Justified: Season 3 Finale

I knew as soon as Robert Quarles (Neal McDonough) first appeared in "The Gunfighter" that he and Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) would eventually square off and that the imminent showdown would come riding a wave of hype and tension that had built up slowly and effectively over the course of the season.  Especially after witnessing Quarles' descent into self-destruction, his face-to-face promise to unceremoniously murder Raylan, and, most immediately, his alleged shooting of Trooper Tom (Peter Murnik), I was salivating at the prospect of the blue-eyed antagonist getting his comeuppance, fantasizing about just what scenario the writers would concoct to dispose of a man who had been so charismatic, so easily and blissfully evil that no punishment—certainly not pedestrian imprisonment—could ever suffice.

But I was also worried. Justified, of course, sports a protagonist with a reputation for being quick on the trigger, but after two prior season finales featuring climactic gunplay, there'd be no better way for the show to reveal itself as a one trick pony by leaning too heavily on the 9mm crutch. Thankfully, Justified is no ordinary show and Raylan Givens is no ordinary U.S. law enforcement official.

"Slaughterhouse" is a fitting and effective way for season three to wrap up not only how it ties up the threads that have entranced us since January, but also how it acts as a narrative microcosm of everything that had come before it. The twists, betrayals and double-crosses flew like bullets in season three and there were a fair share of unexpected reveals in its conclusion which ensure that no matter the primary focus of season four, there will be plenty of intrigue to make it well worth watching. 

Enraged at the fatal shooting of Trooper Tom, Raylan makes a visit to Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns), seemingly intent on coming through on his promise to make their next conversation a lot shorter. Raylan has never been one to shy away from letting his gun—or at least, the threat of it—do the talking, but to see him show such disregard for Wynn's life with a game of Russian Roulette is a shocking moment in how it exemplifies a man coming apart. Wynn, for all the trouble he's caused in the past, has always been a minor threat, the kind of guy who deserves more of a good roughing up than a bullet through the heart.  Seeing Raylan put a single bullet in a six-shooter and spin the chamber shows he's crossed the line from the darkly humorous "don't make me shoot you" to the just plain dark "I don't care if I shoot you." 

What's led Raylan to this point, of course, is the information from Johnny (David Meunier) that Quarles was responsible for Trooper Tom's death. To the viewer and to Raylan this makes sense, but a brief peek in at a phone conversation between Limehouse (Mykelti Williamson) and Johnny, in which it's revealed that it was Johnny who relayed the location of Devil's (Kevin Rankin) body to Limehouse, cast a shadow of a doubt over that insistence on top of setting up a Crowder vs. Crowder conflict for the future. Indeed, Johnny's word proves to be completely false as Quarles, on his deathbed—here taking the form of Limehouse's slaughterhouse floor—reveals that it wasn't he, but Arlo (Raymond J. Barry) who ended the trooper's life. 

The way Quarles ends up bleeding to death on said floor is a brilliant subversion of expectations by the Justified writers. Raylan and Quarles do meet face-to-face, but with Raylan unarmed, a willing sacrifice given in exchange for the life of a young boy the desperate Detroit gangster had taken hostage. When the two make their way to Limehouse, who previously showed no warmth to the marshal when he came looking for Quarles, it's with Raylan at a clear disadvantage. For a brief moment there's a legitimate worry that Quarles, despite his vile nature and his failed enterprises, may actually get away with it. But what kind of fun would that be? It's a bit surprising that it's not Raylan who seals the deal, but that Errol's (Demetrius Grosse) role in Quarles' death gives closure to a troublesome, but not ill-willed character. Seeing Limehouse sever the man's arm with a meat cleaver is abrupt, dramatic and immensely satisfying in not only how unconventional it is, but how slowly and painfully it would undoubtedly be for Quarles to die. Thus, without a single shot fired, writer Graham Yost has brought an end to one of TV's most charismatic villains.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a shot to someone's heart. After the dementia-afflicted Arlo is picked up for Trooper Tom's murder, he also claims responsibility for Devil's death, which gets Boyd (Walter Goggins) off the hook and effectively signifies that he's replaced Raylan as his son. Though Raylan claims, and has claimed, that his father's behavior doesn't effect him, the show still closes with him relaying his story to Winona (Natalie Zea), who left him long ago, in what will be his own son's nursery. "He didn't know it was a state trooper. He just saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at Boyd." he tells Winona before departing. There in the nursery, enveloped by the unspoken assurance that Raylan's son will grow up largely alienated from his father, we see the clearest picture of who and what Federal Marshal Raylan Givens is, and potentially, who and what he'll always be: alone. 

The life Raylan has chosen to lead has resulted in him losing Winona twice, in driving Ava (Joelle Carter) into the arms of Boyd, where she's become a proactive criminal, and in his own father inadvertently not killing him. More upsetting than these consequences is the question of whether Raylan’s actually chosen this path or if this is how it's meant to be. It was, after all, his violent nature that resulted in his being reprimanded and sent back home. He's always been likable, he's always been cool, but this episode and this season have done a terrific job at making him sympathetic.