Justified Season 6 Episode 4 Review: “The Trash and the Snake”

So many great things happened on last night’s episode of Justified that I don’t even know where to begin. Part of me just wants to list my favorite moments from the episode (which probably would be every single scene) bullet point style, but I won’t. I’ll do my best to make this write-up more than just a list of “best moments.”

The title of “The Trash and the Snake” comes from the conversation that Raylan and Art have at the beginning of the episode. Raylan says that it’s an old saying: if your mother asks you to take out the trash and you find a snake while you’re out there, you don’t just take care of the trash and leave it there–you take out the garbage and kill the snake. It’s and analogy that fits perfectly with Rylan’s current predicament, as he wonders if he should just go after Boyd or try to take down Avery Markham with him, and Art warns Raylan that he better be careful: he might find himself getting bit.

But Raylan, of course, doesn’t listen to Art’s warning, and he spends most of the episode with Tim tracking down people that Markham and Walker approached about buying their land. We discover that Markham’s plan is to buy up a bunch of land in order to use it to grow marijuana, as he has inside knowledge that the drug will soon be legalized in Kentucky. Neither Raylan nor Tim has a problem with the legalization of pot; however, they aren’t big fans of Markham and his men using intimidation or, in the case of the one couple that called Walker a “peacock,” death to obtain the land they desire.

Near the end of the episode, Raylan and Tim’s search leads them to prison, where we are treated to the return of Dickie Bennett (the always fantastic Jeremy Davies), whose first words to the Marshals are “What up, pimps?” On its own, Dickie’s reappearance would have been great (I seriously re-watched that scene at least three times), but it’s the information that he unknowingly provides that makes Tim and Raylan’s interrogation of him so important, as he reveals that he didn’t sell his land to Markham–he sold it to L.M. Consolidated, which turned out to be Loretta McCready (returning guest star Kaitlyn Dever).

And again, similar to Dickie’s reappearance, Loretta’s return is fine enough on its own, as the character and Dever were crucial to the success of Justified‘s second (and best) season, but it also leads to this episode’s pivotal scene, in which Raylan and Markham finally meet. Timothy Olyphant and Sam Elliott are nothing short of excellent throughout the whole sequence, which is tense and gripping, and even though you know neither man is going to die right then and there, a sense of dread and fear still pervades it. We haven’t even seen Markham kill anyone yet this season, but between last week’s exchange with Ava and Boyd and this week’s scene with Raylan, he’s already proving to be not just a colossal improvement over Darly Crowe but one of the best villains Justified has ever given us.

The main story alone would have been enough for me to give this episode of Justified ten out of ten stars, but the two subplots of “The Trash and the Snake” are just as terrific. Everything about Boyd and Wynn’s interactions with the Wiz, right down to the simple-minded fool accidentally blowing himself up, was quintessential Justified. I don’t know what else to say about it besides that it was perfect.

Meanwhile, Ava’s fun day trip with Katherine Hale quickly transforms from an enjoyable distraction into something much more in its final scene, as Katherine most certainly knows how and why Ava is truly out of prison, bringing up the guard whose confession supposedly allowed her to go free. I keep saying it every week, but the praise is deserved: Joelle Carter has been brilliant so far in this final season. The way she believably transitions from laughing and smiling with Mary Steenburgen’s Katherine to the being stone-faced and worried to completely breaking down, all in the matter of minutes, is acting at its best; it’s because of her performance that we are so invested in Ava’s story this season.

Ultimately, what makes “The Trash and the Snake” such great television, and an instantly classic episode of Justified, is how well it not only knows its characters but the world that the series has created. From wacky individuals like Dickie and Wiz to this season’s villains, Markham and Katherine Hale, to our main trio of Raylan, Boyd, and Ava, Justified is so assured in its characters and the stories it’s telling with them because it has made Harlan County into more than just a fully-fleshed out fictional location–it truly feels like a real place, one that I will miss visiting every week once this final season ends.

Other thoughts:

– I would love nothing more than a Justified spin-off called Wynn and the Wiz, featuring guest appearances by Boyd. Come on, Justified writers, let’s make it happen, even if the Wiz isn’t really in good condition anymore.

– “Well, I know what all daddies want. They’d want their kids to be safe.” Justified is starting to worry me with how many times it has already brought up Raylan being a father. This can’t be a coincidence. Will he have to die in order to keep his daughter safe?

– Also, if anyone was curious about how Tim wanted to die, he gave us quite the creative answer last night: “I want Sigourney Weaver to choke me out with her thighs.”

– Katherine Hale keeps becoming more and more interesting every week. I loved learning all the history about her and husband in this episode, especially the fact that Markham was behind him going to prison and probably his “suicide” as well.

– Please, let this not be the last we see of Dickie Bennett.

– Or Loretta for that matter. Justified is always better with Kaitlyn Dever.

– “WHAT UP, PIMPS?!”

What did everyone think about last night’s episode of Justified?

[Photo via FX]