‘Justified’ Recap: Wrong Roads Lead to a Flock of A–holes

It looks like Boyd is finally going to get his hands on some heroin but it’s going to come attached with a new partner while Raylan tries to find out who finished off Johnny Crowder and his crew down in Mexico….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

For the biggest part of his time on Justified, Damon Herriman’s character Dewey Crowe has been around for mostly comic relief and the occasional beat down from Raylan Givens. Actually those beatings multiplied so much over the course of four seasons that Dewey finally found some sweet relief in the form of a $300,000 payoff from the Federal government, which he in turn used to buy his dream business — a whore house called Audrey’s. Listen, running a backwoods trailer hitched brothel may not sound like heaven to you and me, but to Dewey Crowe this was a warm slice of apple pie wrapped up in some lingerie.

But his dream of an above ground pool with scantily clad women offering him fleshy libations ended in a hurry when his good for nothing cousins from Florida decided to set up shop, take over his business, and essentially demote him to stooge. Things only got worse when Dewey was part of the crew bringing back Boyd’s heroin from across the Mexican border because on top of everything else he’s been forced to endure this season, now the poor guy finds out his Axe body spray just isn’t doing the job anymore.

Danny: “Dewey, you ever think about wearing deodorant?”
Dewey: “You saying I stink?”
Danny: “I’m saying if you can’t smell that, you best go get your nose checked”

Dewey’s body odor is apparently so obnoxious that Carl wants no part of smelling him for the 1000 mile drive back to Kentucky with a car full of heroin hitched to the back of a tow truck. So he’s forced to ride with crazy cousin Danny all the way back to the Bluegrass state to hand over the heroin to Boyd and presumably his other crazy cousin Daryl.

And with that we’re off and running —

Heroin Chic

It’s only taken two-thirds of the season, but Boyd’s heroin supply is finally on its way to Kentucky and he can get some relief to his drug starved clients. Daryl has some other ideas, and this is where his plan from last week comes to fruition. He wants to be Boyd’s transportation to cross the border now that Hot Rod’s crew is dead and gone (remember he was supposed to be the one doing the lifting from Mexico to the U.S.). The plan was simple — get rid of Hot Rod’s crew, use their own contacts to bring the drugs across to prove to Boyd they could do it, and then partner up with him to the tune of 20-percent of his profits. Of course in the long run, Daryl plans on double crossing all of them, killing his partners and taking the heroin business over for himself but that’s a little further down the road.

Boyd agrees to sit down with Daryl along with his real partners Wynn Duffy and Mr. Picker to discuss the terms of this new agreement. Obviously, Wynn isn’t too happy about adding yet another hand taking from the cookie jar, especially considering how little money they’ve been making lately with no heroin for what’s seemingly been months. Before they can finish their meeting of the minds, Roscoe and Jay (Hot Rod’s old henchmen) break in and demand that they are handed over either the money or drugs — they aren’t greedy they’ll just take one or the other.

We’ll see how this plays out in just a few minutes —

Hot (Rod) On the Trail

Raylan’s vacation hasn’t been going so well since he took the time off from work. He got roped into helping Wendy Crowe rescue her brother/son last week and by episode’s end Allison was telling him it was over. This week business picks up when a pretty girl decides to cozy up next to him at a bar until a few minutes pass and she’s telling him her rates to spend a night together. Yep, this is just not nearly as much fun as Disneyland.

Back in his car, however, Raylan is back on the job (sort of) because he’s been alterted to some dead bodies found down in Mexico that happen to be Hot Rod Dunham’s associates along with Johnny Crowder. This sends Raylan down to Memphis to find old Hot Rod, but first he has to stop and kiss the ring of local law enforcement, in this case the DEA and an agent named Alex Miller (played perfectly by Eric Roberts). It seems Miller is the big swinging dick around these parts and Hot Rod is his personal property.

With lines like these how can you not like this guy?

“Not like those Glocks and Smith & Wesson 9’s, they jam so bad you could spread em on your breakfast toast.”

“Nothing a little oil won’t make as smooth as a Bill Clinton apology”

It’s Raylan and Miller who first encounter Roscoe and Jay before they slip away after hearing that Johnny Crowder is dead and the heroin has gone missing. While they make a trip to Kentucky, our new dynamic cop duo finds where Hot Rod has been stashed — he was held captive by his former employees before a daring escape left his henchman with a pencil stabbed in his neck while the former member of ZZ Top took a bullet to the gut. Miller helps Hot Rod find some comfort in his final moments as we find out he was a DEA informant for the last 15 years, basically outing all of his competition so he could operate in the weed business with impunity.

Before he passes, Hot Rod gives up Boyd as the source of the heroin trade in Kentucky so off they go to Harlan to track everybody down in one fell swoop.

The Stand Off

Back at Audrey’s while Boyd, Wynn and Daryl are figuring out a stake in the heroin operation, Roscoe and Jay arrive looking for their payoff. They don’t get very far before Raylan and Miller bust in with guns pointed at all of them.

“Miller, would you call this a herd, a gaggle or a flock of assholes?” ~ Raylan

Roscoe and Jay attempt to talk their way out of the situation by educating Raylan and Miller on the finer virtues of Shakespeare’s King Lear, and while that is a fine play, we have to remember that it is a tragedy and like most of the famous writer’s works, this one ends in bloodshed. Roscoe isn’t smart enough to give up and so he gets shot, and while it takes everything in Jay’s power not to draw down on the Marshal and his new DEA friend, he puts the gun down and goes into custody without a fight.

Back at the station, Raylan runs into Art again and it’s clear his old boss isn’t ready to forgive and forget. He lays into his top agent for doing virtually whatever he wants, whenever he wants no matter the consequences. Art informs Raylan that the DEA wants to continue using him on this heroin case so he’s free to investigate, but as far as the U.S. Marshal’s office is concerned — he’s a ghost. Art just has no use for him anymore.

Trading Favors

Ava finally locks eyes with Boyd this week after spending so much time apart. This season his nearly at its end and we’ve barely seen this power couple spend much time at all together, and that’s been heartbreaking. Kudos to Joelle Carter for literally carrying her own story all season long, and that’s been a real highlight for Justified, while also keeping her locked away to prove that not everyone on TV gets out of prison inside of 10 minutes. Ava’s got a simple request that Boyd needs to do whatever her contact on the inside needs, so she can continue to survive in the prison. He agrees and before he can even tell the woman he loves how much he adores her, she gets up and walks away. There’s an icy cold look in Ava’s eyes right now and you have to wonder if she gets out of prison one day soon, if she’ll finally take that bus ticket out of town, far, far away from Harlan County and the misery she’s fallen under since the moment she pulled the trigger and finished off her ex-husband.

Ava’s rump gets saved by Judith once again when a heroin starved junkie wants to carve out a piece of her skin as payment for currently itching for her fix. This is where things get really sticky. You see Ava’s new contact on the inside, Rowina, gets what she wants out of Boyd. He has to kill a man who offed her partner, and Boyd carries out his execution without much remorse (although it appears at first he feels kind of bad given the fact that the killer is now an old man staying in a retirement home). But Rowina wants one more payoff from Ava — she has to kill Judith and then the heroin will flow like water from the faucet.

Dewey’s Rage

Remember poor Dewey from the start of this episode? Well things only get worse when the tow truck he’s riding in with Danny is spotted by Alex Miller on his way home back from Harlan. See he knows about the methods that Hot Rod used to get drugs around using tow trucks and cars (if drugs are found in the car, the tow truck driver can’t be guilty because it’s not his property, pretty smart if it actually worked). Miller makes a quick u-turn and stops Danny and Dewey dead in their tracks.

Danny’s plan involves invoking his 21-foot rule — he can charge at a man with a knife and stab him before he can draw his gun from the holster and fire a shot. Miller’s heard about this before and he pretty much dares Danny to try it. Before he can pull his knife, Dewey snaps and pops the truck back into gear, smacks his cousin as he’s pulling away and then drives right over Miller, who we presume is now dead. Danny stands in stunned silence as Dewey screams in celebration because this is one time he finally got pushed too far.

Roll those windows down Dewey because stress makes you sweat and well we’ve already had this discussion.

Review:

Overall a solid episode although it seems the show is working awfully hard at finding a way to bring Raylan and Boyd back together this season. The two leads have really worked as separate entities all season, but it was rather convenient that Johnny Crowder’s case file ends up on Raylan’s desk when he’s on vacation. Also a minor annoyance continues to be Wendy and Kendal, who both came quite willingly to Kentucky along with Daryl and Danny, but now all of a sudden they both desperately want out. Considering the ‘get out of jail’ free card Raylan offered Wendy last week that she turned down, I’m not sure what direction she’s headed. The real standout continues to be Joelle Carter carrying her own story as Ava in prison. Her solo act has been nothing short of award worthy.

Best lines of the episode (outside of the ones already listed)

Not sure we want to know what his ass is like on Sunday:

“Hi, this is Wynn Duffy in 236, could you send up another pot of coffee please? Because this one tastes like my ass on Sunday.”

“A man spends that much time in the dark, customer service ain’t one of his strong suits.” ~ Boyd talking about his new bartender and former coal miner buddy Caleb

“I don’t need this shit! What about me? Goddamn what the hell kind of place is this?!?” ~ Caleb after day one in Boyd’s employ that ended with him duct taped behind the bar

Boyd has manners

“Raylan, can I be excused from the table?” ~ Boyd

Just sweet words from Boyd to his lady

“I can’t tell you what it means to rest these weary eyes on your beautiful… beautiful face.”

Next episode: Dewey’s on the run with Boyd’s heroin and all he wants is the money that was due to him from the start of this whole mess and I may have been mistaken, but I believe I spotted the crazy hair of Jeremy Davies aka Dickie Bennett popping up in the brief promo for next week.