Justified has two of the strongest leads on television today in Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins.  The show is always better when these two are together, but they're each solid enough to carry separate stories.  Which is great, because their paths still haven't converged in season 5.  Instead, Boyd is still trying to get outta Mexico with his drugs and Raylan got a standalone story that revealed some interesting truths about Wendy and Kendal Crowe.  More thoughts on "Whistle Past the Graveyard" after the jump.

Throughout this season, the only connecting thread are those damn Crowes.  Down in Mexico, after gunning down Hot Rod's crew (including their connect to help them across the border with loads of heroin, d’oh!), Daryl and Danny execute step two of their plan to rip Boyd off.  Luckily Jimmy is fluent in Spanish and he overhears two of Daryl's Texas buddies talking shit.  This confirms what Boyd was already pondering - the Crowes are planning a double cross.

justified whistle past the graveyard timothy olyphant

Not that Boyd ever really trusted them to begin with.  Although Dewey's always been too chicken shit to go against him, Daryl and Danny are loose cannons (Danny in particular).  Boyd's fine using them as extra muscle, but I doubt he'd ever enter a business partnership with the boys.

I have a strong feeling that whatever the Crowes' endgame might be, Dewey's going to be the linchpin.  He'll either go against his family, helping Boyd recover the drugs or side with his kin.  His frustration with his brothers has me leaning towards the former choice.  Then again, he was pretty pissed at Boyd over the Audrey's money, so he could stick with his bros.  Either way, I believe Dewey will have a crucial role in the fate of his family and Boyd.

While Boyd tries to get heroin into the States, Ava is trying to get some into prison.  I've expressed my dislike of Ava's story so far this season - it feels extremely disconnected to the overall narrative.  "Whistle Past the Graveyard" didn't do much to sway that opinion.  She managed to get a nurse to open up a pipeline for her, sure, but it felt like nothing really happened to advance her story.  Plus, her obliviousness to Boyd's current plight means that she does not actually have access to drugs, so where the hell is this story going?

Last week, Kendal called up his Uncle Jack, who's first shown pretending to be a kiddy diddler.  This was just a joke with Kendal, but reflects how full of shit he is throughout the rest of the episode.  Ya can't trust a man who wears sunglasses with a missing temple, my grandpa used to say.  Or who pronounces roller coasters "rollie” coasters.  The man's a hustler, so it's no wonder Wendy wants him to stay away from Kendal.  Then we learn that he's Kendal's dad and she's his mother.  This isn't a game-changing reveal or anything, but it's nice to know that Kendal is only half Crowe, meaning he may have a shot at a normal life.

At the end of the episode, Raylan is no closer to catching Daryl and he gets dumped.  This wasn't the best 42 minutes for him. Besides moderating the hand-off between Jack and Michael (that included just a pinch of violence), Raylan didn't have much to do. Hopefully he kept the receipt for that bikini.  And hopefully he’ll start being used better in this season’s overall narrative.

LAST CALL

  • Jimmy's been around since season 3 and he's basically been treated like an errand boy ever since.  This season he's been seriously overshadowed by Carl, who's proven himself to be a highly effective henchman.  So tonight it was nice to see Jimmy become crucial to Boyd's well being thanks to his fluency in Spanish.
  • Heavenly Mother has no idea how hard she hit the nail on the head when she said to Ava "Almost every woman is in here because of a man. Are you any different?"  She's in prison to begin with for killing Delroy.  And now she's still in prison thanks to that weasel guard who framed her for shanking him.
  • The only interesting thing to come out of Ava's story this week is that the nurse requires a favor from someone on the outside.  She doesn't say exactly what, but I have a feeling it's going to add another tick to the body count.
  • William Forsythe's voice...holy hell.  How did Michael find Jack so fast? He showed up at Audrey's briefly after Jack gets into town then catches up to him at the strip mall.  He's good.
  • Best one-liner: "You're both under arrest. Since you're a fugitive and you're a dick." - Raylan

Body Count: 0