A really good episode tonight, one that tries to cram in an awful lot of storylines involving separate people, a move that I can only assume is set-up for intersecting plots in the future. But there sure are a lot of them. We open with some new baddies, played by real life brothers Steve and Wood Harris, beating up a kid for screwing up a dope transaction. Then Hot Rod Dunham, a dealer from Memphis, walks in to yell at the kid for losing his stash, and that signals the end of the kid, as the Harris brothers (I'm calling them that) shoot him dead simultaneously.
Now we're in the hospital as it turns out Lee Paxton has not died, but is now in a coma, with his wife Mara wondering if he'll ever wake up. The deputy sheriff in the room figures out it was Boyd who attacked him and couldn't be more delighted (this is Mooney, the guy who arrested Ava), cuddling up to Mara and creepily promising to take care of Boyd for her. As we finally get to Raylan, he and his fellow marshals (hi Tim and Rachel!) are arresting a rich corrupt business guy and checking out his loaded mansion as he whines about losing his stuff and the maid and housekeeper look on bemusedly. Raylan plays around with his Confederate gun and hilariously decides to take off in his car, while Rachel saddles him in handcuffs and takes him away. And that's all of the perpetually underused Tim and Rachel we get in this episode, unfortunately.
After the credits Ava and Boyd are talking at the prison, and Ava's upset that Boyd put Paxton in the hospital since they needed him to recant his testimony to get her out. Boyd tries to reassure her that he's doing everything he can and that he's got things under control, but Ava is still worried and hates being in there. Of course, back at the bar Boyd admits to his little henchmen that he doesn't have things under control, when he's surprised by Mooney and Mara, who come charging in accusing him of assaulting Paxton. Mooney moves to arrest Boyd but Mara changes her tune at the last minute and says it wasn't him. Boyd is smug while Mooney is furious, and they storm out after Mara coolly insists once more it wasn't him as she and Boyd exchange looks.
Raylan is called down to the county jail when he's told Loretta's been arrested for selling weed to a cop's kid, and told the cops that Raylan would vouch for her. Raylan talks to her through the bars as we see Loretta for the first time in a couple of years and she's definitely gotten older. Raylan scolds her for using his name and refuses to spring her even when she promises never to ask him for help again. On his way out, Loretta's douchey boyfriend Derek yells at him for not being cool, which Raylan brushes off in his typical way, and then he bumps into Amy Smart, playing another new character- she's Alison, Loretta's social worker. Of course, the two immediately start flirting (yeah, she's Raylan's type) as Alison insults the boyfriend but also Raylan for thinking the best way to help Loretta is to leave her in jail.
At Dewey's new whorehouse that he's running, Boyd's henchman is there trying to get the bartender to sneak into Dewey's room somehow to snatch the $300,000 that Boyd needs for Ava. Dewey walk in on them talking though, and they quickly make up a story about wanting Chrissy the hooker back, who Dewey had fired because she was fat. Dewey falls for it right away of course, being the idiot that he is. Raylan meanwhile decides to pay a visit to Derek to order him to break up with Loretta (although this might be to impress Alison), but finds him being intimidated by the Harris brothers over something they try to cover up when Raylan walks in the room. The guys ditch the place and Raylan tells Derek to dump Loretta before ditching him as well.
At the hospital, Mara is smoking an e-cigarette when she's accosted by Boyd in the hallway, who wants to know why she didn't rat him out. Turns out Mara wants the money he offered Paxton in order to go home to Latvia. When Boyd offers to finish Paxton off so she can just inherit his wealth she tells him her pre-nup states they have to be married for ten years or she gets nothing. Boyd doesn't have the money, but Mara says he'll figure something out as she walks away in a sultry manner. I hope this isn't the case but it seems like they might be setting up a weird sexual tension thing between these two. Is it just me or does anyone else see that?
Back at the bar, Boyd's late, so Wynn Duffy starts the meeting with the local dealers who are all angry that the shipment hasn't come in yet. One local in particular, Cyrus, wants to know the details of when exactly the stuff's coming, but before Duffy can handle him Boyd walks in and takes over in his usual smoothtalking way. He promises everyone the shipment in two days along with free drinks, which seems to satisfy the majority of the guys, but Cyrus looks dubious. At the marshal's office, Art offers Raylan the rich guy's house to live in while he's away and Raylan agrees to it, and also finds out that Sammy Tonin called the office looking for him just hours before he met his end in Detroit last week. Raylan's baffled as to what he'd want and tells Art the last time he saw him he told him to call him if he's looking to make a deal, but if Art goes digging he may find out the last time Raylan really saw Sammy was when he set up the hit on Nicky at the end of last season. Knew that was going to come back to bite him in the ass.
Loretta storms in to tell Raylan that Derek's missing in a teary-eyed fashion, and we cut to the Harris brothers forcing him to dig a hole in the middle of nowhere, looking for the money he and Loretta supposedly stashed there. Derek's bloody and beaten, but the money's gone, and right before they shoot him Raylan shows up to knock one of the brothers out with a shovel and find out this all goes further up, as Loretta and Derek made a deal with Hot Rod. Meanwhile, Mara's driving home when Mooney pulls her over and tosses her out of the car, threatening her with a knife to come in to the station the next morning and insist that Boyd did attack her husband, or he'll make her life miserable, and presumably kill her.
Raylan's now waiting around in an alley for Hot Rod to show up, along with the Harris brothers, Derek, and Loretta, having called him to finish their "business" dealings. Hot Rod comes along and name drops Arlo as an old crime buddy, but Raylan's not impressed, making fun of the guy for doing business with teenagers and expecting things not to go wrong. Hot Rod threatens to shoot him dead, but Raylan doesn't flinch as usual, threatening back the same in an instant, but with his marshal star, his actions will all be legal. The charade works, as Hot Rod backs off and Raylan drives the kids away, kicking Derek out on the street to take the bus. He wants Loretta to go with him, but Loretta chooses instead to stay with Raylan, who takes her home as she falls asleep in the front seat.
When Raylan drops her off, he realizes she played him by moving the money on purpose so that Derek would go missing and she could get Raylan to come and take care of the Hot Rod issue, a plan he followed to the tee. She says he wasn't played though, as he simply is who he is, and Raylan tells her to take it easy on the rest of them in her next scheme. Cyrus the dealer is now having fun shooting at junkies on the sidewalk with a BB gun, when a female junkie/hooker comes up to him and asks where the stuff is. He tells her it's coming in the next day as they flirt and giggle, and I guess this guy's going to be significant in the future, because otherwise there's no real point to this scene.
At the whorehouse, Dewey's playing around with his own hookers when he's called up to the bar because what do you know, his cousin Daryll has just showed up! Daryll hugs a stunned and scared Dewey and tells him it's good to see him as we cut to Arlo calling the Detroit police department (or marshal's office?) to do just what I figured he might, which is to start digging into Sammy Tonin's recent whereabouts/activities. Raylan's now on a date with Alison (that was quick), who is trying hard to resist the Raylan charm as she points out all the red flags surrounding him, one being that he's now living in a criminal's house and using his stuff. She also mentions Winona and the baby but Raylan defers as always, looking very close to winning her over. I'm sure she'll be hooked by the next episode.
Speaking of things that happened fast, at the hospital, the comatose Paxton actually wakes up with Mara by his side, and Boyd is on his way out to the pick-up spot when he and his guys see that everything's been hit. Bodies are everywhere, cars are shot up and of course, the dope is gone. Boyd grimly orders his guys to clean everything up as they wonder who could have done it. And that's the end, folks. LOTS of stuff going on, but it's mostly all set-up at this point, with various baddies and a ton of new characters introduced in these last two episodes. I think the Harris brothers are my favorites of the newbies right now, not sure how much I like Amy Smart (I've never really liked any of Raylan's girlfriends though), and I think the Mara thing with Boyd might be the most intriguing plotline so far. See you next week!
