Justified rewatch: 2x12 and 2x13

[gwyn]

2.12 Reckoning
Original Air Date: April 27, 2011
Written by: Dave Andron
Directed by: Adam Arkin



When a brutal murder hits close to home, Raylan will stop at nothing to hunt down the killer.


2.13 Bloody Harlan
Original Air Date: May 4, 2011
Written by: Fred Golan
Directed by: Michael Dinner



The quest for a missing person forces Raylan to wade into a war that has erupted in Harlan between Boyd and the Bennetts.

Please share your thoughts and reactions in comments.

Comments

[mackiemesser]

2.12 - You can just see the shit coming down the pike in this episode and it doesn't look like there's any way to stop it. Deals, double-crosses, friends and enemies sometimes being the same person, old grudges and new offenses...Every scene just leaves me thinking "Well, that can't be good."

And Raylan is just so thrown by Helen's death that he isn't thinking at all clearly about what's happening around him.
Also, his coat is excellent.

2.13 - And yet another situation where I just don't get Winona. What kind of person tells someone not to go help a girl in trouble? Or says they might not be there after? Yeah, I get that she wants Raylan alive coz of the baby and that Harlan is a very bad place for Raylan to be on a good day, but how does she so fundamentally misunderstand who he is? Art clearly knows when he hedges about sending Raylan to Georgia. Tho that may be as much for his doubts about Raylan's teaching abilities as much as anything else.

I do love how Raylan and Boyd keep saving each other and griping about it.

And Art saves the day by knowing way more about what's going on then he lets on!

That ending with Mags is one of the best scenes in TV. Tremendous performances all around. Just deserts and tragic at the same time.

[gwyn]

Yeah, I just...I hated that they made me hate Winona so much, but goddamn, issuing an ultimatum for him to not go help a 12-year-old girl in danger just...what the fuck. Yes, Harlan is dangerous for Raylan, and she doesn't want to lose him again, but as you say, she's completely ignoring who he fundamentally is as a person, and asking him to be less human, because his humanity is so deeply tied in to doing what's right and helping people.

It was amazing the way they kept ratcheting up the suspense till you hit these just really suspenseful episodes and you're wondering if Raylan really could get killed--he's not seeing clearly with the loss of Helen. I loved the way it was filmed when he's coming up to the house, the sound being out...it was really amazing.

[mackiemesser]

Exactly! If they hadn't messed her up so much, then there could have been some real tension with the idea that an idyllic life in GA with her and the kid was a likely thing. Instead, it felt like that would be just as bad a choice as staying in Harlan (albeit with less ancestral feuding).

You couldn't tell how it was going to all end up right until that last scene. And with that, there was a huge amount of suspense with what was in the glasses. A fantastic job of mirroring the beginning of the season, too.