I praised last week’s episode, “Kin,” for returning to the formula most often employed when Justified is at its best: Boyd plus Raylan equals some captivating television. And while those two characters are the key ingredients, the same idea applies to the show in general—its greatest moments come from squeezing its wide array of colorful characters together and enjoying the results. All in all, “Kin” was going to be a hard act to follow, but I found this week’s offering especially disappointing because it quickly diverted away from that tried and true formula. “Foot Chase” seemed to set everyone off on their own individual adventures (and I do mean everyone). That’s not to say it wasn’t an exciting hour of television—as I’ve said repeatedly, if Boyd Crowder’s around count me in—but it certainly won’t be remembered as one of Justified’s best. 

With so many characters off doing their own thing, most of the episode’s dialogue can be divided into two groups: First, conversations between members of the main cast who we see interacting all the time, and second, between a single regular and various one-off or rarely recurring characters. The one exception to this, and perhaps as a result the episode’s strongest plot line, was Raylan and Shelby joining forces in the hunt for Drew Thompson.

Early on, Raylan speaks with some local cops on the scene at Josiah Cairn’s house, and he acts like his usual jerk self. When one of them asks if there’s any particular reason he’s treating them, and I quote, “like a couple of bleached assholes,” Raylan considers it for a moment and responds, “not particularly.” We discover later that the disdain likely stems from his lack of respect for Sheriff Shelby, although I doubt Raylan is self-aware enough to make that connection himself. When Shelby asks if the reason Raylan doesn’t trust him is that he thinks he’s in Boyd’s pocket, Raylan quips back, “I think Lynyrd Skynrd’s overrated; I know you’re in Boyd’s pocket.” Shelby admits that he used Boyd to get elected, but that is allegiance is and always has been to the law. It’s interesting reversal of perspective, given that Boyd would say it was in fact he that was using Shelby.

Of course, the audience knows Shelby is done being used, because we know the details of Ellen May’s disappearance. But understandably, words aren’t enough to change Raylan’s mind. So Shelby sets out to prove it to him by putting Boyd in cuffs and bringing him in for questioning. Boyd warns him of the dangers of this decision, saying, “Son, you are turning a corner you can’t walk back around.” I found two things about that line intriguing: There’s what it says about Boyd (and Walton Goggins’ performance) that he can call Shelby “son,” in spite of their actual ages, and not sound silly. Because that’s just the kind of respect Boyd Crowder commands. And there’s the fact that Shelby, who reminds us himself that he was a supermarket greeter not too long ago, is tenacious enough to turn that corner so forcefully.

They release Boyd after his lawyer turns up. Raylan’s marshal sense starts tingling when he recognizes her as the same woman defending Arlo. He and Shelby trailer her home, where they find Josiah and the “two idiots” who carried him off in a panel van. Despite what the lawyer and her two idiots think, Josiah is not Drew Thompson. So all Shelby and Raylan get for their trouble is another “he went that-a-way” as Josiah points them to Hunter Moseley, the former sheriff of Harlan County who’s currently in jail for his involvement in an attempt on Raylan’s life all the way back in the first season. We’re only six episodes into the season after all, the big mystery isn’t anywhere close to getting wrapped up yet. Which means this episode wasn’t really about finding Drew Thompson, it was about bringing Raylan and Shelby together.

The real reason the characters got so split up on their own adventures this week was precisely because we’re no where close to finding Drew Thompson and they need something to do in the interim. That’s all well and good when it comes to an otherwise strong storyline like the one between Raylan and Shelby, which brought new partnerships and character development. It’s even decent when it’s as entertaining as Boyd’s, ahem, alternate path: Breaking into the homes of the area’s rich folk based on Raylan’s “hill person” cousin Mary’s hint that Drew enjoys hobnobbing with such types, justifying himself in the claim that nobody gets that wealthy “without ruining someone’s day.” It’s not a particularly efficient way of gathering information, however, and Ava is able to wrap things up in her own way. As was the case with Raylan and Shelby, she got her team in the scavenger hunt one step closer to Thompson by getting her and Boyd invited to a party at the home of another former sheriff of Harlan County, Tillman Napier.

Although Ava’s way of doing things made sense, I can’t say it was particularly captivating to watch, and that was the problem with most of this week’s little sidequests. There are some Justified fans who have been clamoring for more plots involving Tim and Rachel. I’m one of them, and as glad as I am we finally got to see Tim go off on his own (and how Raylan is rubbing off on the rest of the office), his story and the others like it came off as fractured and forced. There were way too many to talk about in depth, so I’m going to pick one, Colton’s.

Two weeks ago, at the end of “The Bird Has Flown,” Colton went into the gas station bathroom to snort heroin before killing Ellen May. It was at that very moment that I knew he would develop a drug problem which would drive his storyline moving forward. Back then, you could’ve tried to argue that Colt was no addict. Rather, he was simply uncomfortable with the task Boyd set before him and needed some powdered courage. Alright, I would’ve said, then why did the writers choose to show him using heroin, why not have him pull out a flask and take a big gulp?

You see, drug use only ends one way in the world of fiction: addiction and devastation, men turning to crime and women to prostitution so they can get a fix. Reality allows for shades of grey, like recreational use and functional addiction, while near every drug user on television is a walking time bomb. But the reason for that isn’t necessarily that the writers of Justified or any other show that’s utilized a similar scenario want to moralize or proliferate the idea that “drugs are bad, m’kay.” The thing is, anyone who’s ever written anything will tell you that the hardest part isn’t creating material but cutting it. In television especially, when writers are constricted to 22 or 44-minute installments, there is simply no time to spare for anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. So if someone, especially a side character like Colton, was entirely functional despite their drinking or drug use, why waste any screentime on it? It would be like showing Colton going home to feed his cat or any such thing that has absolutely no impact on the story. So the second any precious screentime is devoted to someone sneaking away to snort heroin, you know they’re going to milk it for all it’s worth.

We can see all this is manifesting in Colton. He’s gone from needing a few bumps to take the edge off to freebasing in the bathroom at Audrey’s to pulling a freaking gun on some poor guy who’s just trying to get clean (not to mention take a piss). I wonder if it’s a coincidence so many of his addiction-related shenanigans take place in bathrooms. Oh, and let’s not forget Colt slapping a hooker around (and making quite the mess in her trailer). This isn’t just any hooker either, but one who seems to have a (presumably very open) relationship with Johnny. It’s hard to say how much time has passed since Ellen May’s escape in the world of the show, but it can’t be more than a week or to, and Colton is completely unraveling. This being television, he has further still to fall before he hits rock bottom. I’d be surprised if he survives the season.

What’s more relevant, however, is how said shenanigans are affecting his work. He doesn’t pick up when Johnny calls because he’s too busy pointing a gun at some junkie’s privates. It’s a risky choice given what Boyd said last week about not responding to him: “Next time I reach out to you, I don’t care if it’s a smiley face you text me back.” But the point is that Colton’s an addict now and addicts make risky choices. Plus it’s Johnny, so who cares, right? Speaking of Johnny, he gets angry when he sees Teri’s bruised face and demands to know who hurt her. Teri knows she can’t say it was Colton, so she blames it on Max, her “Tuesday regular.” Which leads to another interesting side effect of Colton’s new drug problem: he nearly kills this completely innocent (of this particular crime, anyway) man as a way to vent his fury.

A Few More Things:

-It seems Johnny is still planning to kill Boyd once the Thompson mystery is solved. Johnny tells his cousin that “If it were me, I’d take Drew off your hands and then I’d try to kill you.” Of course, Boyd thinks Johnny’s just speaking in hypotheticals, and he a’int afraid of no Wynn Duffy, so he responds, “Well then lucky for me it a’int you.” Boyd, buddy, didn’t you used to be a preacher? Don’t you know the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist?

-Boyd and Ava are engaged, and the proposal was even a bit romantic in a Crowder sort of way. But I’m wondering if this wasn’t a tactical move, at least partially, to take advantage of spouses not being able to testify against one another. Once they’re married Boyd couldn’t be forced to talk if Ava ever gets pinched for killing Delroy, and the same goes for Ava if Boyd’s ever in trouble for, you know, being Boyd.

-“You’re a criminal, how do you get bloodstains out of upholstery?”

Check out the preview for next week’s episode below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.

Almost every popular television drama has that character: the breakout, the one who isn’t the protagonist but becomes a fan favorite (and thus often a big part of the show’s advertising strategy). Boardwalk Empire has Richard Harrow, The Wire had Omar, The Walking Dead has Daryl Dixon, Sons of Anarchy has Chibbs, Breaking Bad has Jesse Pinkman, not to mention Mike Ehrmantraut. The list goes on. We often wish this character got more screentime, but understand that part of the draw is that we’re always left wanting more. That’s not the case in Justified (or Breaking Bad). Unlike those other shows, its story doesn’t follow one main character while the breakout badass ducks in and out. Instead, its version of the trope, Boyd Crowder, has become so vital that he’s every bit as much the protagonist as Raylan is (ok, he’s a deuteragonist if you really want to get technical about it, nerd). Pretty impressive considering Walton Goggins’ name wasn’t even in the opening credits until season two.

Those of you who know their Justified trivia know that Boyd was originally supposed to die from the bullet Raylan put in his stomach in the pilot episode, as he did in the Elmore Leonard short story on which it was based (“Fire in the Hole”). In fact, Goggins only agreed to be in the show to begin with as a favor to his friend Timothy Olyphant.  But after both creator Graham Yost and test audiences saw how electric the character (and the actor’s performance) was, it was decided Boyd would live to fight another day. The move was even approved by Leonard, who tends to get upset when adaptations of his work stray to far from the source material. It’s not unusual for this kind of character to have their death cancelled—Jesse Pinkman, for instance, was originally meant to die at the end of the first season of Breaking Bad.

So where am I going with all this? Here: As Boyd has slowly risen through the ranks from one-off to co-protagonist, the writers have generally woven him into the story pretty gracefully. He had his side adventures and independent activities, but the first three seasons each had a single decidedly main plot, and Boyd always played an important role in its events. That is, until this year, when they’ve had nary any interaction at all. Until this week.

Prior to “Kin,” the writers appeared to be floundering for both a reason and a method to keep Boyd around. Save an interaction here or there, you could’ve edited his and Raylan’s plotlines into two separate shows that happened to share a setting, assuming you already knew all the characters. It seemed the two were each along their respective merry ways, and despite Boyd having very little to do in what was meant to be “Raylan’s show,” he was simply too good a character to toss out the window for a reason as “trivial” as not having anything to do with the plot (not that I’m complaining, I’d watch a show that was only about Boyd). But Justified’s bread and butter was, is, and will always be the intersection of the two characters.Whether it’s Boyd versus Raylan or Boyd and Raylan forming a tenuous alliance to take down some common foe, the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. Boyd himself put it best (as usual) when he and Raylan found themselves locked in the hill people’s makeshift cell, “You wanna start a fight, Raylan? Nine times out of ten I’d be more than happy to accommodate. But right now I think we got more pressing concerns.” What made “Kin” such a special, exciting episode is that Boyd’s entrance into the rat race to find Drew Thompson delivered a return to that basic, ever-electric formula. We even got both versions of it: Boyd and Raylan have different reasons for wanting to find Thompson, but they work together against the aptly-named hill people.

Speaking of the Truth/Thompson mystery, we got a bunch of long-awaited exposition on the details of the case, and some real plot development while we’re at it. Mike O’ Malley’s character tells us, “Drew Thompson shot Theo [Tonin] in the eye and left him for dead on a runway in Panama. He stole $2 million worth of cocaine from the outfit. Losing that cocaine put Theo in a jam with some very nasty people.” He then hires Wynn Duffy and the Dixie Mafia to be Tonin’s chief local agents in finding Thompson. Duffy also makes a deal to secure Boyd’s help, offering first $20,000 and later half of the heroin trade in the state of Kentucky. Of course, Duffy only made that deal with the expectation that Johnny will kill Boyd and accept a less significant piece of the narcotic pie.

Meanwhile, Raylan gets a clue from Josiah Cairn, the step-father of the brace-fraced blonde teenager who likes to flash people. The girl and her boyfriend only made one hole in Arlo’s wall, which is how Raylan knows she didn’t go there looking to strip the place for copper wire. It turns out Arlo and Josiah are old pals, and the former had the latter send his step-daughter to grab the bag. Raylan gets Josiah to give up Thompson’s alleged whereabouts: hiding out with the reclusive hill people, who don’t much care for outsiders or anyone who isn’t “kin.” Duffy has Boyd sniffing the same scent, which is how the two end up in the aforementioned makeshift cell.

Raylan promises that if he doesn’t find Thompson in the hills, Josiah’s place will be his first stop. Well, Raylan only barely escapes with his life, let alone Thompson in tow. Josiah’s not around when Raylan shows up to make good on his promise, which is curious, considering Josiah was under house arrest. What’s even more curious is how Raylan finds Josiah’s ankle bracelet unbroken. Raylan’s confused as to how Josiah could accomplish such a feat, until he finds a severed foot, at which point we realizes the trick wasn’t exactly on par with Houdini. That tells us two things: one, that whoever Thompson’s working with are powerful, not to mention hardcore, and two, there’s another significant force at work here that we haven’t been introduced to yet.

What else is going on? Well, Boyd’s facing rebellion a number of fronts. First of all we’ve got Colton, who told Boyd he killed and disposed of Ellen May without incident. This one appears benign—Colton’s just trying to cover his own ass—but think about how Boyd will respond to being lied to given how he responds to being ignored: “Next time I reach out to you, I don’t care if it’s a smiley face you text me back.” The truth is Ellen May’s under Sheriff Shelby’s protection. The sheriff means to cut ties with his campaign’s criminal benefactor for the sake of both his reputation and his conscience. It looks like Shelby will get the truth about Ava killing Delroy out of Ellen May, and the knowledge will be his main weapon when Boyd finally figures out the truth. Boyd and Ava have truly fallen in love, which is good for Boyd the person but bad for Boyd the criminal mastermind. Love, or even caring what happens to somebody other than yourself is a weakness for the latter. And let’s not forget that Johnny’s still planning to kill Boyd and partner up with Wynn Duffy. When he discusses his cousin’s whereabouts with Ava, she abruptly states that if Boyd wanted him to know where he was, he would’ve told him. You can see and hear the latent anger when he responds that he’s “forgetting his place.” Then, he gets upset that Duffy has apparently reneged on their deal by seeking Boyd’s assistance in finding Drew Thompson. But when Duffy tells Johnny he’ll be free to kill Boyd once they’ve found Thompson, Johnny actually looks scared by the proposition for the first time. That seems to raise the question of whether or not Johnny really has mutiny in him.

A Few More Things:

-Winona (Natalie Zea) made her first appearance of the season for a visit with the baby doctor. I’ve been seeing her all over the place lately, so was she just not needed in the first four episodes, was there a scheduling conflict, or both?

-Wynn Duffy, upon being told Theo Tonin wants him to find Drew Thompson, oh, and the last guy Tonin asked to do that just got shot in the head while sitting right next to him: “It’s not a problem.” And he fucking said it with a straight face! It makes sense though, after the whole Quarles debacle, Duffy’s seen some shit.

-Tim knowing Colton was a military man just from his boots and their subsequent bonding was a nice touch.

Check out the preview for next week’s episode below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.

Justified has always walked the fine line between serial and episodic storytelling. There are times when a full episode that doesn’t add to the season’s overarching plot can seem like filler, no matter how much awesome dialogue there is. But some of the show’s best episodes have come in a “crime of the week” package. How could you forget season one’s “Long in the Tooth,” in which guest star Alan Ruck played a cartel accountant turned dentist for the downtrodden? Justified’s fourth season has continued to walk the tightrope between those two formats.

In the two episodes prior to this week’s installment, the more serialized Waldo Truth mystery featured prominently while Raylan’s various episodic(ish) comings and goings made their presence known but, for the most part, blended into the background. The reverse was true in the premiere as well as “The Bird Has Flown,” in which a situation that’s been developing in bits and pieces over the last three weeks—the Raylan-Lindsey-Randall love triangle—was finally given center stage.

“The Bird Has Flown” is thematically linked by the ideas of choices and consequences, cause and effect. First of all, there’s the question at the center of every love triangle: which one will she choose? Until last week’s closing scene, it seemed pretty clear Lindsey wanted nothing to do with her ex-con ex-husband. Or it did up until Raylan returned home to find his place ransacked, anyway. After that things seemed just as clear: we (and Raylan) had only been led to believe Lindsey was interested in Raylan because it was part of her and Randall’s scam. But when we returned this week, all clarity had gone from the situation. You could say Lindsey made a series of choices throughout the episode as her loyalties wavered back and forth between Raylan and Randall. You could also say that all that wavering wasn’t a series of choices but her failure to make just one. Either way, you’d be right.

As it turned out, nobody—including Lindsey—knew who she would choose until Rachel’s beanbag shotgun entered the equation. She shoots Raylan once, to Randall’s delight, only to turn to her ex and unload once, twice, and after being greeted by an empty click on the third pull, she decides to turn the gun into a melee weapon. The answer was just as murky as the question. Lindsey didn’t pick A) Raylan or B) Randall, but C) none of the above (or perhaps D) me, myself, and I). Nonetheless, when she tells Raylan where the money is—although she’s actually referring to what they bought with the money—he smiles and says “I knew you liked me.” And when Randall asks how many times Lindsey shot him, Raylan replies, “a couple more times than she shot me.” That’s Raylan for you, no woman could ever dislike him, Lindsey was just too smart to risk the legal consequences of being around when he came to.

Meanwhile over in Harlan, Ellen May returned to Audrey’s looking for work now that her favorite preacher is out of commission, and the Crowders had to decide just what to do with her. When Ellen May asks why Billy St. Cyr had to die the way he did, Boyd puts the “choices” theme into words better than anyone, just like you’d expect: “I will not deny my culpability, Ellen May, the tempter bears as much guilt as the tempted. But when it’s all said and done, it was a choice he made that led to where we are now.” The serpent was made to crawl on its belly, but Adam and Eve were cast out of paradise.

Ava fears Ellen May’s lips may have been a little too loose during her time at the Last Chance Holiness Church, particularly regarding one particular incident: the murder of Delroy, Ellen May’s abusive former pimp. I must say that Ava’s intense fear of retribution for this one crime didn’t feel entirely earned. Delroy is hardly the only man to die at the hands of a Crowder. Most of what they do is illegal. They are running a criminal enterprise, after all. And with the sheriff in their collective back pocket to boot! I guess you could make the argument that Ava’s worried because this is the one “truly serious” crime that Ava could get put away for, but it still seemed more like a plot device than a valid story beat. Come on, everyone in Harlan is afraid of the Crowders. They’d probably find it more strange if they found out Ava hadn’t killed at least one person.

Anyway, Ava isn’t sure whether to keep Ellen May within arm’s reach to keep her in line or just remove her from the equation entirely. Or as she puts it, “Either I gotta worry about this thing, or I gotta do the other thing.” Choices. But Boyd proposes another solution: sending Ellen May to work at his cousin’s sleazy motel in Alabama, “the kind that has HBO and no ice.” Once Ava settles on the banishment option, she tries to cast it in a good light, telling Ellen May she’ll be around good Christian folk and won’t have to work as prostitute any longer, which is what she ostensibly wanted following her conversion. Ava even offers her a hefty looking envelope filled with cash.

It wasn’t initially clear whether all that was a display of genuine affection or if Ava was just trying to ensure Ellen May remembers her fondly (and thus won’t snitch) in the days to come. There’s no question that Ava cares for Ellen May, I mean, she did kill a man to protect her. But Crowders tend to have ulterior motives.  Ava is no Boyd—who as Sheriff Shelby put it, is “unfettered by conscience, absent any moral compass that your or me might reckon by. If he thinks he has reason to he will kill you quick as look at you twice”—but she is a Crowder, even if she did have to marry to get the name, and it shows in her final choice. In the end, Ava’s sense of self-preservation outweighs any goodwill she might have held towards Ellen May, as she instructs Colton to “do the other thing.”

When asked what the call was about, Colton says Ava had decided to let Ellen May come home, in the same tone you’d use to tell a child their dog had “gone to live on a farm.” Ellen May is certain that Ava changed her mind because of what she said during their final conversation, insisting she would never snitch. She has no idea how right she is. There’s just one problem though: she disappears before Colton gets a chance to do the deed. Boyd’s new right hand man is clearly shaken after being given his orders, and heads to a gas station bathroom to sniff some powdered courage (more on that in a moment) before he can do the deed. So did Ellen May put the pieces together and bolt, or did someone else snatch her up? My money’s on the latter. Ellen May never was the brightest bulb, and she genuinely seemed to believe her words had convinced Ava to let her stay.

About Colton’s white powder: it came out of one of those same chocolate chip baggies that the Dixie Mafia heroin dealer was pushing his product in, which set a bunch of possibilities racing through my mind. Could Colton be in league with Wynn Duffy selling heroin in Harlan County? Could he be the real reason Boyd’s oxy sales have dipped? Was the man Duffy executed a patsy? Or perhaps Colton’s decided to back Johnny (who recently met with Wynn Duffy regarding a partnership) in the soon-to-come Crowder Civil War? It may just be that those were the only baggies they had on set, or that Colton picked one up and put a personal stash of cocaine or some other substance in it, but I don’t think so. Based on what little we know of him, sniffing heroin seems out of character for Colton (recall his speech about always being able to recognize a junkie during his time as an MP). It seems to me that both Boyd and the audience know a lot less about Colton than we thought, and someone out there decided to take advantage of Boyd’s soft spot for his wartime amigo.

Check out the preview for next week’s episode below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.

“Truth and Consequences” has a more literal title than most episodes of Justified (sure, they packed in a pun, but that’s almost cheating when the character central to the season’s big mystery has a name like “Waldo Truth”). It begins with Boyd paying a visit to the Last Chance Holiness Church, still struggling to figure out what game the preacher and his sister are playing. He’s sure there’s a game, though, there has to be. Boyd would never go to all the trouble the St. Cyrs have if he wasn’t getting something out of it, so he can’t believe anyone else would either. So what’s the truth he’s not seeing?

Half-jokingly, Boyd questions Cassie’s claims that she was merely “putting her brother to sleep,” implying the two are sexually involved and that the sibling act is merely part of their scheme (either that or it’s incest, after all, it’s Kentucky). But that isn’t it, and to his surprise, it isn’t that Cassie uses her brother’s faith and charisma to extort local criminals, either. Cassie turns down Boyd’s “donation,” insisting that what he’s smelling isn’t a con but the fact that “unlike the rest of these sorry souls, we’re not afraid of you.” Boyd quips back, “In that case, ma’am, I think we’ve misjudged each other,” words that turn out prophetic.

Having tried the carrot, Boyd decides to try the stick—sending his henchmen in to intimidate the St. Cyrs—which results in the one who isn’t Colton (apparently his name is Jimmy) being bitten to death by snakes, or so it seems. Given the severity of his injuries, Jimmy should’ve died hours before he got medical help. And just like that, a lightbulb goes off in Boyd’s head. So he heads back to the Last Chance Holiness with another gift, only this time, “it’s not to the church, it’s to the congregation. And it ain’t money, it’s knowledge.”

The main characters aren’t the only ones dealing with truths and consequences this week. Billy St. Cyr’s faith (and hubris) is cemented by the fact that he and his followers continue to survive snakebites without medical assistance. Seeing it as proof of divine intervention, he fearlessly handles snakes as a testament to his omnipotent and benevolent God. As it turns out, however, Boyd was right. There was a scheme afoot, and Cassie had the wool pulled over the eyes of her brother and his congregation both. She’d been “milking” the snakes of their venom to ensure their bites wouldn’t be fatal.

Ever the true believer, Billy insists on handling Boyd’s “gift” nonetheless, though his sister begs him not to. Having gotten what he came for, Boyd too tries to talk him out of it, saying, “You know what, son? I once stood where you’re standing now, mistaking my own hubris for God’s touch. That ain’t religion, son, that’s self-glorification. Best you leave this thing alone.” After that, things go about as you’d expect. Billy is bitten and, given his conviction, I’m willing to bet he’ll die as a result. The preacher was presented with the truth, refused to recognize it, and now he’ll face the consequences. For now, it seems the St. Cyrs weren’t out to get the Crowders. They were nothing but true believers in a place with no room for such. Boyd did what he did not because they were affecting his business interests, but to come to terms with the man he was, the man he saw reflected in Billy St. Cyr’s face.

Meanwhile, the search for the truth about Waldo Truth continues, bringing Tim and Raylan to the home of one Eve Munro, the supposedly psychic ex-wife of Drew Thompson, Waldo’s pilot. It seems just about everyone in the Justified universe has a dog in the Truth/Thompson race, as Eve escapes Tim and Raylans’ questioning only to be abducted by Mason Goins, a thug working for Detroit mob boss Theo Tonin (the man responsible for last season’s big bad, Robert Quarles). The kidnapping goes down thanks to the suspiciously timed arrival of the FBI’s agent Barnes, who then butts heads with the Marshals over the case.

We find out the shady truth about agent Barnes—he’s indebted to Tonin somehow, and the mobster will hurt his family if he doesn’t get information on Thompson—early on, but it takes Raylan and company a bit longer. Raylan’s still running personal errands on the clock, this time dealing with the appearance of his latest girlfriend’s ex, Randall the bare-knuckle boxer (who later robs him, more truths and consequences). Instead of the playground after school, Raylan is set to meet Randall at the gym where the latter’s been staying, but finds his locker’s been cleaned out. But Barnes shows up too, claiming to have received a tip, which makes no sense given that Raylan’s only there on personal business.

It doesn’t take Raylan long to put the pieces together, that Barnes followed him because he’s working on the wrong side of the law in the Truth/Thompson case. Faced with the consequences of his actions, Barnes commits suicide, an end he sees as preferable to being an ex-law man in prison and crossing the folks he’s in business with. Luckily, he gives up Eve’s location before pulling the trigger, and the Marshals are able to save her, not to mention coercing her into giving up some new information regarding her ex-husband’s whereabouts.

Eve Munro will play an important part this season. She’s been right about more than a few things psychic-wise, but the supernatural really isn’t in Justified’s wheelhouse. A show that has one true believer poisoned for his faith isn’t going to turn around and give us a woman who can actually predict the future. I’m willing to bet the truth is Eve knows a lot more about her ex-husband than she’s letting on and has access to information that allows her to seem like she deserves the “certified” part of “certified spiritualist.” For one, it was subtly mentioned that her customers’ houses have a knack for getting robbed, a plot point that’s sure to come up again.

A Few More Things:

-”What are the chances you name your boy ‘Minute’ and he ends up nearly eight feet tall?” – Raylan, in reference to Manute Bol 

-One of my favorite moments came from the Johnny Crowder/Wynn Duffy side plot. The doctor turns and says, “Mr. Crowder” and both Boyd and Johnny respond. The first public indication, subtle though it might have been, that Johnny wants to get rid of Boyd and become the head of the operation, be the Mr. Crowder.

-Let’s get a list of everyone involved in the Truth/Thompson mystery together: Raylan and the Marshals, Boyd, the Detroit mob, Wynn Duffy and the Dixie Mafia, Arlo. That’s just about all the show’s major players. Who’s missing, Limehouse?

Check out the preview for next week’s episode below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.

The second episode of Justified’s fourth season didn’t offer much in the way of action. You probably could’ve watched it with a blindfold on and not missed out on much. That’s not to say it wasn’t entertaining, however. In fact, quite the opposite. There’s little on television more entertaining than a trademark Boyd Crowder speech, and his verbal battle with preacher Billy will likely be remembered as one of the best scenes in the series’ history. It was also a reminder that Walton Goggins is one of the past decade’s best character actors. While he’s finally getting rewarded with roles in big-time movies like Lincoln and Django Unchained, between Shane Vendrell and Boyd Crowder, how he hasn’t won a single Best Supporting Actor Emmy (and has only one nomination) remains a mystery to me.

Leading up to that confrontation, Billy and the Crowders poke and prod at each other from afar, mostly using Ellen May as a conduit. It starts when the easily convinced hooker shows up to tell Ava about her conversion, quoting “Palms number 62.” Ava is quick to ensure the fear of Crowder outweighs the fear of God by reminding Ellen Mae that she was the one who “saved her soul.” So Ellen Mae mopes back to the Last Chance Holiness, only to be converted yet again.

Up to that point, Boyd remained casually detached from the situation. He’s got more pressing concerns, namely finding someone to blame for the decline of his oxy sales. Cousin Johnny, determined to ensure that someone not be him, is quick to point the finger at Billy and his church. Boyd meets the idea with skepticism, however, noting that people in Harlan County “party Friday and Saturday and get saved on Sunday.” He doesn’t think one more church is going to change that, and declines Ava’s suggestion that they go see what all the hubbub’s about, stating that he “doesn’t like churches” (no doubt because of the way his own stint as an evangelist ended). But Billy gets Boyd’s attention by sending a group of hymn-singing children into his whorehouse, scaring away customers.

Though Sheriff Shelby insists Billy’s history of moving from one destitute small town to the next suggests he’s nothing more than your run-of-the-mill pulpiteer, Boyd reads a different story between the lines: The St. Cyrs (Billy and his sister, Cassie) keep their tent tied down just as long as it takes to bring enough addicts, whores, drunks, gamblers and other characters of ill repute into the fold. When the leaders of the local criminal element notice their revenue streams drying up, Billy and Cassie make a simple proposition: Pay up and we’ll be on our way. It remains to be seen what the St. Cyrs’ motivations really are. It seems more likely that a drop-off in oxy sales could have more to do with Dixie Mafia heroin dealers “accidentally” moving into Crowder turf, and that Boyd’s giving the St. Cyrs all that credit because that’s the way he would run that hustle. It’s just too early to tell, the possibilities are endless.

Anyway, all this leads to that ultimate showdown of the orators. The preacher vs. the ex-preacher, the sinner vs. the saint. The two trade bible verses, and Billy talks a lot about helping the wicked to see the light. Boyd turns that around though, pointing out the hubris inherent in the preacher’s willingness to pass judgment on those he does not know. Then he goes on the offensive, calling Billy a “false prophet” and begging the congregation to “test the spirits!” He says Billy goes from town to town, taking people’s hard-earned money and giving them nothing but empty promises in return. Billy’s counter is a surprising one, he says the church will no longer pass out collection plates, a smile never leaving his face. The same cannot be said for Cassie.

At first glance it appears Boyd has to chalk up a rare tally in the loss column. But, when Colton says, “that didn’t go so well,” Boyd responds, “Actually, Colton, I think we got exactly what we came here for.” See, Boyd’s always playing the game on a few different levels, using his bravado to mask his cunning. Boyd wasn’t in that tent on a search and destroy mission, but to gather intelligence. And not just about Billy, but the full extent of the problem, the individual members of the congregation, and everything he can exploit or use to his advantage. Most importantly, he learned that while Billy’s the one behind the pulpit, the charismatic face of Last Chance Holiness, Cassie’s running the show from behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, Raylan and company take the first steps towards unraveling the season’s big mystery, going in search of Waldo Truth, the name on the driver’s license found in the Panamanian diplomatic bag in Arlo’s wall. That included another fantastic scene in which Raylan, Tim, and Art get into a standoff with the Truths, an entire family of Dickie Bennetts. The Truths, of course, fail to see the irony in their gun-toting, “go ahead and shoot,” intensely anti-”gov’ment” attitude, all in an effort to protect the “draw” delivered to them from said “gov’ment.”

In contrast to the hotheaded younger Truths, however, is their matriarch, who calmly invites the Marshals in to sort things out. Eventually, “Waldo” returns home, but not really, as we soon discover. The man is an impostor, posing as Waldo Truth so that the family could continue to receive his benefit check. While Raylan’s ready to haul in every last one of them, Art decides to let them go once the information they offer helps him connect a few dots between their current predicament and an intriguing case from his early days as a Marshal. It’s now certain the man who fell out of the sky with all that cocaine was the real Waldo Truth, who disappeared with a pilot named Drew Thompson decades ago.

The episode brought some connection between the previously disparate Boyd and Raylan/Waldo Truth storylines with the return of Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy, who arrives in Harlan to deal with the dealer who wandered into Boyd’s turf. Duffy, who’s apparently been made a little colder by the time he spent with Robert Quarles, promptly shoots the dealer in the head. Boyd attempts to seize an opportunity by offering to partner up with Duffy in bringing heroin to Harlan County. Duffy turns him down saying, “I don’t even trust the way you just now said I could trust you.” But, before he leaving, he asks Boyd what he knows about Arlo offing a Dixie Mafia soldier, which, at the moment, is nothing. Boyd’s now a dog with a scent, he’d probably want to know what Arlo’s deal is just to know, but now he’s got the added incentive of proving he’d make a good partner to Duffy. Now we’ll get to watch as both Boyd and Raylan uncover the clues of the big mystery separately and on opposite sides of the law. That’s good news for us viewers, because we’ll get to see it all.

Check out the preview for next week’s episode below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.