somniloquence

Hi!

I watched ‘Justified’ for the first time this winter and wanted to share my love for this show with somebody ever since. I’m so excited you’re doing this!

First of all, to get this out of the way, I’m ESL and often struggle to express my feelings and thoughts in any coherent manner, so please forgive me for all the crimes against language I’m going to commit.

I was surprised to learn that in Leonard’s story it was Raylan’s partner who got killed (if I’m not mistaken). It’s an interesting choice to make him some random guy since him being Raylan’s partner would’ve made this first shooting a little more understandable. I like that the writers apparently weren’t too concerned about making their characters likable and palatable: this is who these people are and you can either take it or leave it. It’s very upfront. And of course, there’s Boyd. Boyd in the pilot and Boyd after the pilot; how he changes and how he doesn’t change, how his first appearance casts a shadow over his whole journey, a shadow he cannot escape – all of this is very interesting for me, both in-universe and out of it. I also like (well, like isn’t the right word, but…) how all three members of our main Harlan trio killed somebody in this episode and why they did it and how they did it tells you all you need to know about them.

Obviously, shooting all seasons in actual Kentucky was out of the realm of possibility, but sometimes I wish it wasn’t. The setting/mythology around Harlan fascinates me and is a big draw of the show. Like ‘The Wire’, it’s the US TV show about parts of US rarely shown on TV, even if ‘Justified’ is the opposite of ‘The Wire’ in many respects (despite having some similar themes).

Art is the best and immediately starts teasing Raylan <3 I wonder who told him about that thing from a rocket launcher. Was it Tim? I’m gonna headcanon it was Tim.

Ava’s line ‘Lysol is the best cleaning product you can buy’ is gold in this context. Raylan’s mother telling Ava about him becoming a marshal doesn’t work with the timeline. It should’ve been Helen. Unless I’m missing something obvious.

Marshals playing card games on a stakeout reminded me of that amazing fic, ‘Carry your man and their dead too’.

I can’t tell how many times I rewatched the scene at the table. It fully sold me on the show. One of the few things I osmosed about ‘Justified’ years ago was Raylan and Boyd’s rivalry. I remember reading somewhere that they’re one of the best pair of antagonists on TV at the moment (the moment was 2014, I think?) and they didn’t disappoint. Their complicated frenemyship (loaded with history we can only guess about) and Ava’s place in it is everything I wanted. And the relationships the three of them have with Harlan are just as interesting and complicated as the relationships they have with each other.
Raylan and Boyd are so caught up in their macho games, they forget about Ava. They keep underestimating her, even if they know by this point what she’s capable of. Not the last time they’ll make this mistake. Boyd clearly didn’t expect that Raylan will actually shoot him, I have no idea what he was thinking here. The music in this scene is beautiful. I love love love the flashback. I love that it’s the only one (at least, the only character backstory related one). It’s so simple and yet powerful.

Art indirectly asking why Raylan missed is a perfect example of why the dialogue on this show is good. Subtext, people!

Wow, so many things happened in this episode, it’s wild. You can tell this had a literary source, it feels complete.

I have a feeling I wanted to say ten other things I forgot, but it’s a start.
(I’m grandparadisedream on tumblr)