Much of what tonight's Justified was about was catching up with Boyd. Not just where he is physically, working in the mines and living with Ava but where he is mentally. Last season his "conversion" seemed a little contrived and insincere but watching his father get shot down by the Miami hit men seems to have had a real effect on Boyd.
He has resolved himself to living a quiet life with Ava as his guide. He works, drinks alone and goes home. But the problem that faces most reformed criminals, especially the good ones, is that someone always wants to get you back in the game. Boyd seems annoyed by Dewey's attempts to get him to help with an oxy robbery and even more so when he's approached by a fellow miner, Kyle.
When Raylan is called in to investigate an abandoned church bus that has been robbed as part of an oxy run his first instinct is to check on Boyd. With the help of Ava, he finds Boyd again drinking alone insistent that he's living a straight life. I think at this point Raylan is just confused as we are whether or not Boyd has honestly changed. His steadfast denial of wrong doing almost appears to be a facade created to shield him from suspicion. Raylan always the bully reminds Boyd the best way to stay out of prison is to help them instead of working against them.
You have to feel for Boyd when the only "friends" he has in the world are lowlifes whose only intentions are to use him for illegal gains. The most useless of all being Dewey. Boyd's struggle for peace presents us with a side we never saw last season. We now have a reason to sympathize with Boyd. You want Boyd to find his peace even though a part of you knows he's only likely to find it in the ground.
In an act completely against Boyd's own ethical code, he calls Raylan to inform him that Dewey had pulled a robbery disguised a Raylan and gave him his whereabouts. Dewey continues to remind me of The Black Widows from the Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way But Loose. He's a criminal but the kind that can't get out of his own way. Somehow he throws a wrench into every one's lives and usually is only saved because Raylan is there to arrest him.
The best scene with Raylan is by far when Doyle thinks he actually pulled the oxy robbery and tries to strike up a "see no evil" deal. Raylan's interrogation of Doyle's witness is classic and exactly the reason we like Raylan. He gets directly to the point and moves on.
What we learn is that Dickie and Coover are behind the oxy robbery and threatening to disrupt the peace between the Bennetts and the Dixie Mafia. I don't know what would scare me more facing a group that calls themselves the Dixie Mafia or telling Mags I went against her wishes. We know for sure the Bennett boys fear the latter much more.
The episode ends essentially where it began. Boyd drinking alone searching for peace between work and home. His co-worker Kyle urging him to get back into the outlaw business. After being thrown from a moving vehicle I don't think Kyle will make that mistake again. The depth actor Walter Goggins is bringing to Boyd this season is astounding. Without many words or the crazy antics of the character we saw last season Goggins is expressing the pain and struggle Boyd is constantly battling with. Great episode for Boyd and Goggins.
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