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A couple of isolated things first: Mooney and Mara bring Lee -- who is back home -- the substitute hand as she and Boyd planned, and Lee buys it but tells Mara he still intends to go forward with the case against Ava. Speaking of, a CO played by Danny Strong starts giving Ava a bunch of shit and then threatens to rape her. However, a female CO later beats the crap out of him while telling him Ava is protected, which I am certainly glad enough to hear. Also, that lawman Ed calls Art and tells him to come up to Detroit, and there we see that Ed's got Will Sasso (the non-Dave Foley Canadian) in custody. He informs Art that Sammy Tonin used to brag that he had a Kentucky lawman in his pocket -- a lawman who was there the night he killed Augustine. Art's like, gonna need more than that, so the guy tells him for the full story, he should talk to Picker -- who's apparently laying low in the care of one Wynn Duffy -- and Art grimly heads back to Kentucky with his life far more complicated than when he left. Finally, Boyd has Johnny come join him and Ava at the prison and offers (possibly not super-genuinely) to go back into business with him, but Johnny has no interest in anything other than telling Boyd off and letting Ava know he's still into her. Boyd, however, has Carl tail Johnny out of the prison, and the information they gather is that Johnny's in league with Hot Rod, so anyone who thought he was involved in the hit had it right.
Dewey takes Wade up into the hills where Dewey claims to have buried some money they'll use to flee Harlan, but the real plan -- as much as Dewey doesn't love it -- is to kill him. He shoots Wade and beats him over the head with a flimsy shovel, but he goes to get a crowbar from his truck to help with the digging of Wade's grave and when he returns Wade is gone. Dewey treks after Wade night and day and eventually finds him collapsed from blood loss and exhaustion; he's about to finish the job when a young boy and his parents happen by. They think Dewey's somewhat deranged, which isn't far from the truth, but he's still forced to leave Wade behind.
Severely complicating the entire Wade situation is that as it happens, he had turned informant for Vasquez, who's building a case against Boyd. The fact that Wade has turned snitch is information that Raylan is most unhappy to hear, both on its merits (he thinks the man who tried to kill him might not be entirely reliable) and the fact that it was kept secret from him. Raylan, accompanied by Tim, heads to Audrey's as the last known location of Wade's phone and run into the tween Kendal Crowe; they then meet up with Danny and his pit bull, who just so happens to be living in Wade's house. The stop is Boyd, whom Raylan is quite sure was feeding Wade useless information; he and Tim tell Boyd that Wade's death might not look so great for him, so Boyd gives up the number of a burner phone with which he supplied Wade, and Raylan follows the signal to an inn that's probably not going to appreciate the kind of publicity he tends to bring.
Darryl is not super-psyched to hear that Raylan's sniffing around, but he and Jean-Baptiste don't want the kind of heat that killing a Federal agent would bring; instead, they go to check on Dewey and make sure he finished the Wade job. This proves easier when Dewey calls Darryl, and the two of them make to resume the search for Wade -- only to turn around when they see the bed and breakfast crawling with law enforcement, as Raylan has found Wade dead. Darryl later lectures Dewey about sticking with his kin, and Dewey doesn't look thrilled, but I don't know what choice he has at this point.
Raylan returns to Audrey's to confront Darryl and tell him he needs to take his people back to Florida, but Darryl tells him he's staying -- so Raylan produces papers decreeing that Kendal be taken into care as a minor in a house of ill repute. A deadly confrontation is threatened, but Kendal forestalls it by volunteering to go with Raylan. Like most things on this show, though, you can bet this isn't over.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!At night, Dewey is leading Wade toward a location in the hills at which he says he's buried some money, and when Wade asks why he has multiple locations for such stashes, Dewey explains that splitting them up like this protects him from being cleaned out by any one theft. It's not diversification in its classic sense, but it's a pretty sound idea for something that will prove to be entirely theoretical. The situation -- filling in a couple blanks, as you should be prepared to do when dealing with Dewey -- is that Dewey has told Wade they're grabbing the money and getting away from his cousins, but he's actually lured him up into the hills to he can kill him as Darryl ordered. Dewey has Wade start digging, but Wade only has a Webolo-issued spade, so the errand may take a while.
As Wade gets to digging, Dewey -- his face haunted -- cocks his gun so nervously that he pops out a bullet from the chamber, but Wade doesn't catch on until he turns and sees Dewey holding the gun on him with both hands. From the nauseated expression on Dewey's face, I think Wade would have a decent chance of talking Dewey out of it, but instead he goes for the gun and gets gut-shot for his trouble. This doesn't deter Wade from grappling with Dewey, but whether it's due to the injury or not, Dewey ends up banging Wade's head against a rock and then conking him a few times until the crappy shovel breaks. Having nowhere near a big enough a hole to contain Wade's "corpse," he goes to his truck and grabs a crowbar, with which I guess he figures he'll loosen up the dirt enough to dig the hole by hand? I'd be impressed if he pulled that off, but the errand proves unnecessary when Dewey returns to find Wade gone. Dewey uncertainly calls Wade's name, but Dewey, it's not like this is The Blair Witch Project and he suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. He's running from you. Finally figuring that Wade's not returning of his own volition, Dewey starts after him -- only to pitch himself ass over teakettle down a bluff. When he comes to rest, it's not clear if he's conscious, but his face is cut up in a way that would be a shame if it happened to someone like Raylan. Credits.
When we return, Raylan is in Art's office with his face in his hands; when he breaks that pose, he offers, "Parts of what you said are just... confusin' to me." I think he's being diplomatic, but if that's the case he might want to work on the tone. Vasquez, sporting a new buzz-y cut, gamely asks Raylan which parts are giving him trouble, so Raylan focuses on the fact that there's been a confidential informant in Harlan, that that CI is Wade informing on Boyd, "but kinda mostly the part where you felt like you couldn't tell me about it." Well, I guess it bodes well for his new status as a parent that he's working on his "it's not what you did, it's that you lied about it" speeches. However, his self-righteous pronouncement is somewhat deflated by Art and Vasquez's simultaneous reply of "we're tellin' you about it now," and I can't decide whether I'm happier to think of that as spontaneous or something they anticipated and rehearsed. Also -- as always, I love the show for this -- this gives an explanation for Art and Vasquez's not-obvious-but-totally-obvious secret discussion a couple episodes ago.
Raylan asks how they could possibly think that Wade would be a reliable CI, and when Vasquez tells him Wade pointed them to some heroin house "affiliated with" Boyd, Raylan asks if they seized any actual product and gets pretty snitty when the answer is no. Vasquez actually looks bummed, but Art's like, you don't have to worry your pretty little head about Boyd; just find Wade. Raylan complains that Wade tried to kill him and also is "a drug addict and a board-certified imbecile," and Art of course is like, well, makes your job easier then! Vasquez pipes up that they provided him with a phone from which he was supposed to call in the evening and failed to do so… and its last GPS location was Audrey's. Raylan practically snarls at Vasquez that he's familiar with the place, but Art -- undeterred as usual -- says he's sending Tim along with Raylan, given that Wade "took a swipe" at Raylan in the past. With an effort, Raylan holds his tongue, because however annoyed he may be, he can't really argue that we haven't seen near enough of Tim so far this season.
Dewey, looking bloody, pale and desperate, checks his phone and realizes he's lost as shit; he actually calls for help, although it seems to me the most likely person to be nearby is Wade and giving his location away seems like it'd be counterproductive.
Oh, look who's come in for a little meeting with Boyd and Ava -- Johnny Crowder. I was starting to wonder about the prison's wonderfully lax rules on visitation, but as with almost everything on this show that'll make sense later on. Johnny's leg has recovered further to the point where he's ditched the cane, although he's still got a limp and after some introductory barbs, Johnny asks where Teri is, so Boyd consults his pocket-watch and supposes she's being dropped off right about now. Despite the potentially nefarious undertone and the fact that it's this show, I think she's probably been left unharmed, more or less; it's not really Boyd's style to kill women, but more importantly it's a bad move if he wants anything from Johnny. She might still be in the box, though. Johnny sighs in Ava's direction that he's sorry to see her in there, but Ava's answering words show no reciprocal fondness, to say the least. Johnny amusedly notes what a good idea it was to have this parley in a place to which none of them could bring a weapon. Boyd brings up the shipment that was hit, ignoring Johnny's smug denial of any knowledge of that to discuss the matters of reparations and restitution. This gets Johnny serious, and he sits and wonders how Boyd will make reparations for him "takin' a bellyful of buckshot on account a-you finding Jesus for a minute."
Boyd concedes that Johnny might have a point, but brings up all the "wrongdoings" Johnny has perpetrated, whereupon Johnny's all "blah blah blah" and tells Boyd he'd forgotten how much he hates the sound of his voice. Personally, I think that's one of Boyd's better attributes, but I can understand Johnny has issues here. Boyd's like fine, I'll get to the point -- they could make a lot of money together if they could set aside their differences: "We wouldn't be the first dysfunctional family ever to make a profit." He can't really add "on this show," but I'll do it for him. However, Johnny -- with an air of someone holding a lot of cards -- pronounces that he came not to see Boyd but Ava, and now that he has the meeting's over. He stands and takes a moment before telling Boyd he should have done right by him and whatever you may think of either of them, Boyd's life would be a lot easier at the moment if he'd treated Johnny better before telling Ava that if she comes to her senses, he'll come for her. I don't think she would have been inclined anyway, but that information she learned about Teri's trick with the Pop Rocks probably isn't going to help his prospects. When Johnny's gone, Boyd exchanges a wordless glance with Ava and then calls for the guard; outside, he connects with Carl, who's already tailing Johnny as he apparently heads not for Lexington as they seemed to expect. Boyd gives him some instructions and when Carl irritably snaps that he knows how to tail a mark, Boyd replies, "You ain't never tailed a Crowder before." See Boyd, if you'd only given Johnny respect like this to his face, we might not be in this position now!
At Audrey's, Raylan and Tim enter to find some randoms and a prepubescent boy behind the bar, and you'll know this soon enough so I'll just tell you this is Kendal Crowe, mentioned by Darryl in the last episode. Kendal immediately wants to know if they have a warrant, proving himself smarter in his first line than many people on this show I could name, but Raylan defers answering that by asking what Kendal's got behind the bar. Kendal tells him it's a "sawed-off fourteen," and Raylan hilariously tells him it's a good choice before sending Tim in to secure it, but it only turns out to be a baseball bat. Once Tim has gotten the a minimum safe distance away from booze and makeshift weaponry, Raylan asks if Wade doesn't normally run the bar before asking the boy his name, and when he gets it a bell rings: "I guess I missed you when I was down'n your neck." He asks what brought him up from Florida, and Kendal declines to answer, prompting Raylan to note he's got his brother's charm. Heh. He asks if Darryl's around, getting this response: "You see him around?" Wynn Duffy would like this kid, I tell you what. After Raylan asks about Dewey and gets some more sass in reply, Tim appears with Wade's phone, but Raylan points out that even a dimwit like Wade wouldn't use a government issue around Boyd, so they head out, but not before Raylan tells Kendal to let Darryl know he said hello. Kendal might deliver the message, but I have the feeling the language will be spiced up a little bit.
Oh, here's Dewey -- filthy and his hair a mess -- dropping to his knees and asking God for aid that basically comes down to this: If you help me kill this guy, I'll totally be good afterwards! You'd be within your rights to think I'm embellishing, but it's honestly worded almost exactly like that. And this direct approach works, as Dewey spies some fresh blood close by and gets back on Wade's scent. I mean his figurative one; his literal scent is probably pretty traceable too except Dewey's own surely is blocking it out.
We're now at Wade's house, and Tim takes entirely too much (by which I mean the exact right amount) pleasure in pointing out the place where Wade helped Dickie string Raylan up before Boyd rescued him in the Season 2 finale. Raylan's convinced Wade's not around, but Tim wants to go in anyway -- Wade could be dead inside, "inches away from the phone coulda saved his life." Heh. He then notes that Raylan seems fairly low-energy about this particular errand, and Raylan admits that since Wade did set him up to be killed, "maybe my investment into his well-being is a little shaky." Another diplomatic turn of phrase belied by his razor-sharp tone. Tim opens the door, but he and Raylan immediately take refuge atop the two cars in the driveway when a pit bull emerges. They each draw, and Raylan asks if the dog got Tim at all; the answer's no, "but I think something just came between me and my Calvins." The takeaway there probably wasn't intended to be Tim's preferred underwear brand, but that's not going to stop me from noting it.
As the dog continues to bark its head off, Danny Crowe emerges from the house and asks what's going on; Tim IDs himself and Raylan as marshals and asks him to restrain the dog, and when Danny doesn't address the issue, Raylan snaps, "Chain it up before we have to paint the yard with it." A bit graphic, perhaps, but Danny gets the message and whistles, whereupon "Chelsea" stops barking and sits obediently at his side. As a rear angle charmingly shows us that the pantsless Danny is also not wearing Calvins nor any other brand of underwear, Raylan reminds Danny that he's the one whose leg Danny's mastiff almost took off years ago, and Danny's like, sure okay in a tone that suggests Raylan might be one of a hundred people who fit that description. Raylan then adds that Chelsea's "got a big set of balls on her," and despite the laissez-faire attitude Danny's au naturel bottom half might suggest, he has no sense of humor about his dog as he menacingly tells Raylan not to make fun of her. Tim asks Danny what he's doing in Wade's house, and Danny smiles that he and Wade are roommates. Raylan: "That's a sitcom I'd pay to see." Who wouldn't? Danny tells them they're welcome to look around -- his "I ain't got nothin' to hide" is an unfortunate and scary prospect at the moment -- and he turns his bare ass toward them and heads into the house as Raylan tries to figure out where the Crowes currently rank on the list of families with which he'd really rather never have to deal.
Well, whether by divine intervention or not, Dewey finally finds Wade lying face down on the ground. He draws his gun and gets close, and then Wade opens his eyes and wheezes for Dewey to help him. All the blood loss and exertion is bad enough, but I'm guessing Wade also hasn't had any water in ages, which is possibly not good news for a man in his condition. Dewey tells Wade not to look at him as he hesitantly makes to pull the trigger, but whether he would have gone through with it we'll never know for sure, as a boy's curious voice calls, "You okay, mister?" The kid, dressed for hiking, is probably about ten, but he's old enough to know that Dewey looks pretty bad and likely needs help. His view of Wade is blocked by a felled tree, but while that keeps Dewey's murderous errand a secret, it only adds to the general air of confusion Dewey's giving off, so it's no surprise the kid thinks Dewey might have sunstroke. If Raylan were here, he'd probably call that this is just the way Dewey is, but instead of a U.S. Marshal we get the boy's parents appearing and basically insisting that he go with them. With no choice other than to kill Wade in front of them (and then probably kill the rest of them), Dewey heads toward them, kicking off Wade's attempt to grab his leg. As they approach the family's two four-wheel ATVs or whatever they are, Dewey sees Wade manage to lift himself into view and immediately starts acting way crazier and noisier than before, ensuring that the family won't notice Wade's feeble attempts to call for help. It's convenient to say so here, so bye, James LeGros; you cracked me up consistently and I'm sorry to lose you, but you work so much I'm sure I'll see you on another show soon.
Back at Audrey's, Darryl is giving a state of the family address to Danny and Jean-Baptiste; as he tells it, Raylan and the marshals are sniffing around, while Dewey "and the dipshit we sent him to kill" are both missing. He asks if that covers it, but Danny pipes up that they're also out of Wild Turkey. Heh. Kendal appears and asks what the Feds are after "some needle-dick hillbilly" (little more respect for the newly dead and his junk, kid) for, but Darryl tells them they're really after him. "That's the same marshal that put me in Starke." Danny starts to say he knows what he wants to do, but Darryl shows why he's the brains of the family by pointing out that killing a government official would bring holy hell down on them, and all because "he insulted your dumb-ass dog, Chiclet?" Hee. Danny doesn't have much more patience for Darryl insulting Chelsea than he did Raylan, but Jean-Baptiste proves he's in the smart camp by piping up that killing Raylan now would mean they'd have to skip town again -- but this time they'd be on the run for eternity. Danny reminds Darryl he wanted to kill Wade himself, but Darryl shoots back that he has his reasons for making Dewey do it, as he well knows. He does, however, want to confirm that Dewey took care of business, "and if he didn't, I'm gonna take care of business, which may mean takin' care of Dewey." Okay, but did you ever resolve the question of how to dispose of bodies around here?
In their cell, Ava's roommate asks if she's coming with her, but Ava lingers for a bit to the point that when she makes to leave herself, she finds Danny Strong in a CO outfit blocking her path asking what's so funny. He then starts talking about how some of the white girls in their fine facility get too skinny, and Ava's like "…", so he introduces himself as "Albert," and it becomes pretty clear that said Albert doesn't want to let Ava leave at the moment. He asks again what she thought was so funny when he came in -- he's obviously going to the Napoleon-complex place here -- and Ava again denies that she found anything amusing, but he threatens her with physical violence so she comes clean: "I was thinkin', 'Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?'" I wouldn't be at all surprised if Danny Strong wrote that line himself, but his character has much less affinity for it, and he eventually orders her to disrobe and bend over. She tries to push him in response, probably thinking to run out of the cell, but he grabs her arm and slams her into the wall, and she's only saved from institutional rape by a female CO -- it just so happens she's the one who got the extra screen time back I was wondering about back in the season premiere -- calling in and then entering to see if everything's okay. Albert makes up some bullshit about Ava needing to stop resisting, and Ava makes up a story that exonerates both of them while covering the facts, so the female CO escorts Ava to the dining hall. God Albert, the things Boyd would do to you.
Speaking of Boyd, he's back on the phone with Carl, who tells him they're going to hit Nashville soon enough. Say hello to Juliette Barnes for me! Boyd gives him some further instructions and grabs a gun from behind the bar just as Raylan and Tim enter. Heh. Boyd gets off the phone and puts on that auctioneer voice he usually uses when Raylan's around; they trade their typical witticisms before Boyd turns to Tim and remarks that they have a friend in common, "or should I say had." Is he mad at Tim for killing Colton? Because even Colton would probably admit he didn't give Tim much choice. Anyway, Raylan's like, I could probably bust you for the small armory you call a bar here, but let's talk about Wade instead; he was informing on you and since you're about a billion times smarter than he, you obviously knew that and were giving him bullshit information for your own amusement as well as strategic and monetary (skimming from Audrey's) purposes. Boyd finds this all very amusing, but Raylan goes on that Wade's death might not look so hot for Boyd in this context. He goes on that "a smart criminal" (oh, how you talk, Raylan) might give his man a burner phone that only he has the number to, and after Boyd agrees with me about the flattery, he reluctantly writes down the number and asks if he's free to go. Raylan, however, wants him to hang out with Tim while he goes to investigate Boyd's information, and when he asks Tim if he minds, Tim replies, "Oh, I was hopin'." I bet -- he never seems to get out of the office these days!
Speaking of getting out of the office, Art gets a call from "Ed Kirkland," that marshal from Detroit he called a couple episodes ago, summoning him to the Motor City as he's got some big information regarding Sammy Tonin. Art says he'll see if he can get up there that night, and it's a sensitive matter but it's still a shame Art won't have a road-trip companion.
At Audrey's, Darryl is making some logistical plans with Danny when Dewey calls. "Are you goddamn crying?" Oh boy. Darryl tells him to sit tight and he'll come get him. "We're gonna get this all straightened out." I've got no dog in this hunt and I still want to tell Dewey to run.
Outside "Grandma Wiggin's Bed & Breakfast," Raylan is telling someone on the phone that none of the staff recall seeing Wade, but this is where the burner's GPS pings to. Just like that, though, he looks up at a tall tree and figures he might have found him, while in the car, Dewey -- cleaned up and bandaged at least -- is testing Darryl's patience by talking about the Webolo shovel and whatever, but he does tell him Wade was just about dead when he left him by the ATV trail near the bed and breakfast. Darryl tells him they're going to find Wade and "if need be" Dewey's going to finish the job, and if they don't find him, "that's a whole other situation." But as it happens, God is still looking out for Dewey if he ever was, for when they pull up near the bed and breakfast, it's crawling with law-enforcement vehicles and personnel, including a coroner's truck. As he hightails it out of there, Darryl tells Dewey he's just lucky, while nearby Raylan approaches Wade, who's lying on the ground, before nodding to someone who covers him with a tarp. For someone whose investment in Wade's well-being was a little shaky, he doesn't look too thrilled.
Back in the bar, Boyd has just taken a turn at Scrabble -- and I can't tell you how disappointed I am that we don't get a tight enough shot of the board to make out what words have been played -- when Raylan returns with the news of Wade's demise. Boyd takes a moment to say he's sorry to hear that and it's always hard to tell, but he does seem to mean it at least a little, but that doesn't stop him from trying to head out the door to his now-well-overdue rendezvous with Carl. Raylan and Tim make noises about keeping him there, but even Raylan has to admit he doesn't think Boyd's responsible for Wade's death, and Boyd takes the opportunity to verbalize what Raylan surely already knows: "If the Crowes have alighted on the wire" -- and if the characters aren't getting tired of plays on that name, I certainly am not either -- "as your friend here says, they are your problem, Raylan, not me." Once again, Raylan looks like he wants to argue further; once again, he doesn't. He really is getting older, isn't he?
Albert is outside having a cigarette when the female CO from earlier ("Officer Susan Crane" is the character's name) joins him and asks if she can bum one. After she takes a long drag, she brings up Ava and Albert is gross about her some more, whereupon Crane whips out her baton and smacks him around, but good before grabbing him by the face and telling him, "She's protected, you stupid shit." She delivers the beatdown and that line with the cigarette still in her mouth, which is awesome on general principles, but also allows her to remove it and threaten to put it out right in his eyeball. While that would be disgusting to watch, I'd be willing to endure it in this particular case. However, he snivels and toes the line to Crane's satisfaction, so she saunters off, but not before tossing the still-lit cigarette at him and telling him he's really got a nice smile. I'm pretty sure I got the details right, since I watched the scene five times.
In one of the trailers, Dewey's chugging straight from a bottle of what I can only guess is not Wild Turkey when Darryl comes in to see him. Dewey slurrily asks how long Darryl's going to keep him locked up, getting this reply: "Till your dumb ass sobers up and starts actin' right." Well, with a limited supply of booze, one of those will happen in the fullness of time, but the other is asking an awful lot. Dewey's drunk and/or outraged enough about Wade's death that he gets… well, maybe not up in Darryl's face, but closer to it than normal. When he pushes Darryl as he asks why he made him kill Wade, Darryl shoves him down onto the bed. After the term "hissy fit" is used, Darryl gives the obvious answer of why he had Dewey do it -- proof of loyalty or as he puts it, "so I know you a damn Crowe. You're one of us." Dewey, in a voice that suggests a nap is in his very near future, denies that he's one of them, so Darryl invites him by all means to go run away "like a full-blown bitch," but warns him that if he's tempted to flap his yap about all the bad things his kin has done, "just remember which one of us pulled that trigger on Messer." You employ a lot of emphasis as part of your shtick, Darryl, so I probably shouldn't bother to point out that Dewey really looks unlikely to forget it. In a warmer tone, Darryl goes on that Dewey's alternative is to be part of what he and the family are building -- "reap the benefits of that good loyalty." As dumb as he is, Dewey's probably not deluded enough to think Darryl would ever treat him like Danny or Kendal, so I'm not surprised when he mumbles that it sounds like Darryl's selling him tires, but while I think that's fairly astute, Darryl tells him he's simply got to make a choice. That's never been Dewey's strong suit, but Darryl does have a point.
In Tennessee, watching from a car at a discreet distance, Boyd has learned the reason for the return of Johnny's "swagger" -- he's in league with Hot Rod. When Boyd tells Carl who they're dealing with, his eyes go wide, but he gamely asks if "we doin' this now." Boyd, however, not one to move prematurely except sometimes when a lady is concerned, says not yet, but soon. Looking balefully at his cousin, he emphasizes, "Real goddamn soon," and even though Johnny doesn't know he's there I'm still surprised he doesn't involuntarily shiver.
When Raylan returns to the office, Vasquez starts babbling at him about what was found besides Wade's corpse (the answer is not much outside of the head of that flimsy shovel), and Raylan tells him it was the Crowes, although I'm surprised he points the finger at either Danny or Jean-Baptiste. I don't think those guys are in the habit of leaving people in a condition even to crawl away from them. Vasquez replies that his office likes things simple, and "simple" in this case is the crime boss killing the guy informing on him, but Raylan, after chuckling about Vasquez labeling Boyd as such, tells him that he'd love to believe it was Boyd so he could haul him in. "But if you want justice for Wade Messer, start with the Crowes." Vasquez doesn't sound convinced, but he does take the time to mention that these are the same Crowes whom Raylan just visited a few weeks ago, and now here they are in Harlan! "What'd you all, carpool up together?" Talk about a sitcom I'd watch. Raylan doesn't bother bringing up Dewey and the money, because that would only make the narrative more complicated and we know how much Vasquez and his office would hate that. Vasquez does give Raylan a thumbs-up for his tracking work and an admission that Art probably should have told Raylan about Wade, and Raylan takes the conversational opening to ask where Art is. Vasquez shrugs, and Raylan looks to Art's empty office. Too bad he can't follow us to the scene!
Because, as the ensuing cut shows, Ed has Will Sasso, the non-Dave Foley Canadian from the season premiere, in custody; he was pulled over for a missing license plate and "popped with NCIC." Ed goes on that Will Sasso has something to offer Art, so Art goes in and gets to it, asking (with the intercom on so Ed can hear) what happened on the tarmac outside Lexington the night Augustine was killed. After prefacing with a disclaimer that it's all hearsay (Art: "I don't care"), Will Sasso informs Art that in his dealings with "the late great psycho shithead" Sammy, he heard a couple times that Sammy had a Kentucky lawman or a lawman located in Kentucky in his pocket, and said lawman was there the night Augustine met his end. This is surely terrible news for Art, but his reaction stays mild as he replies that if that's all he's got, it probably won't suffice to get him "back up north to your free healthcare" -- but Will Sasso does have one more idea; for the full story, Art needs to talk to Picker. Art asks if he's still in Detroit, but Will Sasso says no -- he thinks that "out of fear of what evil henchman Theo Tonin might still have hangin' around, he's layin' low in your neck of the woods -- with a man named Wynn Duffy." This time even Art can't completely keep his poker face, not that I blame him, but he leaves without another word, after which Ed tells him the intercom was all screwed up and he didn't hear anything. Heh. Art chuckles mirthlessly before asking if Ed's going to send Will Sasso back, and Ed supposes he might as well: "We got too many damn Canadians in this country! Justin Bieber, Celine Dion." I was going to reply indignantly on behalf of my Canadian friends, but given that this line was written before Bieber's DUI ridiculousness I feel compelled to give him this one. Art throws Steve Nash into the tongue-in-cheek anti-Canada mix before shaking Ed's hand and heading out, and I can only imagine the trip back is going to seem a lot longer than the one coming.
Well, if they're going to drag you into the episode with only eight minutes to go, it better be for a reason like having sex with Raylan, am I right? After a bit of the hippity-hop, Allison pushes Raylan back and asks if he's good, and when he gets in a yes between pants, she dismounts; just to even things up, we get a bit of her derriere here, and even with my orientation being what it is I have to say it's an intra-episode improvement. Allison wryly apologizes possibly for "workin' some stuff out on you there," and Raylan chuckles that he's not complaining. The mood turns a bit darker, though, when Allison asks if he's staying and there's "do you want me to stay" reticence; I honestly think Raylan's head is still clearing after his body was treated like a gymnastics apparatus, but his lack of a timely "yes" seems to offend her as she somewhat sharply says he should go.
As diplomatically as he can, he asks if he missed the part of the conversation where he "said somethin' off-color," and to her credit, she wonders out loud if she's "doing a thing." He agrees that she might be, so he sits up to listen as she tells her day's story: There's an eight-year-old kid with whom she's dealing whose mother left and whose dad chains him up in the garage; "he's got this bucket to do his business in" and sometimes he's not checked on for days, so she got him out of there. He could barely stand the sun or form coherent words and hadn't been fed for days, but as she rescued him the father came at her with a tire iron, saying the boy is all he's got, and she's sure he would have beaten her to death if the police hadn't been there. "All 'cause this boy he had chained to a radiator, worse than you'd treat your worst enemy… family." That is a bad day all around, and Raylan beckons her to him; when she asks if he's staying, he firmly says yes, so she curls up in his arms, surely still haunted but maybe feeling a little better. And while not on the scale of that poor kid, Raylan certainly knows a thing or two about how bad family can get, but to tie it into the episode, it sure looks likely that Dewey's going to find out to an even worse degree.
Lee unwraps "Boyd's" hand and smiles about how much it smells, and Mooney speculates that since the rest of Boyd's corpse will never turn up, some kind of urban legend (ironic term, but you know what I mean) will spring up around him to explain his disappearance. Lee tells Mooney he's pretty sure he can guarantee that come election, he won't have the "Acting" in front of his "Sheriff" title, although given the relish he's putting into his performance about Boyd here that seems kind of a shame. On that subject, though, Boyd isn't exactly in hiding here; how long can it be before the wrong person lets it be known he's alive? For now, though, all seems well as Mooney exits and Mara tells Lee dinner will just be a few minutes. She turns back, though, to ask if Lee intends to go stick to his statement about Ava now that Boyd is dead, and Lee turns dark as he says hell yes -- "that trash" deserves every moment she gets inside. He adds that she killed her husband and walked on that, and I find it odd that he'd care about justice for Bowman Crowder, but he's probably just making his venomous feelings toward Ava sound a little better. Mara gives nothing away, but I'm sure she's not impressed.
Raylan walks into Audrey's, which is hopping more than I've seen it in a while, and tells everyone to get the hell out. Well, I should give him credit for his jaunty "Party's over, revelers!" Regardless, though, Raylan wants everyone out who doesn't have "Crowe" in his or her name, and as it gets down to just him, Jean-Baptiste, and Kendal, Darryl asks if he came to "swing around that big old Federal dick of yours?" Raylan looks seriously amused, possibly at the thought of all the sex he has being sanctioned by the U.S. Government, and Darryl goes on that they already gave statements to "the state bacon" about Wade. Raylan brushes that off and as Danny appears, muses that he can't quite figure why they would have felt the need to get rid of Wade. Darryl, as you might expect, is not particularly helpful when it comes to that particular puzzle, not that Raylan really cares: "You gotta leave this place. You and your people, back to Florida or wherever'll have you. I don't care, but you can't stay here." I'd think Raylan would want Florida off the list, too, given that his ex-wife and daughter are there, but it's likely to be a moot point, since Darryl just scoffs and stands as he says they're not going anywhere – in fact, they're laying down roots. "'Sides, if you had a good enough reason to run us outta here, you'd-a done it already."
Raylan's like, if that's the way you want it, remember later that I gave you the chance -- and then he announces he's taking Kendal away for tending bar as a minor "in a house of ill repute." He produces a formal mandate to back up his claim, which sends Danny moving through one of the beaded curtains nearby, and Kendal looks wide-eyed and scared for the first time as Raylan tells him to grab what he needs. Jean-Baptiste, in the background, gets to his feet as the music turns ominous and Darryl barks for Kendal to stay where he is before drawing a line in the sand by saying Kendal's leaving over his dead body. Raylan probably knows Darryl isn't bluffing, but he settles for calmly showing his weapon and adding for Darryl to tell Danny, who's appeared in the beaded doorway to him, that if he takes another step it'll be his last. Danny merely steps out to his brother and smiles, though, so Raylan asks Darryl if this is really how he wants it to go down: "I would urge you to consider what happens after what happens ."
This calls back Jean-Baptiste's words about them being fugitives for life should they kill Raylan, but Darryl explicitly says that Raylan's not taking Kendal and that this is his last chance to leave with his life, and it says something about this show that even though from a production standpoint you've got to be 99.9 percent sure that none of these guys -- especially not Raylan or Darryl -- are dying here, it's super-tense and you really don't see how bloodshed can be avoided. And indeed, Raylan says it's decided, but before anyone draws, Kendal announces that he'll go. Darryl tells him no, but Kendal won't be denied, and after he cryptically tells Darryl that Darryl knows what to do. This will sound wild, but I'm starting to wonder if despite his age Kendal might be a real power in this family -- he walks out with Raylan, who warily keeps his hand on his holster and his eyes on Danny the whole time. Raylan, I'm glad your own family isn't like down the street, but I still wonder if they're not far enough away.
Boyd and Carl enter a back room somewhere, and after Carl tells him there are three from the night Boyd and Jimmy got hit and "the rest" from the Canadian shipment, Boyd pulls off a tarp to reveal the multiple corpses… and we're out. He did kind of acknowledge to Mara that he could get his hands on more than one corpse, but I'm still not sure what his game is here. Whatever it is won't be good for Cousin Johnny, though, I reckon. See you week!
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. His new film, a documentary on online privacy and the exploitation of personal data called Terms And Conditions May Apply, a New York Times Critics' Pick, is now on iTunes here. You can get news on it from the film's Twitter accountor website, or check out trackoff.us to learn how to protect your privacy. 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.