Justified recap – 3×09: ‘Loose Ends’

Courtesy of FX

After last week’s madness, it was inevitable that this week’s Justified would be slightly less meaty. To a certain extent we’re back to setting up the pieces as our characters carve out new alliances and deliver on the episode’s title as ‘Loose Ends’ are disposed of.

Let’s bitch it out…

‘Watching The Detectives’ was such a great hour of television, it feels challenging to write about ‘Loose Ends’ because it just pales in comparison (in many ways it felt like the preceding episode to ‘Detectives’: ‘The Man Behind The Curtain’ – a decent, albeit perfunctory episode). Oh sure, there is the bomb drama with Tanner Doyd (Brendan McCarthy), which provides some mild comic relief and finally allows Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) to connect Limehouse (Mykelti Williamson) with Quarles (Neal McDonough). But as Alan Sepinwall writes, we’re clearly just setting the stage for future drama. So in the interest of saving some virtual space, let’s do a quickie rundown and call it a day:

• Ava (Joelle Carter) takes matters into her own hands by gunning down pimp Delroy (William Mapother) after he tries to kill prostitute – and Cash Money robber/survivor – Ellen May (Abby Miller). I knew that Mapother would be back, though I didn’t expect him to be on the receiving end of a shotgun so quickly. Of course, Ava’s done this before (aka the pilot), but now she has Boyd’s (Walton Goggins) consent. Guess someone’s star is on the rise.
• I’ve always been impressed with Goggins’ portrayal of Boyd Crowder, but never so much as when the show allows him to speechify. Even though I’m hot and cold on the whole Sheriff race between incumbent Sheriff Napier (David Andrews) and Shelby (Jim Beaver), listening to Boyd take Napier down in a rallying call for working class people is fun for the whole family. It also led to one of my favourite lines of the night: “If I was behind an attempt on your life, at the very least I would have messed up your hair.”
• I’m remain desperately obsessed with Limehouse, even if he continues to do little more than slaughter pigs and threaten his henchman, Errol (Demetrius Grosse). As Neal McDonough’s Quarles becomes more unstable (those previews for next week look crazy!), I love how cold and calm Limehouse is. He’ s scary and when he gets violent, it is going to be ugly
• Though not quite as spectacular as Raylan’s recent run-ins with Quarles and Wynn Duffy, there are some tense moments when Raylan calls on Limehouse at episode’s end. I’m still unsure why Limehouse is backing Quarles, but Raylan’s line about war and Noble’s Holler becoming a battleground rings especially true to me. It also reminds me of Game of Thrones, which is what Justified occasionally feels like with its epic bad-guy scope.

Next week the sh*t is going to hit the fan as Quarles and Raylan go after each other in public. Should be exciting! In the meantime, what did you think of ‘Loose Ends’? Were you sad to see Tanner trip the Bouncy Betty? Do you, like Raylan, want Limehouse to “cut out the country bumpkin bullshit”? And did you miss Wynn Duffy and his mustache as much as me? Sound off below!

Justified airs Tuesdays at 10pm EST on FX