Justified: Fate’s Right Hand – Review

After a long break, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is back in action.

Justified returned on Tuesday to begin its sixth and final season, and by all appearances, the show’s writers are on a mission to regain some fans after the disappointing fifth season. Instead of focusing on criminals from Florida, Kentucky, and Mexico, Justified’s final season follows Raylan as he tries to capture Boyd Crowder, once and for all. Helping Raylan in this mission are an undercover Ava Crowder, ADA David Vasquez, and the U.S. Marshal team (now led by Rachel Brooks).

Of course, this is Justified, so nothing is ever as easy as it seems. Raylan has a great plan to prove that Boyd murdered a dozen men, but his plan involves using Dewey Crowe as his informant. Unfortunately, Crowe has filed a restraining order against Raylan, meaning that they have to stay 1,000 feet away from each other at all times. This restraining order makes it quite difficult to conduct an investigation against Boyd Crowder, so Raylan improvises and enlists help from some other sources.

While Raylan is trying to figure out a work around with Dewey Crowe, Boyd is actually spending his time attempting to rob banks under the direction of a mysterious benefactor. However, Boyd isn’t robbing these banks for money. Instead, he is robbing banks for random stacks of papers. The purpose of these papers is unknown, but they will definitely play into the later season story. What we do know is that these papers also somehow involve a mysterious man (played by Garret Dillahunt) with a boatload of cash. Given Dillahunt’s history of guest roles, he will most likely be an evil, evil man, hell-bent on destruction.

“Fate’s Right Hand” was an absolute relief. This may sound terrible, but I only say this because the last season was so disappointing. The premiere episode of season six was more of a relief because it returned to the classic Justified style from seasons past. Boyd gave up running heroin, which was kind of boring, and started robbing banks again while Raylan returned to his happy/abusive ways. Raylan went from being a grumpy psychopath to the happy-go-lucky U.S. Marshal that beat criminals when needed. Dewey, of course, stayed just as stupid as in previous seasons, but that’s all we really need.

“Fate’s Right Hand” may have had a ton of scenes included in an effort to make season six more meaningful, but the result was a partially bloated episode. Thankfully, most of these storylines were entertaining, the best of which was Dewey Crowe’s attempt to rejoin Boyd’s gang by assisting in the heist. This led to a moment in which Dewey Crowe tried to escape from Law Enforcement while driving a tow truck. The whole scene was a great throwback to old Justified, complete with Raylan hurting Dewey in entertaining ways.

It sure looks like “Fate’s Right Hand” is the perfect beginning to a great, new season of Justified. The return of old characters and classic storylines made for some fun moments, and the hints about new villains were very intriguing. More importantly, I can’t wait to see the end of Boyd and Raylan’s story. Finally, we will have some closure after six seasons.

The episode may not have been perfect, but it was the best way to start a new story.