Justified rewatch: 3x02 and 3x03

[gwyn]

3.02 Cut Ties
Original Air Date: January 24, 2012
Written by: Benjamin Cavell
Directed by: Michael Watkins



The murder of a fellow Marshal throws Raylan together with a woman from his past. Boyd engineers a showdown with Dickie Bennett.


3.03 Harlan Roulette
Original Air Date: January 31, 2012
Written by: Dave Andron
Directed by: Jon Avnet



Raylan's face-off with a tyrannical oxy dealer puts him on a collision course with the new head of the Dixie Mafia. Boyd fights to take back part of his family's empire, but his methods threaten to tear his crew apart.

Please share your thoughts and reactions in comments.

Comments

Cut Ties

[hafital]

I love this episode.

"Hello, Raylan." -- it still gets me how Boyd says this. Raylan really enjoys messing up Boyd's plans! Love that he figured it cottoned on to Boyd's real intentions.

I would like to know what kind of grief Art gave his first Chief. Also very much appreciate the mention of Bass Reeves.

Another Band of Brothers alum! So many play bad guys. I'm sad the marshal who's name I can't remember died. He seemed like a kind man, with an interesting history. I remember being terrified Art was going to get hurt or worse in this ep.

Rylan being a nervous dad <3. This whole part in the next few eps with Raylan and Winona kills me -- he's really trying! He's prepared to go all the way. Ugh

I love Carla Gugino. Always happy to see her in anything.

Art is so SMART. I love him. "Mind if I use your navigation system." Brilliant. He's great. Try to pull one over on Art, you will fail. I think this was when I realized Art would be fine and I didn't have to worry lol. Look at him working over the bad guy.

Rachel in action does something to me. All the marshals are so great, but it's especially awesome to see her doing her job so well. *flails*. I take a particular delight whenever an episode allows her to shine.

Enter Ellstin Limehouse.

Re: Cut Ties

[gwyn]

It's funny, sometimes, how in fiction, especially law dramas, I'm all for someone beating up a suspect the way Art goes medieval on that guy's ass. In real life, it makes me sick, and I don't condone it in any way, and then there's the whole issue with how much of that is what we're indoctrinated to see as acceptable, especially by police and military, through entertainment. So it makes me feel really guilty that I loved watching Art whale on that guy (who honestly a couple times deserved something like that in Band of Brothers!). Also Art's general cleverness in figuring things out, using the nav, how he handled it, the whole thing.

I love Rachel so much. Rewatching has made me realize how much the other Marshals actors did with very, very little time. I hadn't really realized how little time they'd been onscreen.

Harlan Roulette

[hafital]

I love how I can't tell if Limehouse is a good guy or a bad guy. He's both sometimes, leaning to one side or the other as it suits his purpose or needs or Nobles holler. But he's more than just morally gray though -- don't think we can judge Limehouse by the same standards we judge other characters.

Jeremy Davis just gets better and better.

One time I went to a Coffee Bean near my apartment and Pruitt Taylor Vince was there having a coffee with someone, wife maybe? not sure, and I sat next to them at the only other table to do some writing and tried not to overhear their conversation. :D

Quarles sure is cocky, in a psycho kind of way. He has no idea what he's up against.

Both these two episodes have parallel plots going with Raylan and Boyd which is interested, lots of set up for later episodes.

Re: Harlan Roulette

[gwyn]

Wow, seeing Pruitt Taylor Vince in real life! Random! Did you actually hear anything interesting? He's worked with so many big names, but the role I will always think of him in is the X-Files episode with the twilight sleep. God, that was so fuckin' creepy.

[mackiemesser]

3.02 - This episode was just full of excellent guest stars! Very convoluted but yet not hard to follow, which is a thing I think a lot of current shows need to work on. Art was fantastic in this ep and I keep thinking this would have been a crossover with Karen Sisco if that show had managed to find an audience, but it was definitely a nod to that character with Carla Gugino.

And the ambiguous but still sinister introduction of Limehouse!

3.03 - Not much to say about this episode. Except for that last scene: "Next one's coming faster." I really do adore Raylan when he is threatening people.

[gwyn]

I adored Karen Sisco. I was so hopeful there would be something more on Justified with Gugino, like maybe they'd bring her on for a season. And that Raylan would finally have someone who really was worthy of him, and dealt with his messed-up crap better.

[mackiemesser]

It would have been very nice to have had another recurring female character on the show, for sure.