RECAP: 'Justified' Sells A Moldy Stash Of Awesome

by uInterviewJanuary 18, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

Justified returned to FX Tuesday night in all its gunslinging glory with the appropriately named season three premiere, "The Gunfighter." U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens is back, but he's not quite the Givens we've grown to love.

Beginning where season two left off, the premiere opens as Winona (Natalie Zea) is pulled over to be informed that Givens (Timothy Olyphant) has been shot (he took a bullet in the Mags Bennett takedown in the season two finale). Cut to three weeks later and Givens finds himself too injured to handle a gun properly and restricted to desk duty.

Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) turns up with news about Mags' missing marijuana stash. The two bicker over Dickie Bennett (Jeremy Davies) — Crowder wants to kill him — and the two eventually come to blows, crashing through the window of Chief Deputy Art Mullen (Nick Searcy). Having violated his seemingly never-ending parole, it's back to jail for Crowder, and Givens heads back to the motel for some post-punch up coitus with Winona and a discussion about maybe finally upgrading their living situation (perhaps his impending fatherhood is getting the best of him).

Meanwhile, at the Crowder home, Johnny, Arlo and Devil are partnering with Boyd in a new weed business. The newly joined associates plan to unload the weed stolen from Mags' place, but their prospective buyer, Dunham, isn't interested in their moldy product. It seems the weed was bagged wet and no amount of smooth talking from Ava (Joelle Carter) can convince Dunham to buy some moldy marijuana.

Ava pays a visit to Crowder in jail and is instructed to tell Devil and the others to burn the useless marijuana stash before it draws federal attention. The gang, not terribly keen on taking orders from Ava, resists until Ava provides some motivation by way of a skillet to the back of Devil's head.

Back in Lexington, we find Neal McDonough and Emmett Arnett, who are in from Detroit. It seems Arnett's shady real estate business owes a bit of money to the Detroit mob. We are introduced to one Fletcher "The Ice Pick" Nicks, an employee of Arnett, who uses a pizza delivery guy as a conduit for a home invasion of a wealthy watch-shop owner. Nicks uses his namesake tool on the homeowner before turning a gun on him and the unfortunate pizza man.

Givens begrudgingly takes on the murder case, leading to a botched bust by Mullen before Givens finally finds himself face to face with Nicks in his motel room. Nicks receives a bullet to the shoulder for his trouble. Later, in a meeting with Arnett and Duffy, Robert Quarles, a representative from the Detroit criminal enterprise, is not pleased with how things have been going down south. He turns his gun on Arnett, killing him along with his assistant Yvette.