“You’re not playin’ Russian Roulette, dumbshit, you’re playin’ Harlan Roulette.”
Tonight, Justified continued to prove its ability to add two and two to make five in a showcase episode for nearly every major player. This titular quote comes from a particularly sadistic scene (in a show that’s thoroughly demonstrated its fondness for sadism) featuring bad-guy-of-the-week Glen Vogel as a Dixie Mafia boss. Justified is too good to hold your hand through the same bit you’ve seen a dozen iterations of; the game had too many endings to recount. You have to root for the poor kid, but he’s done in by bad decisions and bad luck all at once. There are no perfect storms in Harlan, but that may be what makes it so gut-wrenching.
“Harlan Roulette” was an excellent balancing act of a season one style crime vignette and still more glimpses into this season’s adversaries. It all ties together quite nicely. Early on, we’re introduced to a couple of oxycontin addicts, one of whom Raylan busts. They work for Vogel, a shifty-eyed pawn shop owner under Wynn Duffy’s watch. The chain of command follows, and one addict is tasked with walking up and shooting Raylan Givens in cold blood. Unsurprisingly, his brilliant plan does not unfold well and Raylan lets Vogel and his goon take each other out.
Boyd set to work with Limehouse, scheming to split the Bennett family fund. All he really gets out of it is a few thousand dollars for his leftover rat weed, but he doesn’t stop there. In a scene played to the same ridiculous heights as the roulette scene before it, Boyd and the gang set to reclaim his cousin Johnny’s old bar. The bartender isn’t having it. Boyd and Devil draw, and the bartender’s men draw back. Boyd’s other guys draw on them. Johnny comes in quietly to break the stalemate, and the Crowder family has its day (and its bar back). That’s about all for Boyd tonight, though he does later solidify Devil’s allegiances with a strong monologue. He deadpans, “I can’t discard my past any more than I can these tattoos.” Boyd’s Aryan ties seem to have come up a lot lately, and it’s sure to keep happening as Limehouse asserts himself.
Meanwhile, the rather Aryan-looking Robert Quarles himself bides his time again. His character has been given plenty of time to be fleshed out slowly before any of the real insanity begins, and he probably needs it. He’s a coldhearted crime lord with a shit-eating grin, but it seems the show would like us to believe it’s not so simple. Quietly, we’re exposed to one disturbing characteristic after another, from the Taxi Driver homage to the man tied up in a bedroom for no real reason. That it’s all filtered through Wynn Duffy’s lens — and it’s too creepy for him to handle — really adds to the strange vibe.
The highlight of the night was their run-in with Raylan, who looks mostly irritated to be there. He has “better places to be.” It’s that kind of calm, angry badass we’ve come to really enjoy out of him. He scares the lights out of Duffy and takes a quick picture of Quarles while he’s at it. It’s a little hilarious.
Limehouse stays eerily behind the scenes again tonight, but one really intriguing aspect came to light and was glanced over early on. At the bridge (a setting that should make any loyal Justified viewer tense up), Limehouse hints at some kind of past with Arlo. Who knows how this dynamic may effect Boyd and the Crowder gang’s future business with him, but I can’t imagine it will be for the better.
All in all, I get the feeling I’m going to run out of ways to compliment this show. Season three is showing that it can blend single-episode plots into the bigger picture, this time through Vogel’s connection to Duffy. Meanwhile, it lets other plots boil. Dickie in prison comes to mind, and Winona and Raylan are going to settle down one of these days, whether you like it or not. At the end of the day, Justified proved again that the steps it takes to set up the foundation can be just as fun as watching it explode later in the season.
Tonight’s Raylan Givens’ Cowboy Hat Mentions: 2
Season Three Total Tally: 5
Raylan’s Zinger of the Night: “Next one’s comin’ faster.”