Five Surprising Moments from Justified’s “Slaughterhouse” 

Warning: Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the season 3 finale yet.

Now that was a great hour of television. It was frightening and fascinating to discover the kind of man Bobby Quarles turned out to be this season. It was kind of great to watch Limehouse plan and plot and see his plan come together, before it all fell apart. It was sad to see Raylan lose his last remaining family when a pregnant Winona left him. And it’s always fun and dangerous to see what Boyd and his crew get themselves into and out of. But most of all it’s reassuring and always exciting to see Raylan and the Marshals go to work and (mostly) get their man.

Raylan plays russian roulette with Wynn Duffy. It’s hard to ruffle the feathers of Jere Burns‘ Wynn Duffy, but Raylan manages to do just that. Raylan’s tired of the run-around and he just wants answers. Now, I watched the scene a few times and it looks (and sounds) like Raylan puts a bullet in the gun’s chamber. Whether or not he did, Wynn knows he’s serious and starts giving whatever answers he can.

Duffy: “JESUS! CHRIST! There are cops outside!”

Raylan: “That’s right. They’re outside.”

Duffy: “You’re a cop.”

Raylan: “Deputy U.S. Marshal.”

Duffy: “Raylan, you can’t come in here and just shoot me because you you you feel like it.”

Raylan: “Why not? Ini’t that the way you guys do it? Isn’t that why Tom Bergen’s dead? Why his wife and children are grieving? So you know what? Now we’re gonna play by your rules.”

There’s a few things I like about this scene: 1. I never get tired of seeing Raylan act like a badass. 2. I love that Wynn is actually scared of the law. It’s brief – no more than a couple of minutes – but it’s glorious. 3. Raylan gets some information.

Raylan pulls on Limehouse and Erroll. There’s no way Raylan thought he had the upper hand, but his temper gets the better of him (again) and things get tense. Of course Limehouse has plenty of backup. Raylan knew what he was walking into and he chose to walk in anyway.

Raylan: “I want what you promised me.”

Limehouse: “I don’t know if I can get your Quarles. I might could get you Boyd Crowder.”

Raylan: “I’m listening.”

Not only am I glad he made it out of there alive (Timothy Olyphant‘s the lead to we knew he would), but he gets the information he needs on Boyd.

Shelby calls Boyd to warn him. It’s always good to see Jim Beaver – in any show at any time – and he proves just what a smart move Boyd made when he helped get Shelby into office. He tells Boyd that the U.S. Marshals are digging Devil’s body up and they’re also watching the house. Now Shelby says they’re square and thinks Boyd’s got about half an hour before the police come knocking on his door. The best part of this scene – well, the most heart wrenching for me – is when Ava’s reaction to this bad news.

Ava: “Boyd, please. You can’t just sit here. You gotta run.”

Boyd: “There ain’t nowhere for me to go. They would always know that I would come back to you.”

Ava: “It’s not how it’s supposed to happen. Without no warning. We need more time. I want more time.”

I know they’re both criminals and I don’t care. I love  Boyd and Ava. I kind of hate that Boyd turned Ava on to a life of crime, but you’ve got to be with the one you love right?

Quarles goes to Limehouse for money. First of all, I love that Limehouse literally has a piggy bank. Genius. I can’t help but love the way Quarles reacts, even though he’s got a gun in each hand and he’s crazy and desperate. And when he drops his guard for a second, the exiled Erroll comes to the rescue. Part of me was surprised earlier that Limehouse let Erroll get out alive, and if I’m honest it’s the only part of this excellent finale that doesn’t quite ring true. That being said, Erroll still dies for his sins in a way but so does Quarles. And the way Quarles goes out is another genius moment. Limehouse “disarms” him. Seriously? I loved it.

Arlo chooses Boyd over Raylan. That’s not surprising, it’s a given. What’s surprising is to hear Arlo take the blame for shooting Devil and watching Boyd walk scot-free… again. What’s shocking is to find out Arlo thought he was shooting Raylan when the “cop with the hat” was threatening Boyd. We know Boyd thinks of Arlo as family but we didn’t know until that moment that Arlo feels the same about Boyd. We suspected, but we didn’t know. Arlo felt that family bond so strongly that he was willing to shoot his blood to protect Boyd. Raylan claims to be unfazed.

Winona: “Only thing I don’t understand, why why did Art think you’d be upset?” 

Raylan: “I think it was why Arlo shot Bergen.”

Winona: “Which was?”

Raylan: “He didn’t know he was a state trooper. Just saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at Boyd.”

Winona: “A man in a hat?”

Raylan: “Yeah.”

We knew the Givens men had issues, but there’s no getting around this. Arlo even apologized for treating Raylan the way he did when Raylan was a boy. I don’t think I was dumb enough to believe they’d be a happy family again, but maybe I thought it was a step in the right direction to some kind of relationship. I guess Raylan saw the apology for what it was – an empty gesture. Or maybe he’s holding all that disappointment and anger inside and we’ll be seeing it come out in interesting (and probably destructive) ways next season. I can’t wait.

Justified returns for season 4 next winter.