5.7 Raw Deal Now onto the two characters who actually had their stories advance in this episode. Clearly the distance between Ava and Boyd continues to grow deeper as Boyd does not show up for visiting hours at the prison. Of course, Boyd is off to Mexico to try to get his heroin directly from the Mexican Cartel he is now doing business with. Ava whose life is in danger from the neo-Nazis who hate her for being involved with a ‘race traitor’ is desperate to seek protection. Her new friend Penny convinces her to find “God” (really just a ploy for Ava to join Penny’s prison gang which is run by an old time inmate turned preacher responsible for smuggling drugs into the prison for the inmates). Penny convinces Ava to help them smuggle drugs into the prison in return for protection. Ava agrees, but is not happy about having to prostitute herself out to the guards in order to make this a smooth transition. She devises a clever plan to plant the drugs on one of the guards and his accomplice which cuts off the supply of drugs to the prison, which she claims that thanks to her connection Boyd, she can happily help start up again. If nothing els, it shows for the first time in a long time that Ava has always been opportunistic when it comes to her survival even if she is prone to trusting the wrong people. It also continues to raise some serious questions about the American penal system and shows just how corrupt some particular institutions can be. Arguably, the real heart of the episode centered around Boyd’s trip to Mexico and he is surprised to see his cousin Johnny waiting there for him. It looks as though Johnny has made his own deal with Boyd’s Mexican cartel connection and in doing so, has finally bested his cousin. Boyd is turned over to Johnny and upon agreeing to not kill Boyd in Mexico, Johnny sets off to reap the rewards of his clever planning. Upon being double-crossed Boyd has a classic line in which he says “Now I understand you mexican cartels have a reputation but let me tell you something, so do the rednecks in Kentucky.” Lines like this from Boyd always make taking in an episode of Justified enjoyable even if it’s not firing on all cylinders. Lastly, Raylan and Art do have a mini confrontation in which we are made fully aware that Art is still grappling with how to handle this situation with Raylan. Raylan decides that he has had enough of doing what he calls “shit” duty. He tells Art to transfer him or put him back to real work because he is certainly not going to quit. This line of thinking does highlight how clueless Raylan can be at times as he thinks that doing a couple days worth of “shit” duty is enough of a penance to pay for being a key component in a major homocide. At the very least it looks like the tension between Raylan and Art will be there for the rest of the season and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Overall a decent but far from great episode of Justified in an otherwise solid season. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
