Justified: "Thick As Mud" (Episode 3.05)

Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste

Read our announcement | See the 10 Best Games of 2025 (So Far)

“This is the price we pay for the life we live.” -Ava Crowder

Someday Justified is going to be one of those shows that mass communications departments spend an entire semester on. Of course, there’s no need to limit it. Many departments could get involved. Classes could be taught in anything from philosophy to sociology to economics to, this week, basic anatomy.

Ethics and the Economy will be taught by Professor Limehouse. Ellstin Limehouse lied to Dickie Bennett. The Bennett fortune still exists (though Limehouse claims it is nowhere near the $3 million that Dickie suggested). The most interesting thing about the scene is that Ellstin is perfectly willing to steal the money, but draws the line at killing Dickie to keep it. As I’ve said before, where the characters draw their lines (and why) is perhaps the strongest point of the show. Certainly the driving force for many residents of Harlan County is economic, but there are apparently limits to how far those reasons can take you. For Limehouse, killing is allowable, but only for specific reasons that seem to go beyond simply money. We’ll see if that holds true as the season goes on.

The Women’s Studies department is going to have a field day with this show. Mags Bennett from last year is the best character the show has produced, but that’s not to say that the other female characters get short shrift. Winona only appears for one scene at the beginning (and another “domestic” scene interestingly) but her presence closes the episode and those bookends provide most of the emotional thrust of the episode. More on that a little later. Ava makes the most of her one scene with Boyd by fully embracing the reality of her new life, showing vulnerability and strength in a moment of doubt for Boyd that shows how deep their bond has gone. Joelle Carter is something of a secret weapon. She was initially interesting as a magnet for Raylan. You could see her as the bouncy teen that he remembered. Two years removed, the façade is gone and we see the adult Ava, the one who has suffered years of abuse, hardship and sadness. That Carter plays both versions without it seeming forced or faked (and with relatively few scenes) is a testament to her abilities. I hope she stays a big part of Boyd’s plans. Or should I say, I hope Boyd stays a big part of hers.

Most Popular

For this week’s main plot, poor misguided Dewey Crowe takes the spotlight (dissertation topic: Racism, Gullibility and Gator Poaching in the Deep South). Prison Nurse Lance has convinced Dewey that his kidneys have been removed (they haven’t been) in order to spur a spree of heists that will land Dewey enough cash to secure said kidneys’ safe return. Raylan and Rachel follow close behind but never seem to be able to get ahead of Dewey despite his complete incompetence at absolutely everything. Dewey is a fascinating character in that he stands in for a large part of the Harlan community. Even on his best day he is ignorant, desperate and morally repugnant. Yet somehow we still sympathize with him and there has been an unspoken treatment of Dewey since he appeared in the pilot that paints him as more victimized than malicious. Despite his tattoos and posturing, he maintains an innocence throughout and you really get the sense that given opportunities and education, he might have led a decent life. Or, at the very least, he might know what kidneys are for.

Philosophy 321: I Shoot Therefore I Am or “What Descartes didn’t know about being a lawman.” During the course of the investigation, Raylan comes across Lance’s girlfriend and partner in crime, Layla, played by the lovely Maggie Lawson (from Psych and also a Kentucky native). The two nurses drug Raylan in order to harvest his organs, but after a doublecross only Raylan is left alive though he is as surprised at the outcome as anyone. It’s always interesting to see how the show manages to get around weekly gunfights (and the bureaucratic red-tape that would follow) while still keeping the action quota high. Last week Raylan used his car as a lethal weapon, and this week he doesn’t really remember the shooting so no harm, no foul I suppose. I guess the two nurses skipped the “Malpractice, Urban Legends and Doomed Romances” seminar at the last medical convention they attended.

The two important emotional beats from tonight were both Winona-centric. Her admission to Raylan that she has given up both trying to change him and trying to find anyone else that she could love like she loves him is a beautiful moment and on its surface seems more maudlin than Justified usually gets. Raylan takes it at face value as well but misses the subtext. Though she is smiling when she says it, there are tears in her voice. When Raylan comes home to an empty house and a letter at episode’s end, we don’t need to know what is actually written on the page. Winona already told us all we needed to know and her words echo over the closing credits.

Maybe the Harlan Community College has a psychology course on recovering from having your wife leave you for the second time called “The Badge, the Broken-Hearted, and the Bourbon: The Trifecta of Southern Relationships.”

Some closing thoughts:
-The Western genre deconstruction and references flew were numerous this week. Boyd and Ava tenderly comparing their scars was very similar to a scene in the grand-daddy of revisionist Westerns, Unforgiven. And the scene where Quarles and Boyd have a standoff of literary quotations is a nice nod to Tombstone where Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo try to one-up each other in Latin to prove that they are both “educated men.”

-Raylan dispatches Layla by shooting through her boyfriend Lance’s body, which is piled on top of Raylan in the bathtub. This is very similar to how Timothy Olyphant’s villain character was killed in Live Free or Die Hard where John McClane chose to shoot through his own shoulder in order to kill Olyphant’s Thomas Gabriel. The easter eggs on this show know no limits.

-As I’ve pointed out in the past, much of the character development on the show stems from subtle distinctions that the characters make, particularly in moments of crisis. The fact that Dewey can’t resist rating the strippers on a ten-point scale while he is robbing them at gunpoint is a perfect example.

-Along the same lines, Dewey’s interaction with the clerk of the liquor store is telling. Robbing the store can be forgiven. Blaspheming cannot. That’s a useful piece of information to have in Harlan County.

Justified: “Thick As Mud” (Episode 3.05)