Justified rewatch: 6x12 and 6x013 Series Finale

[gwyn]

Here we are at the series finale. Thanks for being along on the ride.

6.12 Collateral
Original Air Date: April 7, 2015
Written by: Chris Provenzano and VJ Boyd
Directed by: Michael Pressman



Raylan and Boyd head for the mountains to find Ava, whose plan to escape with Uncle Zachariah has hit a dead end. But will Avery Markham get to her first?


6.13 The Promise
Original Air Date: April 14, 2015
Written by: Graham Yost, Dave Andron, Benjamin Cavell, and Fred Golan
Directed by: Adam Arkin



Raylan is captured by the authorities, but Art reluctantly lets him go to put him back on the case. Everyone converges in a last-ditch effort to get the missing 10 million and put Boyd Crowder away for good.

Please share your thoughts and reactions in comments.

Comments

The Promise

[hafital]

Note to self: remember to wash your shovel when you bury 10 million in cash and want to hide it from your murdering ex fiancé.

I keep thinking how if Boyd hadn't cared about the money they could have gotten away. Not that Boyd and Ava were much good for each other by now, but I figure if he'd been the kind of man to recognize the futility of stealing 10 million in cash (CASH! Did you HAVE a plan? What are you going to do with that much in CASH? Does no one remember Drew/Shelby and how he stole much less in cash and never managed to actually got out of Harlan? And that as several decades ago!) then they would have been all right for each other. I guess Boyd and Raylan are who they are, and Boyd is a criminal through and through. If he'd actually managed to steal that money and keep it for longer than a second he would have lost it some other way.

Bye bye Markham. You were an excellent villain.

I personally am very glad Raylan didn't kill Boyd in cold blood like that. It's one thing to shoot him if Boyd did the same.

Oh good. I was hoping for a shoot out with Raylan and Boon. I mean, they've been teasing it was going to happen since Boon walked into the picture, and I had forgotten if it happened or not. Though I wanted to yell at Raylan for not taking the keys to the car with him. Guess a part of him wanted Ava to run. And ultimately she did okay for herself.

I can't handle that goodbye scene. With the marshals. It makes me cry. In my personal head canon, the next time Raylan is at that playground with Willa, he's going to turn and see Tim coming up the path for a visit.

Also can't handle how both Raylan and Boyd have unshed tears in their eyes, during that final scene. Which, imo, is a pretty damn good final scene for them. We dug coal together.

Collateral

[hafital]

I can't believe we are at the final two episodes! Wahhhh! I'm going to miss this.

More Band of Brother alumni.

I thought Raylan gave his property to Loretta? Maybe that was never official. His hill cousins all remind me of that episode of Highlander with the hermits that kidnapped Tessa, and also the flashbacks to the 1800s in the west when that immortal killed Little Deer. That guy looks just like this guy! Same frizzy hair! To the point where I had to check and make sure they were different actors lol. But the one from Highlander was some famous wrestler person.

Anyway, I'm guessing Kentucky doesn't really look anything like this.

I liked that scene between Vasquez and Wynn, two characters we haven't seen interact all that often. Honestly I have a little crush on Vasquez. Maybe because he's "Mexican." haha.

I loled at the scene of tim on the phone with art on the phone talking about vasquez also on the phone and then the cut to constable bob on the phone.

I would like to see Walton Goggins do Shakespeare.

Hang in there Constable Bob!

Re: Collateral

[gwyn]

Which was the Band of Brothers alum?

I think the scene I enjoyed most with Wynn was him getting the truck. Like, mild-mannered suburban lady who procures criminal enterprise stuff was sort of genius. It reminded me of this little seen show called Thief, with Andre Braugher and Linda Hamilton, where he was this master thief and she was a fence (it's actually on FX on Hulu now, and I think I'll watch it again since it didn't last long, now that we're done with Justified).

Re: Collateral

[hafital]

whoops I thought I remembered Shea Whigham in Band of Brothers because he's in so many other things. hah.

[gwyn]

Boyd was a great antagonist, and a great villain, but man, these last two episodes are where I really turned the corner back to hating him--in the end, even his speechifying and flowery language aren't enough to save him, when he just murders, for no reason, Peggy Carter's boss, the guy whose truck he stole. He was probably going to shoot Ava if he hadn't been interrupted. He started out a gross neo-Nazi thug, and he ended one, too.

But that last scene is so powerful--bringing it back to how they dug coal together, and as much fun as we used to make of that (Oh, that's what they're calling it these days?), it's still a powerful statement of the lives they led growing up before their paths diverged. And Raylan's lie, so that Boyd is never tempted to find her again, was a genius bit of mercy from someone not known to be especially merciful.

The little things: I hate that second hat. Not just how it looks on Olyphant, but how he got it, because Boone is the creepiest, saddest little poser ever.

Sam Elliott must have had fun in the makeup trailer that day, getting his eyeball shot out look.

The lighting in that barn scene is AMAZING. All chiaroscuro and slanted, soft angles that fall across people's skin. Sometimes the show tried tricks that didn't work, but whoever designed that set and the DP and Arkin did fantastic jobs. I could watch that a dozen times.

And Raylan walks out of the Marshals' lives forever and it's not big deal, waaaahhh. Tim can read his book, Art can finally really retire, and Rachel can become chief deputy.

My darling Jeffrey Pierce was the cop taking Raylan in. He starred in Charlie Jade, which was a micro fandom but I did my best to pull people in to it. It's always a joy to see him.

So Winona and Raylan don't become endgame after all. Why then were we subjected to her so much? Man, they really ruined what started out as a cool character, but at least they're friendly exes and they have a cool kid. Olyphant as great dad never fails to make me happy.

Art pulling over to the side of the road like he's going to dump Raylan out in handcuffs was wonderful--"Don't make me come back there!"

Poor Bob. I'm just gonna assume he survives, since they never bothered to tell us otherwise.

Man, "We dug coal together" is a killer freaking line.

[mackiemesser]

6.12 - Many enjoyable things in this episode. I enjoyed Raylan's connection to the entrenched and reclusive backwoods clan. It's a nice way to show how deep Raylan's roots are in Harlan, and how he can move through all the different elements in the county. At the same time, him giving the land to the Copes is a very clear severing of those ties and carries a lot of weight in the story for something that seems like a bit of an impulse.

The shootout/hide and seek with Boyd is tense, funny and fucked up. Which is a pretty good summary of their relationship, I suppose.

Raylan only getting "caught" because he had to make sure Bob was OK is one of those things that is, well, so very Raylan. It's stupid and noble and shows how Rylan tries to do the right thing by people he thinks are basically good. And he does owe Bob.

Honestly, Ava, trying to hike out with a backpack full of cash? Paper weighs a shit ton. Even if she had managed to get down the mountain without being caught, she wouldn't have been able to get far. I mean, I do appreciate how she keeps trying, though.

I do not like Zachariah's end. It seems excessive. I needed an underlying reason for such a pointless gesture.

Even though they've kept Wynn around past his time, he really is quite wonderful in this episode, from his sparing with Vasquez to his very specific vehicle order. It feels like many characters were getting good curtain calls in this episode.

Tim fucking with Vasquez is a delight.

Loretta handling Markham like a pro is really great. She truly is one of the more unique characters to come out of the show.

6.13 - Look, no matter how much of an asshole he is, Boyd tossing dynamite at people is hilarious.

There's a lot of desperate gambles going on in this one. And I still don't quite buy why Art would let Raylan loose to go take Boyd on by himself. Especially at this point in the game. It's not the best plot contrivance...

The shootout at the barn is brutal. And showcases Boyd's ruthlessness. I admit to being shocked that he would shoot at Ava, and it sort of seems like Boyd didn't realize he would actually do it, himself, until after he'd pulled the trigger.
I do like Raylan and Boyd's confrontation, although I feel it goes on a bit too long. And while it doesn't have the immediate satisfaction of having Raylan shoot Boyd, the big win is Raylan doing the lawful thing, rather than the justified thing and taking Boyd in alive.

The shootout with Bone is about as classic a Western gunfight as you can get. And while I appreciate that taking Boone's hat is also a classic Western trope, and Raylan's conversation with Rachel about it is a callback to when she tried his hat on, and that Boone's hat is actually the kind of hat Raylan is described as wearing in the short story he first appeared in, it is a stupid hat and doesn't look good on Olyphant.

I'm with you, Gwyn: we put up with all this back and forth shit only for Raylan and Winona to not end up together? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they didn't end up together but why did we have to go through all that??? I'm mostly irritated that Raylan just seems to be coasting, and I suppose he's content to be near his kid, but there didn't seem to be any kind of spark to his life. I suppose he's lucky to be in the Marshalls at all after everything, but still...

I like Raylan's final scene with Ava. That was a much more satisfying wrap up than life in FL.

And that very final scene. There's something so wonderful about how Raylan would go through the trouble to fake Ava's death and go in person to lie to Boyd about it and yet be emotionally honest about why he wanted to be the one to tell Boyd. In a way, I suppose that's the only way Boyd would actually believe it, and you can see some of the light go out of him (terrific performance by Goggins) when he accepts it. It's a really fantastic scene.