The most recent episode of Justified — the one where Alan Tudyk played a hitman with a really big gun — was excellent. On the surface, that's not exactly noteworthy. Plenty of episodes of Justified have been excellent over its four-plus years on the air. For most of that run, it's been a consistently great show. But what's interesting in this case is that it's the first episode in a long, long time that felt like it needed to be excellent because, to state it plainly (as Raylan himself would surely demand), Justified has been in a bit of a funk in season five's early-going.
And it's not that the show has been terrible — not with this cast, not with showrunner Graham Yost and this team of writers — but it has started to feel a bit samey, something that Yost and star Timothy Olyphant have likely themselves recognized, as the two have decided to end the series with season six next year. Ultimately, there may be only so many rednecks Raylan can insult, only so many speeches Boyd Crowder can give, only so many cocked eyebrows Art can point at Raylan before the whole operation starts to get a bit stale. In the early-goings, Justified thrived on the colorful arch villains it threw at Raylan — Margo Martindale's moonshine matriarch in season two and Neal McDonough's disturbing mob enforcer in season three — but Yost and company decided to shake up the formula last year by presenting Raylan with a mystery to solve rather than a central nemesis to conquer. That plan proved shaky, and season four ended up being Justified's weakest despite some fun work by recurring guest stars Patton Oswalt and Ron Eldard.
So it's back to featuring a big bad this year, except it became clear almost immediately that Michael Rapaport's Daryl Crowe, cousin to series whipping boy Dewey Crowe, wasn't going to be as compelling a villain as those who had come before. Rapaport feels inauthentic and out of place here. and none of the other Crowe relatives who've popped up this season seem all that interesting either, though I'm holding out hope that Alicia Witt, playing the Crowe family's white sheep, will get some juicy stuff to do. Meanwhile, other new elements, like Amy Smart's social worker/love interest for Raylan and Boyd's drug-operation troubles don't differentiate themselves enough from past plotlines.
The good news is none of this is killing the show. Its core performers, starting with Olyphant and Walt Goggins, continue to be among television's most entertaining, and Yost and the show's casting people have decided to spackle over Justified's cracks this year by filling out every bit part with an actor who's usually fun to watch — from Tudyk to Dave Foley to Will Sasso to Xander Berkeley to David Koechner. They've also brought back past favorites like Kaitlyn Dever's Loretta and bumped Jere Burns's Wynn Duffy up to a full-time cast member. It sometimes feels like sleight of hand — "Never mind that the show's not quite what it used to be. Look at all these awesome people doing awesome things!" — but it's nifty magic nonetheless.
And now, thanks to this week's episode, things are looking up. Getting Art out of the office and putting him and Raylan in the middle of the Detroit mob shenanigans that had mostly only concerned Boyd during the first few weeks proved to be the proper kick in the ass the show needed. Alan Arkin popped back up as Theo Tonin to close out a long-dangling plot strand. And Boyd's meet-cute with Daryl provided some great laugh-out-loud moments for Goggins. ("I've been accused of being a lot of things. Inarticulate ain't one of them.") There weren't any big surprises or mind-blowing twists, but it did feel like the type of tightly constructed episode Justified was offering up damn near weekly in seasons two and three.
Hopefully, this episode gets the show on a nice little roll. There are still some challenges to face this season, mostly notably that yearly dance where the writers have keep Raylan and Boyd tangentially involved in each other's affairs, but not too involved that they'd end up dead in each other's sights. Surely such a showdown is planned for the final season, meaning this will be yet another year where Raylan and Boyd occupy storylines that pass each other in the night but never directly collide. It's proven problematic in the past — I'm thinking of you, weird tent-revival people from season four — but, honestly, it's tough to see a way around it. Obviously, Justified is Olyphant's show, but it'd be equally hard to imagine a version of it without Goggins. So it's likely best just to forgive the narrative hiccups that result, enjoy the show while it's still here and expect one humdinger of a final season next year. In the meantime, let's hope this most recent episode bodes well for the immediate future.
