Harlan County is starting to get even more dangerous. Bandits are stealing explosives, banks are getting robbed, and terrible threats are being made. Thankfully, Raylan Givens and the other U.S. Marshals are around to deal with these crises while trying to capture Boyd Crowder. However, new enemies are starting to threaten the Harlan way of life as season six of Justified progresses, and these enemies could destroy the entire county.
“Noblesse Oblige” is Justified’s new episode that introduces Boyd to a dangerous enemy named Avery Markham (played by Sam Elliott), who is quite protective of his pizza parlor/bank. Unfortunately, Boyd discovers how dangerous Markham can be when he sends Ava into this pizza parlor on a reconnaissance mission. Ava isn’t the best spy on the planet, so Choo Choo and Ty Walker discover her sneaking around in the basement. Unable to cover her tracks, Ava is the cause of a sit down between Markham and Crowder, which quickly becomes unpleasant for the Crowders.
Choo Choo is pretty fun.
While the serious meetings, awkward spy games, and threats are taking place, Raylan is tracking down a ton of stolen explosives. Raylan believes that Boyd was behind these thefts, with the help of a former coworker at the mine, so he heads to Harlan County with interim chief Rachel Brooks. The Marshals’ investigation puts them on the trail of a rather disappointing (but funny) criminal duo, resulting in multiple showdowns and a little bit of violence. Raylan and Rachel discover through their investigation that the criminals have been stealing explosives, but the reasoning behind the thefts is still unknown.
“Noblesse Oblige” was definitely a more serious episode of Justified, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Markham is more chilling than other villains in Justified, and his meetings with Boyd showcase this serious side. Markham does have some entertaining lines, but he is supposed to be the villain that you don’t mess with, so the seriousness is fitting. Plus, Ty Walker and Choo Choo are entertaining enough lackeys to balance out Markham’s seriousness, so they all make a great team.
Of course, Raylan and Rachel are the perfect break between the most serious of moments. These two Marshals make an unlikely but effective team, and their times together are some of the better episodes in Justified’s history. Sure, it was disappointing that Tim Gutterson wasn’t involved in the episode at all, but at least Rachel was great as always. The best part of Rachel and Raylan’s adventures was their run-in with the criminal duo. These Marshals excel when dealing with some of the dumbest criminals around, and the explosive thieves were no exception.
Justified is the best show on television at depicting dimwitted criminals, and “Noblesse Oblige” was the perfect example. At one point during the episode, these criminals tried to start a fight with Raylan, leading to my favorite quote: “I’m going to shoot your dick off.” Unsurprisingly, this threat didn’t deter the criminals from trying to pick a fight. Criminals never truly learn. This threat is also a main reason why Justified remains consistently entertaining. Almost every episode has funny lines sprinkled throughout the most serious of moments, and Timothy Olyphant is a master at delivering them. Even the other actors in the show have a talent at reciting their lines in an almost deadpan way that evokes involuntary laughter.
Justified continues to impress as the final season rolls along. Sadly, there are only 10 more episodes left in the show, but it appears that the cast and crew want to make the final season as impressive as possible. So far, every episode has been great, so there is no reason to doubt any of the others.
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