Throughout
its history Justified’s seasons
ranged from sensational (seasons two and six) to subpar (season five). Yet the
show always maintained a strong hold on its characters and setting. Rural
Harlan County, Kentucky hosted the mob and Marshals with equal aplomb. A bevy
of notable characters weaved their way in and out of the narrative, from Raylan’s
criminal father Arlo to aspiring drug lord Loretta to Dewey Crowe, the
malapropism machine. Characters met their fates in a variety of ways from the
tragic (Mags Bennett) to the dumb (Danny Crowe) to the explosive (poor Mr.
Picker). During its run, Justified showrunner
Graham Yost and his staff (and the spirit of Elmore Leonard) questioned whether
the show’s three central characters, Raylan, Ava, and Boyd could change their
lives and escape the pull of Harlan County.
The final
season revealed that Raylan Givens could leave Harlan behind. He confronted the
ghost of his father by breaking into his father’s shed—disappointed when it did
not reveal the horrors that he had always imagined. He rid himself of his
father’s land and eventually his grave. Raylan even managed to demonstrate the
slightest personal growth. In the pilot episode of Justified, Raylan had goaded a Miami gangster into drawing his gun
so Raylan could shoot him. In the series finale, Raylan pursued a similar track
with Boyd. He demanded that Boyd grab a pistol so Raylan could pull down on
him, ending their feud forever. Boyd refused and instead dared Raylan to cross
the line from lawman with a code to cold blooded murderer. Raylan refused,
instead allowing Boyd to live out the remainder of his life in jail. As the
finale jumped ahead it time, Justified wanted
to remind the viewer that there was some things Raylan couldn’t change. He had
a new hat (won as a result of his confrontation with young gunslinger Boon),
but the same attitude. And no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn’t make
things work with his ex-wife Winona.
Ava Crowder
also won a better life for herself. Ava was a survivor. She survived an abusive
husband, aspiring outlaw fiancé, and prison (in one of the show’s least advised
arcs). When the series began, Ava had just murdered her abusive husband Bowman.
The pair had married out of high school and Bowman, a star football player,
promised her a life outside of Harlan. Bowman took his failures out on Ava. Ava
then dated Raylan and Boyd, plotting a way out of the poverty and violence of
Harlan. Continually thwarted in those efforts, Ava, blazed her own path to
freedom. In the final season, she shot Boyd, drew on Raylan, and stole ten
million dollars in cash. She escaped from Harlan in the back of a pet grooming
van. Although Raylan managed to track her down, he let her go, fulfilling his
promise, from the end of season five, to keep her (and her son) safe.
Boyd meanwhile
completed his transformation from criminal for hire to self-styled “outlaw.” As
Raylan pointed out in their final scene together, Boyd’s had taken to repeating
himself. He began as a preacher and ended as one. Yet Boyd’s journey was a bit
more complicated. He began the series by espousing his self-serving belief in
white supremacy, but it was only a means to an end. Boyd’s goals were always
money, power, and cultivating his own legacy. His exaggerated speaking style,
his skill with explosives, and charisma all honed his reputation. Why kill Mr.
Picker when you can blow him up in a hotel room in front of Wynn Duffy and
Katherine Hale instead? Boyd’s ego allows Raylan to fool him into thinking that
Ava has died in the finale. When Boyd questions why Raylan has come to tell him
about Ava, Raylan responds that they dug coal together—a common refrain
throughout the series. Boyd believes it is this bond, born out of their shared
experience and carried out through years of antagonism and a legendary rivalry
that brought Raylan to visit him. Viewed through the lens of his own legend, it
makes all the sense in the world. Who is the great Raylan Givens without his
nemesis Boyd Crowder?
While it
rarely found itself discussed among the rarified air of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or the other contenders for the “Best Show
on TV,” Justified managed to be
amusing, entertaining, and heartbreaking. The dialogue crackled. We laughed at
the stupidity of Harlan’s criminal element, felt sympathy for Raylan’s
colleagues as he piled up body after body, and witnessed the desperation and
poverty of Harlan County. And how people like Mags Bennett and Ellstin
Limehouse carved out lives for themselves when no one else could be bothered to
care. Even at its lowest moments Justified
was always fun to watch. And that’s how we should remember it.
