It’s always an interesting exercise to compare the title of a Justified episode with the action on screen. “Weight” here could apply to anyone and everyone. Actions have consequences and our favorite good guys and bad guys (and women) are feeling the strain.
Speaking of women, let’s just start with Ava. The weight of incarceration showed even when she was in the relatively easy confines of the Harlan County lockup, and it’s only gotten worse since she’s been in the big house. Boyd’s visit to tell her he’s found Albert and will get him to recant so she can be set free provides no comfort. Instead, wanting to protect him from what she has to do to survive in prison, Ava breaks off their relationship and tells him not to come back.
What Ava has to do, if you remember, is kill Judith. Carrying a hidden shiv, she follows Judith into the bathroom and admits that she ended her relationship with Boyd. Judith tells Ava that the only people she can count on are herself, Judith and the sisters (Judith’s posse). While Judith is sitting on the toilet, Ava pulls out the shiv but before she can do anything, Penny interrupts them with news of a random bed check. Out in the yard later, Penny tells Ava that she saw the shiv but she’s not going to say anything because she wants Judith dead, too. Judith forced Penny to have multiple abortions after her forced sex with the guards resulted in pregnancies. By asking Ava to kill Penny, Rowena is avenging/protecting Penny. Penny gives Ava a more deadly shiv and tells Ava that the best time to kill Judith is at night when she’s praying in the chapel, because the cameras are turned off.
Ava finds Judith sitting by herself in the chapel but when confronted with the real reason she’s there, Ava tells Judith that she doesn’t plan on killing her. Ava doesn’t trust Rowena and believes she (Ava) and Judith can find some way to work together. Unfortunately, now Judith doesn’t trust Ava and attacks her. In the scuffle, Ava kills Judith then takes off her blood-stained shirt and leaves the chapel.
Ava breaking up with Boyd adds more shit he doesn’t need to the pile o’crap he’s already dealing with. To wit: Dewey Crowe and the heroin he took off with. Boyd isn’t aware of Dewey’s hijinx until Daryl shows up with a “we got a situation” look but before Daryl can spit it out, Dewey is on the phone telling Boyd all about it himself and that he wants $250K and he wants it before sunset. Boyd has run out of patience with the entire Crowe clan and leaves Daryl to clean up his own mess while he hunts down Albert.
As promised, Boyd has located Albert and life — or what’s left of it — isn’t looking especially promising for the slimy little motherfucker. He’s beaten and taped to a chair in Boyd’s office, sniveling about being on medication and trying to play on Boyd’s sympathies. Boyd is having none of his shit and is approaching with knife in hand to torture the bastard into recanting until Albert whines that he did it all because he was in love with Ava. At that point Boyd, whose every action has been in pursuit of freeing the woman he loves, has had enough. Looking like a man weary to the marrow of his bones, he cuts Albert free and lets him go. (Which still bugs the shit out of me. I wanted that little fucker to bleed.)
Daryl’s attempts to clean up the mess his family is pretty much responsible for isn’t going well. First, Chelsea (Danny’s viciously trained dog) runs away while Kendall is letting her out to do her business and is struck and killed by a hit & run driver. Kendall knows how much Danny loved the dog and also knows how vicious Danny himself can be, and runs away to Alison’s house only to be summarily sent back when she calls Wendy.
Kendall at first plays dumb and pretends Chelsea ran away but in the midst of a big ol’ Crowe family screaming match, he switches gears and yells the truth, that Chelsea is dead and that he ran away because Danny killed Jean-Baptiste so who knows what that crazy fucker will do next. Since Danny had insisted JB simply up and left for Florida, Daryl is shocked and pissed to hear the truth. He sends Kendall to get Chelsea’s corpse and dig a grave but before he can send Danny off to meet Dewey with a briefcase full of newspaper cut to look like money, Raylan shows up.
Raylan, too, is hunting Dewey. Raylan is not in the mood for anyone’s shit, either, and when he asks about the pretty briefcase and gets smack talk in return, he picks it up and whacks Daryl upside the head with it. Pretend money mixed with very little real money spills out and while Wendy and Daryl squawk about their constitutional rights, Raylan confiscates the whole thing and basically says “tough shit.”
Raylan then drops by one of the trailers outside, where Dewey’s two favorite whores are packing to run away with him when he shows up rich. Raylan casually opens the briefcase he took from Daryl and lets them think it’s full of real money. The ladies hand over a cell phone in exchange for a stack of what they think is cash and by the time they realize they’ve been hoodwinked, Raylan has called up Dewey. He points out to Dewey the precariousness of his position between the Dixie Mafia on one hand and the Crowes/Boyd on the other but instead of causing Dewey to look to Raylan for help, Dewey instead is reminded of his one and only true friend, Dickie Bennett.
Using the name Parker Stevenson (trust me, there is NO resemblance!), Dewey visits his old buddy Dickie in prison. Dickie helpfully provides the name of an old Bennett drug dealer who can buy the heroin Dewey is trying to get rid of.
Friendship only goes so far, though, and Dewey has barely left the prison before Raylan’s phone rings with a collect call from “RAYLAN GIVENS DON’T HANG UP IT’S DICKIE BENNETT!” Dickie is all about Dickie and when Raylan arrives at the prison, he offers to tell Raylan where he can find Dewey in exchange for a transfer to a nicer setting. Raylan doesn’t want to play, though, and after listening to Dickie spin a long tale involving a map of Kentucky and Raylan disappearing into his own ass until he winks out of existence, he gets up and leaves. All he needs to know, says Raylan, is that Dickie sent Dewey to one of the old Bennett dealers. Since Boyd has by now put out the word that he’s looking for Dewey, that dealer will immediately call Boyd or one of the Crowes so Raylan just has to wait for one of them to show up with the heroin and arrest them.
And that’s pretty much how it plays out. Dewey takes the heroin to Pop Rocks Blowjob guy, who pretends he has to call in someone with more money but actually calls the Crowes. Danny shows up without even the briefcase full of pretend money, threatening to kill Dewey. He and Dewey draw guns on each other so Pop Rocks pulls out his own guns. He forces Dewey to pass the drugs over to Danny, gets his own share in return then gives Dewey a two minute head start to get the hell out of there.
When Danny gets back to Audry’s with the heroin, he’s overcome with grief at the sight of Chelsea’s sheet-covered corpse when Raylan steps out of the shadows. As a sign of respect for his sorrow, Raylan offers to let Danny take the entire fall for the heroin so he won’t have to also arrest Daryl, Wendy and Kendall. But Danny is a dumbass and instead decides Raylan is the perfect candidate for his 21ft game. Knife in hand, he charges Raylan… and falls into the grave dug for Chelsea, impaling himself on his own fucking knife.
Karma. It’s a bitch.
Raylan dutifully files the appropriate reports with Art, who is still acting like someone on the playground took his lollipop away and is not at all impressed that someone died without Raylan actually having to fire his gun. Raylan mentions Alison and that he’s worried the Crowes might go after her next. Art brushes him off like a pesky fly and says he’ll take care of it. (Cue dramatic “something’s going to happen to Art!” music!)
The Crowe family is definitely not in a good place so Raylan was right to worry. Daryl accuses Wendy of not caring, she accuses him of not being fit to stand in their sainted father’s shadow (that was sarcasm) and soon fists are flying, hair is pulled, and Wendy is writhing on the ground after being kicked to the floor. Daryl then finds Kendall and forces him into an Indian blood brother ritual by cutting their palms and mingling the blood that flows.
Last but most definitely not least, Mary Steenburgen joins the cast this week as the widow of an old associate of Wynn Duffy. He and Picker, but mostly Picker, are beyond annoyed at the latest roadblock in their drug empire-building scheme. Duffy blames the Crowes. Picker blames Boyd for bringing in the Crowes and tells Duffy that he’s going to choose his business partner — Picker or Boyd. Enter La Steenburgen’s Catherine. For the small price of $50,000 she agrees to meet both Picker and Boyd and give Duffy an assessment as to who will make the better partner.
My money is on Boyd. For one more season, anyway.
2 replies on “New Show Recap: Justified, 5×10, “Weight””
I’m so happy Danny’s chickens finally came home to roost, but I too am pissed about Boyd letting that slimy guard go. Torturing him could’ve helped him vent his grief! Now he’ll never know! And something tells me things are just gonna get more difficult for Ava. I hope she proves me wrong and becomes some kind of godmother badass.
When that MONSTER Danny was mourning Chelsea’s death in front of Raylan, I was genuinely moved. He really loved that dog he trained into a deadly weapon. I liked that even Raylan was willing to give that moment dignity. Then, of course, Danny reverted back to type.
When Boyd let that guard go, I was surprised. I still don’t know if it’s out of character for him or not. On the one hand, he desperately wanted to be with Ava after she had murdered his brother, so I guess he understands the lengths to which someone would go out of love for her. On the other hand, that didn’t save Cousin Johnny.