Justified: Season 4 Premiere

One of the most intriguing elements of Justified has always been the razor-thin line of demarcation between the characters of Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). Though making their livings on different sides of the law, the childhood friends share many of the same attributes: a cool head under pressure, gravitation toward loneliness, and a propensity for solving their problems with violence. The two mirror each other so well that one almost wonders what would've happened if the tables had been turned—if Boyd had been the one to have escaped Harlan County instead of Raylan.

The parallels between the two former friends were what added such fascinating subtext throughout previous seasons, simultaneously connecting the two emotionally while also, like two magnets facing each other with the same charged sides, driving them apart, deeper into their own well-worn ways of living. If "Hole in the Wall," is any indication, it seems like season four may not have everyone's favorite smooth talkers crossing paths with each other as often as they have in the past, but they're still connected to each other whether they realize it or not.

Two shots near the end of the episode connect the two in spirit as Boyd is seen stashing away $10,000 in a ceiling tile while Raylan tucks away $3,000 in his underwear drawer. Both men are saving money for the sake of their families: for Raylan, it's so that he can help provide when his son is born and for Boyd, it seems to be so that his own family—Ava (Joelle Carter) and Johnny (David Meunier)—will have something to survive on now that the Oxycontin business is in sharp decline. 

The primary threat to Boyd's empire, as relayed by former crony and new Christian convert Hiram (David Ury), is Preacher Billy St. Cyr (Joe Mazzello), the leader of the Last Chance Holiness Church. The kind of church that meets in tents and features snake handling as par for the course, the Last Chance Holiness Church has been eliminating Boyd's clientele through much more powerful means than murder: redemption. Cured from their Oxy addiction through the power of Christ, Boyd's former degenerates are cleaning up and clearing out, with fake $1,000,000 bills advertising for the church showing up everywhere around Harlan, including in the trailer for simple-minded prostitute, Ellen May (Abby Miller). 

Hiram seems so dedicated to the church that it's not even until two sticks of lit dynamite are wedged beneath his crotch that he gives up the location of Boyd's money. "I was gonna give it to the church," Hiram says.  "To try and make up for all the bad things I done." Without even having seen the church, its power and influence is made immediately clear. Boyd has a new trick up his sleeve as well in the form of old friend Colton Rhodes (Ron Eldard), who shows he's not afraid to get his hands dirty even if he has problems understanding directions (but seriously—how would YOU interpret the direction of "take care of him" from Boyd Crowder?). 

Raylan was able to score his cash from some under-the-table bounty hunting, tracking down a parole violator who was foolish enough to believe that Raylan Givens is foolish. It's not an easy score for Raylan though, being sidetracked by the whole "teenage girl flashes her tits while her boyfriend steals your car" routine. What they were after was a raggedy bag stashed in the wall's of Arlo's (Raymond J. Barry) empty house, their previous attempt to pilfer it having been unsuccessful thanks to the arrival of Constable Bob Sweeney (Patton Oswalt), a glorified security guard who nevertheless always carries a "go bag" filled with weapons and supplies in case things "go Mad Max." 

What the teens wanted was the bag (its only content being a Kentucky driver's license issued to "Waldo Truth"), but what they got was both the bag and the fugitive Raylan had stashed in the trunk. The illegality of Raylan's actions are what forces him to summon Bob for help instead of the police and Bob, in his own unusual way (getting kicked in the groin and stabbing the girl in the foot), makes way for Raylan to save the day. 

The significance behind the item that incited the mayhem—the bag—is so far shrouded in mystery, though a pre-credit sequence from 1981 shows that a parachuter fell to the earth with the bag filled with cocaine. In the present day, Arlo plays dumb when confronted by Raylan but knows enough to slit the throat of a fellow prisoner who comes around asking for it. 

"Hole in the Wall" is a reminder of what makes a show like Justified so unique. Only in this show could a character like Constable Bob, who is so goofy yet so earnest, toe that fine line between absurdity and sincerity and fit right in. He keeps good company with Raylan Givens, who, if you pay close attention, is really quite an asshole to everyone around him—did the parole violator deserve to be thrown into the trunk? Did he really have to house a $20 can of Macadamia nuts then declare them years later to be "the most overrated of the nuts?" Did he have to be so condescending to Rachel (Erica Tazel) about "Nit-flix" and "the cool kids?" Raylan has arguably broken the law more than anyone we've seen him chase (well, probably not Quarles) and yet we'll keep loving him as long as he keeps up the quips: "you run into an asshole in the morning, you run into an asshole. You run into assholes all day, you're the asshole."

Similarly, Boyd Crowder has almost killed Raylan a few times and yet we're already eyeing the Last Chance Holiness Church skeptically because we know it's detrimental to Boyd's business. The fact that a church with rapidly spreading influence can be run by such a baby-faced young man also raises its own questions, and being that this is the county that destroyed Boyd's personal faith with its uncaring, unchanging nature, I can't imagine that Preacher Billy's intention for wiping out Harlan's Oxycontin problem is entirely godly.