Make Room For Baby

Ty isn't doing so hot since he got shot, and as he sits sweating in his car, he calls in to the Pizza Portal! "I was beginning to feel concern for you," says Avery, sounding not super-sincere! Ty says he needs an extraction! "Sit tight, we're going to get you to a doctor," says Avery. When Seabass asks whether the GPS on his car is still active, something in his voice -- or the specificity of the GPS question, more likely -- tips Ty to a trap, and he lies that he's hiding out in a church! Seabass claims he's coming! Ty hangs up, resigning himself to the fact that he's going to have to be his own Windkeeper and extract his own self!

After they've hung up, Seabass makes to leave, and Avery's like, where are YOU going? "He's hurt and he's a target," says Seabass, but Avery's like, we both know he's not where he said he is, and if you try to help him, you're just going to end up getting caught up in all his current shit! Seabass tries to stay on task, but that voice of Avery's will not be denied, and when he says, "Before you rush off into whatever hazards await" and lets a bundle of cash dropped on the desk between them be the concluding clause of his sentence, Seabass can't really help listening! But first, Seabass claims it's not about money, and Avery agrees: "It's about loyalty, and I need yours." He starts piling up bundles of cash, and as that voice intones promises about Seabass eventually having the freedom to write his own ticket, he piles persuasion on top of the money: "Walker is burned. He's a rogue element. Ain't nothing for him now. Have to stay out of that fire he started." He reminds Seabass that Caprice -- who did not die -- could still ID Seabass from their encounter in Schreier's office, so like, maybe Seabass should forget about trying to rescue Ty and just lay low for a while: "Can I count on you, son?"

As Ava cleans up after dinner, Boyd fake-offers to help her, and then tells her that he sent Earl home for the night! Ava is concerned not to have the third party she's cultivated around as a buffer...

...and gets even more so when she looks in the corner and sees that Boyd's packed her suitcase for her! Well, it seems as though he thought it would be fun for them to get away for a couple of days to his father's old hunting cabin in good old Bulletville! Wisely sensing danger because she is not new at this, Ava politely begs off, saying she'd rather just sit on the couch and watch TV (who wouldn't?!), but her backed-up SVUs are going to have to chill on the DVR a bit longer! "I wasn't asking," says Boyd -- adding, to take some of the menace out (but not all!), "I want to see you first thing in the morning by that green mountain light." Going away to a house off the grid that no one knows you're going to and that you can't call for help from? Sure! MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU'RE GOING TO TRY TO BE A CI YOU SHOULD TAKE AN IMPROV CLASS FIRST, AVA!

And then Raylan's entering his shitty motel room and Winona's there! With the baby! Winona seems a little bit tense (although who wouldn't be after flying alone with a baby this little), and Raylan is adorably solicitous of her comfort, and scared and awed by the baby! "Would you like to hold your daughter, Raylan?" asks Winona. Eh, he's waited this long, right?

Just kidding, of course Raylan takes the baby! Actual father Timothy Olyphant does a pretty good job looking thrilled and awkward holding his baby for the very first time in their lives. Winona, trying to head off her own disappointment: "I know you probably have to go--" "I'm not going anywhere." You know, show, I think we all already had a crush on Raylan. We'll know you're really trying to manipulate us if his other scenes in the episode have him watching The Bachelor with Winona to make fun of it while putting up a shelf.

"Does She Have A Favourite Liqueur?"

Situation: Raylan and Winona are seeing each other for the first time since there was a kid in the mix.

What makes it awkward? Winona's apparently been storing up a lot of information to dump on Raylan all at once, from the fact that she's back in Harlan so she can take Willa to a pediatrician Winona knows for a second opinion on Willa's recently-diagnosed heart murmur to this bro Randy in Miami that Winona's mother's trying to set her up with to a reminder that if Raylan wants to participate in Willa's upbringing, they need to finalize a custody agreement. Meanwhile, Raylan doesn't even know what to do with the dirty diaper Winona hands him. (He doesn't try to flush it down the toilet, but...maybe almost?)

How is order restored? Someone makes a big move...but we'll get to it.

Ava vs. Boyd, Round 1

Ava and Boyd arrive at his late father's cabin and it is PRETTY RUSTIC -- like, no electricity, apparently no heat rustic. When Ava shows signs of being cold, Boyd says he has something to help her forget the temperature, pulling up a floorboard and producing a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle -- one of the few to survive a warehouse fire in the '90s: his father stole a case, and Boyd took a bottle from it -- but he warns Ava not to say anything to anyone since he's not sure the statute of limitations has expired. "I'll keep my mouth shut either way," says Ava, and the editor has enough restraint not to cut to Boyd raising a suspicious eyebrow. Instead, Boyd explains that he's kept it all this time because he planned to drink it with his wife on the night they got married...but hey, they're close enough, why not bust into it now? Ava demurs, saying she's not superstitious, but that maybe they shouldn't jinx the future? "I've been waiting for this for damn near twenty years," he says through gritted teeth. "You will have a shot with me." Hearing the edge in his voice, Ava says she'll have one, and Boyd softens, or pretends to: "That's all I ask." Looking at her ring, he starts musing about his parents' wedding vows, and how his father would bring up the "obey" part every time he beat Boyd's mother. Ava ruefully says that Bowman never bothered coming up with excuses to hit her. "Me myself, I don't believe a man should ever hit a woman, or at least I haven't found a reason yet," says Boyd. What a feminist? Teasing but not really, Ava asks whether he thinks he's liable to find a reason, hit her, and then apologize afterward, to which Boyd replies (about this but...you know, not), "Ava, have I ever done anything to you? Have I ever hurt you in any way?" Losing patience, Ava points out that Bowman was sweet until they were married too, and then after that regarded her as his property. "I'm not my brother," says Boyd. Ava agrees that he isn't, but says he is a Crowder, and his recent behaviour doesn't exactly speak well of him: he ordered her to come on this trip, and to drink: "Gonna take this bottle, crack it over my head next?" Boyd dares Ava to hit him, and she does, smacking him a good couple in the face...

...but maybe not thinking through what he might do in response, which is to grab her by the throat and squeeze. Given how sweet these two adorable outlaws were once, it's pretty upsetting...which is why it's lucky that it doesn't last.

Winner: Probably everybody "wins," if you know what I mean. (Fine, if I have to spell it out: successful completion of coitus. Pardon my French.)

Some Guys Have All The Luck

Situation: When Ty emerges from the rest stop bathroom he's locked up in order to remove the slug from his shoulder, a couple of fratty punk kids are waiting for him, casting aspersions on his heterosexuality and generally being dicks.

What makes it awkward? They don't realize Ty could probably kill them by looking at them at the right angle...but they pick up on it pretty quickly, as the primary dickhead tries to go into the bathroom, but Ty stops him: "Would your brother over there step in if I split your skull open?" Ha ha, everyone's just kidding around! (No one is kidding around.)

How is order restored? Ty gives the main instigator his Kevlar vest and $300 to deliver it to an obviously fake address in Orlando, evidently deciding he's all murdered out for the moment.

Winona vs. Raylan

Time has passed and Willa is fussy. I don't know what they did to this actual child to make her this crabby, but her crying is at precisely the skin-crawlingly irritating pitch to really amp up the tension between Raylan and Winona as Raylan tries to help calm down the baby he's only known for, like, an hour, and Winona gets more and more frustrated by how little help he is even as she must realize on some level that he's sincerely trying and that it's not entirely his fault that he hasn't come into this interaction with any experience that will actually be effective. Winona then starts complaining about her inability to read Raylan, because why not pick a fight about something ELSE when everyone's nerves are frayed, and through it all, Willa just screams and screams and screams until finally Winona's like FORGET IT and closes the bathroom door on Raylan to handle everything herself at Martyr Level 5000.

Winner: Ugh, no one. Why do you people insist on having children?

Just A Couple Of Shitkickers, Kicking Shit

Art's wandering through the Marshals office doing his best to not be at home when he notices that Avery's been called in to offer information on the ongoing manhunt, and the showdown that results is every bit as courtly/prickly as you would hope.

Raylan decides that in order to relieve Winona, he'll take the baby out for a few hours and let Winona get some sleep, so naturally he brings Willa to the office? I guess it's better than bringing her to a bar. Anyway, even though he's supposed to be on a 24-hour leave, he gets the latest from Tim...who's also supposed to be off for the day but also can't quite manage it, so he's tracking Ty's credit cards: "Crossed the Harlan County line into Wabash County and immediately spent $120 at Leo's Liquor, second card for gas in Tennessee, before going back to the first card and spending over $300 at a porno shop in Murfreesboro." "That ain't him," says Raylan authoritatively. Tim: "You mean Walker's not an alcoholic porn addict with a full tank of gas who compartmentalizes his vice spending from his staples?" Raylan says Ty must have given someone his credit cards. Tim: "I know, that's why I was condescending to you just now." Hee! Salty Tim is the best Tim. As for Raylan...let's assume he's too sleep-deprived to understand sarcasm right now.

Rachel rolls by, clocks Raylan at the office when he's not supposed to be, and asks why he's there. Raylan asks if Rachel wants to hold the baby, to which Rachel (rightly) asks whether Raylan asked Tim that. Raylan: "No, because he is not a nurturing, caring human being. He's kind of an asshole."

Elsewhere, Ty has run into some car trouble. He sits on a rock, contemplates his gun, cocks it...and then changes his mind. He pulls out his phone, and after climbing onto a little hill to get one bar of coverage, he calls 911.

Boyd's woken Ava up at zero o'clock to go out hunting, and as they hike through the woods, they talk about their early experiences with guns: Ava killed a squirrel when she was six, but not with a single shot. Boyd somewhat awkwardly uses this to segue to what a bad shot Johnny was, and another thing about Johnny was that he betrayed Boyd, as Devil also did, and Boyd just never knew why: if Johnny or Devil were that unhappy with their lot, why didn't they just come and talk to Boyd about it? Ava suggests that maybe they (she) were (is) scared of Boyd, and what he might do to them -- to say nothing of what he actually did end up doing to them. "You scared of me?" Boyd tests. "Sometimes," says Ava. And right on cue, Boyd tells her to stay still, taking off into the woods.

Ava's hair sure looks good considering she just woke up in a cabin that has no electricity. Anyway, she stands there turning in circles and shitting a brick, and after a while there's a shot, and Boyd returns, crowing about having bagged the first hog of the season! Oh, good, what Ava definitely needs on her nervous stomach is some wild boar.

Great Declarations

Raylan quietly returns from the office with Willa to see Winona dressed and refreshed and generally much more pleasant. When she asks where they went, he lies reflexively, but he's already busted since someone called from the office. "You don't have to tell me stories," she says. "I mean, obviously I trust you with her -- you know that, right?" Raylan says he should have known that Winona, of all people, would know that he couldn't stay away from a manhunt. "You know, what I don't understand is that you haven't figured out that I know that already," she says. "And yet, here I am. What does that tell you."

Well, what DOES that tell us? Because here's where Winona gets really brave. She talks about what it was like when she and Raylan were married -- how he'd be out working and she'd be home worrying about him never coming home again and what she'd do if he didn't. But now, she's up all night anyway: "I know you're not coming home. And it's-- That certainty-- I'm just saying, I think I liked it better the first way." Raylan's like, "Are you saying--" And Winona just lays it out: "What I'm saying is-- Goddammit, I'm saying that I love you, and I miss you, and I want you to come home, and I don't care where home is -- if it's here, or in Miami, or in the hills. It doesn't matter to me. But if you want it, I want you by my side, Raylan."

I could try to pick at all the sexual-politics implications of this -- that Raylan's victory is just to have waited out Winona until she decided that living with his taciturn, secretive, dangerous-job-doing ways is better than living without him -- but it's really hard to be the person who volunteers to be vulnerable, not knowing what the outcome is going to be. Also, she's been living in Florida. Think of the human garbage she's been surrounded by and how odious the thought must be of making any of them her child's stepfather. There are a lot of strikes against Raylan as a romantic partner and/or co-head of household for sure. But on the other hand: look at him.

Before Raylan can answer, Rachel calls with an update: they think Ava's in Bulletville, and they're concerned that they haven't heard from her. Raylan says he hasn't heard from Ava, and reminds Rachel that he's taking personal time right now. Rachel's obviously not happy that her call hasn't had its usual effect of making him dash out to his town car, leaving a Raylan-shaped puff of smoke behind him, but he doesn't care: "If she's in Bulletville, she's in Bulletville." He hangs up...

...and then there is kissing. Guys, there's no way these two could be apart for the long haul. They're each so attractive separately; put them together and...well, for your own safety, I hope you're looking at that image through BluBlockers.

EekMTs

When an ambulance pulls up to Ty's location, he tries selling the EMTs this BS story about his brother, hurt real bad up in the woods, so that he can lure them away and take their kit to patch up his wound. But the lead guy's not having it, insisting upon taking care of Ty with a syringe of something first, which is a mistake, because Ty knows what the hell he's doing: Ty identifies the sedative the EMT's trying to inject Ty with, overpowers him hand-to-hand, and injects HIM with the sedative. The rookie EMT tries to escape, but Ty pulls his gun on him and describes the situation: "Got a lookout? Bearded [inaudible] man, possible gunshot wound, is that right?" As the first EMT tries to struggle to his feet, Ty shoots him in the side a couple of times and asks his partner, "IS THAT RIGHT?!" "Yes, yes, Jesus!" yelps the rookie. "I didn't realize they were going to send me a couple of heroes." The rookie promises that this whole plan was his partner's, and tries to bargain with Ty, promising not to say anything...

...to no avail. Off goes the fugitive, and the hunt hunts on, hunty!

Ava vs. Boyd, Round 2

As I predicted, Ava doesn't have much appetite for pork, and has lost her appetite for Boyd's cryptic questions and pointed comments. She says he's been dancing around something since he brought her up there, so why doesn't he just come out and say it? Before he can, though, her phone rings, and he sneers, "Is that your SALON calling again?" He finally tells her what he heard from Limehouse: he knows someone helped her away from Errol, and that it wasn't stupid Bob, and then the next thing that happens is that he comes home to see her chilling with Raylan? "So how about YOU come out, say what it is YOU got to say!" "I'm a snitch!" she finally exclaims. "I'm a CI for Raylan. I sold you out, Boyd."

Confirmation of his suspicions seems to knock Boyd back a few paces, and when he reaches for his gun in the back of his jeans, she challenges him: "You gonna kill me? Is that it? Gonna kill me now?" She reminds him that he left her in prison, didn't do anything for her, was going to cut a deal with the Crowes: "You wanted a clean slate for yourself! You didn't even ask about me! I was going to die in prison, Boyd!" When Ava claims Boyd would have done the same thing in her position, he doesn't even respond to her being an informant: "You sleeping with Raylan Givens?" "You're gonna ask me that?" she replies, astonished. Handing her the gun, Boyd says that if she is sleeping with Raylan, she should just shoot him in the head. But Ava insists that she hasn't done anything with Raylan: "It's you, it's always been you!" Well, Ava, I just don't know about that. There's never been more talk than this season about the events of the pilot and how Raylan was part of such a pivotal moment in Ava's life. Plus that kiss.

Anyway, Ava gives Boyd his gun back, telling him to do whatever he needs to do. But he's not feeling murdery anymore: "I let you down, and I'm sorry. I understand what you did, why you did it. I still love you." "I love you too, Boyd," she tells him. Boyd intensely says that if Ava will trust him now, and tell him everything she's already told Raylan, then he can get them out -- he'll be able to give Raylan enough information to get him running in circles while they get clear. But he has to know that she trusts him. "I trust you," she insists.

I'm sure we're not supposed to read anything into the fact that Boyd's hands are covered in blood as he gives Ava this kiss, right? Just kidding. I'm an English major. I understand symbolism. But in case anyone else doesn't, we watch Boyd go to the truck to get more firewood...and load his gun. Because it wasn't before. When he gave it to Ava and told her to shoot him. You get it. Oh, you don't get it?

You get it.

Winner: Boyd. And it seems clear Ava's going to be the biggest loser pretty soon.

So Raylan and Winona are going to try to get back together again! Sure hope nothing else in his life blows up and ruins his sincere hopes and plans to be in a family with his cute little heart-murmuring daughter! Everyone else better keep their shit together and not try to confuse him! I'M TALKING TO YOU, AVA!!!