Justified: Cash Game – Review

Following up on the season six premiere of Justified seemed like a tough task. That first episode contained new characters, returning favorites, and important storylines. In fact, last week’s premiere was one of Justified’s best episodes in a long time, setting the bar fairly high for episodes to come. Thankfully, “Cash Game”, the second episode of the season, was up to the task. This second episode introduced more new characters, streamlined the stories, and included some of that Raylan charm that the show is known for.

Following up on the season six premiere, “Cash Game” follows the story of Boyd and the mysterious ledger that he stole. Boyd has no idea why this ledger is important, but he does recognize that the ledger’s owner should be properly motivated to pay for its safe return. Being the good person that he is, Boyd calls the ledger’s owner—a realtor named Calhoun Schrier—and offers to return the ledger for a price, leading to a run-in with Raylan.

Unknown to Boyd, his theft of the ledger also sets off a chain of events involving Ty Walker, the mysterious, bearded man who offered to buy the Givens estate. Walker and his friends, Sea Bass and Choo Choo, set out to discover Boyd’s identity and make him pay for robbing the bank. Of course, Walker is following Raylan and Boyd while Raylan is following Walker and Boyd, which results in a rather entertaining chase. Honestly, the sequence of events plays out like a more violent Marx Brothers routine because of the circular fashion.

In reality, Walker is more than a rich, bearded man with a sweet Mercedes. Walker is part of a secretive security firm—along with Sea Bass and Choo Choo— and he seems to be quite insane. Despite this apparent insanity, Walker is actually a really entertaining character, especially when he is called a Peacock. Garret Dillahunt plays Ty Walker in a way that makes him one of the most entertaining villains in Justified’s six seasons. Walker actually rivals the drug-addicted psychopath Robert Quarles, played by Neal McDonough, in pure entertainment value. For example, Walker will spout a huge monologue about land value or omelets while using big words that sound nice, but this monologue will actually turn out to be a roundabout threat against someone’s life. Walker actually makes you pay attention just to see what he is talking about. Plus, you have no idea what Walker is about to do, which makes his character more exciting.

“Cash Game” was also a fantastic episode of Justified in that it streamlined some of the stories and remained focused for the majority of the episode. Instead of bouncing around from Ty Walker to Dewey Crowe to Boyd Crowder to Ava to Raylan to every other character in Kentucky, the show stuck with the main story of Ty Walker and his land purchases and Raylan investigating the bank robbery. Plus, the entire episode included Tim Gutterson helping Raylan with the investigation. All of the scenes with both Gutterson and Raylan included some of the best-written dialogue of the entire series because of all the little jokes and random comments. Gutterson even had a great scene where he conducted his own investigation into the private security force by way of jokes and trickery.

I absolutely love that Justified has returned to the roots of action mixed with witty dialogue and less-than-serious moments. Sure, the show is still fairly dark, but Timothy Olyphant and the other actors still find a way to mix in jokes, snappy comebacks, and entertaining moments. The best moment of this last episode happened when Raylan met Choo Choo for the first time. The interaction between the characters was very humorous and resulted in an important branching storyline involving a car.

This new season of Justified keeps getting better as the story unfolds and new characters are introduced. It may be disconcerting to see Sam Elliott in a guest role minus facial hair, but his character more than makes up for the weirdness. Elliott seems like a decent fellow right now, but I have a feeling that this pleasant attitude won’t last.

Honestly, this final season of Justified is so appealing because who knows how it will end? There haven’t been any hints as to where the show will end up, or why these new characters matter so much. It’s pretty exciting to be in the dark and have so many episodes on the horizon.