One thing I did not expect heading into the final season of Justified was that I would get more than a little sad about the death of a dumb murderous ogre named Choo-Choo. But there we were last night in the woods with Choo-Choo standing between his old military friends and the sweet hooker that he was having second thoughts about killing after she was nice to him for like 30 seconds, and goddamn if my heart didn’t go out to the guy. For all I know, he was an evil, bloodthirsty monster before the shrapnel (and bones) ended up embedded inside his skull, and his current associates and brief discussions about their duties during the war seem to indicate that might be the case, but man. Poor Choo-Choo. I’ve never done a faster 180 on a man who killed someone with one runaway Amtrak of a right hand. Rest in peace, Hillbilly Khal Drogo.
Elsewhere in Harlan, everything is going to hell for everyone. A quick rundown:
Boyd is being snitched on by the love of his life, and his new criminal associate is sabotaging mine shafts to save him after he falls halfway to his death. Ava has the same problems she had before, but swap in Limehouse telling Boyd what she’s up to instead of Fekus telling Wynn. Raylan’s narrow ass probably would have died in that shootout had he not been able to hide 80 percent of his body behind a single skinny tree, plus Rachel knows he and Ava were up to something that could jeopardize the operation. Markham’s crew of mercenaries are all dead or on the run and Katherine turned down — or least pushed, temporarily — his marriage proposal, despite the luxurious bathrobes, champagne, and pomegranate-sized rock that were setting the mood. Wynn’s concerned Markham’s playing Katherine, and presumably that he has an even tan for beach season. And Tim is … actually, Tim is pretty cool. Tim’s always pretty cool. Love that guy.
The point is that we are now six episodes into the final season, just shy of the midway point, and the entire show is basically a spring that has been pushed down all the way, ready to unload all that stored-up energy. Shaping up to be a doozy of a swan song.
And now, the highlights:
– Couple more Choo-Choo notes. First, how he got his name, from an interview with actor Duke Davis Roberts at Vulture…
It came from Timothy Olyphant’s brain. He talked to the writers and had them change my name. He told me there was some baseball player whose nickname was Choo-Choo [former Mets and Phillies catcher Choo-Choo Coleman]. Tim thought that was so funny, and they just ran with it.
… and second, about his death, from Graham Yost’s postmortem at Yahoo!:
Originally, the character was called Mundo, and Tim [Olyphant] came up with the idea of, “What if he’s called Choo-Choo, and he died on train tracks? He got hit by a train? Wouldn’t that be awesome?” We didn’t know exactly how to make it work without it feeling too jokey, and it was really, really tough. So this was the version that we landed on, that the train doesn’t hit the car and it’s just a matter of he was bleeding out anyway.
Timothy Olyphant seems fun.
– If I had one complaint about this season — and it’s more of a concern than a complaint, really — it would be that the stuff with Markham and his gang is kind of overshadowing the stuff Boyd is doing. At least right now, and especially with everything hitting the fan for them last night. That said, I’m only basing this off of what I’ve seen so far, and I reserve the right to do a complete 180 on this statement once I see how things all start coming together. I just like Boyd, is all.
– Speaking of Boyd, we got another great Boyd/Raylan scene this week at the dinner table. My favorite part was Ava stepping in to cut through BS after a while. Boyd and Raylan have this thing where their conversations are often super loaded with threats and knowing winks even when the words they’re saying seem straightforward, and it was fun to have someone acknowledge that.
– That quote in the GIF up there — the one about seeds of distrust in a garden of assholes, the one Raylan said he “read somewhere” — is from Elmore Leonard’s book Glitz. Very sneaky, Justified. And well played.
– We are not making a big enough deal out of the local Harlan pizza hangout being called the “Pizza Portal.” THE PIZZA PORTAL.
– I know the restaurant was empty at the time, but imagine if you were sitting at the table next to Ty and Avery, trying to enjoy a nice slice of thin-crust with sausage and green peppers, while they were trading war stories about IED explosions mangling bodies and feces-encrusted Vietnamese Punji sticks. No thank you.
– Anyway, for a supposedly hopping local eatery, the Pizza Portal sure does seem to be empty quite often in the middle of the day, no? I’m thinking too hard about this.
– Heeeeeey, look at Art, back in the office, sitting in his old chair behind a desk filled with pictures of Rachel’s family while she sits on the other side like a rookie. Looks like someone’s got themselves a little Marshal stiffy going.
– Still not entirely sure what the plan is down there in that mine, but I do know that Boyd is down one henchman, and Uncle Zachariah is up to some devious business, sawing planks to damn near kill Boyd only to turn around and save his life. Dude who got the “babysit Ava while listening to thrash” definitely got the primo job of the crew. Crawling around a booby trapped abandoned coal mine with a gaggle of schemers and murderers is not my idea of fun.
– Whether Avery is playing Katherine or legitimately thinks she was the snitch way back when, I think we can all agree that proposing in a plush hotel bathrobe over a champagne breakfast is a solid move. If you get a yes, you can toast and celebrate in luxury. If you get a no, you can drink your sorrows away in comfort. And if you get something in between from the woman who is trying to rob and/or kill you and you may or may not be playing her because you know that, well… then you get one of the most ominous hugs you’ll ever see. But at least you’ll have those robes.
As always, your thoughts below.
