Justified "Cottonmouth" Review

At some point every week I'm reminded I never want to piss off Mags Bennett. If a woman is willing to smash her beloved son's fingers with a hammer for disobeying her, imagine what she'd do to a shlub like me. Oh, never mind we've already witnessed the bear trap and poisoned cider scenes. She is one bad lady.

Justified is one bad show too. I thought Justified was one of the better shows on television last season with a terrific but somewhat uneven first year run. This season they've worked out the kinks and have elevated themselves to one of the premier shows on TV along with Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad and Mad Men. So how did they get to this lofty position?

Well this season Raylan is doing real Marshal work instead of running around shooting everyone. He's working cases. He's working towards bringing down the Bennetts but he's also working the individual cases that may or not be connected to the season long story arc of the Bennett clan. They've brought in the Bennetts. Mags is a frightening villain capable of any sort of atrocities. Her sons range from bad to deranged and lack any fear of law enforcement. There are secrets we crave to discover but have only been hinted at so far.

The biggest payoff for this season though has been the evolution of Boyd Crowder. Boyd's character has a depth and sensitivity worthy of our sympathy that he lacked last season. Last season he was pure wild card antagonist. This season he faces moral and ethical dilemmas that affect his and Ava's survival. We've been able to see him work through these issues while trying to find his true self in his choices.

I think that true Boyd is what we finally saw this week. He realizes the only thing he's truly good at is being a criminal. However, he also found there may be a higher calling for a lifetime crook than selfishness and greed. There's giving back to those who care for you. Maybe there can be good gained by evil deeds. True Boyd gave in to the temptations of robbing the mine but when faced with the putting himself in danger or having the blood of an innocent clerk on his hands, he chose to turn his back on the evil doers and give the innocent clerk his life back. In return the clerk (Shelby) looked the other way for his part in the crime. Boyd is smarter and better than most of the criminals Raylan faces from week to week. Combine his intelligence with a conscience and he is now a tremendously complex and interesting character.

Most of the talk this week about Raylan came from him tasering a guy in the nuts. That was funny and I bet painful but that was but a blip on Raylan's day. Chief Deputy Mullen was right when he said Raylan "was fishing with dynamite, trying to see what would float up" in his dealings with the Bennetts. Raylan knows the Bennetts have killed Walt McCready he just can't prove it yet. Still he keeps throwing those sticks of dynamite in the Bennett lake to see what he can stir up. Loretta is the person in the most immediate danger from Raylan's pursuit. Even though Mags has taken her under her tutelage don't think for a minute she wouldn't leverage that girl to get a leg up on Raylan and the authorities. We saw this week that Raylan is aware of the danger he's putting the girl in and offered to rescue her if she's ever in trouble.

If any of the Bennetts are going to do something stupid it's going to be Coover. He's been itching to rub out Raylan since Raylan first stepped foot on their property. Dickie is sadistic and greedy but not prone to the idiotic mistakes Coover is. Maybe his new flat finger will remind him to stay clear of Raylan and any other potential trouble for the family but I doubt it.

Random thoughts:

• I'm still itching to find out the history between the Givens family and the Bennetts. Whatever it is Arlo doesn't want any run ins with the Bennett clan.
• I loved how cool Boyd was throughout the entire robbery compared to his accomplices. He was always three steps ahead of them.
• Every scene between Boyd and Raylan is gold. 
• I loved Boyd's question of what it said about him that he never thought to tell Raylan of what Kyle and company were up to and let him handle it.
• I think Boyd has found a way to help Ava rationalize his involvement with his old lifestyle.
• I'm not all that excited about an episode next week revolving around Winona. She's very nice to look at but I'm just not that interested in Raylan's love life.