This week, Justified embraced its serialized elements and focused exclusively on who the bad guys are, how their business operations are related, what their objectives are for the season and how determined they are to go through with it. Boyd has to play nice with Ice Pick Nix, Dickie gets blackmailed by a prison guard, and Duffy and the Carpetbeggar are looking to establish a new Oxy trail. While being on the periphery of it all, Raylan still manages to be the target of a hit, and to attract the wrath of the Carpetbeggar in a wonderful scene in which he creepily smiles for Raylan's phone-camera. The plot thickens, one might say, and one can't help but be eager for future episodes.

The Bad Guys

Boyd and Ice Pick Nix meet for the first time, a meeting put into motion by Ava. Some niceties are exchanged (obviously, Boyd's past as a white supremacist doesn't assure him the best of welcomes from Ice Pick Nix and his men) until Boyd finally admits that he is interested in Meg's property he claims to be rightfully belonging to him and that he suspects Ice Pick Nix to have. Nothing much comes out of that meeting so he decides to enlist his crew to get into the extortion business, being that the weed business is not exactly bring a success either.

Wade, whom we all still remember from last season, and an associate named J.T. run into Raylan who participates in a road block that targets the two criminals. Apparently, they are supposed to move some stolen merchandise for a pawn shop owner named Fogler who does business with the Dixie Mafia. When the two try to escape, J.T. is arrested and Wade escapes. When J.T. gets out on bond, he promptly reports to Fogler's office where it quickly transpires that he is addicted to Oxycontin. His is so much of an addict in fact, that he engages in some Russian roulette in order to get pills he is promised should he survive. In the end, Fogler simply finishes him himself. Intense stuff.

Meanwhile, The Carpetbeggar lays out his plans for us. It involves shipping Oxy, that is abundant in Kentucky, to Detroit and selling it for a multitude of the price paid on location down south. A smart and slick plan if it weren't for Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens who has already been a target to be eliminated in the past, and acquires this accolade yet again in this episode. It's just irksome for organized crime when there is an irreverent officer of the law shooting and arresting his way through the state...

The Good Guy

Wade is enlisted to put a bullet into Raylan but, of course, fails miserably. Raylan, on the other hand, gets Fogel and his co-dependent associate out of it. They're both willing to give up shot callers but finally, in a wonderfully absurd twist, shoot each other dead. Raylan still gets Duffy's location out of Fogel and sends him a nice little warning that his life might be on the line should he not behave himself. And the Carpetbeggar smiles for his camera. Say cheese!

What did you think of this episode? Satisfied with the villains so far? What do you think of Boyd at this point? And is Raylan in more danger than ever before?

Jan Cee
Contributing Writer

(Image courtesy of FX)