Kendal's Last Stand

Not-So-Sweet Release

Situation: Darryl is being released from the marshals' custody, and Wendy will probably be right behind him.

What Makes Awkward? Everyone's pretty sure he actually perpetrated the shooting that Kendal's being charged (as an adult) with. And getting out hasn't made Darryl any more kindly disposed toward Raylan, whom he threatens on his way out of the office.

How is order restored? Tim tails Darryl -- and openly, because at this point, why not -- and proves just as un-rattle-able as Raylan generally is. (Unfortunately, this arrangement doesn't last long.)

Jimmy, 1988ish - 2014

Oh, Jimmy. The good Lord knows that job options in Harlan are few and getting fewer with every mine closing/collapse. So of course you took a job with Boyd, never thinking it would end like this: with you taking a bullet to teach Boyd the lesson of why he should never, NEVER leave bodies in Mexico, even if technically it Darryl was the first to pull a trigger. After all, Boyd did hire Darryl. And now he's going to have to try to hire another Jimmy, assuming he survives the day. And at this point it's looking about 50/50.

Time To Pay The Mexican Piper

Alert Type: Score-Settling Alert.

Issue: Mr. Yoon is still pretty mad about that time all those Crowder-affiliated thugs got killed in Mexico.

Complicating Factors: Though his enforcer, Alberto, acknowledges that Darryl is also to blame, (a) no one knows where he is to take his share of the punishment, and (b) finding him won't save Boyd.

Resolution: Boyd changes Raylan's name in his phone address book to "Darryl," and texts to set up a meeting, where Alberto and company will take care of business.

Spoiler: Boyd also has some other thoughts about how to extricate himself from his current predicament.

Ava's Prison Storyline Is Making Me Feel Like I Am Serving A Life Sentence

Alert Type: Gang Alert.

Issue: After Gretchen's henchwoman immediately got pinched for stabbing Penny in the last episode, Gretchen assumes Ava snitched and is gunning for her.

Complicating Factors: The rest of the inmates who had seemed to pledge allegiance to Ava after Judith's death have fallen away (and have apparently nominated Nikki to tell her so). When Ava decides first to address the issue head-on by standing on a table in the yard and yelling that she didn't snitch, and then by threatening Gretchen that she'll have Boyd kill Gunnar, neither works: the guard just tells her to get down, and Gretchen says she doesn't really care if Gunnar dies.

Resolution: Ava decides to put on a hard front by hitting another inmate in the face with her cafeteria tray; in the brawl, she dislocates her shoulder and ends up in the infirmary, where Rowena tells her that she should either stay in solitary (and go crazy), or be ready to fight for her life every day of her sentence.

Spoiler: That sentence might not actually last much longer THANK GOD.

Too Little, Maybe Too Late?

Situation: Watching Raylan's exchange with Kendal has FUCKING FINALLY convinced Wendy that Kendal really didn't shoot Art.

What Makes Awkward? She only came around to this way of thinking such that she might actually be able to help Kendal's case after he's been charged as an adult.

How is order restored? Raylan asks Wendy to wear a wire and, the next time she sees Darryl, get him to admit that he's the real shooter. She refuses, and leaves the marshals' office (because they don't have anything to hold her on) but she has her own ideas as to how to balance the scales.

Shaking A Tail

Though Darryl and Tim have had a fun time driving around Lexington, Darryl decides he'd like some privacy after all, and zooms through a stoplight; when Tim is forced to pull out of traffic to follow him, he drives right into the path of an oncoming truck. GODDAMMIT DARRYL NOTHING BETTER HAVE HAPPENED TO THAT TINY FACE OF HIS.

Read A Room

I guess Boyd figures that he has nothing to lose by trying to get Alberto's thugs to go all Benedicto Arnold on Alberto, promising them a better life in America in Boyd's employ, what with sharing equally in the proceeds from selling the heroin he has left and having a crazily debauched weekend in Las Vegas. And even though the thugs do rise and draw on Alberto when he returns to the back room...of course they're just fucking with Boyd.

Not cool, guys! But Boyd, come on, you didn't just walk into this one, you ran. Your shrewd ass knows better!

It's A Shame About Raylan

Rachel notes, with dismay, that Wendy's been released, but Raylan says that he let her go because even though she finally came around to the truth about Kendal, she still wouldn't help him get Darryl, and anyway, what's the worst that can happen now: "She does Darryl harm?" "More like he does her harm," says Rachel. "Maybe that's not such a bad thing, either," shrugs Raylan. OKAY, LOOK. I am 100% a feminist and certainly believe that female criminals deserve whatever ill consequences they bring upon themselves, but this is now the second consecutive week in which Raylan has apparently been okay with physical harm and possibly violent death being visited upon a woman he knows well. Granted, he's never had a romantic relationship with Wendy, but they were on kind of a friendlyish tip after the whole escapade with Kendal's deadbeat dad, and he already knows that Darryl beat Wendy up at least once, so to me it's really out of character for him to say that if DARRYL MURDERS WENDY, it wouldn't be "such a bad thing." On the other hand, if all of this is an effort on Timothy Olyphant's part to shore up my marriage by making me dislike Raylan a little, I suppose I have to thank him. Good looking out, Tim.

Enforcers vs. Marshals

After Boyd successfully gets a message to Darryl (Raylan) about a meet at Ava's place in the country, Alberto & Co. transport him there, but when they hear a car outside, it's not Darryl OR Raylan; it's Rachel and a banged-up but basically okay Tim. (Thank God, his face is fine, apart from a couple of little scratches that will only make his face more interesting when they heal.) Alberto calmly tells the marshals that he and his crew of two have a boss, just like Rachel and Tim do, the only difference being that if Alberto returns empty-handed, he'll be killed. So since he has a strong motive to shoot his way out of the situation, he gives the marshals a chance to leave. "You have three seconds before we kill everyone of you." - Tim. Alberto and his henchmen draw; shooting ensues; Boyd, inside and still bound, falls to the floor. There's a lot of shooting, with one dude actually managing to stagger inside, but Boyd kills the guy by shooting BEHIND HIS BACK. When the dust clears, a lot of windows have been shot out, but Tim was right: Alberto and both henchmen are dead, while Rachel and Tim and Boyd are juuuuuuuust fine. In the aftermath, Boyd is cocky as hell about the whole thing, particularly getting off a kill shot with such a high degree of difficulty, taunting Tim that he's probably never done it. "Good guys don't need to shoot people with their hands cuffed, Crowder." - Tim. Boyd takes the position that he helped the marshals by keeping Darryl alive a little longer with his gambit, but Rachel chalks it all up to Boyd's instinct for self-preservation AND threatens Boyd that the storied File is still in play.

Winner: Marshals.

The Crowes' Last Flight

After luring Darryl to Audrey's on the promise of working with him to get a big cash settlement out of the marshals for their supposed mishandling of the Crowes' various doings in Kentucky, Wendy tells him that Kendal's not going to be tried as an adult after all, and opens the real meat of the conversation with "Kendal didn't shoot that man." Darryl stalls by meanly quizzing Wendy about events in Kendal's childhood and calling her a bad mother -- saying he alone knows how to take care of a family properly -- and after Wendy says she knows Darryl killed Dilly and that she's fine with it, she emphatically tells him that she knows Darryl was the one who shot Art and that she thinks he was right. Phase 1 of his confession is that he didn't tell her because she never wants to hear the gory details of the worst shit he does (for plausible deniability, I assume). Wendy cries, apologizing for putting so much responsibility on Darryl, and delivers the death blow to his story about the shooting: "You were just trying to do whatever Daddy would have done." And then it's Confession Phase 2: "I didn't have no idea to shoot the man. It just happened. I figured Kendal'd go to juvie, no big deal, that'd be it. All this shit just happened. I'm sorry." "Thank you, Darryl," Wendy tells him. "I got what I needed." He thinks she's being sincere at first, but of course she's not -- and she's not wearing a wire, either; she's recording him on her phone, which is in the purse she very deliberately placed on the table between them when she came in. The moment of communion ends with "You're a dirty, rotten, nasty bitch," but when he advances on her, she's ready, holding a gun right to his crotch. He states that she won't use it, but she reminds him, "I trusted you with Kendal." And that's when Raylan enters.

Darryl's like, hi, she's got a gun on me, and Raylan's like, "She's your sister. She's family! Man can't come in between family! Hell, you know that better'n anyone." So when Darryl moves toward her, she fires. "Wendy," says Raylan warningly, without actually getting anywhere near her. Darryl contemplates his hands full of nut blood, and then moves toward her again, which is when she fires the soon-to-be-fatal shot in Darryl's throat. That's when Raylan slowly tells Wendy to put the gun down, and she does.

Bye forever, Darryl. Should've gone back to Florida when you had the chance. Now literally no one will mourn you or your weird accent.

Speaking Of Florida...

Art's awake! And now that Raylan witnessed his real shooter bleeding out on the floor of his trailer brothel, all that Nicky Augustine business is forgiven and the two are bros again...for now. "Did you come to say goodbye?" Art asks. "I think you're going to be all right," Raylan replies. But Art doesn't mean that kind of "goodbye": when Raylan told him either to be nice again or transfer him, Art was like, transfer, I guess, and found Raylan a posting in Florida, and apparently Raylan needs to be there, like, now. Hey, maybe now Raylan will get to meet his child! At this point she can even drive over and pick him up at the airport, or she could, if she knew what he looks like.

Chickens Prematurely Counted

Raylan's just finished giving Winona the good news about his imminent move when he gets called in to talk to Rachel and Vasquez, the latter of whom tells him it's a bad time to relocate to Florida. Raylan makes a not particularly funny joke about real estate prices, and Vasquez is like, no, now that Wynn and Katherine have apparently joined forces and are working with Boyd, it's time to open up that file and take him down. Vasquez points out that Boyd has been involved in basically every Big Bad story through each season of the show (though he...doesn't use those words), and that if they can prosecute him under RICO statutes, he could do "fifty years, minimum." So before Raylan goes to Florida, he's just got to work on this ooooooone laaaaaaaaaaaaaaast thing. Obviously, Raylan being Raylan, he can't say no...but Winona and Baby Girl Hawkins are going to be pretty pissed when it turns out Raylan was jerking them around -- unintentionally, but still.

Boyd's fixing a window at Ava's when Geist, her lawyer, calls with big news! Ava's getting out! Both Albert and Ava's old cellie recanted their false stories and the case fell apart! She'll be home in a few hours! Holy shit! This bitch sitting on a damn horseshoe!

And then it's a few hours later and Ava is home, noticing the bullet holes all up in her nice house! Boyd and Ava are hella awkward with each other! He says he had a thing, but he can blow it off, but she says he should go -- she'll take a bath and enjoy some time alone for the first time this whole goddamn season! PLEASE GET MORE INTERESTING, AVA, DAMN!

Boyd's meeting is with Katherine, Wynn, and I guess Mikey! He's brought them the heroin that somehow didn't get seized or shot up! Asked what he's going to do next, he says he's going to lay low for a while! He's done with heroin, since his luck with that hasn't been so hot! Wynn says that when Katherine was in charge, his luck was better, and Boyd's like, "You mean when her husband was in charge," and Katherine's like, "[twinkle!]" Boyd's about to leave when Katherine says that even if he sucked at running heroin, she hears he was great at robbing banks! SEASON 6 ARC ALERT!!!

And then Raylan is getting out of his car on The Only Bridge In Harlan for a meeting of his own!

And it's with AVA! She got out of prison because she's totally going to inform on Boyd to help build the case against him! And this totally changes the balance of power between Ava and Raylan: now that he's her handler, he can ask whatever he wants and she has to tell him! If she doesn't play ball, he'll be the one to bring her in! She's scared! "Don't be," he tells her! "Everything's going to be fine," he tells her! But since this is the very last thing he says before the very last season of the show, I HAVE A FEELING IT ISN'T!!!!!