Right when you think Justified might be ready to take a breather, it just keeps pounding pavement. Not only did “Thick as Mud” pick up right where last week’s heartrending emotional high left off, it raised the bar in spectacular, nauseating fashion.
Finally, Dewey Crowe had the chance to show some versatility. Unfortunately for Dewey Crowe, it had to come about as the result of a double-kidney removal against his will. Lance, the prison doc, “strips him for parts” and sends him on a crime spree to buy them back. Poor Dewey’s impressionability doesn’t do him any favors in a universe where stubbornness is a virtue. And in a universe where large purchases are usually made by credit, Dewey has a hard time picking up some 30 grand from appliance stores and Fluff ‘n’ Folds.
Sharp editing turned an already exciting series of robberies into what was unquestionably one of Justified’s all-time greatest sequences. Dewey’s grotesque scars as he lies in the tub are cut back and forth with overexposed fisheye shots while he stumbles desperately through town. All the while, Lance narrates in sickening detail the things Dewey’s body would soon do to him (am I the only one besides Dewey who bought the fake kidney failure symptoms? I really hope not). It’s right out of Breaking Bad’s playbook: a good thing to have on hand. The second bit of editing magic came as Raylan and the deputies followed in his footsteps, taking us from robbery to investigation again and again. Rather than to simply take Dewey’s rampage in stride, the editing allowed the show to magnify it tenfold.
Not to be lost in the shuffle is Boyd and Quarles’ confrontation, which featured some really superb dialogue. Boyd sends two kinds of messages tonight. First, he brings Johnny in to beat up one of Quarles’ workers (hunted down via the late Devil’s flip phone), grabbing the boss man’s attention. Once they do meet at Johnny’s bar, however, it seems initially that Boyd may have overplayed his hand. Boyd himself admitted previously he doesn’t exactly have the resources to stack up eye to eye, and Quarles knows it. He tries to strongarm Boyd into a business partnership, but Boyd knows better. He calls him out for what he is—a carpetbagger, a manipulator, nothing “backward” Harlan hasn’t swatted down a million times over already. This message, infinitely more powerful than stealing a handful of pills or beating up some worker in Frankfurt, should have stung Quarles a little. But it didn’t. For the first time I can recall, Boyd doesn’t know how to react. This is going to be a lot of fun to watch.
Meanwhile, Raylan is hot on his Marshall beat again. He tries to track down Lance through Ash the prison guard he ran over (twice) last week. But not long after he pays him a visit, Ash suffers a stroke and dies. He questions a nurse about any foul play, and she flirts away a promising lead. Of course, when he pays her a visit to pursue it later that night, things turn sour. The nurse, a surprisingly compelling side-character, was in cahoots with the doctor. He knocks out Raylan and moves to strip him for parts, only to be turned on at the last minute by the nurse. She shoots him dead in the tub, right on top of the conveniently-just-conscious-enough Raylan. It’s a little contrived, but serves its purpose if only by providing a situation wherein Raylan can shoot somebody through somebody. It was badass. Whether the nurse lived, we don’t know. Does Justified have room for another backwoods femme fatale? With a shocking new development, maybe it does.
This is of course referring to Winona, who appears to have left Raylan in her third trimester. Where does he go from here? He has a lot on his plate and there’s sure to be plenty more to come, even as he considers more strongly leaving the beat. Ever in the shadows, Limehouse looks to be plotting the other players against each other. Boyd and Quarles stepped up toe to toe, escalating the game once more. And who knows what Dickie Bennett will do? Now is not the best of times for Raylan Givens.
Tonight’s Raylan Givens’ Cowboy Hat Mentions: 0
Season Three’s So-Far-Disappointing Total Tally: 5
Raylan’s Zinger of the Night: “Lawrence Nightingale. Get it? Lawrence? Instead of Florence?
Florence Nightingale?”