February 9, 2012 - 4:49pm
'Justified' RECAP: The adventures of Dickie and Dewey
BY KAYLA UPADHYAYA AND KAVI SHEKHAR PANDEY
- FX
FX's original country-crime drama "Justified" and its leading lawman Raylan Givens are back for a third season. Daily Arts's Kayla Upadhyaya and Kavi Shekhar Pandey recap the fourth episode of the season.
Kayla: While this episode wasn’t quite as exciting as last week’s, it was still solid. We got a lot more of Dickie than we have in the first few episodes of the season, and we also learned a little more about Limehouse. Now that Dickie is out of jail, I’m interested to see what will happen. He’s a fugitive, so there’s not much he can do, but just putting him back in the jail won’t move the narrative forward. I don’t know how the writers are going to work with that.
Kavi: Right, there is no way the writers brought back Dickie and busted him out of jail just to put him back in by the end of the episode. But they’re going to have to pull some narrative tricks to justify his presence for the rest of the season. That said, didn’t this feel like a “Lost” flashback centered around Daniel Faraday? It was great to see so much of Jeremy Davies. “The Adventures of Dickie and Dewey” should turn into a spinoff … the two are perfect for each other.
Kayla: I would definitely watch that spinoff. Both Dickie and Dewey were excellent this week. Poor Dewey is so stupid, but he provides a lot of the humor. I was dying when he was thrashing in that body bag. And it’s Dewey’s time to shine next week — it looks like his quest to keep his organs is going to be the focus of the next episode. Speaking of which, how creepy was that prison doctor? I’ll call him Ponytail because I didn’t catch his name and it doesn’t really matter. When he kept saying that he had something special planned for Dewey, my mind immediately went to HE WANTS YOUR ORGANS, BRO!! So I suppose it wasn’t a big twist or anything, but that shot of all of his sharp, body-slicing tools was still very, very creepy.
Kavi: Yeah, the organ trafficking plot was borrowed from Elmore Leonard’s new book “Raylan” — although in the novel, Raylan’s the one under threat of Kidney Bandits. But the serialization of the organ storyline is proof of how the “Justified” narrative has evolved so expertly this season. The “case of the week” in this episode was the prison break, which will continue into next week’s episode, which ties into the overall narrative of Dickie and Limehouse and Boyd and Quarles and the quest for the Harlan crime throne. I’m amazed how things are tying together so fluidly.
Kayla: Everything is managing to connect right off the bat, even though it feels like there are more characters than ever. “Justified” feels a lot more like an ensemble show than it has in the past. Other than Dewey, another character who got a little more screentime and story this week was Devil, as the episode’s title “The Devil You Know” alludes to. Poor Devil, did he really think his plan to commit mutiny against Boyd and join Quarles would work? I know I say it every week, but BOYD IS NO DUMMY. Devil may have been able to persuade Johnny back in the days when he resented Boyd, but Devil’s plan really had no hope at this point. Johnny is back in the fold and on Team Boyd. Devil might be disillusioned, and rightfully so, by following Boyd around, but he never had what it takes to be more than just a muscle man ... kind of like Arlo. They aren’t meant to be leaders.
Kavi: Boyd asserting his control over his fledgling empire reminded me of Walter White and Nucky Thompson pulling the trigger for the first time. Killing another human being, even if they were trying to betray you, shows you have truly stepped into the dark side. Boyd has certainly killed before, but he had been preaching redemption and forgiveness for the past two seasons. That Boyd is gone for good, and honestly I’m sad to see him go.
Kayla: While I wasn’t surprised by Devil’s failure, I WAS surprised by Boyd killing him. Like you said, Boyd has killed before, but this was different. He killed one of his own and actually didn’t even need to kill him. Sure, Devil crossed him, but he probably could have let him live ... it’s not like Devil is hard to control. I mean, Quarles manipulated him effortlessly. But Boyd DID kill him and what it did was send a powerful message that Boyd is playing by a new set of rules. And I’m not sure how I feel about these changes. I wonder how Ava will react when she finds out about this. She’s certainly no saint either, but I can’t imagine her ever doing something like this. Also, where is Ava? I saw her in the promo for next week and rejoiced. We haven’t seen her since her awesome frying pan move.
Kavi: We both loved how mysterious and complicated Boyd has been this season. But now I’m not so sure. Do the writers even know what they’re doing with Boyd anymore? If he continues on this path, he’s just going to become the new kingpin of Harlan and end up facing off with Raylan. Back to square one. WHAT’S THE POINT OF ANYTHING, “JUSTIFIED?” And good point about Ava, she has been Boyd’s moral compass since season two. Is she breaking bad too? I don’t approve of this. And funny you mentioned the shot of Ava in the promo. I believe she was slowly undoing her brassiere. I blame the people doing the FX promos for relegating Ava to cheesecake voyeurism, but that’s a different topic.
Kayla: Promos for all networks are kind of the worst ... they’re so misleading a lot of the time. As much as I love “Justified,” they definitely have room for improvement when it comes to developing their female characters. I see true potential for Ava this season. I’m not quite sure she’ll break bad, but we’ll have to see. I hope the writers know what they are doing with Boyd because he is consistently one of my favorite characters. I want to know what he’s up to ... I can tell he has a plan, but he isn’t letting anyone in on it just yet. Also, I was happy to see Loretta this week even though it was brief. I’m wondering if they’re going to pull her into any of the main stories going on. I don’t see why they would have thrown her in this episode at all if that wasn’t the case.
Kavi: “Justified” does everything for a reason. I’m sure they have bigger plans for Loretta. If not this season, maybe like season six when she’s the new crime lord of Harlan?
Kayla: Ha, now THAT would be interesting. Once again, Raylan was kind of pushed to the side this week. He had some great moments ... like running over the prison guard ... TWICE! But there weren’t many new significant developments from him other than the fact that the Givens family sort of has a history with Limehouse, but who DOESN’T the Givens family have some sort of history with? And we didn’t get any of his home life this week, and that was fine with me. There’s too much juicy stuff going on in Harlan for me to care about his house hunting and impending fatherhood.
