Justified: “Cash Game” Review

Justified Season 6 Episode 2

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Michael Spring in Drama, Reviews // 1 Comment

Raylan comes face-to-face with a “peacock,” while Boyd plans his next move in the aftermath of the bank job.

“WE’RE DEFINITELY GOING TO KILL HIM.”

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

Justified has a long backlog of villains who are excellent at verbal sparring: Boyd, Mags, Quarles, Limehouse, Wynn Duffy and more. All of these characters were born with the gift of the silver tongue, and we’ve hung on their every word as they’ve interacted with the similarly, sharp-talking Raylan. Garret Dillahunt’s Ty Walker looks set to continue this tradition of great characters, and he may even be one of the most dangerous people Raylan has faced. Not only is Walker a trained mercenary, but he has the wit to keep on top of any situation. It’s already clear that he serves his own master, but he may end up serving as sort of a “mini-boss” for Raylan before his inevitable confrontation with Boyd.

This was just vintage Justified. Even though the show features a number of talented gunslingers, the writers have never felt the need to fall back on gunfight after gunfight to progress the story. These first two episodes have had brief flashpoints, but for the most part, they’ve been quiet and focused affairs. The groundwork for the finale is being slowly done before our eyes, and each conversation or confrontation seems to give us a hint of what’s to come. We get to learn a lot more about Walker over the course of the episode. He’s full of friendly talk and flashy smiles, but there’s a glint of madness in his eyes. The “peacock scene” perfectly captured what his character is all about. He was actually offended at the accusation that he was all style over substance, and you could see it was still bothering him when he went back to murder that old couple late that night.

A big land grab in Harlan looks like it’ll be the core of the story this year. Walker and his associates are trying to buy up land for their boss, and Duffy, Hale and Boyd are looking to steal the money they’re using for the purchases. Raylan, and his fellow marshals, and Ava are going to be caught up in the middle of all of this. It’s all perfectly set up for a whole host of different collisions. The only thing that is up for debate now is who crosses who first. Boyd now knows the money he needs is locked up in the exact place Walker and his crew are guarding. The flipside: Walker now knows that Boyd may have been linked to the bank robbery. I’m already relishing the prospect of a conversation between Boyd and Walker.

With Dewey out of the picture, the lovable doofus role has been given to Walker’s man Choo-Choo. Well, loveable is actually a bit of a stretch. Choo-Choo has been rendered a bit slow after being hit with shrapnel while on duty, so he isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. On another show, Choo-Choo would have been played as straight up comedy relief, but there was a certain level of menace to him here. He reminds me of an even more oddball version of Coover Bennett in a way. He’s big and dumb, but fully capable of killing you if he needs to. His interactions with Raylan and Tim were hilarious though, from Raylan’s bemusement to Tim taking advantage of the situation to do some recon.

THE BREAKDOWN

We’re very early into the final season of Justified, but I’m really liking what I’ve seen so far. Certain elements of the previous couple of seasons had been a departure from the spirit of the show, but Season 6 seems primed to bring us home in a way that only Justified can. Each of the new characters introduced have hit the ground running, and we still don’t even know much at all about Sam Elliot’s mysterious character Markham yet. We all want to see our favorite characters drawn into one main plot for the show’s send-off, and “Cash Game” makes me think that’s exactly where we are headed.