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A couple quick things first: Boyd has a meeting with Picker and Wynn (backed up by Jimmy and Mike) – now that things have settled down, Picker's coming through on his promise to deliver Mexican heroin connections and as such has brought them together with "Alberto Ruiz" and a Korean associate named "Mr. Yoon," the latter of whom seems like the decider. Also, Darryl is wondering where Jean-Baptiste is; sensing Kendal's about to crack, Danny bullshits how Jean-Baptiste was talking a lot of shit about Darryl, so Danny told him to head back to Florida. Kendal backs Danny up, but it's an unconvincing story and everyone knows it, plus who knows where the body is buried? (I mean, I guess Danny does, but still.)
Apparently having confessed his role in Augustine's death, Raylan meets a distraught Art in a bar for sentencing – and gets a fist to the face so hard it seems like Art's hand won't heal for a week. At the office, Tim and Rachel clue in to the tension as Raylan plays the penitent child; meanwhile, Allison arrives at a checking-up visit at the Crowes' new house, supposedly rented to them by a guy named "Mike," and as if getting a bunch of unwanted advice from Wendy about how Raylan will break her heart and some psychological torment from Danny and his hell-hound Chelsea aren't bad enough for Allison, Danny runs her off the road on her way home. When Raylan hears about it, he and Rachel head off to Harlan; in the meantime, Danny tells Dewey that he and Darryl would jump at the chance to leave Kentucky if Dewey came through with the money Darryl wanted, so the two of them decide to shake Boyd down at gunpoint.
At the bar, they find not Boyd but Carl, and when they come out on the winning end of a fight, they decide to ransom Carl to Boyd. Back at the house, they tell Wendy that Carl's in Danny's trunk – just as Raylan and Rachel show up. Wendy lawyers them out of entering the house, so they go to Mike the landlord's (whom Raylan happens to know) hardware store to check on his well-being. The kindly Mike's alive, but it seems pretty clear that while Wendy's one thing, having all the Crowes in his house is a bit much for him, so Raylan tells him he won't be renting to the Crowes anymore, to which Mike's like, you mean my hunting cabin too? Raylan and Rachel follow that lead, unaware that Danny and Dewey have repaired there to hide out and hold Carl. With Rachel's help, Raylan quickly gets the best of the situation – only Carl lies that Danny didn't kidnap him with the idea of heading back to Boyd and settling the score with the Crowes privately. (This also involved the most casual discussion of redneck gay sex I think I've ever heard.)
Ava's in the State Prison, so Boyd goes to see one of his old skinhead friends ("Gunnar Swift") to arrange protection for Ava via his sister "Gretchen," who sounds like a State lifer. Ava suggests to her lawyer that Albert might have pulled the same stunt with other prisoners in the past and begs him for help. And she needs it, because when she meets skinhead Gretchen, her supposed protector, she beats her up and cuts off some of her hair for being a "race traitor"-by-association. When this gets back to Boyd, he sends Jimmy to do some recon, and Jimmy reports back that Gunnar is holed up with his "Hitler humpers" waiting for a revenge attack from Boyd. Elsewhere, in the wake of losing their house, Wendy thinks they should all head back to Florida, but Darryl isn't trying to hear that. Boyd then turns up with Carl – and, as is his wont, arranges a marriage of convenience by hiring the Crowes (including Dewey) to hit the Nazis. After Boyd springs the Crowes on him in a surprise attack, Darryl personally beats Swift within an inch of his life before Boyd "suggests" he tell his sister not to let any more harm come to Ava. Yes please!
In the end, Rachel tells Raylan she's there if he wants to talk about what's up with Art, but Raylan tells her that while he trusts her implicitly he still can't, and she's smart enough to realize this means it would "drag the office into a shitstorm of Biblical proportions." Also, with one of his former men holding him at gunpoint, Hot Rod tells Boyd he'll bring Johnny to their upcoming desert meeting – I'm assuming at the site of the first heroin trade – but he also manages to give him a coded message letting him know there's danger lurking. With that knowledge, Boyd goes to see Darryl and offers him another job – to help him kill Johnny Crowder. Wonderfully tangled enough for you yet?
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We start on a close-up of a glass of something probably local to the area and definitely running low; as a melancholy country song plays, Art -- looking pretty miserable, even for him -- fiddles with his drink. As befits the mood, we can see through the open door that it's pouring outside as a car pulls up. A cut to inside the vehicle reveals it's Raylan, and he looks like he's steeling himself for a moment before he gets out. It seems apparent that he came clean to Art, and although we can only speculate at this point, it's reasonable to guess that Art needed time to process the news and this meeting's ostensible purpose is for Raylan to hear what Art's going to do about it. Raylan heads into the bar, on the way using his hat for a more practical purpose than usual; he pauses when Art takes notice of him, but approaches after Art turns back to his drink. Art gets to his feet and nods at Raylan, who greets him by name -- and then, after a moment, Art hauls off and hits Raylan so hard I'm surprised it didn't knock him into week, which admittedly would make the episode less interesting. With Raylan still reeling due to shock as much as anything else, Art starts to make like he's going to punctuate his action with some verbal declaration, but he can't find the appropriate words and chooses to walk out without any. Raylan turns to watch him go, but Art's only movement other than walking is to shake out his aching hand, and Raylan nods to himself like he had that coming, which I guess he totally did before retrieving his fallen hat. On the other hand, as I said last week, Art wouldn't behave like this if he didn't care! (Raylan's jaw: "He must care a lot.") Credits.
Over at "Kentucky State Women's Prison," we get a montage; Ava is led in with her hands cuffed in front of her; she takes a shower and then submits to a naked inspection, although examination of her body cavities seems only to be visual. Hey, you end up bright-siding whatever you can in the clink. Carrying her linens, Ava's led to an individual cell -- it's like Oz's Emerald City if instead of glass everywhere you saw yellow paint -- and then the door closes on her, a noise that's punctuated by the immediate cutoff of the jaunty song that's been playing through the scene. I have to say I did not expect Ava still to be in jail six episodes in.
Neither, it seems, did Boyd, as his facial expression looks like a better description of a migraine than any words could muster. After a few moments, though, he braces himself and gets out of his truck to head into what looks like a converted brick warehouse. Then we cut to inside as the downcast expression transforms to one of ebullience as Boyd feigns enthusiasm at seeing a man who seems -- from the set dressing such as a "White Power" banner with a swastika on the wall -- to be someone Boyd knows from his old skinhead days. Said "Gunnar Swift" (we'll be getting his name momentarily) is also about a head taller than Boyd, but he's also almost as jovial as Boyd in recalling that he owes Boyd one. As he goes to pour them a drink, though, he recalls that Boyd taught him everything he knows about "mongrelization" and suggests Boyd could use a bit of a refresher on that -- did he not "start a church that lets in coloreds?"
Boyd tacitly answers in the affirmative by saying he also taught Swift never to let politics stand in the way of business, so Swift asks what business they might have. Boyd recalls that Swift has a sister up in "Pine Point," and Swift lets Boyd know all three of his sisters have served time in that institution, but there's one in there now who sounds like a potential lifer, "Gretchen." He also heard from Gretchen just that very morning about a woman with the last name of Crowder being admitted, so Boyd's visit can't be a coincidence, can it? Boyd admits that it is not, so Swift asks how Ava came by her last name, since he doesn't recall Boyd having a sister. Boyd: "For simplicity's sake let's just call her my wife." I agree that's more simple than explaining how Ava's surname is left over from the brother of Boyd's she killed. Swift supposes Boyd wants Gretchen to protect Ava and when Boyd confirms that, Swift tells him Gretchen's going to need a little money for her commissary. Boyd pulls out a wad of Benjamins as he supposes that it'll keep Gretchen "in tuna and Kool-Aid for a little while," and if Swift suspects Boyd of calling his sister white trash, he either keeps it to himself or doesn't take offense.
Allison rings the doorbell of what looks like a very gracious home and is "greeted" by Danny's hellhound Chelsea through the glass door. She spills her papers every which way, and just as she gets them together a Crowe appears in the doorway… Darryl. Not as good as Wendy, but a hell of a lot better than Danny. Opening the door just enough so the dog can't get through, Darryl IDs her as Kendal's social worker, and when she nervously tells him as such she's not supposed to enter if there's a dog on the loose, Darryl bellows for Danny to come get "your animal." Allison goes on how it's a liability issue for the state or county or whoever she works for before starting to add that she's supposed to report a dog living in the home, but Darryl informs her the dog resides outside and Danny grins at her not to mind Chelsea. "He just gets excited when he smells somethin' he likes." I thought Raylan was kidding about the balls, but apparently not. Good to know!
Allison asks if Kendal and Wendy are home, but Darryl tells her they're at the store, adding they weren't expecting her for a bit. Allison explains that the drive took less time than she expected, so Darryl invites her in, adding that Danny's going to put the dog outside. When Danny doesn't move, Darryl reframes the statement as an order and Danny complies with a leer, which is about as good as you can expect to get from him. As it happens, Wendy and Kendal are just returning via the back door, apparently, and they're just putting down the groceries when Allison and Darryl appear. Wendy lays it on thick about the "hospitable Christian home" they have and how Kendal's going to be a good boy and do his homework (love to see a school scene with this kid sometime), but Allison obviously wants to get out of there like yesterday, so the adults send Kendal away, whereupon Wendy asks what Allison thinks of the house. Whatever else may be going on, though, Allison isn't going to be intimidated out of doing her job as she asks what happened to the Miami plan, but Wendy glibly replies that she decided her place there wasn't big enough -- teenaged boys take up so much space!
Allison neutrally notes the place has a lot of that before asking for the rental agreement, and as Wendy goes and grabs her a copy she "made special" for Allison, she asks how long she's been going with Raylan. Allison's poker face is fairly decent as she asks what makes Wendy think they're together, but Wendy breezily tells her she has an eye for that sort of thing. "Of course if you ask me, I think he's about the most judgmental asshole I ever hope to meet, but I will allow he's easy to look at." I'm sure Allison's grasping for a comeback, but Wendy smoothly goes on that the two ingredients together is a recipe for guaranteed heartbreak, but given that people are telling Raylan similar things about Allison, might they not actually be a good match?
Outside, Chelsea's testosterone level still seems quite high as Danny plays with him by pulling on a rope Chelsea's in the process of shredding with her teeth, and as irritated with Wendy as she may have been I still think she should have requested she walk her out. Danny takes great pleasure in Allison's apparent and completely understandable discomfort, and he comes close as he tells Allison not to run, because Chelsea will chase her if she does. Danny then barks at her and Allison almost jumps out of her skin, but settles for a fast walk straight into her car. When Raylan hears about this, he's going to be furious!
Oh, but he's not going to hear about it just yet, because no sooner has Allison lit up a j behind the wheel than does a truck speed into view behind her, bump her a couple times, and run her off the road. Her airbag deploys properly at least, but she's shaky getting out, and if the driver of the truck meant to do her further harm it seems pretty unlikely she'd be able to do anything about it even if she weren't stoned. But Danny merely barks at her again from on high before getting back in his vehicle and driving off, and is her visit out here going to be awkward or what?
Art is in the conference room meeting with his juniors; Rachel volunteers that Theo Tonin is refusing to talk at all, and then Tim's like, speaking of keeping mum, are we really not going to discuss the fact that the marks on Raylan's eye look realllly similar to the ones on Art's fist? Given that Art gets halfway to the door during Tim's speech, it doesn't actually sound like he's going to chat about it, but he stops when Raylan -- keeping his eyes on the ground like a child giving a long-sought-after apology -- volunteers for some inventory grunt work. Working hard to regain his usual devil-may-care tone, Art thanks Raylan and Rachel pipes up that she'll help before everyone leaves Tim alone to contemplate how this place is no fun anymore. By the elevator, Raylan suggests they come up with an excuse for going down into the storage area together, and when Rachel asks what's wrong with the truth, Raylan asks, "That we volunteered for Inventory?" Rachel, after a moment: "Okay yeah, we need an excuse." Hee. The elevator doors open, but Raylan stays still as Allison gets off, her own face not looking its best. She asks what happened to Raylan and he's like, "You first." I doubt she's going to get to hear his, but we don't catch either as the elevator doors stylishly close us into an act break.
At Audrey's, Darryl leaves a message for Jean-Baptiste saying he's getting concerned, and when Danny, who doesn't seem nearly at ease around his brother as he does with everyone else, thinks he might be shacked up with a hooker, Darryl asks if he's sure he hasn't heard from him in that impenetrable way he has. Danny denies it and comes up with several other farfetched scenarios to explain Jean-Baptiste's absence -- might want to pick one and stick with it -- but Darryl isn't ready to let it go and when Kendal appears, Darryl asks if he has any ideas where "Baptiste" might be. Kendal and Danny exchange a look that seems fairly telling. I don't blame Kendal because he's young and is also looking for a cue, but Danny's another story -- he couldn't have anticipated this? Regardless, when Kendal says no, Darryl thinks he might be holding something back, so Danny steps in with an entirely different voice than usual (and he also says he "didn't want to cause any trouble" -- does that sound like him?) and tells Darryl that Jean-Baptiste was talking smack about Darryl, saying he didn't have enough money and Darryl couldn't provide for them.
Darryl incredulously repeats "pro-VIDE," which emboldens Danny to say he told Jean-Baptiste not to talk that way about Darryl or he'd cut him, and Danny may be pushing it, but at least he's got the sense not to mention the twenty-one-foot rule again. Danny concludes that Jean-Baptiste probably headed back to Florida, and when Darryl asks Kendal (and I can't imagine Wendy would allow Kendal to be at Audrey's, btw) if he heard Jean-Baptiste talking such stuff about Darryl, Kendal's like yes sirree, sure did! Although this could be a ploy, Darryl seems to buy what they're selling as he wonders why Jean-Baptiste's "bitch ass" didn't come to him with his complaints, and Danny's down to babbling only semi-coherently at this point so it's lucky an altercation breaks out in the room that Darryl sends him to deal with.
Now Rachel and Raylan are getting on the elevator, and Raylan -- after pushing the buttons for both the basement and the first floor -- tells Rachel that Allison will be fine and that she didn't call the cops because, he suspects, she was afraid she'd fail a field test for pot. After Rachel gets in a dig about what a catch Allison is, she tells Raylan she's accompanying him. He tries to be cute in asking where he's going, but Rachel could set her watch by Raylan at this point: "You're going down to Harlan to kick Danny Crowe's ass." He's like fine, but you're driving, as if Rachel would want this cowboy behind the wheel anyway.
Representing the draining away of Dewey's hopes and dreams is the empty above ground pool in which he used to frolic with hookers without a care in the world. He's trying to unload it for traveling money to the tune of eight hundred bucks, and the prospective purchaser says they have a deal -- until he takes a closer look and sees that the thing's structural integrity is nonexistent, probably thanks to the holes Raylan put in it. When he knocks his offer from eight hundred down to twenty, let's just say negotiations quickly devolve to the point where Dewey yells that he's not giving up on his dreams at the back of a fleeing pick-up truck and leave it at that. Danny then emerges from within, holding the now-unconscious guy who was making trouble in a fireman's carry as he explains to Dewey that guys around there "think buyin' a drink buys them a license to talk shit." I'd say the same about you, Danny, if I weren't pretty sure that you haven't paid for a drink since you arrived in Kentucky.
Danny -- who seems well enough disposed toward Dewey and is also getting funnier -- complains as he pitches the guy into the back of his pickup that he was having a good hair day, whereupon Dewey asks if Danny thinks getting Darryl the money he wanted from Boyd would result in him clearing out of Harlan. I thought this might be a dangerous question, but Danny smiles and says that getting the cash would mean just that, as "we'd all like to cut this shithole loose." The guy in the truck then comes to and gets Danny's attention, which results in Danny knocking him out (again, I expect) with a "Go to sleep, Ginger." There was a "Ginger" on this week's True Detective, too! He was a bit meaner, though. Danny then turns back to Dewey and says he can see him thinking (good vision on Danny Crowe), but they leaned on Boyd pretty hard already. Dewey, however, says they'll grab him, point a gun in his face, and threaten his life if he doesn't give up the money and you're not going to believe this, but Danny Crowe kind of loves this plan!
Here's Ava's put-upon lawyer to see her, and she looks like she's not holding up all that well as she asks when she can see Boyd. He tells her first things first; he's having her released into gen pop, as there's someone there who will watch her back. She asks why that's necessary (is she unaware that she was protected in the last place, I wonder?), so he's like, well, you're young, you're pretty and you've got some notoriety now, you see? She tells him she didn't stab the guard and asks if he knows that, to which he shows a serious side we haven't seen: "I know that you and Boyd paid me to stick headphones in my ears, but I assure you -- I am a good lawyer." He tells her they're looking for Albert now (apparently he "went to ground," although I don't know how long he could be out of sight if he wants to keep his job/collecting his disability), and Ava points out that it's hardly likely she was his first victim. He tells her he's checking that, too, but the bad news is that all security devices in her area were disabled, so there's no proof she didn't do what she stands accused of doing. Ava takes a long time to unhappily digest that before asking if Boyd sent a message, and the lawyer produces a paper on which is written "Baby -- I'm sorry I'm not there. Everything will be alright. You are safe. Stay strong. All my love, Boyd." It reads more like a telegram than a love note, which maybe contributes to Ava's plain despair as she asks the lawyer, "Can you help me?" He nods, sensitively yet reassuringly, and I'd be almost be willing to take this character seriously if he'd stop by the barber and get a trim.
Carl's doing some janitorial chores around the bar when Dewey and Danny enter. Unlike what I'd expect is usual, Carl does not seem to have a gun within reach, not that he figures he needs it when dealing with Dewey, whom he tells with no great fear in his voice that he's the last person he expected to see walking in there. Dewey asks where Boyd is, to which Carl condescendingly wonders if he wants to apologize for "sending your idiot cousin over here to try to shake us down." Dewey denies having sent Darryl, not bothering to explain that it'll be a cold day in hell before he successfully orders Darryl to do anything, but he tries to bring up Wade as an example of his cred, and you can just imagine what Carl thinks about that. Sensing Dewey is getting nowhere, Danny steps in with some playful menace, and with Carl's eyes on him, Dewey fumblingly draws his weapon. Carl turns back without batting an eye and asks where Dewey got the peashooter, and after all these preliminaries we want to see a good brawl -- which is what we get when Carl head-butts Danny and then knocks the gun out of Dewey's grip. Dewey's pretty useless at the hand-to-hand, but with Danny and Carl roughly evenly matched, he's still the difference as he basically plays the nuisance and draws enough attention away from Carl that Danny can subdue him. Surprisingly, Danny doesn't kill Carl, though; instead, when Dewey asks what they do now, he says they'll just see how much Boyd will pay for Carl. And I know Boyd doesn't have a lot of money at the moment, but Carl and Jimmy both are pretty good help and this episode's going to show how much need he has for muscle.
With Jimmy and Mike at the ready on their feet, Wynn, Boyd and Picker are sitting in what I'm guessing is the last's Kentucky digs when there's a knock at the door. Picker answers (not sending Jimmy or Mike because the arriving party needs to see a trusted face, I presume) and lets in a man he greets as "'Berto" before introducing him as "Alberto Ruiz" to Boyd and Wynn. The rest of the group is also Mexican -- save a very nattily dressed Asian whom Wynn speculates is "Mr. Yoon." Yoon is played by James Kyson, but he shows none of the goofy harmlessness he did as Ando on Heroes as he asks Wynn how he knows that -- is it because he's "the one wonton among the tortillas?" It's perhaps not evident how to respond to such a challenge without insulting everyone in the room, but Boyd calmly goes for it: "I would have said kimchee in the salsa." Yoon appreciates the reference given that the Aenikkaengs (or Henequens), as my research shows they're referred to in Mexico), as he says, were brought over to Mexico from Korea as slaves, and Boyd's like, yeah, I'm something of a slavery buff? Yoon, still interested in pushing further, grandstands to his group (and it's becoming more apparent that it's his group) that some people would worry he'd be offended "if you point out the incongruity," but Boyd stands and he and Wynn point out it's logical to conclude that Yoon's presence without benefit of ethnic similarity is a testament to his competence.
Yoon, nodding with a thoughtful smile, asks if Picker told them they require payment up front, and Boyd's like, he did, but we're thinking perhaps a different deal could be negotiated? Picker starts to protest that they're making his word look bad, but Wynn smoothly interrupts to announce that "we've had some bad experiences lately with the 'pay up front' business model," and Yoon considers for a moment in which it's taking all Picker's control not to (a) disavow Boyd and Wynn and (b) shit himself. Yoon, however, tells them one reason his bosses value what he does is because he sees things differently than they do, and he's not a fan of bloodshed. Also, if they were to give him payment now, it "would only buy you insurance against my employers feeling taken advantage of if anything should go wrong in our transaction." It all sounds so amiable for a statement that basically boils down to "cross us now and our revenge will be roughly one thousand times bloodier." He goes on essentially to say as much, adding that if anything goes wrong "it won't be me they send," and it's unclear to what degree, if any, Boyd is intimidated, but he sticks out his hand and he and Yoon shake.
Ava gets told to pack as she's moving, and then we cut to her walking into Gen Pop, the sleeping area of which in this case looks like barracks, all bunk beds lined up in double rows. A guard escorts Ava to a bunk that's empty on top, and when Ava introduces herself to her bunkmate, the woman (she'll tell us her name is "Nikki") gets up to reveal she's taller and bigger than Ava before she curtly announces, "You bring drugs in here, leave your used maxis lyin' around, you and I will have a problem. Keep your area clean, keep yourself clean in every way, and we should get along famously." I mean, she's intimidating, but Ava, I can't imagine you could get a much better deal. Maybe you should talk to her about protection.
Back at the house, Wendy sharply asks where Carl is now, and Danny tells her he's in the trunk and at least was alive when he went in. Dewey pipes up that they're going to ransom him back, and Wendy chastises him for talking like that around her, although I'm not sure how this is any worse than hearing about Carl's current living conditions. What is worse, however, is them seeing Raylan and Rachel pulling up around back, and Danny decides to compound one smart move with another by drawing his Bowie knife and saying he's going to take his shot rather than be put away for twenty years. Wendy and her cooler head, however, tell Danny and Dewey in a voice she might use to address slow-witted children -- sounds about right -- that the marshals can't search the trunk or enter the house without a reason, so they're not going to give them one. She tells them to stay inside and out of sight while she goes to deal with the law, after which Danny complains to Dewey that Wendy's voice is like "nails on a chalkboard." It's hard to conceive of a more despicable human being than Danny, but I do somewhat inexplicably kind of love that he seems to enjoy hanging out with Dewey. Maybe the explanation is that Danny's better with dogs than Darryl is?
Wendy looks a bit nervous but is her usual assured self by the time she greets Raylan by saying she's surprised to see him; he returns the sentiment, given that she "just about swore" she was taking Kendal back to Miami. She declines to address that in favor of coyly asking to what she owes the pleasure, but Raylan's all business as he asks where Danny is, so Wendy lies that she hasn't seen him since that morning. Raylan tells Wendy about the attack on Allison, and whether this is news to Wendy or not she's like objection -- I'm not going to grant that was Danny? Rachel wonders who else would have barked like a dog at her, and when Wendy's all "I didn't catch your name," Rachel gives a formal "Deputy Marshal Brooks" without taking Wendy's proffered hand. Wendy asks why Danny would bark, and Raylan relishes the opportunity to say that Danny's "a world-class dumbass" -- I can't say Wendy's facial expression entirely disagrees -- but he'd guess that Danny was trying to call him out.
Wendy's like, well, can't speak to that but he's not here, but the presence of so many cars in the driveway suggests otherwise to Raylan, and he moves toward the door, shrugging off Wendy's protests while adding that he happens to know the owner of the place. He's thinking they did something nefarious to the owner -- and we who heard talk of "the old thing" surely must think he might be on to something -- but he may not be aware that Danny and Dewey are waiting on the other side of the door to jump him with guns and knives. Wendy's lawyering goes into overdrive as she desperately tries to avoid a firefight that will not end well for anyone, but Raylan tells her if he suspects they have the owner inside dead or imprisoned, he's legally justified to enter without a warrant. His hand even reaches the doorknob, but Wendy's like oh, if all it's going to take to "assuage your dark imaginings" is to talk to Mike, he's at his hardware store right now! Raylan hesitates, possibly divining something of what's waiting for him on the other side and yet considering going through anyway, but he decides not to test the grey areas of the law -- his black eye possibly reminding him that it might not be a great idea until Art gets over his current issue -- and Wendy looks pretty freaked at how close she just got to a world of shit. You know, a bigger one.
Ava comes out into the prison yard and gets plenty of attention, but she keeps her head down and doesn't get in trouble before a young woman (played by Danielle Panabaker) introduces herself as "Penny." She makes some friendly comments about the weather before telling Ava the word is she almost killed a guard, and when Ava tells her it isn't true, Penny gives her some quick advice: She shouldn't disclaim having done it, nor should she discuss it at all. "Half these bitches are snitches and you don't want anyone getting it in her mind to test you." She adds that Ava's best course is to be left alone, but Ava, seeing a gaggle of African-American prisoners heading her way, sighs that it might not be up to her. Penny greets the cornrowed "Patrice," who seems to be the leader, and explains that Ava was just transferred from Harlan lockup, whereupon Patrice realizes Ava's the one who shived the hack. Ava, learning quickly, says nothing, but Patrice steps forward and plays with Ava's hair. Ava stands her ground and says she doesn't want any trouble, but it's unclear how much she's going to get -- a comment about how they're "all the same color where it matters" with a look at Ava's nether regions is perhaps not all that promising -- until Patrice sees someone coming that prompts her and her group to take some steps away.
We then cut to Ava's other side, where a mean-looking trio of white women is approaching, led by the tatted and red-haired Gretchen (and one of her sidekicks is played by the also-red-haired, inimitable-looking Spice Williams-Crosby, whose main vocation is stunts but you might remember as the Order Of Taraka assassin Patrice from the Buffy episode "What's My Line? Part 2." Gretchen takes great pleasure in scattering her blood enemies and Ava thanks her, whereupon Gretchen turns to Penny with a pointed "Excuse us" and Penny makes herself scarce. Gretchen then faces Ava and tells her that Boyd paid her brother to see her "looked after" -- but said "looking after" involves a punch to the face, so perhaps more specifics should have been discussed? As her group holds Ava up against the chain-link fence, Gretchen, in between blows, tells her Boyd is a "race traitor," and such people are the only ones she hates more than "these black bitches." A bunch of them then hold Ava in place so they can hack off some of her hair with a box cutter, and if I were going to pick a character whose luck I wanted to see get worse and worse, I don't think Ava would have been in my top five.
Boyd and Jimmy return to the bar to find the evidence of Carl's abduction; Boyd then gets a call from the lawyer, whom he addresses as "Geiss" (I think; I still can't find a definite name for the character anywhere) before saying he's starting to get nervous every time he sees his name pop up on his phone. Good instincts! His face falls before he asks who did it, and then he disconnects as Jimmy reports back that Carl's nowhere to be found. He then asks Boyd what's wrong, so Boyd morosely tells him that Ava got jumped -- and Gretchen was the perpetrator. He then thinks for a minute before softly telling Jimmy he's going to need him to run an errand and we don't hear Jimmy's response, but I'm sure he's up for anything that doesn't involve snakes.
It seems Kendal is working at Mike's store as he politely wraps up a transaction with an older woman before Raylan and Rachel wander in and Raylan asks if he shouldn't be in school. Kendal says it's a holiday for "some multicultural bullshit," and even if I were brought up with a provincial mindset I think I'd be a little happier about a day off from education. Of course, part of the reason for his ill temper may be that, as he says, he's no longer getting paid to look at half-naked women all day -- he bitingly adds, "I was miserable" -- and then Rachel asks where Mike is and Darryl appears revving some power tool and asks, "Who the hell's Mike?" Raylan's theory that he did a Fargo-esque nosedive into the woodchipper is looking better.
Turns out, however, that Darryl only knows Mike by his last name and after stringing Raylan along for a good while, he leads the way into the basement, where Mike is doing some work -- apparently unmolested -- and genially greets Raylan. Raylan brings up the new family living there, and even though Darryl tries to say they're just "exchanging hard-earned American dollars for a place to stay," Mike tells Raylan that "the nicest girl" showed up at his door with her little brother -- the one working the register -- and she said she had no money and was living out of her car, so out of Christian charity he tried to help. So the "old thing" is just Wendy batting her eyes at a nice, lonely old man? I'd be disappointed if I didn't love the show for once again zigging when I think it's going to zag. Mike goes on to admit that the appearance of the rest of the Crowe family, including Chelsea and his balls, was a bit of a surprise, so Raylan puts his foot down and instructs Mike to inform the Crowes he can't rent to them anymore. Darryl protests, but Raylan is not having it as he repeats for Mike to tell them they can't stay in his house, and Mike nods: "The cabin too?" As Tracy Jordan would say, TWIST!
A close-up on a gun pans out to Boyd sitting in his office when Jimmy comes in with the news that Swift's holed up with a half-dozen or so of his skinhead pals ("Hitler humpers," he amusingly calls them), so they're pretty well prepared for an attack. Boyd takes a sharp breath before standing and sticking his gun down his back, and Jimmy urgently tells him he'll be loyal to the end, but he's wondering if hitting them so short-handed is the greatest idea. Boyd's wheels are turning too quickly for a response, though, so Jimmy tries giving Carl another call. Speaking of whom, at the cabin about which we just learned, Dewey's chopping some wood and Danny's giving him some amiable shit about his technique when Carl's phone -- in Dewey's pocket -- rings. Dewey answers, and Jimmy's voice is static-y but recognizable. I guess they didn't think to grab the phone before they put Carl in the trunk? It's the only reason I can think of for this being the first time they connected.
Dewey starts to dick-swingingly make demands, but the reception is bad enough that Jimmy can't make them out and I'm surprised not that this is happening here, but that it doesn't happen waaaay more frequently in Harlan. Dewey, hearing a bit more clearly on his end, tries to say he's not Carl, but then the signal dies completely and he walks away from the house in search of a bar or two. Boyd calls back with much the same result as Jimmy and Dewey then walks farther, which places him away from the cabin when Raylan and Rachel unexpectedly pull up. He takes cover and tries to call Danny to warn him, but that doesn't fly either so he moves to a safe distance as Raylan and Rachel go to the door. Raylan peers in the window to see he's caught Danny unawares; he's building a fire with Carl tied up in a chair and Carl, whose stock also keeps rising in my book, sardonically says he would have cleaned up if he knew they were expecting company. That line's extra hilarious, by the way, if you factor in the yarn he'll be spinning in about a minute.
Danny, knife hidden behind him, opens the door and grins that "the girl" gave Raylan his "message," but goes on that it's not a good time. Raylan, however, with a matching smile, suggests that they make it a good time and Danny steps forward, but once again we won't get to see how his knife does against a gun, because Rachel -- hiding off to the side -- hits him twice and knocks him back inside and to the floor. As the marshals draw their guns, Danny yells for Chelsea, who is in the room behind a closed door, to sic 'em, but Raylan's like, if you seriously want to give me a reason to pump that menace full of metal you have only to give that command once more. Danny recants his order, and Rachel talks about kidnapping charges, but Carl sees fit to flip the script: "Who said anything about kidnappin'?" It says something about how unexpected this is that everyone's eyes go to him, and when Carl goes on that he might be there of his own volition, Rachel points out that that doesn't exactly fit with the position he's currently in. Carl: "Danny and I here, we never did settle on a safe word, did we?"
First Carl is forced to admit to having a thing for "big bitch" Chrissie, and now he's inventing stories about being the bloody sub to Danny's dom. I kind of wonder what his true type actually is. Danny's eyes go wide, but after a moment of consideration he allows that he and Carl "share some things in common," and Raylan looks like this is all almost worth it before introducing himself to Carl, who correctly pegs his identity, adding that they have a friend in common. Raylan's like, I should have known anyone both smooth and depraved enough to think of sadomasochism with Danny Crowe would work for Boyd, and Carl continues with the silver tongue as he goes on that while he and Danny may have been caught in an embarrassing position -- Danny tries his best for an ingratiating smile here, which is possibly not super-convincing -- there was no crime committed, so if they'd just cut him loose they can all go about their day. Raylan, however, is not so amused by the turn the scene has taken not to realize Carl is saying this so he can go back to Boyd and they can take their revenge privately -- definitely without a safe word -- but nonetheless, he proclaims that they've come up with a peaceful resolution. Danny balefully repeats the peaceful part as he stares at Carl, and the only way I would have enjoyed the scene more is if Carl had ended it by winking.
At Audrey's, we return in the middle of an argument between Darryl and Wendy; now that they're out of the house, she wants to cut their losses and hit the road, while he still doesn't want to hear anything about it. Also, Wendy guesses Danny might be on his way to jail, but Dewey is present, so it seems like he exited the cabin area completely, where I thought he might take cover and see how it all played out. Speaking of Danny, he arrives presently and when Darryl sees the state of his nose he asks if the marshals did that to him. Danny, in a quiet and uncertain voice completely unlike his normal booming one, asks how they know about the marshals. Oh, that's right! Dewey pipes up that he went to get help, but he got lost in the woods. Not for the first time this season! Darryl asks if they got Boyd's guy also, and Danny -- acting like his brain is still catching up to what happened -- explains Carl told the marshals that he and Danny were up there "doing some sex thing. And it was consensib… con… it was, uh, consexual." I'm laughing as hard at the WTF faces Alicia Witt is making (although Damon Herriman's "what now" look isn't bad either) as anything here, which is saying a lot. If anyone can send me outtakes for this scene, I have PayPal.
Darryl, for his part, doesn't even bat an eye -- he's been in prison, remember -- but he isn't too happy at what Boyd might do and starts to tell Danny he's a problem, and why'd he have to run "that lady" off the road? Danny starts yelling and Wendy shouts for them to break it up, which is the perfect tableau for Boyd's entrance line of "Family and dysfunction go together like peanut butter and chocolate!" Well, they may be found together quite often, but in my experience the former pair doesn't taste near as good as the latter. Despite Carl being with him -- along with Jimmy -- pointing their guns, Boyd says he's there in peace, and then Carl makes up for his omission earlier and then some by not only winking at him but by blowing a kiss in Danny's direction. Hee. Dewey tells Boyd that letting bygones be bygones is irrelevant since they're leaving -- bit of Dewey wishful thinking there -- but Boyd says that'd be a shame, since he was thinking they might be able to help each other out. Darryl, not on board yet, asks Boyd if he's going to give him the money they discussed, but while Boyd tells him no, he offers to let them earn some. "I've got a job that needs doin'." Dewey tells Darryl not to trust Boyd -- again, I think his eyes are on the get-the-Crowes-out-of-Kentucky prize -- but Darryl and Wendy pipe up in unison: "What's the job?" Wendy, I thought you weren't supposed to know these things!
Oh look, here's Boyd walking into Swift's place again, apparently alone. Swift starts to laugh about how he warned Boyd that his sister had a bad attitude (he didn't, really) before intoning that "race treason" is a serious crime that "needed payin' for." Boyd, unimpressed as ever, says he's there for his refund, but Swift tells him he couldn't even beat him alone. "You gonna take on one on six?" I mean, when are people going to learn not to set Boyd up like that? Because in response to this call, he whistles -- whereupon Dewey and Danny bust in one entrance and Darryl and Carl the other (I'm assuming Jimmy's keeping watch outside), having captured the outside sentries and all with guns drawn. Boyd then tells Swift he's never understood that making friends is superior to making enemies, and then adds, "I want you to meet my new friend, Darryl Crowe Junior." With that, Darryl jabs Swift in the gut with his gun, but he discards his weapon in favor of administering a good old-fashioned ass-whupping, getting him down on the ground and locking up one of his arms so he can't move while making mincemeat of his face with the other. I can only imagine that the fact that Jean-Baptiste was his best pal until recently is indicative of Darryl taking some personal satisfaction in beating this racist skinhead within an inch of his life.
Cheered on by his brother, Darryl continues to let the punches fly -- unlike with Danny, this is the first time we've seen Darryl in action and it is terrifying -- but Boyd, after letting it go on for a good while, stops him before Swift loses consciousness completely (Darryl does get in a couple for good luck; also, if you look in the background, I love that Carl never takes his eye from the two guys he's guarding despite the spectacle going on to his right) and steps forward to touch Swift with his shotgun and say that it'll be "real unpleasant for you to talk for a while." But he needs to get the word to Gretchen that if anything else happens to Ava, "if she cuts her leg shavin', I'm gonna take it out on you a hundredfold." I'm beside myself that the show is off week, because I'm going out of my mind anticipating Boyd introducing the Crowes to Wynn.
In gen pop, Ava's sitting up in bed looking tormented with everyone else as far as we can tell asleep. Coming to a decision, she hops down and wakes Nikki up to ask for her razor, adding -- when Nikki feigns confusion -- she means the one in her mattress. Nikki's like, you're crazy if you're going after Gretchen, but Ava's insistent and offers her commissary for a week. Nikki amends it to a month and when Ava agrees, Nikki digs into her mattress and comes up with the thing, which has been attached to a handle like a shiv. So it all seems to indicate that Ava's going to do something stupid; she's desperate and alone, she probably feels like she needs to make a statement and there's an element of dramatic irony in that Gretchen won't be a threat as soon as she gets her brother's message, but Ava doesn't know that. So the set-up's clear; for Ava to go to the bathroom and chop herself a sassy new shorter haircut as melancholy, but hopeful music plays. Man, I love this show.
In a good mood, Boyd answers a call from Hot Rod, who apologizes for a delay in communication, but assures him that his boys are "scooping up" Johnny as they speak. Boyd asks when he'll be delivered, so Hot Rod suggests he bring him to their meeting in Nuevo Laredo -- that way Boyd can take care of whatever he wants to and then bury Johnny in the desert before they cross the border. Boyd likes the sound of that before stressing that it's paramount that nothing go wrong on this trip, and whether this pushes Hot Rod over to a decision or just affords him a conversational opportunity, he's like sure, it'll go smooth -- just as smooth as that time they bought weed from Dickie in Mags's barn! Not that we didn't know that Hot Rod is in someone's power, but the tight framing didn't let us know who, not that it's going to be a surprise. Now, though, a slow pan reveals a gun at Hot Rod's temple held by Wood Harris's character (I don't think we've heard it on the show, but his name's "Jay," while his brother Steve's is "Roscoe"), but his coded message seems to go by undetected, although who knows if Jay will report it verbatim to Johnny. After we hear that the Mexico rendezvous is in two days, Boyd hangs up and tells Jimmy and Carl, audience surrogates for those people who weren't around in Season 2, that Hot Rod said it would go as smoothly as the last time they did business. Jimmy thinks that's good, but Boyd replies, "Last time we did business together, I robbed him." And a fun scene it was too, but it bodes ill here for a lot of reasons.
Raylan and Rachel are heading back as Rachel, with a smile, asks Raylan if he didn't want to kick Danny's ass, but Raylan counters that there was "a certain satisfaction" in seeing Rachel pop him in the nose. He does, however, guess that Rachel wanted him to "come off the leash" so she could call him to heel and then report back to Art that "the chronic problem deputy was kept in check by the office kiss-ass." This sounds like this might be one of those sentences that just got a little out of control, but whether he meant to be that biting or not, she tells him that actually, after everything they've been through and the trust they've built between them, "I came with you in case… you opened up a crack and wanted to talk about how bad you could have messed up that Art has a swollen fist and you got a black eye." See, it's not just Tim, although he does have way more fun with these things. Not for the first time this episode, Raylan looks severely chastened, and after he draws a fairly ragged breath he apologizes and tells her she's not a kiss-ass. "You know I think the world of you, and I trust you with my life, but Rachel? I ain't sayin' a goddamn thing about me and Art." She immediately intuits that if he did, it would drag the entire office "into a shitstorm of Biblical proportions" -- and given that this can only mean Art is sitting on some information he shouldn't be, it's no wonder that they both look grim now. I don't know how Rachel's going to get Tim to back off asking what happened, but I'm sure she's going to try.
At what I'm guessing is her place, Allison reminds Raylan that she asked him not to "stir the pot," but he assures her that he only sniffed said pot, if anything. He adds that Danny and family are going to tear each other apart without any help from him -- again, I'm pretty sure he's got at least half an idea of what happened to Dilly -- but Allison smiles and echoes Rachel as she speculates that he wanted to kick some ass, and it bugs him that he didn't. As he chugs the remainder of a beer and opens another, he symmetrically echoes himself as he admits going all Darryl on Danny would have had "a certain satisfaction," and she amusedly asks if he's an old-time American hero, which has to be a shout-out to Deadwood if ever there were one on this show. Raylan is like, I'm just a guy who does a job, but she tells him it's at least a tough job. He confesses that the black eye is from his Chief -- I knew he wasn't going to take the time to tell her earlier when he had Danny Crowe taunting him -- which proves he's no hero, but she wonders who, then, he is. "The guy whose Chief punches him in the eye? That runs off to defend the honor of a lady? The guy that has the lady and the ex and the baby daughter all stashed outta state?" He's like, the point please, so she tells him he is a hero, and she's met enough guys to know. "I can tell you're a man that would run into a burning building without blinkin' an eye. Thing is, I… I think you're the one settin' the fire." His aw-shucks-who-me smile vanishes at that last bit and it occurs to me the end of the series is going to be as much about Raylan finally figuring out exactly who he is as much as the question of settling who lives and who dies.
With Darryl sitting by her, Wendy is counting up the Crowe take when Boyd once again strides in. This time, he suggests Wendy depart the room "so that you can go on pretendin' you don't know what your family does for a livin'," and unlike when Raylan says such things, Wendy complies, a wry smile taking the place of any indignant denials. When she's gone, Darryl appreciatively says Boyd is something else before speculating that this job isn't going to be the barrel of laughs the last one was, but Boyd's like, the jury's still out on what you consider fun, so you tell me: "I want you to help me kill my cousin Johnny." I don't know if this evokes good or bad memories for you, Amy Smart, but with this many people going to Mexico I have to say it: ROAD TRIP!
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.