The season finale of Justified is tonight. This is both very exciting (“HOW WILL EVERYTHING END?”) and very depressing (“DON’T GO AWAY I NEED YOU!”). The entire season has been terrific from beginning to near-end, starting with Raylan somewhat peacefully shacked up with a sexy bartender and then taking us all on a hunt for a fugitive who had been hiding in plain sight for decades. I don’t particularly want it to end, but I also don’t particularly have a say in the matter, so here we are, I guess.
And so, with that in mind, I’ve gone back through our GIF-heavy recaps of this season’s episodes, and pulled out 20 of my favorites. Some of them are quotes, some are subtle little moments, and some involve constables spraying bullets into a house or FBI agents getting shot in the face inside a Winnebago. This show has range, and I’ve tried to illustrate that with my selections, which are presented in no particular order.
There were many great lines from Boyd Crowder this season, as there are every season, but this was probably my favorite. It also serves as a nice glass of red wine to complement the t-bone steak that was Raylan’s “If you meet an asshole in the morning, you met an asshole. You meet assholes all day, you’re the asshole” line from the premiere.
We learned a lot about assholes this year.
If you have to die — if you really have no say in the matter — there are worse ways to go out than screaming “GET SOME” over and over while trying to fight off a man 30 years your junior.
Raylan dishes out his fair share of punishment, sure, but every now and then he’ll also get shot with a beanbag at point blank range by a felonious former paramour. He has a complex existence.
This GIF gets included because, really, that’s one hell of an entrance. Limehouse is terrifying.
Shoutout to the old man in this GIF, who, later on when Raylan inquired as to how and why this underage rascal got away, replied “She showed me her titties” in a manner that made it seem like the most obvious and best explanation possible. Which, well, yeah.
Art talked a lot about his “marshal stiffie” this year, which brings up two important points:
1) Marshal Stiffie would be a good name for a character in the Justified porn parody.
2) Art is great.
Here is the aforementioned GIF of the FBI agent getting shot in the head inside a Winnebago, which I love because, from another perspective, it is a GIF of Ned Ryerson getting murdered by the host of GUTS.
Also, Wynn Duffy, ladies and gentlemen.
Ah, the heartbreaking moment when Ellen May thought she was free. This was tense as hell.
Speaking of Ellen May, there are not enough shows on television today where drugged up prostitutes mistakenly shoot high-ranking government officials because said government official is a furry who put on a big scary bear costume before they started boinking.
So many great Tim moments this year, but this one gets the nod because it packs about 30 sentences of his patented sassin’ into one silent eyebrow raise.
Most of what Raylan does is influenced by his, um, let’s say “complicated” relationship with his father, which is summed up pretty well by the old man’s last words.
Never forget that Paul Kinsey from Mad Men showed up for one episode and stole a pair of panties off a clothesline.
Subplot of the Year: Boyd wants (or wanted) to open a Dairy Queen. I must know more about this. Immediately.
I’m still upset no one has contacted me about my pitch for Jackie Nevada: Foxy Grifter. IT’S GOT EVERYTHING: Jackie Nevada, foxy grifting, etc.
Patton Oswalt’s Constable Bob has been a joy this season, whether he was firing an automatic weapon all willy-nilly at the Harlan Illuminati…
… or turning a Detroit goon’s leg into beef stew. More of him, please.
The sweetest moment of the season. Things haven’t exactly worked out for these two lovebirds since this scene, but still, HUMAN EMOTIONS, Y’ALL.
We knew it was coming all year long, and sure enough, Tim finally put down Colt, inside the church no less. Please consider this your periodic reminder to never, ever mess with Tim.
And please consider THIS your periodic reminder that Raylan Givens will happily empty out a bar and put a couple bullets inside your important parts if you push him. Raylan do what Raylan do. Never forget that.
We’ll close this out the only logical way, by letting Art sum things up. The hunt for Drew Thompson took up most of the season, so it was easy to get lost in the action and just ride along from adventure to adventure, but when you zoom way out and look at it like this, it, like this whole season, was indeed some badass sh-t.
