Justified: The Trash and the Snake Review

Beware, this Justified review contains spoilers…

“What’s it like holding someone’s fate in your hands?” Ava asked Raylan.

Raylan’s in the midst of yet another dilemma on tonight’s episode of Justified, “The Trash and the Snake.” Boyd’s the usual “trash” that Raylan places on the side of the road, only for it to be knocked off over by a stray dog and scattered to the four winds. 

Two vengeful and venomous snakes, in the persons of Katherine and Avery, have been slithering about Lexington, preoccupying Raylan’s mind. Suspicious deaths and implied threats are cropping up as Avery’s land grabs increase. Possible legalized marijuana is the end game for Markam. 

Katherine’s not to be trifled with, a fact that Ava came to realize after their girls’ luncheon and afternoon about town. She likes attaching and tugging at the strings of potential pawns and victims she keeps at arm’s length. She’s a silent assassin that lurks in the middle of the night. She’s the type of woman who slept with her husband’s business partner while he was alive, and continued to do so after his death. 

If Katherine’s a ninja, Avery and his team are loud and obnoxious, pounding their chests and making guttural noises. Markham has a smell of sulfur about him, like the demon on earth his reputation paints him to be. Katherine’s his ideal evil priestess sitting next to him on their wicked throne. 

Raylan’s situation is made more difficult because Avery’s set his sights on Loretta, the teen drug dealer. He’s always had a soft spot for her even she was her most ungrateful and rebellious. No doubt he’s projecting a protective paternal instinct toward her more so now that he’s a father.

There are many moving parts and players on stage in the unfolding scheme. Raylan’s taking the trash to the curbside for pickup is no longer a simple task his mother might have asked when he was a child. The cracked sidewalk in his adult life has sprouted overgrown weeds, with hidden snakes aiming to crawl up and over into his cowboy boots in search unprotected flesh to plunge their deadly fangs. 

Ava’s near the end of her rope, stuck with Boyd at the hotel and unable to escape to a safe place that Raylan’s promised. Katherine might not know the specifics of her early release, but only trying to rattle her nerves, a delayed sting for the former cheerleader. Is sex enough to satiate Boyd’s curiosity and erase any lingering doubts that he might have about Ava? Ava can’t risk it either way because she knows the consequences — death for betraying Boyd or return to prison.

Will Avery issue an order to torch Loretta’s house, or worse her death, to get her land? Raylan seems to think so, and has made his position clear that the geriatric cowboy is to back off. Perhaps he does have a black heart, which would leave Raylan with no other option than to kill him before he follows up on the threat. No prison would contain Avery Markham, he’d be as dangerous from behind bars, unless Katherine has him killed as was Grady.

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