Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

Review: 'Justified' - 'Loose Ends': Mine over matter

Raylan goes Quarles hunting, Boyd gives a speech and Ava ponders a career change

By Alan Sepinwall Tuesday, Mar 13, 2012 11:00 PM

On "Justified," Boyd (Walton Goggins) wants YOU to join the Army. Or something like that.

Credit: FX

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A review of tonight's "Justified" coming up just as soon as I invite you up here to discuss the sociology of baked goods...

"I'm either gonna put him in prison or in the ground." -Raylan

When you have as many chess pieces as "Justified" has put on the board, you have to do an episode now and then that's simply about moving the pieces into a new position. It just so happens that "Loose Ends" is the second of those in three episodes, but if the payoff for these chess moves can be as terrific as last week's "Watching the Detectives" did with the moves from "The Man Behind the Curtain" the week before that, then I'm okay with it.

The major development here is that Raylan has now decided that his new life's mission is to get rid of Robert Quarles, even if Art and various other members of law-enforcement don't agree. He tries to get to him through Tanner — in another example of Boyd and Ava cleverly getting Raylan to help them out of a jam by pointing out where their interests coincide — but Tanner blows up real good(*) before he can provide any information of value. And after doing a solid for Tanner's mom by setting up her new TV so she can watch her stories, Raylan tips to Limehouse's role in all of this, but Limehouse isn't prepared to part company with Quarles just yet.

(*) Not sure I understand why Tanner didn't just let the bomb disposal guy take the pistol out of his hand. Wouldn't have required him to move, and would have eliminated the risk of dropping it and setting off the mine. If the idea was that weight was a factor, and even taking the pistol away would be a risk, it didn't really come across well.

On this week's podcast, Fienberg said that he wished the show were spending more time with Limehouse — or, more specifically, going into the history and position of Noble's Holler within the larger community of Harlan. And that's certainly been the price of having so many antagonists in action at the same time. If the show didn't have to service Quarles and Limehouse and Boyd (and to a lesser extent Wynn, Dickie, Dewey, the standalone bad guys from the early episodes, etc.), it might be able to invest Limehouse (or Quarles, for that matter) with the same sense of grandeur and weight that it gave Mags last year. But it's also been fun bouncing from one villain to the next, and there's something to be said for a change of pace after last year was so strong.

I do wonder, though, how the season might look without Boyd and Ava as a major part of it, or in it at all. Walton Goggins is tremendous in this role. We know that, and we get another reminder of it here when he echoes Mags' disruption of the Black Pike meeting last year by giving a hellfire and brimstone sermon against Napier(**) and for Shelby. You don't want to have Goggins, and Joelle Carter, for that matter, on hand and not getting anything interesting to do. But there have been times this season where it feels like giving them something to do, as opposed to servicing the season's big stories, has been the order of the day. Ava taking over as the local madam has promise, sure, and it was satisfying to see her turn a shotgun on the loathsome, manipulative Delroy, but thinking back on everything she and Boyd have been up to this year, I wonder if maybe the show wouldn't have been better off finding a way to put them out of commission for a while to focus on Quarles and Limehouse.

(**) Not entirely sure why Harvey, the debate moderator whom Quarles bought and paid for, lets Boyd keep carrying on in that way. I imagine there was some way to shut him up without making it look like dissent was being silenced.

It's also quite possible that the season will come together in a way where I won't be able to imagine it having worked without Boyd in the middle of things. While "Loose Ends" moved a lot of pieces around, we still can't see the whole board in the way that Graham Yost and the writers can.

Some other thoughts:

* Graham Yost again dips into the large "From the Earth to the Moon" ensemble by casting Conor O'Farrell (who played Jim McDivitt in the Yost-directed "Spider," my favorite episode of the series) as the bomb disposal expert.

* Raylan still has the Gary murder weapon on him, which seems a very poor idea. Then again, the show has been pretty consistent in its depiction of Raylan as a man who doesn't always think things through the way he should.

* Had it been established before that Johnny can walk a little bit? I thought he was confined to the wheelchair all the time.

What did everybody else think?

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

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Alex T.

I really loved this episode for several reasons:
The Shoo-fly pie discussion
Ava killing someone else and we can finally see!!!
Boyd's speech
The old man talking about the Bouncing Betty
Ava becoming a pimp
The final scene with Raylan and Limehouse
The preview for next episode looked really great
and finally, I'm surprised that Elmore leonard didn't get a story credit because in the new novel "Raylan," there is a section about a group of hooker who rob banks for drugs.
March 13, 2012 at 11:06PM EST Reply to Comment
- sepinwall Alex didn't cross the line, but let me remind you once again that there is to be NO TALKING ABOUT THE CONTENT OF THE PREVIEWS. Thank you. That is all.
  March 13, 2012 at 11:11PM EST
- mrbilliam All but one of the vignettes from the new "Raylan" novel have now been in the show (and while I won't mention the other one, just in case, I don't expect to see it in the show).
  March 14, 2012 at 11:15AM EST
- Greg Alan, I know your rule about the previews but I have to say, without discussing the content, that was quite possibly the best preview I have ever seen. So cool.
  March 14, 2012 at 10:30PM EST
Hank

As to your two questions, the bomb expert told Raylan just before entering the store that the mine was likely subject to minor weight changes (also Tanner announced the same to him when Raylan asked for Tanner to drop the gun).

As for the debate moderator, Boyd made mention in his speech that he, Harvey, had been an ex-miner and had been part of the strikes in the past and had been beaten up himself. I think the idea was that Harvey's own personal experience kept him from saying anything and agreeing with Boyd and letting the speech continue, though it definitely could have been made clearer.
March 13, 2012 at 11:08PM EST Reply to Comment
- sepinwall Ah, Hank. Missed the explanation about the minor weight changes.
  March 13, 2012 at 11:12PM EST
- jj You took the words right outta my head..
  March 13, 2012 at 11:16PM EST
- TT If the mine was so sensitive to minor weight changes, why didn't it blow when he handed over that big sack of money, which had be five times as heavy as the gun?
  March 13, 2012 at 11:25PM EST
- jj Tanner was an idiot?...only explanation. The bomb guy obviously wasn't aware of that prior exchange.
  March 13, 2012 at 11:28PM EST
- Lindsey I got that too. Coal dust is thicker than money, as it were.
  
  Also, I think Johnny stood briefly right after his accident, but I think between his injuries and the colostomy bag, it's just easier for him to be in the chair.
  
  I did get the sense he might've been thinking about putting the moves on Ava. Anyone else get that?
  March 13, 2012 at 11:41PM EST
- brentalistair I was a bit confused about the bomb mechanism myself. I mean the bomb armed itself but it obviously took some time to go off. Long enough for every other person to get clear of it. So is the assumption that, having armed, it would still go off sooner or immediately if Tanner just tried to make a run for it? That was all kind of fuzzy to me and I guess you would have to know a lot more about bombs to really know the answer.
  March 14, 2012 at 1:09AM EST
- JMS If the gun became too hard to hold on to, why couldn't he have slowly put it in his pocket? The weight wouldn't change.
  March 14, 2012 at 1:44AM EST
- Fran @Lindsay
  From Johnny's comment about wanting a blonde, and Ava's expression in response, I got a similar impression. It wasn't terribly overt -- just sort of an admission of his feelings, or former feelings? Not sure.
  March 14, 2012 at 1:56AM EST
- KansasDan I think the Tanner's startled jump probably had more to do with the bomb arming than the weight difference. And yeah, I was telling myself the whole time it was slipping "Why doesn't he just put it in his waistband?". I have been saying since the first season that I would rather see the Justified where Boyd stayed dead at the end of the pilot, but Goggins has had so many great scenes that it would be a shame to see him go. Too bad we can't see where it would have gone without him though. At least they seem to have addressed my other worry of Raylan becoming too big of a wussy in season 2. The way he dealt with Ice Pick in this season's first episode won me back.
  March 14, 2012 at 7:21AM EST
Kelly

Enough of Limehouse brandishing his blade already. If Chekhov's gun rule applies to knives as well, he is going to have to go on a six-county slashing spree to justify all the times we've seen that.
March 13, 2012 at 11:10PM EST Reply to Comment
jj

I thought the "weight shift" comment was enough of an explanation for me as to why he wouldn't want to give up the gun...and my feeling was Boyd and Harvey were on the same side during their coal mining days..as mentioned by Boyd and Harvey was feeling like Boyd was making good points..per his expression..so I think he was sympathetic and felt the need to allow Boyd his time on the soapbox.

March 13, 2012 at 11:13PM EST Reply to Comment
- berkowit28 But, as JMS said, why didn't he just put the gun i his pocket?
  
  For that matter, when Raylan wanted to disarm him, why didn't he just ask him to empty the bullets out? They're so lightweight, one by one, it surely would not have triggered the bomb.
  March 14, 2012 at 3:07AM EST
Bloody Phantasm

The whole situation with Tanner and the bomb really reminded me of a somewhat similar setup that happened the 4th season of The Shield.

In both situations, minor bad guys are placed in close proximity to explosives, and then are questioned by the the good guys for information on the "big bad" of the season. They also both end up getting accidentally turned into chunks of meat :)
March 13, 2012 at 11:14PM EST Reply to Comment
- joel The whole situation with Tanner and the bomb is a near duplicate of Dewey earlier in the season. Desperate to get money in order to save their own butt, a lower echelon scumbag becomes trapped in a life-and-death situation where their only chance of survival is giving in to Raylan. The only difference here is how it ended up.
  March 16, 2012 at 11:42AM EST
Diana

Johnny walked in the first episode we saw him in season 2. When Boyd was trying to get him to come back to his crew.
March 13, 2012 at 11:14PM EST Reply to Comment
Brian

Johnny walks to the fridge in his first appearance in season 2
March 13, 2012 at 11:14PM EST Reply to Comment
- Liz And I think he said something like, "They work like shit, but they still work."
  March 14, 2012 at 9:34AM EST
laz_jackson

Boyd's speech means Quarles HAS to prioritize Boyd over Raylan, doesn't it?
March 13, 2012 at 11:17PM EST Reply to Comment
JIM

This made me nuts while watching: PUT THE GUN IN YOUR POCKET if you're afraid of dropping it.
March 13, 2012 at 11:19PM EST Reply to Comment
- Brooks THANK YOU! We were practically screaming at the TV over here.
  
  And why hand over the heavy bag of money without at least trying to pull an Indian Jones-like weight swap? That shop was full of heavy items.
  
  I understand the good people of Harlan County aren't brain surgeons, but come on.
  March 14, 2012 at 1:05AM EST
Cade

I finally figured out what Alan's "as soon as..." would be ahead of time!

Great episode.
March 13, 2012 at 11:20PM EST Reply to Comment
RWGibson13

I think the Boyd speech was not only a mirror of Mags from last season, but also Boyd's own church sermon from Season One. Seems like Yost is determined to have at least one of these per year :-)

There really does seem to be an awful lot of characters involved in each episode this year compared to the first two. The whole Stan Lee "You can't tell the bad guys from the good guys without a scorecard," Marvel Comics meme comes most quickly to mind. That said, this show still manages to make each one come across as something more than just a black knight or white rook. That's no easy task.

The ending scene with Limehouse was great and might have come across as a stalemate on first view, but I'm thinking that, given times to check into things, Limehouse is going to come around. He seems too smart not to...

RWG (especially after Raylan beat him at his own game by keeping tabs on Tanner's mother)
March 13, 2012 at 11:21PM EST Reply to Comment
- Bob I hated this scene. It had the feel of a bad made-for-TV movie and as Alan pointed out, strained credulity that he would be allowed to go on and on -- especially when the moderator was on the take. I'll cut them slightly more slack if the moderator is a double-agent, but found the entire thing tiresome.
  March 16, 2012 at 1:52PM EST
Steven

No love for Tanner's Mom? I loved her "no dick law enforcement" comment! Another great episode with a lot of great dialogue. I like all the moving pieces. Harlan County is a complex place!
March 13, 2012 at 11:27PM EST Reply to Comment
- Alex T. I loved that scene!!!!! I can't believe I forgot to talk about about it. When she was asking Raylan to fix the TV I was cracking up.
  March 13, 2012 at 11:31PM EST
Tony M

First, off, loved the episode, one of the strangest of the year. Great scene after great scene. Great dialogue. Great minor characters like Tanner's mother.

One thing - I wouldn't be so sure that Limehouse is working for or with Quarrels. I would not be surprised if he really has a deal with Boyd based on their mutual dislike of outsiders...and that would answer your questions about how Boyd is allowed to run away with the meetings
March 14, 2012 at 12:14AM EST Reply to Comment
SCDP

Alan, I have to disagree with your suggestion that the show might have been better off putting Boyd and Ava out of commission to focus on Limehouse and Quarles this season. While I do agree that the extremely split focus hasn't helped the series, I think that Boyd, if anyone, should be a bigger focus of this season, given that the heart of the show is Harlan and its criminal enterprises, of which Boyd is certainly emblematic.

At the end of season two, it seemed as if the show was prepping itself for a battle between Boyd and the Dixie Mafia for control of Harlan to take place during the third season. And the show has more or less done that, as Quarles, who usurped/absorbed the Dixie Mafia, has been squaring off with Boyd. It hasn't been a particularly explosive match-up quite yet, especially with Boyd and his crew floundering, but it has potential.

I think the bigger issue with this season is the fact that, for the majority of the season, Quarles and Limehouse have had more to do with Boyd than with Raylan, though obviously Raylan and Quarles are now dealing with each other quite a bit, and the balance will probably tip in their favor. The issue here is that Raylan is a more central figure than Boyd, and Boyd unfortunately hasn't had much to do, so by having Quarles and Limehouse start out on Raylan's periphery, I think the show missed opportunities to better integrate all the different elements of its narrative. Last season, Raylan interacted with the Bennetts multiple times within the first episode, and continued to do so throughout the season, which centralized them in the series; even when they were't directly interacting with Raylan, there was still a substantial connection, though part of that had to do with Loretta and the overall family history. Because Boyd was initially the more direct connection to Quarles and Limehouse, and remains to be the most direct connection to Limehouse, I feel as though the show missed opportunities for those characters to develop and become as important to the show as Mags, Doyle, Dickie, and Coover were last season, given that Boyd hasn't had a lot to do.

Speaking of Dickie, if there's anyone the show should have kept sidelined this season, I'd argue that it should have been Dickie. As fun as Dickie and Dewey's jailbreak (and the following organ quest) was, and though the jailbreak did allow us a different (albeit too brief) glimpse at Limehouse, I think that time would have been better spent focusing on Boyd, and through Boyd, Quarles and Limehouse -- especially Limehouse.
March 14, 2012 at 12:42AM EST Reply to Comment
Neel

I'm just happy Rachel got a mention at the beginning of the episode...
March 14, 2012 at 1:02AM EST Reply to Comment
andrew_burton

Have we seen Harvey before? IMDB says Ezra Buzzington was the bartender in "Hatless" but that doesn't jibe with me...
March 14, 2012 at 2:06AM EST Reply to Comment
rob

Ok, at the end of the episode, was limehouse telling raylan he kill his father? I was only half watching, but Im pretty sure he was talking about how he had stabbed him when raylan was a child.
March 14, 2012 at 2:16AM EST Reply to Comment
- Jay Cjay No, not that he killed him. It's been established that Raylan's mother went to Noble's Hollow to get away from Arlo, and he went after her. Limehouse was beating him when Raylan arrived on the scene.
  
  As for the comment about "what I remember about your mother" I'm not sure if that implication has been directly made but somehow I've picked up a hint that there was more to the "women fleeing to Noble's" than simply protection.
  March 14, 2012 at 2:22AM EST
cgeye

Limehouse? Bores me. I'm sick of his overalls, his big-ass teeth, his lack of character nuance, his vague goals about preserving his community, when we never see that community other than his other big, black goons killin' hogs and eatin' 'cue. Have we seen a black woman with his crew, other than Rachel? Do children even exist? And, if so... is there busing?

Limehouse, and the segregationist tropes he uses, are too easy for a show that's spent it's time deconstructing the stereotypes of the post-civil rights South. By this time last season, we knew why Mags used her cornpone, and how it was just as lethal as her apple pie and her sons. Before that, we had Boyd, white power man, born again, humble in the mines. But we're this far in, and Limehouse is still one-dimensional -- a man smarter than him wouldn't bait a US Marshal by dissing his family, not if he didn't want the Holler raided and all that lovely cash asset forfeitured.

Limehouse is so stagnant, the only thing that could surprise me about him is that he has as wife an formerly-battered white woman, and that he disposes of his enemies Fried Green Tomatoes style. Now that's a Mags flourish, and, sad to say, he just doesn't have the style of her or Quarles, or even Duffy. The ground he plays on is too racially dangerous to stand still on -- he's got to change it up, flip it upside down, or go so deep he makes everyone uncomfortable on an Uriah Heep level. I fear there's just no more time to fix him, so he'll go down stupid, and under-utilized... just like Rachel.
It was most refreshing for Raylan to ask him to cut the shuck 'n' jive (which, at its heart, is Limehouse's character -- a comforting minstrel act hiding a man who has a brutal hold over his community), and telling that Limehouse went straight to the yo' poppa and yo' mama well.

I'm critical of Limehouse because the writers haven't done nearly enough to show what it means for a crime kingpin, versed enough in economics to be a bank for racist white folk, to constantly keep that mask of jes' folks on. He's been so parochial that I was shocked that he had in place his own voter corruption expert, and that he was white.
March 14, 2012 at 2:16AM EST Reply to Comment
- Gruden Man, great take on Limehouse
  March 14, 2012 at 4:55AM EST
- RWGibson13 I'm kinda with you on the whole underdevelopment of the Noble Holler community, but at this point, I'll take what we've seen as Justified Gospel of what we've actually been shown onscreen - Limehouse isn't really a 'crime kingpin' as much as he's a fairly smart guy by Harlan standards who loves ruling his particular community (and is proud of its status and history) but didn't want to rock the larger boat until some of his men misread him and dragged him into the big picture. I think maybe we need to see a bit more of WHY he decided to run with that though.
  
  He's pretty much learning as he goes along, all the while trying his best to project himself as something bigger. That Quarles doesn't realize it and takes it as something more is to Limehouse's benefit, so he continues to play that card.
  
  Boyd and Givens are different, and he can't "play them," nearly so well. He tried with Raylan in a scene in this one, but it didn't come off so well and I think Limehouse is smart enough to know it. He was mainly trying to play on Givens' sympathies as to the nature of the historical relationship between the two local communities and it did work to a certain degree...Limehouse knows Raylan isn't after him, he's after Quarles, and can act accordingly.
  
  I dunno if there's not enough time to fix it, especially if he comes around and realizes that his play for a larger role is pretty much doomed for a hundred or more reasons - my feeling is that this character will be different than Mags in that he won't take himself down in the end like she did.
  
  RWG (giving us maybe some more development next season)
  March 14, 2012 at 5:27AM EST
- Jared K On the podcast this week, Dan and Alan discussed the underdevelopment of Limehouse and Noble's Holler relative to the other storylines. During the discussion, they floated the idea that while Quarles will almost certainly be dead, banished, or imprisoned at the end of this season, Limehouse might stick around and become a recurring part of the show's larger crime scene around Harlan County (ala Dickie Bennett, or on the opposite side of the law, Stephen Root's Judge Reordan). I obviously don't have any insight into casting for next season, and I recognize it might be hard to hold on to an actor like Mykelti Williamson in a recurring role (maybe not - he does have a good history with Graham Yost) but I think that the idea has a lot of potential creatively. Having a more permanent window in Harlan's African-American community might serve the show well in the future, and allow the history of Noble's Holler to continue to be doled out over a couple of seasons.
  March 14, 2012 at 7:43AM EST
- reno88 i agree re: limehouse. i feel his character and the storyline around him aren't nearly as strong (or as interesting) as the others.
  
  quarles is the shiz. dude creeps me out even more than his #2 (eyebrows) does.
  
  unsalted.
  March 14, 2012 at 7:44AM EST
- Amrit I think the lack of Limehouse nuance was alluded to in alan's last podcast. Dan mentioned that the holler is a place and thus will always be there and so limehouse could be there next season and so concentrating on Quarles (as a one season only villain) seems the smart choice for now.
  
  I think keeping Boyd in the picture is just an easy way for Raylan to justify doing the crap he does. As Art keeps on reminding Raylan and us, the Marshals ahold not do what Raylan does hence the need to integrate Boyd with Raylan...two birds with one stone.
  March 14, 2012 at 8:37AM EST
- Blake I completely agree. Limehouse is the most irritating character on this show because he's one-dimensional. It's as if Yost and co. decided, "Let's have a black character, and make him powerful." And stopped there.
  March 14, 2012 at 10:37AM EST
- Roark I think they might be setting up Limehouse to be the big bad in season four. It sure seems like he's making a play to be the last man standing.
  
  That said, I agree with the others that he's underdeveloped thus far, as is the holler community. And the show really needs to lay off the whole "Errol messes up and Limehouse threatens to kill him" scenes. Feel like every week Limehouse makes some threatening speech to the poor kid, and Errol always looks at him with these big betrayed puppy dog eyes. You'd think he'd be used to being threatened by now, since it apparently happens ALL THE TIME.
  March 14, 2012 at 12:24PM EST
- NotMyDayJob "a comforting minstrel act hiding a man who has a brutal hold over his community"
  
  Or a ferociously smart patriarch who slyly exacerbates the capacity of others to instinctively underestimate him before using it against them to the end of doing whatever he has to do to protect his own from a world that would eat them without the proper guardian at the door. That Limehouse embraces the victimized of any color, particularly those with wolves on their heels a'snappin at anything that moves to help, implies he is far more protector than predator. That he plays all outsiders against one another without apparent evidence of racial or locality bias and that he smites those of his own who take the cause of outsiders above the collective good of their own equally implies he is not about power over his own nor greed for the sake of greed, but rather solely and completely about doing whatever must to be done, however it must be done, to protect the charges under his care. That we've never seen women or children in the hollow is simple consistency that, when walling your loved ones up in a safe, self-sufficient refuge before setting a dragon at the door to guard the entrance, you don't then expose those loved ones to contact with the world beyond the wall for not being capable of protecting them once they are in the doorway where he can only be effective when all who surround him are other dragons or enemies.
  
  We have not yet been shown the hollow. Only the walls around the hollow, and the dragon who guards the door against entrance by any who are not in genuine need of the refuge it offers.
  March 14, 2012 at 1:38PM EST
- cgeye Notadayjob: Nope. Limehouse embraces the victimized of any color, *for a price*. We've seen him do it, and it's called grooming intelligence assets. From low-life gals on up, he's cultivated spies, as his daddy probably did before him. He's as altruistic as a rancher feeding hogs to best of his corn.
  
  The fact that he's done this, and with the implication that his predecessors have done it, with white wives and girlfriends of men who aren't Klan because white sheets cost too much to wash, only reinforces in my mind the need for him to hide his gangsta nature with enough free 'cue and 'shine to keep his people poised in the jaws of a racist region. without those jaws ever closing. That doesn't make him a saint; it makes him the lesser of two evils.
  
  The reason he isn't worse is that any white woman he protects can pull that Scottsboro Boys trigger and start a pogrom the magnitude of which would not be seen since the height of lynching. And I'm putting it out there: With the broadcast level of racism still present in Harlan, there is no other way Limehouse would be able to keep his community alive without serious corruption: He is a crime kingpin, because his people are alive and autonomous within their community. The law has never been for them, so he and the patriarchs before him, must be.
  
  He could not keep the corrupt white officials, cops, drug lords, rapists, and vengeful wife-batterers at bay without holding cards the equivalent of Don Corleone's judges. The voting fixer is just one sign of this -- being banker to the cream of the white criminal crop means, yes, he's a criminal. QED.
  
  Also, in the eras of heroin, crack, heroin again, meth, ya think no other young man in his crew ever stepped out and wanted a piece of modern gangsta practice? Like no black Detroit homeboy never made the same pitch Quarles did, but to his relatives in the Holler? Sheesh. Limehouse probably has that speech memorized -- it would be racist to think that the Holler doesn't get the internet, rap music, and even cable (in fact, have to, with all them mountains harming reception...), and that Limehouse constantly combats the influence of urban black media images of criminality on his men.
  
  He's a manager keeping his men in line with the simple truth that his ways reduce competition, which means steady growth and minimal violence, compared to the Frankfort-Detroit-Harlan skirmishes. He's a smaller crime boss, but for all intents and purposes, especially if the Holler gets caught up in RICO, he's still a crime boss.
  
  Also, have we seen him be *nice*? Not nice with a menacing undertone, not nice with a 'want some barbecue, ma'am?' leer, but genuinely altruistic? Not one scene, IMHO. A man who'd rather scar a minion's hand to teach him a lesson about integrity is not a nice man, and the lack of any sign of selfless compassion, I think, is supposed to make him more menacing, not less. Unfortunately, I think his shuck-n-jive act, still so fraught with societal meaning, is harder to see through than with Mags' act -- which means he's even getting read as nicer, because his minstrel image still comforts us. If he were this nice, this polite, and white, would we underestimate his capacity for evil leadership? Would we read his cultivation of battered white women as altruistic, and would we take him at his word, about his image?
  
  And, yes, I heard the podcast, but my concerns were right there with this season's first episode. A non-municipally-based black character in the South is hard for white writers to make distinctive and compelling, and there are only a handful of shows in this century that have even tried. Having said character be several steps down on the sophistication ladder from Amos and Andy better be a committed choice, with a cast-iron long-term payoff. Why?
  
  Because American entertainment used Stephin Fetchit, Al Jolson, et al., as the model for public black maleness, and if Justified's writers are bringing that back -- which commenters above have said is the image Limehouse deliberately uses with white folk -- they'd better not be playing. As Mags was the down-home gal with poison for breast milk, Limehouse'd better serve up the equivalent of bigot-back ribs. If he is a fully-dimensional character, his repressed anger at all those racists he does business with goes somewhere -- which is why, sooner or later, I'd better see the women in his life.
  
  If I don't, then Justified is telling me all their black man/white women (or, in the case of Rachel, black man/black woman) teasing is just that, which is unworthy of the show's reputation for playfulness mixed with suspense, violence, emotional realism and wistfulness at the loss of the old ways... those ways as nourishing and evil as Limehouse's secret stash of smoked racist long pig.
  March 15, 2012 at 12:25AM EST
- cgeye (It's Chekhov's Smokehouse, people. I'm just sayin'....)
  March 15, 2012 at 12:30AM EST
- TSill Reply to comment...
  March 15, 2012 at 1:59AM EST
- Tsill Limehouse put the campaign advisor in place...forced him on Quarles. Then, the advisor set up the debate that Quarles opposed. Then Boyd takes over the debate. Seems like, no matter how we feel about Limehouse now, he isn't who he appears to be and that his actual motivation for the things he's doing will be revealed and very important in the finale.
  March 15, 2012 at 2:02AM EST
- NotMyDayJob Not suggesting that Limehouse is a "good guy" CGEYE. Nor that he is "nice," a saint, heroic, altruistic, or not a criminal. Simply saying that, based on the evidence in play at this point in time, Limehouse does not appear primarily motivated by greed, hatred (racial or otherwise), or a thirst for power, but rather by defense, both of himself and of his community. While the show may well alter this perception with reveals made as the season wears on, at this time, Limehouse is not portrayed as a crime boss, but rather as a civic leader with no boundaries, legally or morally, on what he will and is capable of doing to defend the holler and those who live and/or seek refuge there.
  
  The supposition that Limehouse is somehow "allowed" to offer white women refuge from domestic violence without incurring the wrath of a racist community in retaliation because none of those women have accused him of impropriety is wholly flawed. Their simple presence in the holler would be reason enough to set the Klan to heels were the scenario you imply exists to actually exist.
  
  In terms of criminality, the show has made no bones about Limehouse being both a man of extreme violence and one who is not emotionally or morally bound by any "law" but his own. What they have also clearly implied, however, is that his "law" is neither driven by nor defined to support the acquisition of personal wealth/power, nor is it something he applies unevenly or based on personal whim. Rather, Limehouse has been portrayed as the absolute voice of authority in a culturally-based social system rooted in community traditions that run back for generations. He may well act as judge, jury and executioner for those he deems deserving of such things, but on several occasions the show has put forth the notion that the rules of engagement by which Limehouse governs pre-date his personal authority and are known by all.
  
  Furthermore, the infractions for which one of their own is most harshly judged is not a personal or professional affront to Limehouse himself, but rather any action taken that places the community itself at risk in Limehouse's assessment of what constitutes risk to the community. All of which is to say Limehouse is not portrayed as managing his men by reducing competition for the purposes of financial growth with minimal violence, but rather he is characterized as the mover and shaker of the entire community who is best suited and most trusted to do whatever it takes to not only defend the holler from dangers both foreign and domestic, but to also keep it financially viable to a state of self sufficiency, something he does by trafficking in oxy, not for his own financial gain, but to fund the communities continued existence.
  
  Beyond that, I would suggest that a "non-municipally-based black character in the South" is hard for ANY writer to make distinctive and compelling --- the truer barrier to authenticity in that regard being West coast versus Kentucky coal country, by the way, not black versus white --- and the writers of Justified seem to be doing a pretty good job of it thus far, in large part because they are writing Limehouse as a smart, dangerous, motivated and thoroughly fascinating man first, and a black man who lives in Kentucky coal country second.
  March 15, 2012 at 5:22AM EST
- cgeye NMDJ, I see your points -- but his community, if it is a community and not just his goons and his families, needs to be seen, in order for us to grasp what's really at stake. Loretta stood in for that community, with Mags, even though she was technically an employee.
  
  In terms of character depth, Limehouse hasn't passed the Gom Jabbar, yet, and by season's end, he needs to show what's behind his facade.
  March 15, 2012 at 3:17PM EST
Mark Kawakami

The moderator couldn't shut Boyd down because they're at the VFW, and as he pointed out earlier, they can smell a fix a mile away. And knowing how the community feels regarding the mining companies, there was no winning play for the moderator to make as soon as Boyd said the words "Black Pike".
March 14, 2012 at 3:31AM EST Reply to Comment
- Bob It wouldn't be a fix to tell an audience member that he's not allowed to make a five minute fire-and-brimstone speech condemning one of the candidates... even in Kentucky. Maybe a short comment or question. The moderator in any real situation would tell the person to sit down and be quiet or get out -- or say more nicely, "With all due respect, we're here to listen to the candidates, not you."
  March 16, 2012 at 1:55PM EST
Haynie

Finally seeing Ethan Rom's life in the Sideways Universe was very interesting. Took long enough.
March 14, 2012 at 8:16AM EST Reply to Comment
chuchundra

Maybe I'm a little slow here, but why exactly did the bomb maker trick Tanner into standing on the landmine? What exactly was going on there?
March 14, 2012 at 9:14AM EST Reply to Comment
- jan He had to stand on it to reach the money he had come for.
  March 14, 2012 at 10:53AM EST
- JedyKnight The bomb-maker tricked Tanner into stepping into the mine to reach for the bag of money. His idea was for Tanner & accomplice to surrender their guns in exchange for the disarming of the bomb. The plan failed because Tanner's death serviced Limehouse's 'no loose ends' instructions to his acolyte.
  March 14, 2012 at 11:21AM EST
- Jay Cjay Maybe what you missed is simply that Tanner was there was steal back the money ($5,000 if I recall correctly) that he'd paid for the materials used to blow up the sheriff's car. The mine was a defense against robbery, which is why the money is kept where you have to stand on a mine to get to it.
  March 14, 2012 at 2:02PM EST
- chuchundra Thanks Jay Cjay, that's the bit I missed.
  March 14, 2012 at 2:44PM EST
JedyKnight

Yes, as expected, the season has been a little crowded (although personally i've enjoyed seeing the multiple balls run and collide into each other sometimes advancing and sometimes having to change direction due to someonelse's plan that they werent accounting for).. Imho, I would have preferred Limehouse to kept on the outskirts of the overall war between Boyd vs Quarless/ Quarless vs Raylan.. So maybe next season he could be the big bad.. But as far im concerned Boyd & Ava involvement in the season has been as strong for it as Quarless's casting, specially since (1) we were promised last season that Boyd was going to attempt to become the region's Boss, and we would have felt cheated if we were going into Harlan and not watchcing that happen.. And (2) the way they are responsible for keep bringing Raylan into Harlan's diverse messy situations feels believable enough, more than other contrived ways the writer's sometimes use to justify Raylan's continue presence in the town on tin or non-existent marshall reasons.
March 14, 2012 at 11:29AM EST Reply to Comment
albatross

My take on why Tanner didn't put the gun in his waistband or some other logical move was that he was panicked, and wasn't going to do anything they asked him to.
March 14, 2012 at 11:53AM EST Reply to Comment
nm

The problem with that whole "sociology of baked goods" discussion is that the real sociology of baked goods suggests that Limehouse would be talking about chess pie. Not shoo-fly pie, which is a Pennsylvania Dutch delicacy. I suppose it's possible that some battered Amish or Mennonite woman from a community in southern Indiana found her way to Noble's Holler and gave them the recipe in gratitude for their protection. But chess pie (the southern/midwestern equivalent of shoo-fly pie; it's made with corn syrup instead of molasses, and is so sweet you have to put it in a pie chest to keep the flies off, which is what the name means) is just so much more likely.
March 14, 2012 at 1:40PM EST Reply to Comment
- cgeye Obviously, a lack of research, in a show that rewards otaku interest? But, still, nummy -- and today's Pi Day, too....
  March 15, 2012 at 12:32AM EST
Naomi

Love the show. However, I am constantly confused by what is truly Marshall's business vs. FBI vs. local police. I know Raylan makes everything his business regardless of jurisdiction, but I really would like to understand this. It comes up in other shows too.
March 14, 2012 at 1:53PM EST Reply to Comment
- Most of the Marshal Service's responsibilities come down to three things: security at federal courthouses, transporting federal prisoners, and apprehending federal fugitives.
  
  Raylan's mentioned a few times that the third of those is what he usually does. But we have seen him transporting prisoners, and providing security in Judge Riordan's courtroom.
  
  FBI's responsibility is mainly in enforcing federal law (bank robbery, for example, is a federal crime while robbing a supermarket would fall under state law) including situations involving flight from one state to another. Local PD generally has responsibility for everything else: state law and local ordinances. Depending on locality specifics, there may be state police as well as departments at the county and municipal level. Of course, we've seen all three come into play on this show.
  
  And we've also seen "task force" situations, which is when agencies of various jurisdictions have a cooperative agreement focused on specific enforcement or interdiction tasks. In real life, the Marshals are regularly involved in a number of those.
  March 14, 2012 at 2:13PM EST
- Naomi So, going after Quarles doesn't fit any of those.
  March 14, 2012 at 2:23PM EST
- chuchundra Most of the interesting bits of Justified don't have much to do with Raylan's marshall duties.
  March 14, 2012 at 2:45PM EST
- Yep... as Art put it early in the episode, "he's not Marshall business."
  March 14, 2012 at 2:46PM EST
- robbeck I think you omitted the witness protection program, which has been part of this season's storyline.
  March 15, 2012 at 9:27PM EST
Ben Kabak

Here's the problem with reviewing a show like this weekly. You get lost in nuance and wanting things to happen. Like asking for Boyd to marginalized.
March 16, 2012 at 11:08AM EST Reply to Comment
Adam K

"It's also been fun bouncing from one villain to the next, and there's something to be said for a change of pace after last year was so strong"

I can't disagree with you strongly about this. What made Season 1 and Season 2 so great was that there was one extremely well developed antagonist (Boyd in s1 and Mags in s2). I can't stand this many chess pieces. There are so many pieces I thought Delroy and Tanner Dods were the same person. This season is pissing me off. I want Raylan to go back to the guy where the kicks ass and then takes names later.
March 16, 2012 at 6:10PM EST Reply to Comment
Adam K

Although the best scene this season that didn't involve Raylan was Limehouse and The Carpetbagger discussing the pie and where Quarles does that sarcastic laugh making fun of Limehouse was great
March 16, 2012 at 6:12PM EST Reply to Comment

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Review: 'Justified' - 'Loose Ends': Mine over matter

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Comments

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

sepinwall Alex didn't cross the line, but let me remind you once again that there is to be NO TALKING ABOUT THE CONTENT OF THE PREVIEWS. Thank you. That is all.

mrbilliam All but one of the vignettes from the new "Raylan" novel have now been in the show (and while I won't mention the other one, just in case, I don't expect to see it in the show).

Greg Alan, I know your rule about the previews but I have to say, without discussing the content, that was quite possibly the best preview I have ever seen. So cool.

sepinwall Ah, Hank. Missed the explanation about the minor weight changes.

jj You took the words right outta my head..

TT If the mine was so sensitive to minor weight changes, why didn't it blow when he handed over that big sack of money, which had be five times as heavy as the gun?

jj Tanner was an idiot?...only explanation. The bomb guy obviously wasn't aware of that prior exchange.

JMS If the gun became too hard to hold on to, why couldn't he have slowly put it in his pocket? The weight wouldn't change.

Fran @LindsayFrom Johnny's comment about wanting a blonde, and Ava's expression in response, I got a similar impression. It wasn't terribly overt -- just sort of an admission of his feelings, or former feelings? Not sure.

Kelly Enough of Limehouse brandishing his blade already. If Chekhov's gun rule applies to knives as well, he is going to have to go on a six-county slashing spree to justify all the times we've seen that.

berkowit28 But, as JMS said, why didn't he just put the gun i his pocket?For that matter, when Raylan wanted to disarm him, why didn't he just ask him to empty the bullets out? They're so lightweight, one by one, it surely would not have triggered the bomb.

Diana Johnny walked in the first episode we saw him in season 2. When Boyd was trying to get him to come back to his crew.

Brian Johnny walks to the fridge in his first appearance in season 2

Liz And I think he said something like, "They work like shit, but they still work."

laz_jackson Boyd's speech means Quarles HAS to prioritize Boyd over Raylan, doesn't it?

JIM This made me nuts while watching: PUT THE GUN IN YOUR POCKET if you're afraid of dropping it.

Brooks THANK YOU! We were practically screaming at the TV over here.And why hand over the heavy bag of money without at least trying to pull an Indian Jones-like weight swap? That shop was full of heavy items.I understand the good people of Harlan County aren't brain surgeons, but come on.

Cade I finally figured out what Alan's "as soon as..." would be ahead of time! Great episode.

Steven No love for Tanner's Mom? I loved her "no dick law enforcement" comment! Another great episode with a lot of great dialogue. I like all the moving pieces. Harlan County is a complex place!

Alex T. I loved that scene!!!!! I can't believe I forgot to talk about about it. When she was asking Raylan to fix the TV I was cracking up.

Neel I'm just happy Rachel got a mention at the beginning of the episode...

andrew_burton Have we seen Harvey before? IMDB says Ezra Buzzington was the bartender in "Hatless" but that doesn't jibe with me...

rob Ok, at the end of the episode, was limehouse telling raylan he kill his father? I was only half watching, but Im pretty sure he was talking about how he had stabbed him when raylan was a child.

Gruden Man, great take on Limehouse

reno88 i agree re: limehouse. i feel his character and the storyline around him aren't nearly as strong (or as interesting) as the others. quarles is the shiz. dude creeps me out even more than his #2 (eyebrows) does. unsalted.

Blake I completely agree. Limehouse is the most irritating character on this show because he's one-dimensional. It's as if Yost and co. decided, "Let's have a black character, and make him powerful." And stopped there.

cgeye (It's Chekhov's Smokehouse, people. I'm just sayin'....)

TSill Reply to comment...

Haynie Finally seeing Ethan Rom's life in the Sideways Universe was very interesting. Took long enough.

chuchundra Maybe I'm a little slow here, but why exactly did the bomb maker trick Tanner into standing on the landmine? What exactly was going on there?

jan He had to stand on it to reach the money he had come for.

chuchundra Thanks Jay Cjay, that's the bit I missed.

albatross My take on why Tanner didn't put the gun in his waistband or some other logical move was that he was panicked, and wasn't going to do anything they asked him to.

cgeye Obviously, a lack of research, in a show that rewards otaku interest? But, still, nummy -- and today's Pi Day, too....

Naomi Love the show. However, I am constantly confused by what is truly Marshall's business vs. FBI vs. local police. I know Raylan makes everything his business regardless of jurisdiction, but I really would like to understand this. It comes up in other shows too.

Naomi So, going after Quarles doesn't fit any of those.

chuchundra Most of the interesting bits of Justified don't have much to do with Raylan's marshall duties.

Yep... as Art put it early in the episode, "he's not Marshall business."

robbeck I think you omitted the witness protection program, which has been part of this season's storyline.

Ben Kabak Here's the problem with reviewing a show like this weekly. You get lost in nuance and wanting things to happen. Like asking for Boyd to marginalized.

Adam K Although the best scene this season that didn't involve Raylan was Limehouse and The Carpetbagger discussing the pie and where Quarles does that sarcastic laugh making fun of Limehouse was great

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Justified is updated

Fran @Lindsay
From Johnny's comment about wanting a blonde, and Ava's expression in response, I got a similar impression. It wasn't terribly overt -- just sort of an admission of his feelings, or former feelings? Not sure.

Kelly

Enough of Limehouse brandishing his blade already. If Chekhov's gun rule applies to knives as well, he is going to have to go on a six-county slashing spree to justify all the times we've seen that.

berkowit28 But, as JMS said, why didn't he just put the gun i his pocket?

For that matter, when Raylan wanted to disarm him, why didn't he just ask him to empty the bullets out? They're so lightweight, one by one, it surely would not have triggered the bomb.

Diana

Johnny walked in the first episode we saw him in season 2. When Boyd was trying to get him to come back to his crew.

Brian

Johnny walks to the fridge in his first appearance in season 2

laz_jackson

Boyd's speech means Quarles HAS to prioritize Boyd over Raylan, doesn't it?

JIM

This made me nuts while watching: PUT THE GUN IN YOUR POCKET if you're afraid of dropping it.

Brooks THANK YOU! We were practically screaming at the TV over here.

And why hand over the heavy bag of money without at least trying to pull an Indian Jones-like weight swap? That shop was full of heavy items.

I understand the good people of Harlan County aren't brain surgeons, but come on.

Cade

I finally figured out what Alan's "as soon as..." would be ahead of time!

Great episode.

Steven

No love for Tanner's Mom? I loved her "no dick law enforcement" comment! Another great episode with a lot of great dialogue. I like all the moving pieces. Harlan County is a complex place!

Neel

I'm just happy Rachel got a mention at the beginning of the episode...

andrew_burton

Have we seen Harvey before? IMDB says Ezra Buzzington was the bartender in "Hatless" but that doesn't jibe with me...

rob

Ok, at the end of the episode, was limehouse telling raylan he kill his father? I was only half watching, but Im pretty sure he was talking about how he had stabbed him when raylan was a child.

reno88 i agree re: limehouse. i feel his character and the storyline around him aren't nearly as strong (or as interesting) as the others.

quarles is the shiz. dude creeps me out even more than his #2 (eyebrows) does.

unsalted.

Haynie

Finally seeing Ethan Rom's life in the Sideways Universe was very interesting. Took long enough.

chuchundra

Maybe I'm a little slow here, but why exactly did the bomb maker trick Tanner into standing on the landmine? What exactly was going on there?

albatross

My take on why Tanner didn't put the gun in his waistband or some other logical move was that he was panicked, and wasn't going to do anything they asked him to.

Naomi

Love the show. However, I am constantly confused by what is truly Marshall's business vs. FBI vs. local police. I know Raylan makes everything his business regardless of jurisdiction, but I really would like to understand this. It comes up in other shows too.

Ben Kabak

Here's the problem with reviewing a show like this weekly. You get lost in nuance and wanting things to happen. Like asking for Boyd to marginalized.

Adam K

Although the best scene this season that didn't involve Raylan was Limehouse and The Carpetbagger discussing the pie and where Quarles does that sarcastic laugh making fun of Limehouse was great

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