“Noblesse Oblige” – the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged.

Justified is, at its core, a series of Goofus and Gallant cartoons. The criminals and occasionally Raylan portray Goofus whereas Gallant is for the most part Rachel (Erica Tazel, House of D) or Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles). “Noblesse Oblige” includes several instances of Highlights for Children‘s signature column (at least since Norman Mailer stopped contributing) that I’ve enumerated below:

Goofus gets shitfaced the night before an assessment with the people who are keeping you out of prison. Gallant drinks responsibly.
Goofus steals explosives from his dad. Gallant makes his own explosives.
Goofus searches downstairs of a pizza place bank under the pretense of looking for the women’s bathroom. Gallant breaks in at night.
Goofus leaves the Goofus of Goofuses in charge of securing downstairs. Gallant doesn’t entrust any non-knocking down job to someone named Choo-Choo.

“The feds seized what I love most.”

“Noblesse Oblige” is something of a breather episode, in which the plot doesn’t develop as much but gets everyone on the same page. Sam Elliott knows Boyd robbed him; Boyd knows who he robbed and why Katherine Hale put him up to it. Ava is attuned to exactly what kind of danger she’s in by yoking herself to Boyd. Even Rachel and Vasquez (Rick Gomez, uncredited thug in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Good One) know Ava is a fucking mess and by extension so is the RICO case into Boyd Crowder. This episode sees Rachel ride with Raylan, and while it’s not the laughfest the Raylan/Tim partnership is it’s not too shabby. One of the criticisms that’s been there since the beginning is the show underserves Tim and Rachel. It’s true that they don’t appear in every episode and don’t always contribute to the season-long plot, but when used they’re not often wasted. Rachel cuts a different kind of authority figure for Raylan; Raylan could get away with more when Art is in charge because Art’s kind of an asshole too and thus when pressed will believe the Givens asshole method works. She, by contrast, is cool, level headed and not taking any of his shit. The character has a history of doing well with authority thrust upon her, like helping her single mother raise her sister or taking care of her nephew after the sister’s death. The interim chief duties came from her predecessor getting shot.

I’d be okay if he is shown getting out of a tanning bed for every scene he’s in.

The Raylan plot isn’t particularly noteworthy, and it’s largely an object lesson for him to learn about fatherhood and how far dads will go to protect their children, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. For one, it develops part of Boyd’s crew, Carl’s brother Earl, who is notably ambivalent about continuing with the crew and the one with the explosives connection. He’s also a fucking idiot, as evidenced by him calling Raylan Givens a pussy who hides behind his badge. Raylan Givens has killed more people than anti-vaccination people, and Earl receives a deserved dick smashing. Criminals on Justified can be divvied up into two categories: the ones with self-awareness and the ones lacking it. This goes back to the Goofus and Gallant thing: Wynn Duffy understands his limitations, doesn’t overstep his bounds often, and thus he’s still alive. Earl I’d be surprised to survive the halfway point of the season. The plotline is also some nice fleshing out of Raylan’s backstory, since he “dug coal with” the guy whom they believe is providing Boyd with explosives. Luther Kent relates a story about how Raylan drank so much moonshine on the job it was astonishing, while Raylan corrects him that he dumped the shine when the other miners weren’t looking so as to build a reputation. Luther ultimately takes the fall for his son, even though as Raylan points out it won’t keep the kid out of trouble. I can see Rachel’s frustration with the RICO case; this week all they accomplished was cutting off Boyd’s explosives connection. A setback, sure, but not exactly the noose tightening.

Garett Dillahunt’s role has become “magnet of mockery”. You know you’re not respected by anyone when Carl of all people gets a dig in (“you and your beard”, for reference). At least Boyd realized “damn, son, you like to talk as much as I do”.

I love how much mileage Justified (still) gets with the simple act of characters meeting each other. I cannot calculate the amount of love I have for Ava and Choo-Choo interacting. The way Choo-Choo kinda laughs and says to Ava “no, they don’t cook pizzas in it” shows that Choo-Choo definitely already made that mistake. Choo-Choo’s pathetic attempt at asking for a woman’s number made me chuckle too. Walker and Boyd meeting is even better, because the latter is nursing a hangover. Too often on television or in movies characters get shitfaced and then either have no hangover or the hangover dissipates completely when it’s time for the plot to move forward. Boyd’s never at the top of his game in “Noblesse Oblige”, from sending his girl to scout a location for him to embarrassing himself in front of Markham (Sam Elliott, Ghost Rider). There’s benefit to be underestimated and there’s Sam Elliott telling you haven’t changed since you were 10, still playing pretend outlaw instead of being one. You can see that really rattled Boyd and brought him “all in” to Hale’s scheme. You can also see the greatest appearance of Wynn Duffy yet. It’ll take a lot to top him in a tanning bed, criticizing his lackey for interrupting him, because talking messes up the facial tan. Not much later he refers to Crowder’s oratory as “poetic down home hilbilly bullshit”. That’s it, I’m saying Wynn Duffy is the Gardockustified Player Of The Game. Each winner receives five cheese sandwiches (provided by Beth Auron) and two tickets to a Winger concert.

Being a patron of Boyd’s bar must be as weird as being one at Paddy’s.

Despite the fact that Avery Markham’s not actually done anything yet (unless you count smoking reefer with Mary Steenburgen, which is more than understandable), he’s still exuded more menace than, man, I don’t even know. Maybe it’s because of residual affection and terror for Sam Elliott, but he’s not even second to Mags Bennett. Chekhov’s Lack of Mustache could explain things. (Chekhov’s Lack of Mustache is the dramatic principle first seen in Russian vodka purchaser Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya; it states that if someone you expect to have a mustache doesn’t have one in the first act, they will have one by the third; otherwise it’s unnecessary for him to have a face at all.) His intimidation style is by making his targets uneasy with themselves. With Boyd it’s infantilizing him and with Ava it’s calling her “something that can be threatened or hurt just to keep your man in line”. Boyd’s image of himself and Ava’s sense of agency in her life are the two most important things about them and Markham takes a big shit on both of those. It’s also a credit to Sam Elliott’s acting abilities that he can be intimidating while telling two people they’re no longer welcome at a pizzeria.

Anyone else get a flashback to the scene in Frankenstein where he’s playing with the little girl?

If there’s one concern I have with the season thus far, it’s that the Givens bodycount is at a disgustingly low zero. I don’t want to hear talk about how a reticent trigger finger is illustrative of Raylan’s maturity increasing over the seasons. Jack Bauer killed approximately 80 people a season and I think we can all agree he’s the model of a nuanced, three dimensional character who has grown from a young guy whose wife got amnesia and whose daughter had a battle royale to the Jason Voorhees of the international political scene. I suppose it’s the sacrifice a program has to make when it decides to be a show about characters as real people, in a real setting, doing things that aren’t impossible based on physics, logistics and good taste. Timothy Olyphant does get to say “I’m gonna shoot your dick off”, which I would use on a soundboard if I was in middle school and in the practice of prank phone calling people. The blueprint of how a Justified season goes is out the window (typically it’s a first half of setting a table and the second half of firing at ketchup bottles and forks in the second) now that there’s nothing to preserve. Anything could happen! Tim Gutterson could join the Guardians of the Galaxy, maybe Boyd gets sprayed with mutagen and becomes a Cajun alligator man, everything’s a dream, everything’s a dream in the Civil War, who knows! I’m excited to find out whether or not Justified truly is a prequel to Maximum Bob.

Finally, before we go, it’s the answers for Olyphant or Elephant from last time.

1. Killed for ivory. Elephant. Elephants are killed for their ivory.
2. Was one of the killers in Scream 2. Olyphant. He shared Ghostface Killer duties with Laurie Metcalf, which makes about as much sense as you’d think it would.
3. Has no natural predators. Olyphant. The only thing that can kill him is another Hitman.
4. Can swim – uses their trunk to breathe like a snorkel in deep water. Olyphant. That’s why he’s never gotten plastic surgery.

There’ll be more in a few weeks. The study of differentiating Timothy Olyphant to big eared grey freaks is a neverending process.

How many people did Raylan shoot/kill?: 0, 0 for the season
How many people did Boyd shoot/kill?: 0, 1 for the season