Oh God, I forgot about that scene entirely. I just busted out laughing again when remembering it.
The humor that stretches through this show is just amazing. Some great lines that are everywhere. Last season had quite a few of my favorites, including, “It ain’t the darkest of Africa. We got a phone.”
— Alan
My predictions for the finale:
Daryl dies, Art survives until episode 8 next season, and Ava gets shanked. I’m assuming we need some flashpoint for Raylan and Boyd, and she’s someone they have in common.
The sad part is maybe last season I’d of cared a bit if Ava died, now I give no shits. This season and story arc for her has been horrible, stab her as much as tv censors will allow.
FYI tonight’s episode looks like it’s going to run a bit long (it’s listed at 73 minutes).
— Alan
The crazy part about Dewey is that he somehow has nine lives. He should have been dead a long time ago because he’s such a moron, but somehow he always lives.
The other crazy part is that the guy playing him probably has a Masters degree or something.
I’m pleased to see the writers keep on finding ways for Raylan to gamble with human lives without falling back on him using his gun. (Charming grin or no, he is not necessarily a nice person - a theme from this season that I suspect will carry over to the next.)
The Ava subplot ended much better than I expected. Though there’s no way in hell it required all that screen time and all those prison movie cliches just to set things up for next season.
Yeah. I see what they were doing to get there, but it might have been a tad bit much. Still, that was a pretty good plot twist. At first I was like… wait they’re just gonna do a 180 and get her out of jail?
— Alan
It depends on whether any of those prison characters make an appearance next season.
So if next season is about capturing Boyd, I realized there’s already a way out for Boyd; the DA has already said he has an issue with the woman mobster (since she put a hit out on his boss). So the season will be about the case against Boyd, Boyd doing his Boyd things for Winn Duffy and Ms. Mobster, and then Boyd turning on the two of them and getting his freedom, forever pissing off Raylan.
If you don’t think this show is going to end with a old fashioned showdown gun fight between Raylen and Boyd you are out of your goddamn mind.
I would give anything I own for Ian McShane to make a cameo next season.
All Done.
Ava - yeah I dunno. It seemed rather contrived to get her up state (as it were).
Boyd - I didn’t feel like his backing off of Jonathan, after the latter admitted to setting up Ava, made sense. Neither did his more or less abandoning her. Ok I guess he kept the laywer on the payroll. I loved Raylan’s reaction to Boyd not asking for clemency. It was masterfully played by Olyphant.
Raylan - gosh, did you really just threaten to Ava with severe beatings/worse to get her to turn on Boyd? Jesus. Him being rather mercenary on cutting the deal with her is one thing. But that was chilling. Raylan has some serious issues.
Tim and Rachel - more please.
Dewey Crowe - for awhile, it was an interesting race between he and Darryl to see who was going to skate by relatively unscathed. But you can’t be this stupid and keep getting by. I rather liked how it went down for him (walking outside right into the guns of Tim and Rachel, foiled by regression to the mean).
Darryl - Rappaport was excellent here. He really had his entire family dancing to his finger tips. Good on Wendy to recognize it, finally.
Win Duffie - Jere Burns is something else, isn’t he? Isn’t that the only time we’ve seen him lose his cool?
Overall - I was sort of disappointed that we never got to see Mary Steenburgen pass judgement on Picker/Boyd. I suspect she would have found reasons to go with Boyd. His generally cool demeanor, and willingness to get nasty, seem more suited to what they want to accomplish long term (setting aside bank robbing expertise). Picker was overly emotional and probably easier for law enforcement to lean on. The Ava story line felt a bit forced. I’m not sure what creepy doctor lady thought was going to result from getting what’s-her-face killed but it made the drug trade a lot tougher to pull off, so she’s a criminal mastermind that’s barely above Dewey Crowe on the master list.
Yay for a Loretta sighting, I really hope we get more. Especially since it nicely played into Raylan’s storyline of this season. Bagging Boyd, Win Duffie, and Married to the Mob would be a huge get. But it will be a pyrric victory is it comes at the cost of Raylan’s relationships with people, and that is the direction he’s headed in right now. It’s not enough to occasionally save people in the nick of time. Winona & their daughter, Loretta, hell even Art need more out of him and he doesn’t understand that. So part of next season is either: Raylan figures out how to be a dad, or Raylan becomes damned.
So I really liked this season, strange Ava plotline notwithstanding. I will say this, it certainly sets up a flashpoint for next season. Boyd and Ava will both feel betrayed by the other, in the end.
It seems like Art has either forgiven Raylen for his previous transgressions after finding out he had a hand in offing Daryl, or he’s suffering some form of brain trauma and can’t recall how pissed he was at him.
Other than that, I really enjoyed the finale. It wrapped up things neater than I expected while leaving us with a significant story element for the final season. I can’t help but wonder what the original character arc for Raylen would’ve been like had the writers not decided to keep Boyd after the first season, and make him into a major character to boot.
I hope Mary Steenburgen is up to the task of being a female crime boss on this show. Margo Martindale left some mighty big shoes to fill with her Mags Bennett character.
So are they basically setting up to get rid of Art for next season because the actor hates fat and/or gay people?
It feels a bit like they are essentially writing him out.
Waiting until the very last season of a show to write someone out seems like an odd way to go about getting rid of someone you don’t like.
Art’s retirement has been on his mind from the very first season, I believe. I think they’re just trying to wrap up most of the main character’s stories. Art, in spite of being played by a pretty immature guy, is still a fan favorite on the show.
I don’t think it has anything to do with that. Next year is the last season; he’s the old tough guy who is about to retire. He’ll probably get killed by Boyd in the middle of the season.
I’m not saying it is happening, I was just wondering. If they did it, I do not think they would have waited until the last season intentionally - Art got shot (and subsequently a lot less screen time) fairly shortly after his lovely tirade.
Again, I imagine it is just purely coincidental, but what is life without some idle conjecture. :)
True dat. True dat. :)
OMG, I love this promo that just popped up on their Facebook page.
Looks like Ava’s going to a big part of the series finale, if that trailer is any indication.