Justified Season 4 Episode 2 Review “Where’s Waldo” – And the hits just keep on coming
| January 15, 2013 at 11:05 PM ESTIt’s a rare day in Raylan Givens’ life where things don’t get just a bit frustrating. And from the look of tonight’s episode of Justified, that rare day is still a ways off from coming around again.
Things are quickly weaving together this season and this episode “Where’s Waldo” is only the second one back! I need to sit down.
So, as you may have read in the many interviews with series creator, Graham Yost, there is no real “Big Bad” this season. Instead, and probably more realistically in a way, Raylan & Co are tending to a series of issues and problematic people. Of course those issues and problematic people will tie in with Boyd & Co, because, well, this is a small town, y’all. The chances are it’s just going to happen.
So far we know there was a diplomatic bag that had a driver’s license belonging to Waldo truth in Arlo’s wall. It’s the stuff of legends and apparently worth killing for. Also, there is a new tent-church preacher in town causing all sorts of problems for Boyd.
How do these two seemingly completely unrelated stories intersect? Well the guy that Arlo killed in prison is part of Wynn Duffy’s (he’s back!!) Dixie Mafia. Since Arlo is part of Boyd’s crew, Wynn came to see him about it. Although Boyd thought he was there because turns out Wynn’s people have left their designated town and have been selling heroine in Harlan. That’s so against the drug dealers code! Between that and the church converting the easily swayed, like Ellen May, Boyd’s losing all of his cash! Boyd deals with the church by basically getting Preacher Billy to claim he doesn’t want any of the townspeople’s money because he is just there to bring the word of Jesus… sister Cassie isn’t too happy. Between Wynn and Billy, Boyd will have his hand’s full.
Although, over at the Marshall’s office, Raylan is blissfully unaware that any of this is happening. He is just focused of finding out, as the title indicates, Where’s Waldo? The answer? Dead. He was the guy that went splat in the street, as it turns out. But the fun of getting to that answer – Art, Tim & Raylan spending quality time hunting down Waldo’s white trash family that’s been taking in his disability checks for 20+ years – was well worth the trip. Art is apparently retiring and the decision of filling his position is going to be a tenuous one, but the ride to getting there filled with snide dry comments from Tim and Raylan is well worth it. The three of them made for some damn fine TV. I would have taken an hour of just them sitting in the car waiting out someone picking up the check.
But as Raylan gets closer to figuring out this bag situation, which inevitably will pull him into all of Boyd’s troubles with Wynn, he has his own stuff going on. Bartender Lindsey, who until this point has been quite the match for our Federal Marshall in the Hat, has a secret up her sleeve. An angry, and if his backyard boxing is any indication, probably deadly, husband.
Here’s my favorite thing about the episode, besides Tim (yay TIM!) – Raylan’s constant “You’ve got to be kidding me” face. The man just finds himself surrounded by crazy and stupid at such a constant clip that he is always trying to keep up with it. It’s as if he can’t possibly believe there is something else around the corner. Whether it is a family smoking pot in front of him, or a man coming in to the bar when they are closed and tossing around barstools for reasons that at that point remained unexplained. It’s no wonder he, as Art says, has been investigated so often IA has him on speed dial. The guy has earned his frustrated behavior.
What did you think of the episode? Do you like the fast clip that things are playing out without a season “Big Bad?”
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