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So apparently, only six days have passed in Harlan since the beginning of the season, and we get to reminisce about that time Raylan caught Adair and brought him to Sharon. We also get to see Adair staring daggers while listening to Raylan tell Sharon where she lives, so it seems pretty clear where this episode is going from Minute One. Soon after, thanks to Paul Kinsey from Mad Men, Adair escapes, killing Sharon in the process, and I thought Hare Krishnas didn't believe in violence?
Back in the present day, Johnny has guessed that Max wasn't the one who hit Teri, and as such gets her to admit not only that Colton was the real culprit but that he was asking about Ellen May. When Colton comes into the bar, Johnny plays cat-and-mouse with him, and I'm probably not as tough as Johnny Crowder but that still seems tantamount to poking a bear with a stick.
Raylan learns of Sharon's death, and immediately realizes Adair was responsible. Adair, meanwhile, has been at Paul Kinsey's healing up from the bullet wound in his shoulder that Sharon inflicted before she died, and they then head for Harlan, as Adair claims to have some money stashed away at his ex-wife's place. When they get there, though, they find a newly installed alarm, a sorority sister of his wife's guarding the place, and Raylan showing up in search of Adair. Raylan walks the sorority sister "Jackie," who it turns out is a pro poker player, home, but he leaves her at her door, which is bad news, considering Adair is inside. Fortunately, Raylan sees Paul Kinsey's car parked nearby and remembers having seen it by the ex-wife's house, and his intervention leads to Jackie getting away from Adair, although he escapes with a broken hip. Having overheard Raylan tell Sharon where he lives, Adair resolves to go to the bar and kill him; anticipating this move, Raylan pulls the fire alarm at the bar, and everyone clears out so he can deal with Adair alone. Raylan ends up killing Adair in the most anticlimactic way possible, but at least his "Number of days since I shot someone" meter gets reset as a result. Also, it's likely she and Raylan end up sleeping together, which probably isn't going to break his streak of bedding women as dangerous as they are hot.
Boyd is nervous about going to the swinger's party, but Ava works him through it. Although Napier's about as welcoming as you might expect, the hostess takes a shine to Ava, while Boyd gets chatted up by Holland Manners from Angel, who, along with other rich folk, want Boyd to kill Frank Browning, the mine owner, because he won't cooperate with a plot to con the government out of disaster-relief money. They inform him that they're the reason Boyd has been so successful in dominating the criminal activities in down-the-mountain Harlan, and just as his father was in their pocket, so will he be. Probably all you need to know about Boyd's mental state following that revelation is that he fails to deliver a pithy rejoinder.
Raylan and Art are trying to figure out how to approach the Clover Hill names supplied to them by the FBI files, Mary, and Josiah. Pessimistic about their prospects, Art suggests Raylan go talk to Hunter Mosley and Arlo, and it's pretty telling Raylan's less psyched about the latter than the former. In the end, Raylan goes to Arlo and offers him a straight-shooting deal: Boyd is working with the Tonins, and if he gets to Thompson first, Arlo's deal dies, but if Arlo helps Raylan, he'll make sure Arlo lives out his days in minimum security. Arlo tells him to go to hell, but his blood freezes when Raylan says his stop is Mosley, so we'll see where that goes -- hopefully week.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!So the first image that comes up is a chyron informing us that we're taking a trip to six days ago, and I'm already getting suspicious of what this means, but when Raylan, on a highway median I suspect is near a state line, pulls his prisoner Adair out of the car, there's no doubt -- the ENTIRE SEASON to this point has taken place within the span of less than a week. Not that I expected it to have taken so much longer, but coming off a show like Downton Abbey on which months fly by as easily as bit characters, the fact that we've averaged literally one day in the show's time per episode is a little jarring. I mean, doesn't Preacher Billy already feel like he happened about a decade ago?
Anyway, Adair -- you remember him from such places as "the trunk of Raylan's car" and "the back seat of Raylan's car" -- gets out of the latter and claims Raylan's treatment of him is unconstitutional, as he's got to take a piss. Raylan: "ACLU'd be happy to take up your case." Heh. A large man in Sharon the bail bondswoman's apparent employ puts Adair in the back of a waiting van as Sharon compliments "Givens" on the nice work, and as they chat and Sharon hands over the promised cash, Adair observes while staring at Raylan with such menace that I feel intimidated on Raylan's behalf. Just as well, because it's not an emotion he ever actually experiences. As the partner attaches the cuffs to something in the back of the van (I think, anyway; I can't really see what he's doing but it seems like a logical conclusion), Adair catches Raylan telling Sharon that if she's ever in town, she should stop by "the High Note," as he's pretty well living there; Sharon replies that she hopes he's not drinking away his wages, as she wouldn't want to see anything "ravage those Hollywood looks," and I'm really sorry she going to be dying in a minute.
But first, it's time for Sharon to give her partner her true opinion of Raylan -- he's got the badge and the drawl and "the whole squinty, sexy thing" (and plus a million points for mentioning his squints as calculated sexiness, NOT THAT I'M COMPLAINING) -- but while there was a time she would have run right to him, now she sees that he's an "emotional disaster." It seems clear to me that she's laying out some groundwork here, so I can only imagine we should look askance at the love interest who's just about to blow into Raylan's life, but I can't help but wonder if maybe Raylan would be like .01 percent less sorry about Sharon's imminent death if he heard this little speech.
Also, it looks like Adair is working to undo whatever the partner did to further secure him when there's a telltale noise from behind, and when the partner looks in the side mirror, he sees that the right rear tire has blown. They pull over, and Sharon, who drank like an entire 36-ounce Mr. Pibb in between sentences about how screwed up Raylan is, declares her intention to "cop a squat" while he fixes the tire, and now that I've brought up Downton Abbey I've gotten on a kick where I'm hearing vulgar expressions like that in the Dowager Countess' voice. Once you start, it's hard to stop.
Anyway, Sharon pee-walks around the van, tosses the keys to her partner, and then makes herself scarce, but even as we see her walking off, a car pulls up and deposits Michael Gladis, better known to many viewers as Paul Kinsey from Mad Men. Of course, when last we saw him on that show, he was an LA-bound Hare Krishna, but he's dressed normally enough and speaks in a local accent as he offers to call Triple-A. Sharon's partner, however, displays his gun as he tells Paul Kinsey he'd be best served to move on for his own safety, so Paul Kinsey gets back in the car as the partner unlocks the back door -- whereupon, with exquisite timing, Adair kicks the doors from inside so that they fly open, knocking the partner to the ground and sending the gun flying. He immediately tries to crawl after it, but this proves to be a fatal mistake, as Adair reaches him first, wraps the handcuffs around his neck from behind, and chokes the life out of him as Paul Kinsey watches in horror. Believe it or not, Paul Kinsey, lawmakers anticipated scenarios like this when they made aiding and abetting a known felon a crime. Look it up!
Once the partner's dead, Adair grabs the keys and unlocks the cuffs (hopefully also thanking them for the job they played in his escape) and asks, while taking charge of the partner's gun, where "she" is. Paul Kinsey breathes that he just innocently poked out the tire when they stopped for food like Adair said, but he didn't say anything about murder, and hilariously adds, "I'm just a filmmaker," which is close enough to "aspiring playwright" that I wonder how much Kinsey DNA is going to be found in this character. Whatever the case, that revelation isn't likely to make me stop referring to him as "Paul Kinsey." Adair speeds up Paul Kinsey's dithering by pointing the gun at him, whereupon Paul Kinsey silently points in the direction in which Sharon disappeared.
Sharon's just unsquatting when Adair appears behind her and aims, but the quiet cock of the piece is enough to warn her, and without hesitation, she draws her own gun mid-whirl and shoots, making me love her forever. It's not clear to me if she possibly wasn't shooting to kill -- the only reason I even think of it is that it's her business to bring him in alive -- but unfortunately, whatever the case, even though she hits Adair, he manages to keep his arm steady enough to get a shot off even while being knocked back by the bullet, and this gets Sharon in the neck. As she lays dying, Adair calls for Paul Kinsey ("Kenneth" is apparently the character's name, and Adair calls him "Kennet," but you can be sure I will be adopting neither of those), and at first I was wondering why Adair looks so put out, since he must have been planning to kill Sharon, otherwise why even go after her? But then I remembered the part where he, you know, got shot. Credits.
In the office, thanks to an almost entirely gratuitous shot of Raylan's ass for which I am shamelessly thankful, Raylan saunters (Sharon left that off her list of Raylan's charms) into Art's office and drops a folder on his desk, whereupon Art absently says he already signed Dunlop's birthday card. Raylan, however, says the folder contains not obligatory and insincere (although surely also witty, at least in Art's case) birthday wishes but the summary of all the FBI's evidence against Tonin, which he deems "bullshit." Art amends Raylan's assessment to "rare-vintage FBI bullshit," adding that he's been trying to get hold of Barkley, but he's been AWOL for "a few days." Okay, he's been AWOL for "a few" of the SIX DAYS that have comprised this season? So, given that Barkley only met his end two episodes ago, the first five episodes took place over like TWO days? For a sleepy town, people in Harlan are GETTING SHIT DONE.
Raylan wonders since when "J. Edgar Barkley" (hee) misses work, but Art distracts Raylan from examining that thought further by saying they don't need the FBI, what with the Clover Hill names Mary the Hill Woman and "the one-legged man" gave them. Raylan corrects him that Josiah is actually now one-footed -- "he's still got most of his leg" -- before, without pausing, going on that Art is doing that thing where he doesn't have high hopes. Art: "That eyebrow thing?" HA! In a poker-themed episode, how much do I love that Art is aware of his own tell? Art confesses that his hopes are in fact rather low, but he does point out that Raylan's "psychic friend" Eve Monroe could pore through DMV photos in an effort to identify Drew. When Raylan's hopes unsurprisingly fail to lift, Art starts to suggest another course of action, but whether his eyebrow gives him away or not, Raylan cuts him off and says he doesn't want to hear it, because he knows Art is going to suggest he go talk to Arlo. Art, however, says he's not trying to tell Raylan that, and brings up Hunter, saying Raylan should go see him. "And after that, go talk to your father." Hee.
Raylan really really doesn't want to see him, to the point where he gives Art a hilarious "you can't make me" face, but Art tells him to go, which is probably the end of it. Raylan stalks out, but on his way, he wishes Dunlop a happy birthday, which leaves Dunlop thoroughly nonplussed to the point where he remarks to Tim about it. Tim: "Jesus Christ, [Dunlop], I'm sorry I forgot your birthday." Hee. That's all we'll see of Tim this episode, but he always makes it count.
Oh hey, here's Johnny and "Teri" lying in bed, and from how satisfied he looks, it seems reasonable to conclude she's still got her tongue. She confirms that by telling him she feels "safe," prompting him to tell her how he beat up on poor, relatively innocent Max. He goes on about how special he finds her, but she seems to find his attempts at romantic talk to be wearying, and it's probably fair to guess that in her line of work she's heard more than her share of such lines before. However, Johnny isn't finished, as he asks her who "put the hurt on" her, as he figured out it wasn't Max. I'm guessing he's already pretty sure who it was, given his subtle reaction to Colton's crazed behavior in that scene. When she asks what he cares, he tells her he didn't know for sure it wasn't Max until she just admitted it, and although he'll never be as clever as Boyd, his Crowder DNA has been coming to the surface this season, and he asks her point-blank if it was "Colt," after which her guilty expression confirms it for him. She tells him about Colton's threat to cut out her tongue, prompting Johnny to ask why he'd do such a thing, or even beat on her in the first place, as if murdering former military would always have a logical reason for such actions. Here, though, Teri tells Johnny about Colton's questions regarding Ellen May, and Johnny, who presumably knows that Ellen May's corpse is supposed to be part of some industrial waste, looks very pleased with the possibilities this information presents. He kisses her and tells her he meant what he said, and presumably he's referring to the romantic stuff we heard rather than anything he might have said, you know, before.
Raylan's eating an ice-cream cone while driving, and although I'm sure that's not particularly safe, the GIF at the bottom of this piece (h/t my friend Matt Zoller Seitz) goes a long way to explain why I don't have a problem with it. Even worse from a vehicular safety standpoint is that he uses his other hand to answer his phone, but it's an important call -- from a Campbell County deputy informing Raylan that he was one of the last calls registered on Sharon's phone and wondering what association he had with her. Raylan picks up on the guy's use of the past tense -- he has shown that he understands such things -- so the guy tells him that Sharon's van was fished out of a lake that morning with two bodies therein, one of which was hers. Upon hearing this, Raylan tosses his ice cream out the window, and littering aside that does seem like rather a respectful gesture. The deputy gives him some details on the deaths, and Raylan replies that he thinks he knows the man he's looking for. Gravitas of the scene aside, it'd be pretty funny if he gave up Boyd's name.
But let's check in with the real culprit, as Adair is sitting shirtless, his shoulder bandaged, pounding painkillers and beer and looking like he's overstayed his welcome even before Paul Kinsey is like, dude, you gotta go. Adair's response can pretty much be summed up by his request for Paul Kinsey to pass him a bowl, to which Paul Kinsey replies with a recap of Adair's crimes, like, I get that you're upset, but leave it to the professionals. (Btw, a propos of nothing, Paul Kinsey's walls are decorated with framed movie posters, one of which is for Wedding Slashers, which is not only an actual movie but is the real poster art in the frame. Heh.) Paul Kinsey's ears perk up, though, when Adair tells him he's got a lot of money stashed at his ex-wife Katrina's place, and he'll cut Paul Kinsey in for twenty percent if he'll let him stay until he's fully healed and then take him to Harlan to see her. Paul Kinsey is jazzed, but gets less so when he gets a call from that same deputy asking how he knew Sharon, and although he plays it off (he claims to have sold her camera equipment on Craigslist, and surveillance in her line of work would make sense), he panics when he gets off the phone and tells Adair who it was. Adair asks what he told him, and it's pretty comical that he does so without exhaling the pot smoke he's got in his lungs. Paul Kinsey, however, says the point is that they know, so Adair proclaims himself healed and suggests they hit the road. Despite my lefty leanings, I'm not going to cite this as a convincing example of the medicinal powers of marijuana.
Adair and Paul Kinsey turn up at Katrina's place, and Adair is chagrined to discover a sign advertising Katrina's new alarm system, as if the only question isn't what took her so long. They go around back, with Paul Kinsey snagging some woman's underwear that's hanging out on the line to dry, like, they need to design clotheslines that give potential thieves electric shocks for places like Harlan. Not that, I think, that would have stopped Paul Kinsey. Paul Kinsey's about to put a rock through one of the back windows (because those aren't generally alarmed?) when Adair warns him off -- Katrina's sister is inside. Just so none of us have to ask the awkward question, Paul Kinsey blurts out that she's white, so Adair clarifies that the nubile young woman was her sorority sister at Butler. He thinks this will actually make their entry easier -- at least until she opens the door for Raylan.
As Adair seethes to Paul Kinsey that he hates "that man," the woman introduces herself as "Jackie Nevada," and I believe I've heard whispers that the name is taken from Elmore Leonard's story titled, unsurprisingly, Raylan (if you didn't know, Leonard's the one who wrote Fire In The Hole, on which this series was initially based). Raylan informs Jackie that he's got reason to believe Adair might be turning up, and he's armed, dangerous, "and an asshole." Jackie smiles that she's met him, and Raylan's three for three; she goes on that Katrina took the kids to Dollywood, and she probably has an email with her itinerary. Meanwhile, Adair whispers to Paul Kinsey that he plans to (a) get his money and (b) kill Raylan, but, as we see a glimpse of two cops appearing outside the front door, Paul Kinsey says they've got to go, and they can deal with those errands later. Out front, Raylan tells the lead cop that after he gets details on the wife and kids' location, Raylan will take Jackie home, and then notices a vanity plate on Paul Kinsey's car that reads "KY FLIXXX," just in case you were wondering exactly what kind of auteur Paul Kinsey is. (Also, he's got a Romney/Ryan AND a McCain/Palin bumper sticker, which I guess just shows another way in which porn merchants aren't like other filmmakers.)
Boyd seems nervous as he looks for his trademark pocket watch, but Ava points it out to him; this doesn't settle him, though, and he confesses to Ava that he's feeling "insecure" about this whole thing. She tells him he looks "grand," but I'd imagine that's hardly his only potential source of insecurity when it comes to a sex party. But actually, he's worried about class differences, not wanting to embarrass himself by using the wrong fork or whatever, so Ava says they only need to sniff around to see which of the guests might be Drew and then uses the sex-party idea to point out that everyone's pretty much going to be on a level playing field. "If it comes down to it, what's a few hand jobs, give or take?" I mean, words to live by, no? He asks if she's looking for an open relationship, to which she playfully tells him to give as many hand jobs as he needs to that night. He replies that that's not funny, which makes me wonder if he heard it wrong, but regardless, he seems to have loosened up, at least enough to accompany Ava out. Probably still a far cry from hand jobs, but we can hope.
Back in front of Katrina's house, Jackie is asking how Raylan was aware of Adair's assholery, so Raylan tells her about the two people Adair just killed; upon confessing that he slept with one of them a year or two ago, Jackie smiles: "That's sweet." Hee. She clarifies that she's referring to him being out there getting revenge, but he demurs, saying that he's only seeing that she gets home safe... in his PANTS! (Sorry, that's not right, but even at this early time you can tell where this is going.) Raylan then gets meta by commenting that her name sounds like something out of a Steve McQueen film, so she explains that his stepfather wanted to call her Sierra, but he fought off the psychotic break he was apparently having and named her after her mother instead, who left her before she was old enough to remember her. She adds that "Reno" wasn't even her real dad, and when Raylan quite rightly expresses disbelief at the existence of a "Reno Nevada," she explains that he's a poker player, and they sometimes end up in games together. They flirt a bit, and Raylan concedes Jackie's charming but isn't sure if she's sincere; when she asks if he thinks she's working him, Raylan replies, "My track record as of late, don't suppose I could tell." Well, Raylan, at least you keep pulling hot. But I must point out this is a poker player named "Jackie Nevada." You're right to be wary.
Well, look who's made it safely up to Clover Hill. Boyd and Ava approach the front door, and Boyd gives their names to the security guy at the door, who lets them in. Inside, people are mingling and chatting and decidedly not screwing, prompting Boyd to remark to Ava that he was expecting something more like Rome, and I was thinking Eyes Wide Shut with maybe some backwoods variations on the masks, but we're in agreement that there's a marked lack of sex for a sex party. Boyd bright-sides that at least he won't have to see the mostly ugly crowd naked, and then some asshole shows an ugliness that has nothing to do with looks as he crows to the room that if, referring to Ava, "this fine flower is what's growing on the dung heaps of Harlan," maybe they should relax their admission policy after all. Boyd sidles up close, and the two of them exchange some tart words about whiskey, but Boyd shows he's got his eyes on the prize by letting that be the extent to which he displays his temper. He squires Ava away over to say hello to Napier (and how weird that I saw the actor, David Andrews, at almost exactly the same time in a guest appearance on House Of Cards. And now that I think about it, same with Gerald McRaney, who played Josiah Cairn here and Raymond Tusk there), but Napier doesn't mince words in saying that Boyd is as welcome at the party "as a case of the clap," and I don't know what Boyd was so nervous about. His behavior is turning out to be completely irrelevant to the question of whether people hate him, as their minds are already made up.
Or at least, so it seems until the hostess, Debra Jane, warmly introduces herself to Boyd and Ava before offering to take Ava on a tour of the house. But despite her congeniality, Ava Debra Jane is played by Robin Riker, who you might remember as Amy Madison's witch mother in one of the very first episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "The Witch." So if I were you, I'd give the attic a miss.
After Boyd and Napier politely enough tell each other to fuck off, we head back to Debra Jane, who's telling Ava that "the swingin' and the swappin'" is just a small bit of what they do up there, and goes on to say that they women have all the power, not just in the bedroom but in Harlan. "If it weren't for us and these little get-togethers, nothin' would ever get done." It's not going to happen, but I'm kind of wishing Debra Jane would bust out in song right here; I'm already hearing "We Put The Har In Harlan." She goes on, however, that Ava doesn't need to do anything she doesn't want to. "First rule up here: No means no." Well, it sounds good, anyway.
Boyd, not having a kindly escort to show him around, is propping up a wall, and Boyd, I know you were pretty reluctant on the hand jobs issue but I don't doubt it'd be a way to curry some favor. Just then, however, two men start a conversation with him; one of them is played by Ned Bellamy, who's a Tarantino favorite and has a list of credits a mile long but will always to me be Eddie the fatigues-wearing Jewish single on Seinfeld. The other is Sam Anderson, who has no fewer credits but you're most likely to know as Bernard, Rose's husband, from Lost, or the role with which I will always associate him, Holland Manners from Angel. They make a little small talk before introducing themselves as "Gerald Johns" (Bellamy) and "Lee Paxton" (Anderson), and after they make it clear they already know who Boyd is, they graciously invite him over to join their little conversational group. Boyd seems only too happy to oblige, although if I were him, I'd wonder if this is where the sex starts.
After we get a quick shot of some guy in a business suit who's as nondescript as he is tipsy, we rejoin Boyd and his new friends, and Anderson tells Boyd that funeral homes have been in his family for five generations, but he only moved back to Harlan in 1980 after his aunt passed away. Boyd replies that there's a family that moved to Slope Creek during JFK's presidency who are still referred to as "the new neighbors," and his new friends laugh appreciatively like spiders listening to a fly do stand-up. Elsewhere, Ava gives her buddy a big smile before letting him know it's not happening by asking him to excuse her, and then back to Johns, who we learn won his very successful car dealership in a poker game. At this point, a bald guy who has been giving this group dark looks stumbles over and brings up the fact that, referring to Boyd, "that lowlander screwed Black Pike Coal in a deal with Mags Bennett," and that reminds me that I really need to rewatch Season Two again, as about the only thing I remember other than Mags Bennett's general awesomeness is that the poison was in the glass. Frank tells them all he's not going to participate before inviting them all to visit Hell at their earliest convenience and when he's gone, Boyd figures that a game is afoot (I already told you how much I love that reference, even if it's not so punny this time) and that he's a player. No one responds, but the side-eye Johns gives Anderson suggests Boyd's on to something.
I don't know what took them so long, but Jackie and Raylan are just showing up to the former's place, and Paul Kinsey watches from his car as Jackie invites Raylan in. Deferring a decision there, he asks her if she always plays poker for money, and she tells him yes -- she plays every night. He asks if she cheats, and when she tells him no, he takes from her self-assuredness that she doesn't have to -- she reads people. She tells him doing so is unavoidable -- looking at someone's mannerisms as you're calculating the odds is part of the game for her. She tries one more time to get him to come in, but he declines, so she heads inside as he takes off...
...but inside, after Jackie gets a beer out of the refrigerator, she's startled when Adair, sitting in one of her living-room chairs, greets her. Whatever fear he may inspire in her is at least matched by disdain, and she dismissively asks why he didn't ring the doorbell, but he tells her he knows she's suddenly been cozy with the law, so he felt the need to make his entrance all "idiosyncratic." Heh. She directly asks him what he wants, and he replies with a bit of ADR in saying that he wants the security code to Katrina's house. She still refuses to take him seriously, but he grabs her from behind and holds a knife to her throat...
...while Raylan is driving off when he suddenly catches sight of Paul Kinsey's vanity plate and quickly puts his car in reverse. Paul Kinsey sees this...
...and inside, Jackie is just giving up the code when Raylan comes back in, gun drawn, and tells Adair to let her go. Downstairs, Paul Kinsey drives his car up, and then Jackie stomps on Adair's foot (better than having it stabbed) and breaks her beer bottle over his head. This causes Adair to let her go, but when she rushes toward Raylan, this gives Adair all the cover he needs to jump out the (second-story) window, landing on the roof of Adair's car. Paul Kinsey is not thrilled about the damage to his car, but he does manage to drive away before Raylan can get a clear shot. Besides, Paul Kinsey, Adair could have jumped from a lot higher -- just ask George Costanza or Krieger on Archer.
When we return, neither Paul Kinsey nor Adair are super-thrilled, as the roof of the former's car is caved in, while the latter's hip is in a similar state. Paul Kinsey wants his money, probably now to fix the damn car roof, but Adair's first priority now is to kill Raylan, and lets us know he did take in Raylan's disclosure of his address. Paul Kinsey can't believe this is all happening, but Adair, probably in so much pain that he's laughing from the shock, laughs that it's all drama before adding that Paul Kinsey can make a great movie out of this. Well, at least now I'm laughing too.
Back at Jackie's, a cop tells Raylan that the vanity plates belong to [Paul Kinsey], who's local, so that answers my question from earlier -- we know Paul Kinsey doesn't live in Harlan, so if Paul Kinsey is near her, that would explain it taking a while for them to get back to hers. Raylan tells the cop he was going to drop Jackie off at a hotel, but he'd like to tag along first, and the cop has no problem with that...
...while back in Clover Hill, Ava uncertainly wanders upstairs looking for Boyd, and there's at least some sex going on up there, although it's confined to the bedrooms, and how this is any more sordid than the goings-on in the abandoned house in the episode of My So-Called Life where Angela won't sleep with Jordan is kind of lost on me. However, out of the bathroom comes the guy Ava blew off earlier, and when a younger guy surrounds her from the other direction and starts getting handsy, Ava informs him that she killed the last guy who got grabby without her consent. To his credit, the other guy tries to get the younger one to back off, but this becomes irrelevant when Boyd appears and threatens to break the guy's arm until Debra Jane appears and tells Boyd to let the rapey bit of privileged white trash go, as he'll have to answer to her. If Debra Jane's as tough as I'm guessing, I'm wondering if the guy's going to end up in the slurry in which Ellen May was supposed to have come to rest.
Once Debra Jane hustles the guy downstairs, Ava, pretty upset, asks Boyd where the hell he was, and he apologizes, saying he had an eye on her but she got away from him for a moment. After they embrace, she shakily asks him if he got any information on Drew, and he says no, not really, but he does know why they were invited -- they're going to ask him to strong-arm Frank "Browning." Ava asks if that's the mine owner, and Boyd confirms that before saying that he's going to run her home and then come back and hear their pitch. Ava says she doesn't trust the Clover Hill folks, but Boyd thinks mistrust is no reason not to make money off them, which explains why he's still trying to do business with Wynn Duffy. They head out...
...while Paul Kinsey, hopped up on Scarface-esque levels of coke, is berating himself in the mirror, and I don't think the mental state of his character is important enough for the show to use such a hacky device, but I have no issue with Paul Kinsey's repeated, self-directed growls of "STUPID!" Still, not much point to the scene.
At Paul Kinsey's, Raylan tells Jackie to wait in the car, while inside, Paul Kinsey is telling some blonde that his script is almost finished when there's an insistent knock on the door. Paul Kinsey opens up to find the cops and Raylan, the former of whom shove him up against the wall. Paul Kinsey coke-babbles for a while, but when the cops release him, he tells Raylan that Adair left a movie he wanted Raylan to see, and if I'm right about Paul Kinsey's preferred genre, at least we'll get to see some sex here. But while Paul Kinsey indeed says that Adair's "X-rated stuff is better than most," but this one merely features Adair spinning a basketball in his hands before telling Raylan through the fourth wall that they're going to meet again. The credits then roll, and Raylan looks like I did after I watched Arbitrage.
In the car, Raylan and Jackie are discussing the Adair situation, and when Jackie says she thinks Raylan would like Adair to find him, Raylan sighs that "it might be the only way to get 'er done." Jackie informs Raylan that she's got a "serious crush" on him, and I know what I said before about her possible untrustworthiness, but anyone having a crush on Raylan Givens doesn't exactly defy believability. Raylan, I think, is enjoying the attention, but says he wants to make a quick stop at the High Note, and Jackie asks if he thinks Adair might be there, citing the look on Raylan's face as evidence. And I have to say, given Raylan's propensity to keep things to himself, a woman who's an expert at reading non-verbal cues is a perfect match for him in a lot of ways. He pulls over and tells her to stay in the car...
...and then he's walking into the High Note. He looks intently in one direction for a few moments, and I'm not sure if he sees his quarry at this point, but whatever the case, he pulls the fire alarm... and, like, no one leaves. Hee. However, when Raylan makes his way over to the bar, the bartender supposes that this isn't a drill, and when Raylan confirms that, the bartender leads everyone out... everyone, that is, save Adair, who's sitting against the wall with a smirk on his face. Raylan informs him that, with Adair's formal declaration a matter of public record, Raylan would be perfectly entitled to pull on him right now, and no matter how many times they cover it, I never get tired of discussions of the Marshal Code. Adair gets to his feet and starts shambling toward Raylan as Raylan recalls that when they first met, Adair didn't think Raylan would shoot him, and as Raylan displays the badge on his belt, Adair chuckles like an idiot. Raylan, playing along, puts his hand on his gun and asks whether Adair thinks he'll do it now, and after they both drop the smiles, Adair says Raylan's not going to shoot him and goes for his gun -- whereupon Raylan drops him with three quick shots followed by a fourth for good measure, killing him dead. Like I said in the recaplet, not a lot of suspense, but I feel like Raylan needed a good kill, with everything that's been happening, and you can see on his face that there was some grim personal satisfaction in this one. Jackie enters and silently observes as Raylan checks that Adair is dead and then calls it in, and I wonder if he can use the events of this day to talk Art out of making him see Arlo.
Colton enters the bar, and Johnny rightly tells him he looks like "ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag." Colton asks for a beer, but Johnny suggests he instead give him a salute to the Iraqi war hero. Colton invites him to introduce his lips to Colton's dick, but Johnny says he's just playing around, and figured Colton could handle it -- unless he can't, which might explain why he hasn't been around lately? Colton dismissively says he's been sick, so Johnny asks him if he ever gets fever dreams, like he does. "Make me feel like I'm goin' insane." Obviously, Johnny has decided to start circling Colton; I'd guess he doesn't know exactly how he's going to play this, but he knows he's got some valuable information, and he wouldn't be worthy of the Crowder name if he didn't consider his play carefully. Johnny asks if Colton killed a lot of people, and wonders if killing people "over there" feels any different than killing them at home. Colton wonders if he's asking about killing white people, but no -- Johnny's referring to innocents. "Civilians, kids -- you see their faces in your dreams?" Colton tries to change the subject to how warm the beer is, but Johnny gets close to showing his hand: "Do you see Ellen May's face?" After a pause, Colton evenly enough says he hasn't, and Johnny says he wouldn't, since... "she wasn't exactly innocent, was she?" Colton looks at Johnny with interest, but it's hard to say what kind. But in an episode full of people with good poker faces, he kind of stands out.
Boyd has returned to Clover Hill, and the room full of gentlemen, including Judge Executive Furry, brings up the EPA Superfund, which provides tons of emergency funds for environmental-disaster relief, such as might be needed to clean up a broken slurry pond. Boyd, smelling which way the wind is blowing, guesses that they want Browning to "bust open one of his ponds so you can suck off the Federal teat." Ew. Boyd adds that obviously, Browning isn't willing to play along, and Lee Manners confirms that, but when Boyd supposes they want him to convince Browning to play along, Johns is like, sure, if by "convince him to play along" you mean send him down a mine shaft from which he'll never return. Any levity in the room goes right out the window and everyone watches intently as Boyd, obviously intimidated, asks what happens if he refuses? Johns informs Boyd that everything he has is due to them, and they let him have his drug trade and everything else to keep "your cross-eyed brethren down the mountain placated." Lee Manners puts Boyd in his social place by condescendingly asking if he knows what "placated" means, and there's no sarcastic or demonstrative speech in response, just a quiet, "Yes, sir, I do," although he does add that he thinks the word Lee Manners is looking for as "pacify." Lee Manners, however, isn't interested in a discussion of semantics, as he informs Boyd that he's missing the point. "Your daddy got the point. Crowders do what we say." And with Raylan continually plagued by his father, it's nice to see Boyd confronted with the specter of his own origins. Boyd looks haunted and frankly a little terrified, and Johns makes their orders plain: "Kill Frank Browning, or we'll destroy you."
Raylan and Jackie enter the hotel room, and Jackie's impressed with the amount the Marshal Service is laying out. Raylan then tells her that although "I know I give you a charge" (hee), she seems positively giddy, and maybe that has something to do with what's in her bag? She tries to tell him it's just her schoolbooks -- she mentioned earlier that she attends the University of Kentucky as a graduate student -- but Raylan tells her he realizes Adair must have come back for some reason other than the kids or the ex -- it's for the money he figures is in her bag. Her smile doesn't fade as she asks what he's going to do about it, and he tells her that, as "ill-gotten gains," he'd be obliged to repossess it -- but if it somehow made its way back to Katrina and the kids, that wouldn't be so bad. Another thing I never get tired of is Raylan's application of frontier justice.
Raylan then gets a call from Art, which he takes as Jackie starts to strip on her way to the shower. Despite what I said earlier, Art notes that Raylan still hasn't been to see Arlo or Hunter, and Raylan tells him he'll be going first thing the day. He also assures Art that they're not paying for the room, and if it's coming out of Raylan's pocket he's even more hooked than I thought. Art wonders if the girl is in love with Raylan yet, to which Raylan replies that Jackie's "not the least bit interested in an old fart like me." I mean, that'd be bullshit even if Jackie hadn't already announced her crush, but it's always best to leave it to Art: "He said, humbly." Hee. Jackie gets the rest of her clothes off and gets in the shower, still not having closed the bathroom door, and whatever modesty or insecurity he's feeling, I'd imagine he'd be welcome to join her.
Ooh, here's Raylan waiting as Arlo's shuffling to him in shackles. Once they're in the same room, Raylan tosses the FBI folder onto the table -- only to confess it's full of takeout menus. Heh. He goes on that he was going to try to strong-arm Arlo into thinking they had enough to queer his deal, and Arlo gloats that Raylan is too much of a goody two-shoes to tell a lie. But Raylan is ready to honestly lay out his cards to Arlo, so he tells him that he was ready to ensure that Arlo never got a deal, but he's willing to offer him one now: They know Drew Thompson is alive and in Harlan, but Arlo could help them find him quickly. On the flipside, Theo Tonin has the same information, and he's got Boyd helping him. Understandably, Arlo doesn't believe Boyd would have betrayed him like this, but Raylan goes on undeterred as he says that if Boyd finds Thompson first, Arlo is SOL, but if Arlo's information proves true, Raylan will make sure Arlo lives out his days in a "country-club jail." I'm a free citizen and a country-club jail sounds pretty good to me, but Arlo tells Raylan, and I'm quoting, to eat shit.
Raylan looks equal parts embarrassed that he opened himself up to Arlo and happy that he has leave to try to make him rot in this jail, and as he gets ready to go, he says he's going to go see Hunter and see if maybe he'll take the deal. And you know, as much as Raylan may have hated doing it, it's telling that he went to Arlo first. In the context of being such a great poker player that he could kill a man half his age without him seeing it coming, Arlo is noticeably disturbed by Raylan's plan, and Raylan, his time with Jackie looking more and more well-spent, picks up on it, saying that as long as he's known Arlo, he's seen that whenever he gets bad news, he has "a face like a statue." On his way out, presumably referring to the Tonin situation, Raylan tells Arlo that he's going to die in the jail, and soon -- and he's going to be glad when he gets the news. He leaves -- and then, as we watch Arlo get walked back to his cell, he looks just as stone-faced as he did a couple minutes earlier. Whether that means he'll reconsider his course of action, though, will have to wait until week. See you then!
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. His new film, a documentary on online privacy and the sale of personal data called Terms And Conditions May Apply, recently premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in January. You can get news on it from the film's Twitter account. Also, you can email John at couchbaron@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/couchbaron, or check out his blog, "Pull Up A Chair," which he'd just love for you to stop by.