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domino harvey wrote:Did it leave you aplexed?

Ha! Although somehow it felt a little too easy for the misunderstood word of the week to come out of the characters playing a game of Scrabble together.

I was disappointed they went to the "highly-trained experts are inexplicably crap when the heroes show up" trope. Even worse when they finally bring out the unseen members of the group just so they can be used as fodder in the place of the established characters.

I really liked choo-choo, tho'. Sad to see him go.

I liked Markham's Vietnam story. A good parallel to Raylan accusing him of blindly hiring armed forces guys.

Mr Sausage wrote:I was disappointed they went to the "highly-trained experts are inexplicably crap when the heroes show up" trope.

I don't know... I think Raylan covered that with his line about mercenaries not necessarily being good criminals.

Polybius wrote:

Mr Sausage wrote:I was disappointed they went to the "highly-trained experts are inexplicably crap when the heroes show up" trope.

I don't know... I think Raylan covered that with his line about mercenaries not necessarily being good criminals.

Meant in the shoot out.

So did I.

Having said that, you have a valid point about those two guys who we hadn't seen before. They were sort of like security guards on Star Trek.

Seeing Natalie Zea tonight reminds me just how much this show has missed her. I also loved the scene with Markham and Art sparring a little over old times. I always love it when Art deals with someone who is more of a contemporary of his (like the Scott Wilson character a couple of seasons ago and their hilarious Old Guy Chase at the airport.)

Polybius wrote:So did I.

But Raylen's line doesn't cover that. Their being ex-Special Forces is more to the point than their not being criminals.

Man, this season is just not letting up. Last night's episode might be the best over-all since "Decoy".

I've been lukewarm on this season, but that last episode was electric (continued mishandling of Markham's ex-army goons aside).

I don't think this final season's been quite up to snuff either, but it's been growing into its larger themes with each episode, though the herky-jerky narrative stops and starts are getting a little tiresome on the whole. I thought this week's ep was a nice throwback to season two, with Loretta fully stepping into the Mags role appealing to the people of Harlan. I also thought the young wild-eyed twerp who threatened her was one of Justified's best criminals in a while, all easy going threats and showing off for his own amusement and confusing it with intimidation. Above all I am really going to miss this show's world of brightly-sketched lowlifes.

Also, I was a week behind so this isn't from the most recent episode, but Raylan's rebuttal to shooting you-know-who in the back is one of the best lines in the series' history

Spoiler

"If you wanted to be shot in the front you should have run towards me"

I've been ambivalent about the set-up, but goddamn was the payoff worth it. That was a hell of an episode. It's also the culmination of the theme that's run through the series: Boyd is the smoothest operator, and the thing that fucks up his smoothest operations has always been Ava. And yet she is what has always fueled his ambitions.

Spoiler

I hope he's not dead, but the way things are going it's become hard to predict.

Literally yelled out "What the FUCK" during that ending. You have to hand it to this show, we were convinced where this was all going and yet I doubt anyone saw that coming with three episodes still left!

Also really enjoying Boone as what is presumably the last memorably embodied skuzzball criminal this series will ever introduce

Does anyone else think they're giving Boon so much screentime with so few episodes left because they're setting him up as a Robert Ford-type who's going to take down one or more of our central characters even though he doesn't "deserve" that dubious honor?

domino harvey wrote:Does anyone else think they're giving Boon so much screentime with so few episodes left because they're setting him up as a Robert Ford-type who's going to take down one or more of our central characters even though he doesn't "deserve" that dubious honor?

Spoiler

That was my initial thought when they introduced him by way of that sharp-shoot trick with the snake in Loretta's house. Raylan didn't seem for a moment to take him seriously during their time together, either.

Wynn Duffy!

These last few episodes have been some of Justified's best. Reminds me of the breathless feeling of last season. You can see exactly where this is all going, but there's no way to tell how it's going to get there.

Wynn goddamn Duffy!

Yet another riveting episode in the Great Henchman Culling of 2015, esp.

Spoiler

The death-duel between Katherine and Mikey. Holy shit! At this point, Wynn's face spattered with someone else's blood is becoming a running gag, like the Spanish announcers' table in WWE or Walt's car getting wrecked in Breaking Bad. Also, Boon's "my balls are purple, they're so blue" line had me in stitches.

domino harvey wrote:Does anyone else think they're giving Boon so much screentime with so few episodes left because they're setting him up as a Robert Ford-type who's going to take down one or more of our central characters even though he doesn't "deserve" that dubious honor?

It's a little too bad they didn't give him a longer arc. He's been the Todd of this last season.

I assume the reason no one's said anything is because this episode just felt like a place-holder transition piece and more of a prologue to the finale than a proper or satisfying whole. I'm a little let down, but mainly because I can't imagine how they're going to tie everything up in just forty minutes after commercials next week

Solid episode; mostly puts all the pieces into position for the showdown. Still allowed itself some time for some great dialogue, especially between Boyd and his captive and Boyd and Raylan at the end.

When did Vasquez become such a dick? I always thought he was pretty chill.

Mr Sausage wrote:When did Vasquez become such a dick? I always thought he was pretty chill.

I for one never trusted Endless Mike