against the middle and the real question everybody has to be wondering — when will Ava break?

Best Lines of the Week:

“I ain’t puked up bourbon since I wore a cheerleader skirt and I don’t aim to start again now.”
~ Ava

“After drinking whiskey for six hours — damn, woman you the last person I want cutting my hair.”
~ Boyd

“Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to throw up”
~ Ava

“You done? Damn, son, you about talk as much as I do”
~Boyd to Ty Walker

“I don’t claim to be Stephen Hawking, Luther, but fundamental addition and subtraction I can speak to some mastery of.”
~ Raylan

“I ain’t gonna grab it, I’m just gonna shoot it off. You understand me, Earl? I’m going to shoot your dick off.”
~ Raylan

“Well, Mr. Walker — now that I’m feeling more myself I sure do wish I had a second chance to make a first impression.”
~ Boyd

The next episode of Justified titled ‘The Trash and the Snake’ airs Tuesday night at 10pm ET/PT on FX