I Can Still Arrest People You Idiot

The first season of Justified was as good as a television season gets, it kept building and building until the payoff of the season finale. Season two switched thing up almost ditching stand alone storylines completely with most episodes devoted to Hatfield’s and McCoy’s type relationship between Raylan and the Bennett clan, the area’s top marijuana export or to Wynona’s money problems thanks to her estranged husband poor business practices. (It should go without saying what the better storyline was this season.)

What was amazing, as great as the Crowder family, The Bennett’s managed to one up them this season in no small part thanks to Margo Martindale who commanded every scene she was in this season. She was blessed with the Larry, Curly and Moe of sons which makes you wonder whatever happened to Papa Bennett. When the police chief is the smart one, who you can actually see wheels spinning whenever he is around Raylan as he tries to figure out how he could kill the marshal and get away with it, you are in trouble. This is probably she took the spitfire Loretta under her wings, so she could pass down her legacy to someone who was not a complete moron.

Without too many stand alone episode, there were much more peaks and valleys this season unlike last season that kept building with ever new episode. First things built to Winona’s bank robbery, then to the Black Pike Mountain whoop-di-do, then to Coover’s demise, and the last couple episodes built up to the finale for the biggest showdown between the Gibbons’ and Bennett’s with Boyd stuck right in the middle.

Going into the season finale, the question was not who was going to die, but how many, and by whose hand. So many permutations going into the episodes and many more were added as it went along. Loretta finally exacted some sort of revenge of her father’s killer by putting a hole in Mags. Surprisingly the only Bennett to survive was the one with the biggest bullseye on his back, Dicky, who got a bit of his own revenge on Raylan in the form of a baseball bat. More surprising was that Mags drank some of her own apple pie upon learning a second son died by the gun thanks to her actions.

So as we go into season three both Raylan and Ava have a bullet each in them. And I have sinking suspicious that will not sit well with their significant others for different reasons. It is hard to think after putting bullets in both girlfriend and wife and aunt of Boyd, Arlo and Raylan respectively, the lone remaining Bennett may not be long for season three even in police custody, though he may not want to be sprung this time around. And with child Wynona may rethink her relationship with Raylan seeing him with a sizable flesh wound after telling him not to go down to Harlan. Should make for an interesting third season as long as Raylan does not get transferred to gun training.

Justified 2.x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale. You can stream episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.