“You’ll never leave Harlan alive.”
With that, so ends the penultimate season of Justified. It’s been a shaky one, but at the end of it all, it served its purpose as a set-up to what should be an explosive final season. “Restitution”, like the rest of the current season, is not without its bumps, but it’s a satisfying way to close off various storylines and introduce intriguing new ones.
To what extent can Raylan Givens play loose with the law?
This has been the biggest question about this character thus far, and it’s certainly an intriguing one; we’ve seen him make decisions that have led to heartbreak and danger and death, but his badge has always protected him. What’s going to happen next week, though?
“I may not know a lot about a lot of things, but I DO know how to blow shit up.”
Boyd Crowder, with the ultimate evidence that smoking kills. Aside from that moment–which is just plain awesome–this episode is ripe with crackling dialogue, sustained tension, and interesting character development, and it looks as if Justified is really shifting into gear for the season 5 endgame.
Harlan’s never really contained a hierarchy of criminals so much as a jumbled mess of ’em.
Sure, you have the smart, calculating Boyd Crowders and the not-so-smart, not-so-calculating Dewey Crowes of the world, but in this type of environment, who’s to say who wins? Unpredictability is dangerous, and it’s questionable whether someone like Boyd Crowder is any better off than Dewey Crowe when it comes to handling rapid-fire decisions and outpourings of emotion.
Well, Justified is back, ladies and gentlemen.
After a bit of a stumble, we’re back in fine form tonight; this is mostly due to the fact that everyone’s back in Harlan now, allowing for sharper interactions and increased tension. One of the major problems of season 5 so far has been a feeling of detachment, a lack of forward momentum that seems to be hurting the show a bit.
“You’re both under arrest, because you’re a fugitive…and you’re a dick.”
Justified can still bring the humor, but while this line is, for me, the funniest of the episode, it also encapsulates all of the problems of “Whistle Past the Graveyard”. There’s an ambivalence here that’s creeping throughout the show, and this episode in particular stumbles a bit in that department.
Justified is always going to be an endlessly watchable show, delivering crackling wit, tension, and sharp dialogue throughout each episode. That’s the case this week: although the episode isn’t up to par with the rest of the season, it still contains, simply speaking, pure fun.
Justified knows how to deliver its cold opens.
“Kill the Messenger” starts off with a wonderful teaser, one which effectively sets up the episode and is brilliantly acted by both Timothy Olyphant and Nick Searcy. The punch is a long time coming, and we can see the inner and external conflicts bubbling at the surface, just ready to boil over once morals trump respect.
Damn, what an episode.
“Shot All to Hell” is this show firing on all cylinders: hilarious, intense, and downright entertaining. The body count is as high as its ever been, and I have to say, this is easily in the top 5 of my favorite episodes of Justified.
“I was thinking…aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper?”
Although this episode seems to be a placeholder of sorts, it’s crackling with energy, humor, and tension; it may just be the best episode of the season thus far. It’s certainly the most entertaining. I mean, when you have Tim Gutterson in your episode, that’s an automatic A-.
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