Justified was a TV show that ran on FX for six seasons. It was based on one of the best of Elmore Leonard’s characters: Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant). Givens is someone who lives in the grey; he might be a lawman, but he doesn’t mind doing unlawful things if it helps him save someone innocent. As in all of Leonard’s stories, he was surrounded by all kinds of colorful characters, good and bad, which made this show one of the most entertaining shows of the 2010s. Here are its best episodes:
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7 S3/E5 - Thick as Mud
20th Television
Leonard always loved unique, stupid, fumbling criminals; and Dewey Crowe (Damon Herriman) was the greatest homage Justified could have given him. Dewey is the stupidest, to the point that his incompetence is almost endearing. This episode is his, and only his. Dewey gets broken out of prison by a prison nurse, and wakes up in a bathtub with two incisions where his kidneys should be. If he wants them back, he’ll need $20,000.
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MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Dewey never thinks that it could be a ruse (even though he can still go to the bathroom, and even comments on it, thinking he might have four kidneys), so he embarks on a frustrating crime spree as he discovers that most people now buy things with card, and there’s not much cash to steal. Justified could be tense, scary, trepidatious, and sometimes hilarious. This episode is in the latter category, led by one of the worst criminals ever, someone who always gave the show its funniest lines.
6 S6/E9 - Burned
With only four episodes left in the show, things got tenser and tenser with every second. In this episode, the cards start to fall into place for the big finale. This episode has tense sequences, a beautiful conversation between Raylan and Ava; surprising killings, a messy plan to blow up a vault that fails, and the return of fan-favorite, Loretta (Kaitlin Dever), who seems to be the smarter, wiser, future of Harlan’s legal weed business queen.
It also has the surprising treason (or is it?) of Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns), becoming a snitch just to survive. The Justified writers said in a television academy panel that they had decided to kill Wynn Duffy three times, but that he was too fun to have around.
5 S6/E13 - The Promise
The show’s final episode gave us an almost too-western-for-itself duel, between Raylan and the new, cocky, evil, and quickest shooter. What resonates most are scenes between Raylan and some of the characters we’ve been watching through six seasons. Especially the talk between him and Boyd Crowder; they’re two sides of the same coin, who choose opposites sides of the law; but they still have a connection as “they used to dig coal together.”
This episode shows why Raylan Givens is one of Timothy Olyphant’s best performances ever, as he is stoic, cocky, and has a soft side. All the emotions the actor plays to perfection. The showrunner, Graham Yost, told The Austin Chronicle, why Olyphant was the perfect actor to play Raylan: “He could be cool, he could be charming, he could be sexy, he could be romantic. He could also be very serious, scary, threatening, and violent. And that’s the great thing about Raylan, is that he’s all those things. Tim was perfect for that.”
4 S4/E11 - Decoy
After three seasons with “big bad” villains, season four decided to do a mystery instead. One unresolved for thirty years: who was Drew Thompson? In the last episode, it was discovered that the culprit was the sheriff, and he was hiding in plain sight all this time. Now, Raylan and company must take him away from Harlan, as all the evil characters from the season want him dead. This episode is pure tension from start to finish. From the trap to stop the convoy that becomes a match between the Marshals and the bad guys, to the torture scene of Constable Bob (Patton Oswalt), to the standoff between Raylan and Boyd.
Leonard also wrote “3:10 to Yuma”, and you can see some influence of that story here, as all the scenes keep one-upping each other, creating more and more pressure for our heroes. Nobody would fault us for stopping breathing during the duration of this episode, as it’s as tense, as it is thrilling.
3 S1/E1 - Fire in the Hole
Not many pilot episodes are as fully formed and sure of themselves as this one. Although, not many pilot episodes are based on Elmore Leonard’s stories (Fire in the Hole). The show already knew itself well enough to set the tone and ideas it would follow for the next six seasons. On this first outing, Raylan had a “justified” shooting in Miami, and came back home to Harlan, Kentucky, to find an old friend, Boyd Crowder, as the town’s worst drug dealer. In the original story, Boyd dies at the end of his confrontation with Raylan, but Walton Goggins was so good, that not only did they decide not to kill him, he became a series regular, in what was the best decision the creative team could have done, as the dance between the two ex-pals is one of the most important themes of the whole show.
2 S3/E13 - Slaughterhouse
Justified always knew how to do season endings. The moment where all the dominos fell, and all the different stories became one. This episode is no different. In the slaughterhouse that gives the episode its title, we find out what happens with all the evil characters this episode has shown us, especially Robert Quarles (Neal McDonough), the Detroit mob, Limehouse, and Wynn Duffy. Quarles started as the season’s most professional killer, but after some time in Harlan, and once his plans were derailed, he became a pill-popping psychopath who hates Raylan. What could go wrong?
The final confrontation is spectacular, as every character has their own motivations and interests. The episode also gives Raylan some personal stakes, as he understands that his father tried to kill him, and although he says it in passing, you can hear in his voice all the pain he’s hiding.
1 S1/E13 - Bloody Harlan
Justified was one of Elmore Leonard’s best TV and cinema adaptations, and it is in episodes like this one where it shows. The Bennett family appeared in one of Leonard’s final books about Raylan, and the TV show gave them a lot more depth, making Mags Bennett one of the best villains in a TV show, ever. The incredible performance of Margo Martindale (who won an Emmy for the role) also helped to give this unique character all the villainess, love, and smarts, this motherly figure has. Loretta appears looking for vengeance for his father’s death, and Raylan must stop her before she does something that will change her life forever.
The title is more than suitable as everyone is at war for the heart of Harlan, and many might die. Including Mags in an incredible final scene, full of regret, but dignified as she poisons herself with her “Apple Pie” moonshine. It was Justified’ s best episode ever. Or at least until the revival can do something even more incredible. We can only hope, as that would mean an incredible, thrilling, fun, and unique television episode.
