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Since it worked so well for my White Collar recaps, I’m going to do the Elevator Recap here as well: that is, a brief recap that would last as long as an elevator ride. (OK, maybe a 50-story ride with all the buttons pushed.)
Dewey tried to kill Wade Messer under the cover of night in a forest, but Messer got away and Dewey took a bad tumble trying to find him. Of course. It’s Dewey. NOTHING ever goes right for him. As if to drive that point home, it was revealed in Art Mullen’s office that Messer was a confidential informant for the government. Art Mullen sent Raylan Givens to go look for him since the C.I. had missed a prearranged phone call. Since Mullen also knew that Givens had history with Messer — the dope had helped Dickie Bennett set up the deputy marshal for Bennett to try to kill him in another season — he sent along Tim Gutterson, another marshal, to keep an eye on Givens.
Later Dewey woke up to find himself lost, with no cell phone reception. After stumbling around a while and even bargaining with God, he found his intended victim again, sprawled on the ground, dying. He was about to finish him off when a family that was hunting nearby saw Dewey, who was quite bloodied from his own fall. The dimwitted Crowe was able to get them to take him away on their ATV, leaving Messer behind unseen.
In their search for Messer, the two marshals found other Crowes, including Kendal, a young teen boy who was tending bar at Dewey’s whorehose, along with a rather ornery pit bull that belonged to Danny Crowe, who was staying at Messer’s place. There was no sign of the C.I.
In other situations, Boyd and Cousin Johnny met at the jail, along with Ava. It was a nice public Boyd attempt to foster a truce, but Johnny was having none of it. Boyd wound up having him followed by one of his men. He was going to go see him … with some firepower. It was just as he was leaving that Givens and Gutterson came in, looking for Messer. Boyd had known he was a C.I. and was feeding him bad info. Boyd gave him the number of the burner phone that Messer was using and Givens located him, with the help of some circling scavengers, dead. Dewey and Darryl Crowe (Michael Rapaport) also saw that Messer was no longer on this planet, which spared Dewey from having to try to finish the job.
In jail, Ava was threatened by a male guard and nearly raped in her cell, but a female guard was looking out for her. She intervened and then later beat the male guard up outside, warning him that Ava was protected.
Mullen had a conversation with Ed Kirkland, the Chief Deputy of the Detroit branch, about a possible lead in the Nicky Augustine murder and went out there to a talk to one of the Canadian mobsters that Boyd and Wynn Duffy had met in a previous episode. The mobster indicated that the late Sammy Tonin had said that he had a Kentucky lawman in his pocket and that Mullen could talk to Picker, who was staying at Duffy’s. This was pretty heavily pointing at Givens, though it really was an FBI Agent that was dirty (and was also dead).
Darryl gave Dewey a rah-rah speech about how the Crowes were going to do some really remarkable stuff in Harlan. Givens then came and took Kendal into custody, since he had been serving alcohol to people as a minor. Darryl said that he wouldn’t let him and it looked like there might be some gunfire, but Kendal decided to go with Givens into custody.
Raylan was with Allison and after they finished having sex, she was ready to have him leave, but he got her to talk about her day and she talked about a horrible situation with a father chaining his son to a radiator. The lawman decided to stay the night and comfort her.
Mooney showed Lee Paxton the fake dead hand of Boyd, so as to throw the scent off there. Mara, his wife, asked if he still wanted to pursue charges against Ava. He said he did, which would clear the way for her to make a romantic move on Boyd. Hmm.
After seeing that Johnny had teamed up with Hot Rod Dunham, Boyd found more hidden bodies at Johnny’s location.
Thoughts
Things are going to get really interesting with Givens and Mullen, especially now that Chief Deputy is digging even more into Augustine’s death.
Boyd is going to really lay the hammer down on Dunham and Johnny soon.
I foresee a big fight between Ava and Mara at some point in the season.
Michael Rapaport is a great actor, but I am not entirely seeing his menace as Darryl Crowe. Sure, he’s willing to have people killed — even his own family — but I think he’d run screaming from Maggs Bennett if he’d met her. She bludgeoned her own son’s hand, for crying out loud. Darryl’s more the delegating type.
Alison seems more and more like a good match for Givens. I hope nothing happens to her.
Best Lines
“Are you a midget? That’s a midget shovel.” — Dewey to Messer, who only had a tiny shovel, ostensibly to look for buried money.
“Blah Blah Blah Blah. I almost forgot how much I hate the sound of your voice. Using every word in Websters without saying a thing.” — Johnny to Boyd, who does love to use SAT words every opportunity that he gets.
“Well, you ain’t tailed a Crowder.” — Boyd admonishing his man to be careful in following Johnny.
“Did it get you?” — Givens asking Gutterson if the dog had bit him as they clambered up car roofs to get away.
“No, but I think something just came between me and my Calvins.” — Gutterson always has a line even under duress.
“You want to challenge?” — Boyd to Gutterson. Of course Boyd would play Scrabble with Gutterson while waiting for Givens to checkout Messer’s whereabouts.
“You’ll have to talk to Picker.”
“Picker?”
“Yeah. I don’t know if that’s a first name, a last name or a nom de guerre.” — The Canadian mobster showed Mullen an impressive vocabulary. Maybe he picked up a bit from Boyd.
“You going to send him back over the river?”
“Might as well. We’ve got too many damn Canadians here. Justin Bieber, Celine Dion…”
“Steve Nash.” — Mullen and Kirkland
“You sound like you’re trying to sell me tires.” — Dewey to Darryl about his Crowe family pitch.
