Justified: Sounding Review

“I like Ava, it’d be a shame to have to kill her.”  – Katherine Hale

Tonight’s episode showed Ava on the edge, looking for the nearest exit. She’s done all she thinks she could have to remain alive and out of prison. Boyd’s no fool and she’d best keep her quivering upper lip and trembling voice steady during the police checkpoint Raylan organized. Rachel and Raylan might be running out of time and options on the RICO case that would send Boyd to prison.

Ava previously wanted to remain in Harlan, and Boyd wanted to escape to parts unknown. Once Boyd figured out that Avery was the man pulling the strings behind the proverbial curtain, he changed his mind, thumped his chest and salivated. His focus shifted, and he’s ready to show Markham who runs Harlan County, Kentucky. Can Boyd’s ragtime operation outwit and outgun Markham’s mercenaries? If so, what will come of Katherine and Wynn, who he’s had issues with before? Will Boyd rid Harlan of his competition?

Viewers will have to wait a few more episodes to see if his slight of hand comes to pass, or if he’ll be on the receiving end of a bullet or Choo Choo’s brute force.

The quickest way to man’s heart is through his stomach, or so Ava hoped with her cooking an old-fashioned Southern breakfast for Boyd. She had to keep her hands calm and mind preoccupied while her former fiancé lurked about. Boyd has loved Ava for years, and she’d be the last person he’d expect to double-cross him. Raylan’s toying with Ava’s life, and she’s not tolerating much of it. He needs to realize that she’s not as equipped to take care of herself, pistol at the ready, as he’s capable of doing.

Reenter Ellstin Limehouse, one of my favorite recurring characters, a possible ally for Ava in her current time of need. Limehouse has been a past rival for Boyd, which makes it all the more compelling that she found her way to his secluded wooden hideaway. Batting her eyes and flipping her blonde locks wasn’t enough to sway him. Limehouse is first and foremost a businessman, only cash will do.  

In one tent, Raylan and Rachel’s overseeing the operation. Ava’s running into the sides and tripping over her feet in another tent, unsure of her next footfall. Boyd’s silver-tongued seduction recruited Zachariah, Ava’s uncle, into his expanding tent of tricks and tools. Markham and Katherine are camping out in RV’s, ready to roll at a moment’s notice, if they get what they want.

The tension is simmering, and on the brink of a rapid boil as Boyd and Zachariah formulated a plan on how to force their way into the rear of the pizza parlor to steal the money from the reinforced safe. Boyd’s crew might cause more trouble than he wanted or needed with the noise of their dress rehearsal.

The weeks leading up to tonight’s episode have rekindled Raylan and Ava’s feelings for each other after she killed her ex-husband, and he rode in on his white horse, Stetson hat askew on his head. I think this would be a greater betrayal than her being a criminal informant from Boyd’s point of view.