Really good episode of Justified tonight, as a tragic incident takes its toll on the marshal's office, and Boyd is as much of a badass as he's ever been. We start off with Ava scrubbing the blood off her arms in the bathroom, trying to wipe away the aftermath of Judith's murder, as Penny watches out from the sidelines. The two go back into the cellblock as a drill goes off and guards storm down the halls, presumably looking for the killer, as Judith's body is found. The inmates get down on the ground while Ava wipes the last of the blood away quickly before anyone sees. Meanwhile at the bar, Boyd pays the hooker who secured Albert for him last week, while admitting he didn't get what he wanted from him. The hooker offers to do something for him in return for the payment and Boyd appears to consider it, but then gets a phone call from Duffy, requesting a meeting face to face. Boyd then turns down hooker Teri, but not before taking a cigarette from her despite not being a smoker (and you know that's going to come into play later).
Art is with Alison, to take her into protective custody, and while she packs her bags they chat about Raylan, with Alison revealing that she knows Art punched him out a while back. Art confesses that he sees Raylan as a kid he has to punish, and then as they head out the door, suddenly shots are fired at them. Art pushes Alison to the floor and shoots back, but in the ensuing shootout, he gets hit in the gut, and starts gushing blood everywhere. After the credits, Raylan is driving Art's never before seen wife to the hospital as she makes solemn chit chat about Winona and his daughter (who remains nameless, I just realized). But soon Mrs. Art wants to know why Raylan wasn't there to protect her husband and Raylan has no answer. As they arrive at the hospital, Tim and Rachel are there as well, and the doctor takes Mrs. Art away as we see that her husband is in critical condition and remains unconscious. Raylan discusses who might have been the culprit with Tim and Rachel, as Alison didn't see anything, and Raylan's familiar seething anger makes a return appearance. Tim and Raylan think it was obviously Darryl, but Rachel thinks it could be revenge from Theo Tonin. They find out that Darryl ran immediately, which convinces Raylan that Darryl did it. Rachel says Ed Kirkland is being brought in from Detroit to run the investigation and will finger the Tonin theory, so they have to follow his lead. As she leaves, Tim tries to cuddle up to Raylan's dark side and suggests they go after Darryl before Kirkland gets there, saying he'd do it for Art, but Raylan seems to acknowledge that Art wouldn't want that, and walks away.
At the bar, Karl and Jimmy meet with Boyd to discuss his upcoming meeting with Duffy, and Boyd knows it's unlikely he leaves the meet alive. Karl and Jimmy try to dissuade him from going, but he says he has to and makes Jimmy promise to hide the dope in a place he won't know where it is, as insurance, and also to take care of Ava with the nurse in case he doesn't come back. Raylan comes into the office to find Alison sleeping on the couch, where he explains to her that she'll be taken to a hotel the next day until they can establish she wasn't the target or find the shooter. She tearfully apologizes for Art, but Raylan assures her it wasn't her fault. Raylan then goes to sit down with Ed Kirkland, asking to join the hunt for Darryl, but Ed says he wants Raylan there to be his "right-hand man" in the office as they pursue the thought that it was a Tonin action. Raylan reveals that Art's ploy to keep people close to him was the right hand strategy and Ed confesses that Raylan shouldn't be out on the streets so as not to endanger the investigation. Raylan is pissed, but then Vasquez walks in the room to say Tonin confessed and is willing to finger the shooter.
At Duffy's, Boyd comes in to greet him, Picker and Catherine Hale, whom he notices immediately as he mouths off to everyone in classic Boyd fashion. Picker questions him about losing the half the dope and Boyd blames the Crowes, although he can't say where they are because Darryl took off after Art's shooting the night before. He then volunteers that he himself doesn't know where his half is and they're unlikely to ever see it if he's killed. Hale then starts questioning him, and Boyd realizes she's the widow of a jailed businessman, but is alerted that Hale is the one to decide if he should die. Boyd takes a cigarette out, but then cops storm the room to arrest them all as Boyd jokes about the hotel's deadly serious non-smoking policy.
At the marshal's office, Raylan is very skeptical about Tonin fingering Picker, especially without a deal. He goes to confront Picker, who's being held in holding, as Raylan demands a name from him about Art's killer. Picker pretends to be sorry about it, but denies that he did it, as Raylan agrees that he probably didn't. He again demands to know who did do it, as Picker hedges, but then offers up Darryl's name. Kirkland walks in the room to ask where Crowe might be, but Tim pulls them out of the room to confirm the hotel camera tells them Picker didn't do it, as Wendy calls in and will only talk to Raylan.
Catherine Hale is now dragged in to the office to face Vasquez in an odd scene that seems to be set-up for something in the future, perhaps next season. Turns out Hale and Vasquez have a history wherein he prosecuted her husband and accused her of even worse activities than his, like racketeering, conspiracy and murder. She relishes in his disappointment that she's still alive, but that's the most we get on this new front for now. Raylan goes to meet Wendy in a motel, but she correctly guesses that he's got an army of cops behind him, and admits that she's doing Darryl's bidding in pulling Raylan to a decoy spot because Darryl's got Kendall and was afraid Raylan would kill him on sight. She also conveys that she blames Danny's death on Raylan and Darryl's her only brother left. Raylan asks where he really is and we see that Darryl is dragging Kendall directly into the marshal's office, supposedly turning himself in for the shooting.
Wendy is sitting with Kendall in the office now, as Vasquez walks in to question Kendall about something Darryl said to him earlier. Kendall looks ambivalent before he confesses to the shooting himself as Wendy looks on in (possibly fake?) surprise, and Raylan looks immediately stunned and suspicious. At the prison, Ava and Penny worry about the inmates' reaction to Judith's murder, as a group of very scary looking women slowly walk over to her lunch table. But, it turns out they all give her their respective ice cream cups, as it seems Ava is now the queen of the prison. Huh. Good for her? Back at Kendall's confession, Kendall is giving what is obviously a very staged and forced explanation, attributing his motive to his uncle Danny's death, and blaming the marshals, as Wendy cries. He also gives a totally different accounting than the one we saw, so we know he's lying for some reason. Raylan looks dubious as he listens.
Back in Duffy's hotel room, Boyd and the group has resumed their meeting, with Boyd not wanting to waste any time. Boyd again pulls out that cigarette carton, as he smokes one and tells Duffy there's no way he's begging him for his life. He offers him half of his half before they separate, but Picker's furious about that, demanding they kill him. Duffy yells at Pciker to shut up as he and Catherine leave the room, and here comes the most awesome moment of the episode as Boyd tosses his Bond-weaponish cigarette carton over to Picker, which instantly blows him to smithereens, leaving pieces of him all over the room. Duffy and Hale are shocked and covered in blood as Boyd knocks out the guard and swipes his gun, saying what he does know is how to blow things up (great callback to Boyd's roots in the pilot) and again offers Duffy half of his stash as he saunters out the door. Once again, Boyd rules, as always.
At the office, Ed Kirkland is packing up as Rachel asks who's in charge now, while Ed looks surprised that she doesn't know. He hands her Art's pre-existing contract specifying that Rachel take over as interim chief marshal. Aww. Raylan uncuffs Darryl as he listens to his pathetic excuses and then offers up his own theory as to how Art's shooting went down, which was Darryl's personal panic at seeing Art at Alison's, shooting him, and then snatching Kendall and convincing him to turn himself in in his place. Darryl scoffs that Kendall won't get more than few years in juvie, which will toughen him up, while Raylan threatens him over shooting Art, who's the one man who makes a difference to him. Art throws Danny back in his face as he asks if Raylan's going to shoot him, but Raylan says he's not, but he is going to string him up by his own lies and make him wish he shot him. Darryl says time will tell, but the question is who's got more of it as he leaves in the elevator. The last scene of the night is Raylan going back to the hospital to sit by Art in silence, who remains unconscious. I really want to see Darryl go down, but seeing as how it can't be Raylan who kills this guy, I'm thinking it will probably end up being Boyd somehow. See you next week for the penultimate episode!
