Justified continues to weave an incredibly complicated web of interweaving plot threads this season, as we open up with a ponderous scene of Art sitting alone in bar, seemingly depressed after what Raylan confessed to him last week. When Raylan pulls up outside in the rain, he hesitates before walking in to face his boss. Turns out he was right to be cautious, as when Art sees him he stands up and decks him one across the face, knocking him down in the process. He then shakes his head in disappointment as he charges out of the bar. Raylan looks surprised but resigned to the reaction as he gets up and places his trademark cowboy hat back firmly on his head.
When we get back from the credits we're at the Kentucky State women's prison, where Ava is being led into her cell and put in the grey uniform (it resembles a scene from Orange is the New Black actually). Boyd meanwhile is sitting in his car, wiping away tears before he heads into the place of his old white supremacist pal Gunnar, who we haven't seen since the first season. They catch up on old times as Gunnar expresses slight concern about Boyd working with black customers in his business, but Boyd brushes that off and asks him for the favor he's there for. He wants to pay Gunnar's sister Gretchen, who's currently in the state prison, to look after Ava (who he notes as his wife) while she's in there. He seems to accept the offer nicely enough, but as we'll see later, it's a bit misleading.
Alison is walking up to a fancy house where she encounters Danny Crowe's vicious dog, whom he holds back as Darryl comes into view, inviting Alison into the house. She's there to check on Kendall and Wendy, who have now moved in and are putting away groceries as Alison wonders why they didn't go back to Miami. Wendy turns on the charm, casually mentioning her knowledge of Alison and Raylan's relationship while she shows off the rental agreement for the home. Alison leaves the house nervously as she walks past the chomping-at-the-bit dog, while Danny himself barks at her nastily (I'm really starting to hate him, by the way). As she's driving home a truck seems to be following her and starts ramming her tailgate, running her off the road into the woods. She looks back after the crash to see Danny laughing at her as he drives off (how stupid is he, anyway?)
At the marshal's office, the atmosphere is pretty frosty in a meeting as Tim wonders whether Raylan's black eye and Art's swollen fist have anything to do with each other. Art ignores the comments and Raylan volunteers to do some money counting desk work, which Art gruffly accepts. Rachel volunteers to go with him but the two of them run into Alison in the hallway, whose own beaten face grabs Raylan's attention. At Audrey's, Darryl is wondering what happened to the MIA Baptiste, and Kendall nearly gives away the game with his shifty and suspicious eyes. Danny quickly comes up with a story of Baptiste talking shit about Darryl behind his back and deciding on his own to go back to Florida. I don't know why Darryl buys this, as the two are so obviously lying it's comical, but he seems to accept it. As Rachel and Raylan get in the elevator, Rachel deduces that Raylan's going after Danny Crowe now and jumps at the chance to go with him.
Meanwhile, Dewey is trying to sell his shot up pool for $800, but the guy who's buying it notices how trashed it is and offers him $20 for the whole thing. Dewey is offended and chases the guy off, telling him the pool was his dream and he's not giving it up. Danny then comes out carrying an unconscious bar customer while Dewey wonders if his relatives would really leave if they could get that money back from Boyd. When Danny confirms they would, Dewey comes up with the ridiculously stupid idea to hold a gun to Boyd's head and make him surrender. Yeah, that's happening. Ava is now brought out to meet her lawyer, who guarantees her they're doing everything they can to find that guard but he's taken off and the cameras were turned off at the time of the assault. He then gives her a message from Boyd, who's promised her protection on the inside, as poor Ava continues to suffer her unfortunate circumstances. I'm starting to wonder if she's being made to pay for Boyd's sins here, and will dump him when (or if) she finally gets out of this.
The two dumb D's, Danny and Dewey, make their way into Boyd's bar to find Karl sweeping up, who simply dares them to make a move on him. He's not giving up Boyd for anything and even when Dewey pulls a gun on him, puts up a pretty good fight against both doofuses, before Danny ultimately knocks him out. Dewey of course, doesn't know what to do now, but Danny says Plan B is to ransom Karl for the money. Brilliant! Seriously, these two guys are so mentally challenged it boggles the mind. The adult criminals meanwhile, Boyd and Duffy, are now meeting with Picker, who's setting up the connection with the Mexican border gang in what looks like a hotel room. The associate they meet is a Mr. Yoon, who's played by James Kyson and may look familiar to fans of Heroes. Boyd and Duffy are concerned about paying upfront given their recent experiences, and Yoon is willing to go along with it, since his employers aren't ones to be taken in.
Ava's finally taken out of solitary and sent into the crowded prisoner's quarters, where she's given the top of a bunk bed and the woman on the bottom is named Nikki, who tells her to keep to herself. Back at the Crowe's, Wendy is pissed and also thinks the idiot D's plan to kidnap Karl was a bad idea, but then the marshals pull up and she goes outside to handle it. Raylan is upset and wants to bust into the house (which belongs to the hardware store owner Mike- I was wondering whose house it was) to find Danny, but Wendy stops him going in, saying they need a warrant. Raylan just about makes it in anyway, where Danny is waiting behind the door with a knife, but Wendy diverts them to the hardware store at the last minute, where they can find Mike.
Ava heads into the prison yard now and comes face to face with the aggressive inmates, who bat at her while she sides up to a friendlier one named Penny, who tells her her best bet is to keep to herself. Ava doesn't think that's her decision as a group of black female prisoners come up to her. They seem to like the fact that she attacked a guard though, so Ava doesn't deny it, but the group walks off when confronted by another one, which happens to include Gretchen. Ava is at first relieved, but Gretchen turns out to lead the white supremacist crowd, and jumps Ava anyway as payback for Boyd being a "race traitor." Ava screams as she's held down while her hair's cut.
Boyd and Jimmy come back to find the bar a mess, when Boyd gets the call from the lawyer that Ava's been attacked. He's extremely upset by this, especially when told that it was Gretchen who did it, and he's been betrayed by Gunnar. He sends Jimmy over to presumably get rid of him. At the hardware store, Rachel and Raylan find Kendall behind the counter and Darryl messing around with a chainsaw, as he leads them to old man Mike in the back room, who's been pressured into letting them move into his house. Raylan tells him to order them out and Darryl objects, but Mike lets it drop that they've taken his hunting cabin too. Jimmy returns to Boyd to tell him that Gunnar's got a group of skinheads with him now, waiting for Boyd's retaliation and that they're outnumbered. Boyd hesitates, trying to figure out what to do next, and then Jimmy tries to call Karl, whose phone Dewey answers. Unfortunately, Dewey has the worst possible reception and all the threats he tries to issue go unheard by Boyd and Jimmy, who don't even realize it's him.
The marshals pull up to the hunting cabin and Dewey takes off when he sees them, as Danny has Karl inside, tied to a chair as he's beating him up. Raylan and Rachel bust in when he answers the door and Rachel gets to be the one who clocks him as Raylan agains threatens to shoot the damn dog, who tries to attack when Danny gives the order. Karl twists the situation though, saying he's there of his own free will, as he and Danny are engaging in mutual S&M, and maybe if they just let him go the whole thing gets put behind them. Danny's for it, even though he realizes this is exactly what Karl wants so he can get back to Boyd, but there seems to be no choice. Back at Audrey's, Wendy is insisting they hightail it out of the state, much to Dewey's delight, as the marshals have won, but Darryl still doesn't want to leave. Danny suddenly shows up out of nowhere, telling them what happened, and Darryl is mad that he let the guy go after screwing everything up, and of course, right then Boyd, Jimmy and Karl burst in with guns pointing. This time though, Boyd has a new proposition for the Crowes, offering them a chance to make the money they want.
Boyd walks into the skinheads' place, with Gunnar laughing about his deception of him, but he's got his new friends the Crowes behind him, who burst in to hold them up while Darryl beats Gunnar to a pulp. Boyd holds a gun up to his head, threatening him to call his sister back and let her know if a single thing more happens to Ava, he'll be the one who suffers for it. Boyd then skulks out, ordering his guys to take back his money. Ava's awake at night now and asks her bunkmate Nikki for her razor, offering her commissary for a month. Nikki gives it up, but instead of going after Gretchen, Ava cuts her hair off in the bathroom. Boyd is on the phone with Dunham now, who's clearly talking under pressure, but Boyd is wanting to make sure everything's set for their Mexican heroin smuggling operation. To his credit, Dunham manages to express in code that the operation will go as smoothly as the last time they worked together, and as Boyd hangs up he realizes Dunham's been compromised, since the last time they worked together Boyd robbed him. Things just can't go right for Boyd this week can it?
In the car on the way back, Rachel asks Raylan if he's upset he didn't get to kick Danny's ass, but Raylan says it was nice to watch her do it instead. He also calls her out for going with him to keep him in line, so she can report back to Art, but Rachel takes offense at this, saying she went along in case he wanted to talk about what happened between them. Raylan apologizes, telling her he trusts her with his life but he can't tell her what went down. Rachel sighs as she realizes that it's because it would compromise the whole office if he did. Raylan's now with Alison, getting drunk as she wonders what kind of a guy he really is, and surmises that he may be a hero who likes to avenge his lady's honor and save people from burning buildings, but he's often the one who starts the fire. Raylan doesn't seem to disagree.
In the final scene of the episode, Wendy and Darryl are happily counting their money when Boyd storms into their abode, offering up another job. Boyd sends Wendy out of the room so she can keep up her pretense of not "knowing" what's going on with the family, as Darryl wonders if this next thing will be as fun as beating up skinheads. Boyd says maybe, as it depends on how fun it will be to help him kill his cousin Johnny. Ha! I was wondering how long it'd take for him to reach that conclusion about Johnny. We'll find out in two weeks if Boyd can concoct a plan where everything goes right for once. He was awfully close last week if not for that horrid little guard- can't wait to see how that one shakes out. See you on back on the 25th everyone!
