“Help me clean this up.”

- Ava Crowder

As the title implies, this week’s episode had a variety of characters looking to tie up loose ends in order to protect themselves. Most of these loose ends centered around Tanner, Robert Quarles’ soldier, who ends up meeting a rather gruesome fate.

While Tanner was looking to take out Briggs, the man who built the bomb Tanner used to frame Boyd Crowder with, he had Errol tagging along looking for a chance to take Tanner out in order to protect Errol and Limhouse from any blowback from the hit on Boyd’s oxy clinic. Meanwhile, Sheriff Napier was also looking to, as Raylan put it, do “some gardening” with Tanner, killing him to protect himself since Raylan and his “ATF agent” knew Tanner, not Boyd, planted the bomb on Napier’s car.

Our old friend Delroy the pimp had his own loose end to deal with – Ellen May. Ellen May, who was in the oxy clinic when Tanner robbed it, once again finds herself in an unfavorable situation as she and two other working girls are forced to do a little armed robbery of their own. When Crystal is shot during the botched stick up, Delroy decides to take out the other two girls to protect himself. Ellen May escapes and runs off to Ava, who shelters her, takes out Delroy and appoints herself the new madam of the whorehouse.

Meanwhile, Robert Quarles enlists the help of Limehouse to win Napier the election. However, Quarles’ new campaign manager isn’t prepared for Boyd Crowder, who gets out of jail just in time to make an impassioned speech at the public debate, which reinvigorates Shelby’s campaign. There’s nothing more dangerous than Boyd Crowder with a public platform. Watching him get evangelical in his defense of Shelby and managing to spin his own criminal past and Shelby’s inexperience into positives as he painted Napier as a soulless company man looking to screw over the little guy was a thing of beauty.

What was interesting is that Boyd was only able to make that speech thanks to Raylan, who got him sprung from jail. While Quarles is wrong in his assumption that Raylan is a dirty marshal on the take from Boyd, clearly Boyd is a master at manipulating Raylan into helping him out anyway. Much like the last episode featuring Ellen May, when Boyd found a way to sick Raylan on Delroy to help Ava’s investigation, Crowder is great at dangling information in front of the good marshal in order to get him doing his bidding.

While Boyd’s campaign speech was great, I also really enjoyed two Limehouse scenes in this episode – first with Quarles, then with Raylan. Quarles mocking “shoo-fly pie” with his sarcastic Southern accent and throwing in the “sociology of baked goods” quip was fantastic. Similarly, I enjoyed Raylan calling Limehouse out for his disingenuous clueless barbecue cook routine. I loved the tension in the scene with Raylan where Limehouse brings up his beating of Arlo (which he previously pretended not to remember). When that fails to upset Givens, he instead brings up Raylan’s mom, which does anger the marshal.

Speaking of moms, Tanner’s was clearly his Achilles heel. First, the nice new television he purchased for his mom tips Raylan off that he’s been in contact with her. Then, Errol uses Tanner’s love of his mom to talk his way out of the room with the bouncing betty in it. And, when Errol stays true to his word and delivers the bag of cash to Tanner’s mother, that tips Raylan off to the connection between Tanner and Limehouse’s crew (which is what got Tanner killed in the first place).

I really loved his mom too. Raylan manipulates Art by not letting on that his tip about Tanner came from Boyd, then he manipulates Napier by having his truck driver buddy pretend to be an ATF agent, but he completely underestimates Tanner’s mom. She sees through his “I’m just trying to help your son” routine and calls him a “no dick lawman.” Of course, if she had given up Tanner’s whereabouts to Raylan, he might have been able to save him in time. (I also really like how the scene with Raylan and Tanner’s mom paralleled the story Raylan tells Ava about “Tiny.”)

Overall, this was another strong episode in what has been an overall solid season for this show. I like that Raylan got close to finally getting some dirt on Quarles – Tanner was ready to talk – only to have the rug pulled out from under him again. And I really like how the battle for Harlan is shaping up. (I got ridiculously excited when Timothy Olyphant delivered the “There’s a war coming” line to Limehouse.)

And another thing …

• Raylan is really keeping the gun that killed Gary in his apartment? That seems like a horrible idea.

• Ellen May has really had a tough couple of weeks, hasn’t she? Hopefully things will get better now that Ava’s in charge.

• Raylan has clearly noticed that Devil is no longer around and Boyd’s response when Raylan brought it up to him was far from a denial that he had anything to do with Devil’s disappearance.

• Am I the only one who gets really hungry every time they film a scene at Limehouse’s restaurant?

• Hollywood writers sure love “bouncing betties,” don’t they?

Written by Joel Murphy. If you enjoy his recaps, he also writes a weekly pop culture column called Murphy’s Law, which you can find here. You can contact Joel at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.

“Raylan may be a lot of things, but I never got a whiff of dirty.”

- Art Mullen

Last week we saw all of the various factions in Harlan manuevering and looking to position themselves to make a play for control of the county. This week, Robert Quarles decides to make his move and goes full steam after Raylan and Boyd, looking to the authorities to put away his competition.

Since he truly believes Raylan is a dirty cop, Quarles could have been content with simply having Sammy Tonin make his well-rehearsed phone call tipping the FBI off about Raylan’s “partnership” with Boyd Crowder. That would have been enough to bring Agent Barkley and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Vasquez to Raylan’s doorstep.

But Quarles isn’t one to leave these things to chance. While he hopes that tipping off Barkley will uncover a connection between Raylan and Boyd, he also has a Plan B. Quarles brings Gary back to his own front lawn and executes him, using the bullet Raylan threw at Wynn Duffy back in “Full Commitment” last season. That causes the local PD to make the obvious connection, that Raylan must have killed Gary over Winona.

However, while he succeeds in giving Raylan a very unpleasant day, Quarles plan ultimately fails because of two fatal flaws. The first being that Raylan isn’t actually on the take, so any investigation into him by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office will ultimately come up empty. Secondly, Quarles apparently sucked at hide and seek as a child because he leaves the planted gun in plain sight in Winona’s house, making it easy for her to find and remove before the cops get a chance to look around.

What continues to fascinate me about this show is its examination of Raylan’s gunslinger ways. Deep down, we want Raylan to be the cowboy who shoots first and asks questions later, but time and time again on this show, there are consequences for him coming unhinged. Most shows like this tend to reward Raylan’s actions, but here things aren’t so black and white.

Threatening Duffy last season by laying him out and tossing a bullet on top of him was incredibly bad ass (and the retelling of it impresses the investigating officer this week), but that move gives Duffy and Quarles a bullet with Raylan’s fingerprints on it, allowing them to frame him. And Raylan’s decision to handle Gary’s attempted hit on him and Winona by himself without alerting authorities contributed to Gary’s death by leaving him out of jail and vulnerable. Also, Raylan’s convoluted history with Boyd, including deputizing him at the end of season one, casts enough of a doubt to give some merit to the FBI’s investigation.

Of course, Raylan wasn’t the only one Quarles attempted to frame this week. He also orchestrates a fake hit on Sheriff Napier to run Boyd’s name through the mud and ruin his chances of propping up Shelby for sheriff. It’s doubtful that this will lead to criminal charges for Boyd, but it could certainly hurt his campaign. Still, I imagine Crowder’s response will be calculated and brilliant.

While Quarles was attempting to take out Raylan and Boyd, he had the rug pulled out from under him by Sammy Tonin. It looks like the Tonin family has decided to pull his pursestrings, presumably content to let him fend for himself in Harlan, far away from their operation in Chicago. This causes Quarles to turn to Ellstin Limehouse for help.

Limehouse shows up on Quarles’ doorstep, warning him about Boyd’s plans for the sheriff’s office and offering him help. But while Limehouse tells him that he wants to back the winning side, it’s becoming clear that his plan is to back both sides so that whoever wins feels loyal toward him. It’s a dangerous game Limehouse is playing – if Quarles figures out Tanner is spying on him or that Limehouse’s man was behind the Oxy clinic hit or Boyd figures out Limehouse is leaking his plans to Quarles, they could easily turn on the man looking to play the middle.

And another thing …

• I like that even though Tim and Art often seem frustrated with Raylan (and rightfully so) that they still stick by their man when the heat is on. Watching both of them be as unhelpful as possible to Agent Barkley provided some of the best comedic moments of the episode.

• When Raylan playfully suggests that he froze Gary’s body to alter the timeline of when he killed him, Tim brings up Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski, who did just that. Kuklinski was the subject of a HBO documentary called Confessions of a Mafia Hitman, which is captivating, though quite disturbing. You can see a clip of it here.

• I would imagine Gary being killed on the lawn would have to hurt the resale value of their house while it’s on the market.

Written by Joel Murphy. If you enjoy his recaps, he also writes a weekly pop culture column called Murphy’s Law, which you can find here. You can contact Joel at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

- Boyd Crowder

This week’s episode title – “The Man Behind the Curtain” – is wonderfully ambiguous.

It could be referring to Theodore Tonin, the head of the Chicago mafia, who sends his son Sammy down to Harlan to check on Robert Quarles. Thus far this season, Quarles has positioned himself as the head of the Dixie Mafia and has looked to grab all the power he can, but at the end of the day he still has to answer to Theodore.

Courtesy of Sammy’s visit and Raylan’s FBI file, we are also beginning to get a clearer picture of who Quarles is and why he was sent down to Harlan. It seems Theodore was once grooming Quarles to take over the business until he fell out of favor at least, in part, because of his tendency to tie up and beat down “hustlers,” which he apparently has continued to do in Harlan.

The man behind the curtain could also refer to Boyd Crowder, who Quarles believes is pulling Raylan’s strings. Misunderstanding Raylan’s motives and his volatile relationship with Boyd, Quarles assumes Raylan is on Boyd’s payroll. Robert doesn’t know Ellen May was the one who tipped the marshal off about the Dixie Mafia’s oxy clinic, so he assumes Boyd was the one who told him. Arlo’s involvement in Boyd’s gang and the fact that Aunt Helen’s house was where Boyd set up his oxy clinic only further supported Quarles’ theory.

This week we see Quarles attempt to turn Raylan and get the marshal working for him. When that fails, Quarles turns to Sheriff Tillman Napier to put the squeeze on Boyd. Napier and his men show up and shut down Johnny’s bar, which is no doubt only the beginning of the pressure they’re going to be applying.

In response, Boyd decides to be the man behind the curtain in Shelby’s campaign to run for sheriff. Since his old buddy from the mine (last season) is now stuck spending his days as a Walmart greeter, Boyd decides to call him in and set him up as a puppet candidate who will be loyal to him and his operation.

We also have the FBI, hiding behind a curtain watching Sammy Tonin and building a RICO case against the Chicago mafia. They are nonplussed to see the good Marshal Givens muddying the waters with his own investigation.

Finally, there’s Ellstin Limehouse and his crew. Limehouse has always been the true man behind the curtain in Harlan. As he said so eloquently last week to Boyd, “it’s always been our business to know you.” Limehouse is the unseen hand in Harlan, laying low in his holler, playing the banker and subtly influencing the course of events in the county. He knows who everyone is and what they are into and is content to sit back and wait for his opportunity to capitalize.

I loved how this week’s episode showed us all the various factions attempting to outmaneuver each other. Everyone thinks they are one step ahead, but every action they take causes an unexpected response in someone else – Raylan enlisting the help of Sammy to take down Quarles after Quarles shows up and bribes Raylan, Boyd fronting Shelby for sheriff in response to Quarles buying Napier, Quarles going to Tulsa to find Gary in response to Raylan’s eviction. These are all smart, calculating men looking to take each other down and with Limehouse in the shadows waiting for the right moment to make his play, it makes for a very exciting and unpredictable season. I like where things are headed.

And another thing …

• It’s odd to see Robert Quarles in a leather jacket instead of a three-piece suit. Also, I can’t help but wonder if he still had the Derringer hid up the sleeve in his more relaxed attire.

• So it looks like I was right last week with my guess that Arlo’s going senile. This week he shows up at the holler thinking Frances is hiding out there and he once again gets a beating for his troubles (but this time he doesn’t have Raylan to drive him home).

• It turns out Limehouse is quite a liar, isn’t he? After lying to Dickie about how much money Mags left him, this week we find out that Quarles does indeed remember Arlo and the ass kicking he gave him, though he feigned ignorance when Raylan asked him about it earlier this season.

• “Last I checked, you were a marshal too.” It was great to have Tim featured prominently this week. I really love the idea that while we follow Raylan each week on the show and view him as the hero, Tim and Rachel are annoyed to get sucked into his drama and be his supporting cast. I also love that they hate his corny jokes.

• I appreciated Raylan’s description of Quarles as a “big toothed Albino looking son of a bitch.”

• Why does Limehouse think he can trust Tanner to go back to Quarles and claim the hit on Boyd’s oxy clinic was his idea? Right now, Tanner needs Limehouse to hide him out in the holler and to keep him alive, but once he leaves, why wouldn’t he sell out Limehouse’s crew in order to get back in Quarles good graces?

• I always appreciate a good Stephen Tobolowsky sighting. I really hope his role as Agent Barkley is a reoccurring one.

Written by Joel Murphy. If you enjoy his recaps, he also writes a weekly pop culture column called Murphy’s Law, which you can find here. You can contact Joel at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.

“It’s always been our business to know you.”

- Ellstin Limehouse

Since Mags’ death at the end of last season, there has been a power vacuum in Harlan County. Robert Quarles, Boyd Crowder and Ellstin Limehouse have been looking to grab a piece of Mags’ empire and establish themselves as the new top dog. After a lot of posturing and sizing up of the competition, this week the first shots were fired.

After Boyd recruited Quarles’ corrupt doctor to sell Oxy for him, two of Quarles men take out Boyd’s clinic (which is being run out of the Givens’ household). But it wasn’t the carpet bagger who gave the orders, it was one of Limehouse’s men, looking to pit the competition against one another so that Limehouse could step up and take over in the aftermath.

Of course, the plan doesn’t work out for a number of reason. First and foremost, the men from Quarles’ clinic leave a witness behind – Ellen May – who is able to point the good Marshal Givens in the direction of Tanner and the other members of Quarels’ clinic. Secondly, the plan underestimates Boyd, who isn’t convinced that Quarels is behind the attack, since it doesn’t fit with his MO. And finally, there’s the fact that Limehouse figures out what his underling is up to and is in no way pleased with his actions.

Continuing what has become a trend this season, Raylan once again wants nothing to do with the goings-on in Harlan. First it’s Art who sends him to investigate since the original shooting happened at Aunt Helen’s house. Then, it’s Boyd who sends Raylan to Ava and Ellen May, which tips him off about Quarles’ clinic. Still, Raylan is much more concerned about the whereabouts of Winona, who walked out on him at the end of the last episode, than anything happening in his hometown.

After doing some snooping on Winona’s work computer, Raylan begins to suspect that his ex went back and stole the cash from the property room again. When Raylan discovers the cash in locker 247 is missing once again, the real thief, Charlie, hightails it to Mexico, knowing Raylan would eventually connect the dots back to him. Charlie presumably knew what Raylan and Winona were up to last season and figured it would be safe to snatch the money himself once it was put back in place. I wonder how long he’d been holding onto it?

But while Charlie is now on the lam and Winona is staying with her sister, things in Harlan are looking to heat up. Even though Boyd and Quarles didn’t go for the bait offered up by Limehouse’s man, it’s still only a matter of time before those two go at each other’s throats. Plus, there’s always the chance either side will retaliate against Limehouse and his men.

And then there’s Quarles escalating conflict with Raylan. Raylan has begun looking into the man from the north, getting the FBI files on him. And Quarles has begun looking into Raylan too and has begun to suspect that the marshal is on the take, working alongside his father and Boyd.

Things are bound to get interesting from here on out.

And another thing …

• How did Limehouse’s man get Tanner and his associate to hit Boyd’s clinic? And why didn’t they check with Quarles first? I’m a little hazy on the exact nature of this plan.

• Is Arlo going senile? Was his boxer-clad argument with Helen simply him venting frustrations over something she did before her death or is it a sign he’s starting to lose it? (His comment to Raylan that he’ll run and cry to Helen could be another sign he’s losing it or just a cold jab about Raylan’s childhood.)

• Sure, I’m wondering about the tied up man in Quarles’ bedroom, but I’m much more curious as to why he has an eye chart on his fridge.

• I’m sad to see Ethan’s time on Lost with those hippie Others didn’t mellow him out at all. Clearly his time on the island has driven him to a life of pimping and pills.

• If you knew men were about to burst into your office with shotguns to take out your Oxy clinic, why would you hide behind the desk in plain sight? Why not hide off to the side so they at least have to come in the room before taking you out with a well-placed shotgun blast?

• This is the third appearance of Ellen May the prostitute, played by Abby Miller. She was last seen in last season’s penultimate episode “Reckoning,” where Raylan joked about giving her the “best two pumps of her life.”

Written by Joel Murphy. If you enjoy his recaps, he also writes a weekly pop culture column called Murphy’s Law, which you can find here. You can contact Joel at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.

“Have you been futzin’ around with men’s organs?”

- Raylan Givens

This week’s episode of Justified gave us a variety of strange moral codes.

First there was Limehouse, who we discovered did indeed steal three million dollars from Dickie Bennet. But Limehouse seemed almost offended when his righthand man suggests having Dickie shived in prison in order to keep him from coming after them. Limehouse clearly still feels obligated to protect Dickie because of his agreement with Mags, but that moral obligation doesn’t keep him from stealing the cash.

We also saw the moral code of Robert Quarles, the man from Detroit who has his eye on taking over the Dixie Mafia. For Quarles, everything he does seems to come down to business. Last week, he was trying to recruit Devil over to his organization, but when that failed, he’s perfectly willing to sit down with Boyd Crowder to try and hash out a deal with him this week. For Boyd, last week’s betrayal was incredibly personal, but for Quarles it was nothing but business. He’s ever moving forward.

Boyd himself, who is always a mix of such bizarre codes and contradictions, gave an interesting glimpse into his own soul by refusing to steal money from Devil’s corpse. He had no problem pulling the trigger last week, but he still clearly cares about this man who betrayed him and refuses to rob his grave. Of course, we also see that Boyd is wiser and more guarded than Devil when it comes to Quarles. While his underling was won over by the man from Detroit’s promises of greener pastures, Boyd accuses Quarles of being a “carpetbagger” coming down from the North looking to fleece the backwater southerners.

Then there was Lance, the twisted prison nurse, who flirted with the idea of organ harvesting for profit, but instead was content to simply make Dewey Crowe believe his kidneys had been stolen to extort as much cash from him as possible. Whether this was Lawrence Nightingale growing half a conscience and refusing to kill his dimwitted captive or whether he was planning on stealing his kidneys in the end regardless, we’ll never know. (Whichever of those two ways you choose to interpret his motives radically changes the character, doesn’t it?) Of course, while he doesn’t take Dewey’s kidneys, he seemed ready to take Raylan’s, either out of jealousy or because he knew the marshal was a much larger threat than the escaped convict.

Speaking of Raylan, we learned that while he has no problem taking out a bad guy with a gun (and has, in fact, had to work to be less of a “shoot first, ask questions later” type of marshal over these past three seasons), he is uncomfortable shooting a woman. Killing Layla seemed to really bother him in a way none of his previous shootings have.

And finally, there’s Winona, the adulterer/almost thief who got back with her marshal ex-husband (while still married to her second husband) knowing exactly what type of man he is and then attempted to change him. Then, once she’s pregnant, she disappears in the middle of the night, leaving him a “Dear John” letter. I don’t hate Winona the way a lot of other people out there on the Internet seem to, but she certainly didn’t come out looking great by the end of this episode. It’s hard to try and take the high moral ground on the guy you’re having an affair with who had to bail you out when you stole money from the evidence locker.

And another thing …

• We finally learned Neal McDonough’s character’s name – Robert Quarles. Apparently, the writers have said his identity was never a big secret, they were simply waiting for an organic moment for another character to refer to him by name.

• Fans of Psych no doubt recognized Maggie Lawson, who played Layla. I love her as Juliet, but it was fun to see her get to play a villain. Also, Layla is now the second woman this season who distracts Raylan with her charms. (The first one being Yvette, the secretary who gives Raylan information about the drop off per Quarles instructions.) Raylan is good at cutting through male villains’ BS, but he seems to have a blind spot when it comes to attractive women with big smiles.

• Raylan had a number of great one-liners in this episode. In addition to dubbing Lance “Lawrence Nightingale” and his great line to Ash that I used at the top of this review, “Just dying to smash something, aren’t ya?” to the tactical guy and “Your kidneys are for pissing” to Dewey both cracked me up.

• An appliance store, a strip club and a laundromat – I liked Dewey’s random assortment of locations he robbed while trying to scrounge up enough money to save his kidneys.

Written by Joel Murphy. If you enjoy his recaps, he also writes a weekly pop culture column called Murphy’s Law, which you can find here. You can contact Joel at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.