‘Justified’ Season 5 ‘Whistle Past the Graveyard’ Recap — Born to Lose

Raylan helps Wendy track down a sort of kidnapped Kendall and Boyd tries to navigate his way back to America with a truck full of dead bodies and heroin…

Raylan is on vacation.

All the poor guy wants is to take his radio show giveaway money (guess that was for real, huh?), jet down to Florida to see his kid and ex-wife and take Alison for a little beach excursion for which he buys her a new bikini to enjoy while on the trip. Alison agrees to accompany him, but that’s when all hell breaks loose and the way this story ends should not come as a surprise to anybody.

Down in Mexico, Boyd has to work a new deal with Mr. Yoon that guarantees him to get the dead gunmen back across the border and dump them there so no police come sniffing around a bunch of shot up Americans. Yoon agrees, but it’s clear that this thing better go down without a hitch or they might need to bury some more Americans across the border.

Kendall’s Kidnapped, Sort Of

If you remember the tail end of last week’s episode, Kendall makes a call to a mysterious Uncle Jack to come down and see him in Kentucky. Well like greased lightning, Jack shows up this week and invites him and Wendy out for some lunch. It’s clear there that Wendy is no fan of Jack, and it appears Wendy’s brothers are no fan of his. Jack starts dancing visions of Cedar Point (I have to say it is a fairly awesome theme park) to ride rollercoaster’s in his head, while Wendy has to play the wet blanket and tell Kendall it’s time to go back to school. Wendy makes the mistake of going to the bathroom and like clockwork, Jack and Kendall are gone.

This forces Wendy to make a call to Raylan, who just wanted to enjoy his two weeks off, but that’s not going to happen. Wendy promises to give Raylan info on what her brothers doing in Mexico in exchange for his help finding Kendall. She also tosses in the bonus of calling Allison’s boss and making sure she comes off of suspension. Oh almost forgot — the reason Wendy is in such a hurry to track them down is because a rather grimacing man named Michael (played by the criminally underused William Forsythe) is looking for Jack and it’s clear this isn’t an old poker playing buddy from North Dakota. Wendy distracts him long enough to grab a shotgun and blow holds in the side of his tires as she escapes, but Manny Horvitz won’t be deterred that easily.

On the road, Jack’s web of lies are so thin that Kendall sees right through them and demands answers. Jack tells a bunch of different stories, none of which Kendall believes. He does admit to having a pile of money that belongs to Michael, but that might be the only grain of truth he utters. Finally, Kendall professes that he knows a lot more about Jack that he’s letting on.

Kendall: “You’re my dad and Wendy’s my mom.”
Jack: “How long have you known?”
Kendall: “A long time”
Jack: “Wendy told you?”
Kendall: “No, I figured it out. Now cut the shit, what did you really do?”

Jack still isn’t coming clean but in that instant, Michael arrives and without thinking bolts on his son leaving him in the care of the brooding gentleman obviously out for money, blood or both. Michael calls on Jack for a meeting and Raylan agrees to accompany them to ensure that Kendall is returned safe and sound without harm. Let’s not forget this is all coming at the promise that Wendy will tell him what her brothers are doing down in Mexico. Jack protests and that’s when Raylan has to go all Raylan on him.

“You know what you’re deal is? You’re born to lose. Lose well for once. You might earn some respect” ~ Raylan

When Michael shows up with Kendall he finally lets loose on the real truth about what Jack has been up to — he tried to skim a poker game and when he got busted, Jack beat his son into a coma so this isn’t about money, it’s about retribution. The threats to Jack force Raylan to call in the cops to arrest both Michael and Jack.

He has a heart to heart with Kendall after his father/uncle is hauled off to jail. In essence, Raylan tells the young man that his future isn’t set by those around him. He can escape this life if he really wants out. He then hands Kendall his envelope of $2000 that he won on the radio and tells him to put it some place safe, far away from Danny and Daryl.

The big payoff was Wendy’s revelation about her brothers, but just like her ex Jack, she’s also good at telling a lie. She knew they went to Mexico but had no clue what they were doing down there. This was all just a way to entice Raylan into helping her, and it paid off big time.

Down Mexico Way

Following a promise to Mr. Yoon, Boyd and the Crowes are on their way back home. Daryl and Danny promise they have a connection they can use to get them across the border, it just might be a little sticky considering they filled out the guy’s sister like an application and he’s not quite over it. It’s the only play they have so after splitting the crew into the truck and the car because Dewey, Danny, Jimmy and Carl are struggling to ride in the back with the dead bodies. Those four drive in the car while Boyd and Daryl ride in the truck.

Like so many instances in Boyd’s career, things can’t go smoothly, and sure enough local Mexican police stop them before they can make it to the border. They try to spin this as a missionary trip to spread the gospel, but the cop is smart enough to know this is a play.

“Let me tell you something gringo — white people come to this country for two reasons: one is for margaritas, the other one’s for drugs”

And just like that Boyd and his crew are caught up in a shakedown. They pay the cops off, but they aren’t satisfied with $2000 — they want the truck as well and much to his chagrin, Boyd would rather make it back alive with no heroin than to die right there with his drugs.

A few minutes later, we catch up with Boyd, Daryl and the crew but the mood is much better than expected. It seems they already transported the drugs over to the car and left the bodies in the truck so when the Mexican cops took one and not the other they had no clue the heroin wouldn’t be there — only a bunch of dead Americans. Daryl tries to ease Boyd’s concerns with a little trust, while also promising his contact from Mexico would show and get them across the border.

He wasn’t lying because a few moments later the transport arrives, but there’s a real cordial nature between Daryl and his contact — not the kind of animosity you’d expect after this guy did the dirty with his sister. Boyd even brings up the story to see if it rattles Daryl’s buddy, but he plays it off like no big deal. As the Mexicans go to get the heroin ready for transport, Jimmy (who speaks fluent Spanish by the way) overhears them plotting something and it’s clear that this is a double cross. Daryl has tried to play Boyd for the fool to steal his heroin.

Boyd continues to go along with the charade and hops right in the truck with Danny and Daryl for the ride back to Texas. Something tells me, this will be one interesting trip across the border and back to Kentucky.

Shouldering Her Responsibilities

Ava is still in deep with the new crew at the prison because she’s responsible for getting the new heroin shipment behind bars before the old supply runs out. Penny clues Ava into a nurse working in the infirmary that might play ball, but she can’t visit without a real injury so her shoulder getting popped out of socket seems like the right move.

Once she’s under the nurse’s care, she approaches her about the deal but the care giver is quick to shoot her down and walk away. While still trying to figure out how to get the heroin in, Judith approaches Ava and it’s clear she’s threatening her without actually saying the words so this is a problem that needs to be solved sooner rather than later.

Luckily following a shower, Ava runs back into the nurse who tells her to never approach her like that again but she will help her get heroin into the prison under a couple of conditions. First, Judith can’t know it’s her transporting the drugs and two, she needs Ava’s contact on the outside to do something for her. Ava promises she can get the heroin set up, so this is obviously going to require her to reach out to Boyd for the first time in weeks and hope he can come through for her own sake.

Boyd and Ava have been estranged all season, and it’s kind of heartbreaking to see what was once a budding fiery love affair, flicker and dim behind bars as they both go in separate directions. You have to wonder if Ava’s call asking for heroin and a favor will be met with an automatic yes like Boyd would have always done in the past, or if she’s stepping out on a ledge without any kind of safety wires to pull her back.

It’s Over

Raylan shows up at Allison’s to tell her about his day and also inform her that they can still go to Florida, albeit at a cheaper hotel now that his radio contest giveaway money is gone, and Wendy will be calling her boss so she can go back to work. Unfortunately, Allison’s had enough of Raylan’s stories, absenteeism when he’s not trying to get her clothes off, and threats, both physical and mental, that have come at her as a result of dating this man. Allison tells him it’s over and Raylan has a stunned look on his face as if he didn’t see this coming. Maybe that’s ultimately Raylan’s problem is that he never sees these things coming.

Next week on Justified titled ‘Wrong Roads’, Boyd is dealing with a traitorous crew and Raylan is still on vacation trying to find a way to relax, but it’s doubtful that will last for very long.