Justified Finish

Last night wrapped up the second season of the F/X series Justified, featuring Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens. Here are some very spoilery thoughts on the season, so don't read if you don't already know how things wind up and want to watch it for yourself.

The Good: The evil Mags Bennett gets her comeuppance, and ends her life in an eerie echo of the way she poisoned Walt McReedy, Loretta's 's father. After all of the death she's orchestrated, she ends her life knowing two of her sons are dead because of it and Loretta, the young girl she hoped to raise, knows Mags killed her father. I'd also been worried earlier that we would see Loretta want to return to Harlan because the loving family that was sheltering her was too boring for her. Fortunately, she came back seeking revenge for her father rather than a return to the pot-selling business, and equally fortunately, she was talked out of taking it.

The Bad: I found Boyd Crowder wrestling with living an upright life a lot more interesting than a Boyd Crowder who returned to being a criminal, primarily because we've already seen him be a criminal in Season 1. I also thought the slide was too abrupt; after the botched mine robbery/murder Boyd simply says, "This is who I am?" He's been far too complex for a switch-on/switch-off change like that. It felt like a D&D character flipped from "chaotic good" to "chaotic evil" on a dice roll. And although I like what Winona brings to Raylan's character as well as their respective portrayals by Natalie Zea and Olyphant, I think her pregnancy leaves the pair in an awkward position. I'm afraid most of the possible resolutions are pretty "TV-ish," like a miscarriage or Winona leaving Raylan...again. Justified has mostly resisted those kinds of things and I hope that continues; the writers have been inventive in supposedly retread situations so far and easily could be again.

The Ugly: Dickie Bennett, duh. Websites and reviewers are talking Emmy for Margo Martindale's role as Mags and, er, justifiably so. But Jeremy Davies can't be far behind for his work as the utterly craven and loathsome middle son of Mags. Not as smart as big brother Doyle but not as tough as the late Coover, and lamed by Raylan during a particularly violent fight in a youth baseball game, Dickie managed to develop the only character trait he had -- ratty meanness -- to a fine art. His stringy hair, patchy beard, unwashed face and whiny sadism/cowardice make Dickie a roach you yearn to step on, completely erasing earlier roles as the earnest Lost physicist Dan Faraday or the idealistic Saving Private Ryan translator Corporal Timothy Lapham. Dickie, like most roaches, survived the Bennett extermination at the end of the show and so may return. But as the one who shot Boyd's love Ava, whatever life he has will be harried and possibly quite short, whether Ava survives or not.