What I’m Watching: Justified

Justified: Season 6, Episode 11 “Fugitive Number One” (B+)

This episode reframed things in a big way, and I think it’s totally fantastic. Raylan has always followed his own set of rules, and, aside from getting transferred to Kentucky, he’s gotten away with that. But Vasquez summed things up in a relevant and disconcerting way: Raylan messed up a case beforehand because he was sleeping with Ava, and now he’s done the same thing, let his feelings for her cloud his ability to bring down Boyd. It was hard to see her betrayal of Boyd coming, but Vasquez made a good point when he noted that trigger-happy Raylan holstered his weapon for the first time when she was running off. Art telling Raylan that he would be the one coming after him if he continued to disobey orders was terrific, and now Raylan is going to be on the other side of the law even though his intentions are still good. It’s hard to find enduring loyalty these days, and mutinous actions of number twos seem to result exclusively in death. Boyd opting to reward Carl’s last-minute change of heart by killing him as a distraction was cold and unforgiving, and now there are so many different players out there with different goals, including Ava and Zachariah, who have just discovered that an important element of their plan is no longer viable. Mike deciding that Catherine couldn’t kill Wynn was a sweet final act of loyalty, and somehow Wynn, the prisoner in the situation, managed to be the only one to walk away alive. The final two episodes of this show promise to be intense and electric.