‘Justified’ Recap ‘The Toll’: Family Ties Run Deep

Raylan tries to find the man responsible for shooting Art, Kendall shows what it takes to become a Crowe and Boyd just loves to blow shit up….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

It was evident from very early on in our first meetings with Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens that this was a man with a warped sense of family. A mother in the ground, an aunt that ended up as a stepmother and an absentee father whose cruelty and misgivings substituted for caring and comfort as a parent to a child. Raylan’s extension of his family troubles have touched every relationship he’s had from Winona to Ava to Allison Brander, and even as we sit here just three episodes before the end of season five, he’s yet to visit his baby girl down in Florida, maybe just out of fear that he’ll do the same thing to her that his father did to him.

Raylan’s lack of family structure also leads him to a stronger bond in some ways at least with those closest to him, and that includes another wayward father figure in his boss Art Mullen. Anytime Raylan’s been in trouble, Art has either been there to help him out or pick up the mess, just like a real father does for a son. Sure, they’ve had their struggles this season when Art found out a terrible secret that Raylan was keeping from him, and their relationship was at a real crossroads. Still, when it’s all said and done Raylan still needed Art in his life as much as Art needed him.

So when Art is the one that volunteers to go protect Allison following Danny Crowe’s death, and minutes later he’s shot down, laying in a pool of his own blood before being dragged to the emergency room where doctors fight and struggle to breathe life back into his body, Raylan doesn’t care one ounce about the wall that separated them for all these weeks. He isn’t contemplating a life in Florida, or an office far away from Kentucky. Raylan is thinking about putting down the dog that tried to kill the only man who ever stood up for him like a father, and while they aren’t blood related, family ties like these run awfully deep.

Mistaken Identity

The search for person who shot Art falls into the hands of Ed Kirkland, the chief Marshal from Detroit who we first met earlier this season that helped uncover the truth about Raylan’s meeting with Nicky Augustine from last year. Kirkland has been working for years on the Theo Tonin case so his first stop in finding Art’s shooter is to investigate the former Detroit mob boss, currently toiling away in prison awaiting several life sentences. Raylan is convinced that Darryl Crowe is behind the shooting after his brother Danny was gutted about the mouth and jaw last week while trying to test out the 21-foot rule instead of facing arrest.

One chat with Theo and he’s ready to admit he ordered the hit and will even give up the shooter without receiving anything in return. Immediately, Raylan smells the bullshit all the way to whatever Federal hole Theo’s tucked in currently. The man fingered for the shooting is none other than former Detroit mobster Mr. Picker, who was personally responsible for the death of Sammy Tonin so right away Raylan knows the game that’s being played here. Regardless of the transparent attempts from Theo to get Picker into trouble, the Marshals still have to follow through on the tip and they go hunting for their suspect.

When they find Mr. Picker he’s smack dab in the middle of a meeting with Boyd, Wynn Duffy and Katherine Hale — who is finally revealed as the wife of a former mob boss with notorious credentials to say the least. The meeting was called so Katherine could give Wynn her ‘assessment’ of whether or not to keep dealing with Mr. Picker or Mr. Crowder going forward because this three man team wasn’t working any longer. Mr. Picker wants to know why Boyd keeps passing the buck on the missing heroin onto Darryl Crowe Jr. and his response is classic Boyd.

“Mr. Picker, the only explaining I’ve ever done in my life is to my mama when she caught me sneaking in after my curfew and you ain’t my mama. But I’ll indulge you with a short answer to your question — shit happens, Mr. Picker.” ~ Boyd

Before the meeting can go any further, Marshals bust in the door to arrest Mr. Picker and take him in for questioning on the shooting of Chief Marshal Art Mullen.

Red Herring

Back at the station, Picker knows he’s just being used as a good old-fashioned decoy while Raylan continues to sniff around the theory that Darryl is the mastermind behind the entire plot. I stated in similar terms in last week’s review, but Darryl has been the least intimidating ‘big bad’ Justified has thrown at us during five glorious seasons. Maybe it’s because this is the first one without the real Keyser Soze behind it all Elmore Leonard to give his guiding hand to the writers, but what was touted as a fire burning just as bright as Raylan and Boyd has ended up as a distraction barely getting by rubbing two sticks together.

I’m happy to report with this latest episode titled ‘The Toll’, Darryl’s long game is finally paying off at least a little bit. He gets Wendy to put Raylan on a wild goose chase, telling the vengeful Marshal that he will turn himself in, but only to him. When he arrives at Wendy’s hotel room, her face is busted and bruised from the battle with Darryl, but her loyalty to family is still blinding and she reveals that this was all a plan to get him out of the office so her brother could turn himself in without getting shot down the moment Raylan walked in the door.

Back in Lexington, Darryl turns himself in with Kendal right by his side. There’s a confession coming, but this is the moment when Kendal proves that he’s a Crowe and a blood brother to his uncle Darryl.

Kendal confesses to the crime of shooting Art — his revelation includes an elaborate story about sneaking away to see Allison again and carrying the gun his uncle Danny gave to him, but when Art popped out he got scared and opened fire. With tears streaming down Wendy’s face, Kendal solves the crime of who shot Art, but while everyone else may be convinced, Raylan’s bullseye lands on only one man.

With Kendal about to be shipped upstate to a juvenile home for at least a few years, Darryl is proud of his brother/nephew for standing up for the family while doing some time locked behind bars will take some of the ‘pussy’ out of him. Raylan finally has a showdown with Darryl where he confronts him for being the real culprit behind Art’s shooting. The tension is palpable, but for the first time this season, Darryl seems like a worthy opponent to Raylan, even if only for a few seconds. Maybe it takes his brother jamming a knife through his own gullet to finally put some conviction into Darryl Crowe’s limp wings. There’s business afoot between Raylan and Darryl and this is a fight where only one gunslinger will survive.

Raylan’s day ends back at the hospital standing vigil over Art while he lays in critical care. He had to hear about his actual father meeting a grim end thanks to an attack in prison, and while Raylan never seem to have any real use for Arlo, it doesn’t mean there isn’t still pain involved when losing a parent. This time, Raylan’s going to be there for Art, even if he’s the last person he wants to wake up to see the next morning.

The Meeting 2.0

In a bit of déjà vu from earlier in the episode, Boyd, Wynn, Katherine and Picker are back in the hotel room ready to sit down and chat about their future relationship together. Boyd believes he’s supposed to be giving them reasons that he shouldn’t die, while Picker seems hell bent on making sure Boyd doesn’t walk out of the room so much as be carried out once the final minutes are read.

The stress of this day has led Boyd to start smoking again, a nasty habit he gave up many years ago, but lately he’s just needed the warm comfort of some nicotine in his system. Given the level of angst that Mr. Picker is carrying around, he could probably use a smoke too, so Boyd being the charitable man that he is tosses the pack over to his cohort and offers him to light up and relax.

Seconds later, the pack explodes and Mr. Picker is literally cut in half as the arterial spray tags everyone in the room including Wynn’s right hand man Mikey, who had the only gun in the room. Boyd astutely picks up the gun, points it at Wynn and Katherine while offering him half of the half a heroin shipment he still has in his possession to split their partnership once and for all as he leaves the room. Boyd’s entrance may come in soft as a church mouse, but he certainly knows how to exit like a lion except his bite is much more vicious than his roar.

New Queen in Town

In prison, Ava deals with the fallout of gutting Judith last week, and she’s curious if her old posse will greet her with smiles or shivs after their leader was left for dead in the chapel with a whole lot of stab wounds. Ava’s ready to take whatever punishment she has coming, but thank God at least it’s ice cream day so if she’s going out, she’s going with a delicious chocolate mustache to kiss the world goodbye.

Instead of facing the bad end of a sharpened toothbrush, Judith’s old gang passes by Ava’s table one by one, leaving her the ice cream they were given for dinner. Ava’s either the new queen of the cell block or they want to kill her with a serious brain freeze.

Meanwhile, Ed Kirkland is headed back to his palatial estate back in the Motor City, but he has to leave the Marshals office in capable hands while Art is still in the hospital. Much to her surprise, Art had already left plans in place for Rachel to be the new boss in case anything ever happened to him, and since something pretty awful went down, she’s now the interim chief in Lexington. Rachel doesn’t suffer any foolishness so Raylan best watch out because there’s a new sheriff in town.

Review:

We shift back to a more Raylan-centric episode this week and the strength of the show retained the momentum usually reserved for the more Boyd heavy hours on television. While some of the story lines in Justified this year have been a dyslexic and jumbled mess, this episode stands out because of the emotional ties displayed by Raylan towards Art, while we witness some brutality and cunning courtesy of Boyd. There was also a Tim and Rachel sighting, which is always a breath of fresh air. I think this season has sorely lacked in secondary characters like Tim and Rachel in favor of backwoods bumbling idiots, but there’s a chance they will shine in these last few episodes.

Best line of the week:

There were a few contenders, but it all really came down to this one.

“I may not know a lot about a lot of things, but I do know how to blow shit up.” ~ Boyd

A runner up award goes to U.S. Attorney Vazquez while he was attempting to turn the screws on Katherine Hale, who is apparently more vile than her dead mobster husband.

“You don’t look like any grandma I ever saw. Of course both of my grandmas look like Edward James Olmos.”

Justified only has two episodes to go this season so make sure to come back for the penultimate hour next week when Darryl goes on the search for heroin to make his big score and it appears Boyd volunteers his services to help find the wayward Crowe.