By Jeff Michael Vice
JUSTIFIED – Live-action drama developed by Graham Yost, based on characters created by Elmore Leonard; rated TV-MA; airs Tuesday nights on FX; 60 minutes. Episode 5.1: “A Murder of Crowes” (original airdate, Jan. 7, 2014). Directed by Michael Dinner, written by Graham Yost and Fred Golan (7 out of 10)
The story so far: After one high-profile shooting of a criminal too many, trigger-happy Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens has been re-assigned — from his home in drug-infested Miami to his now, more-overrun-by-drugs childhood home in eastern Kentucky (specifically, Harlan County). Back in semi-familiar territory, loose cannon Raylan butts heads with his new co-workers and his new, no-nonsense boss, Art Mullen, and also has an uneasy reunion with his estranged family members, as well as his childhood friend, Boyd Crowder, who has become a local drug runner.
In this episode: Raylan returns to Miami, where he’s partnered with another lawman, Sutter, as they investigate illegal sweetener smuggling (yes, really) and the disappearance of a corrupt Coast Guard officer. The trail leads the duo to the doorstep of Daryl Crowe, Jr., the cousin of Raylan’s frequent, favorite whipping boy, Dewey Crowe.
Daryl and his legal eagle sister, Wendy, quickly shift suspicions away from themselves, and to yet another Crowe, Dilly, and his Cuban associate, Elvis Machado. But, after consulting with a mysterious Haitian (played by “X-Men: First Class” co-star Edi Gathegi), Daryl decides to deal with dopey brother Dilly personally, as Raylan and Sutter close in on the elusive Elvis.
Meanwhile, Boyd – who’s entered an uneasy alliance with Winn Duffy – heads to Detroit, as they check out why they didn’t receive their latest drug shipment. (Heavily armed truck drivers initially get the drop on Boyd and his men, who manage to survive the encounter. Though not without some damage — Boyd nearly has his ear shot off during the melee!)
By the time their Detroit adventure is over, Boyd and Winn are unclear whether they’ll be able to get further shipments. Their new connections are two Canadian drug kingpins, played by comedians Dave Foley and Will Sasso, who sound less than enthusiastic about venturing into Kentucky coal country.
Worse, a clearly frustrated Boyd hits dead end after dead end as he attempts to free his jailed lover, Ava, who’s being held in connection with a murder he actually committed. With nowhere else to turn, Boyd turns to an unlikely source for help: shady businessman Lee Paxton, who’s still bearing a grudge against him for some of his Season 4 actions.
Series developer Graham Yost co-wrote the slightly longer episode, which is very heavy on set-up, and which tries to tie up a few dangling threads from the series’ quite-excellent fourth season. Yost, co-writer Fred Golan (a “Justified” regular) and director Michael Dinner (also an executive producer on the show) have to juggle a huge number of new characters, including Daryl Crowe, played by character actor Michael Rapaport.
It’s obvious that Daryl be a recurring character and villain this season, as witnessed by his rather vicious dispatching of Dilly, though whether the conniving Wendy will return appears to be up in the air at this point. The same goes for Koechner’s nice-guy cop character, who (spoiler alert!) doesn’t mean the tragic end his dialogue would suggest for him. Not yet at least.
Unfortunately, their additions means there’s virtually nothing for some of the series regulars to do. Jacob Pitts and Erica Tazel, who play Raylan’s fellow marshals, are no-shows, and the always-welcome Nick Searcy, who plays Art, appears only briefly. And Natalie Zea, who’s been in previous seasons as Raylan’s ex-wife, is pretty much written out of the show.
And for one episode, the ironically titled “Murder of Crowes” throws so many plot developments out there that it may take the entire, 13-episode season just to resolve them all.
Those complaints aside, as always, there’s a good balance of snarky one-liners and character- and situation-based dark humor. Raylan continues to bedevil poor Dewey, who’s won a hefty court settlement based on the physical and other abuse he’s received from our hero throughout the series run. (Among this episode’s better zingers: “That’s 300,000, you nitwit,” “You and Wade are the only pussies in this whorehouse” and “You are talking about the same guy that thought he had four kidneys.”)
It’s still a solid episode and an intriguing one with several surprises in store for regular viewers. And, regardless of anything else in the episode, it’s worth it to tune in simply to see touching tributes – from actors Olyphant and Goggins, primarily — to writer Elmore Leonard, who created several of these characters and situations in his short story “Fire in the Hole” (which served the basis for the series’ first episode).
It’s still a solid episode, albeit one with less shooting and screwing than usual, and an intriguing one with several surprises in store for regular viewers. And, regardless of anything else in the episode, it’s worth it to tune in simply to see touching tributes – from actors Olyphant and Goggins, primarily — to writer Elmore Leonard, who created several of these characters and situations in his short story “Fire in the Hole” (which served the basis for the series’ first episode).
Overall rating: 7 out of 10
CAST:
The regular characters: Timothy Olyphant (Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens), Walton Goggins (Boyd Crowder), Nick Searcy (Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Art Mullen), Jacob Pitts (Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Gutterson), Erica Tazel (Deputy U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks) and Joelle Carter (Ava Crowder)
Guest stars: Jere Burns (Winn Duffy), Damon Herriman (Dewey Crowe), David Koechner (Deputy Sutter), Michael Rapaport (Daryl Crowe, Jr.), Alicia Witt (Wendy Crowe) and Natalie Zea (Winona Hawkins)
Jeff Michael Vice, aka Jerk-bot, can be heard reviewing films, television programs, comics, books, music and other things as part of The Geek Show Podcast (www.thegeekshowpodcast.com), as well as be seen reviewing films as part of Xfinity’s Big Movie Mouth-Off (www.facebook.com/BigMovieMouthOff).