No tagline/teaser for this episode, although the title certainly gives us enough fuel for speculation.
So:
[spoiler]Quarles’ operation is not only bust, but Detroit, in the person of Theo Tonin, is actively trying to kill him. There’s a $100,000 bounty on Quarels “Dead,” $200,000 “Alive,” so as he can “answer” for putting a gun to Theo’s son and heir-apparent, Sammy Tonin. But even Theo counsels against going for the big money, as Quarles is just too dangerous. Boyd has managed to incapacitate and capture Quarles, and appears to be making a deal with Wynn Duffy.
Boyd also appears to have his man Shelby as the Harlan County Sheriff-elect, although as of last episode, Sheriff Napier was still in office.
Wynn Duffy and Boyd. With Emmitt Arnett out of the way, what’s to stop them from stepping up and taking the reins as the new Dixie Mafia?
Last week, the Detroit hit-men sent to collect Quarles had Raylan and Art chasing their tails, thinking that they were after Raylan, so Raylan has not moved any closer to apprehending Quarles, he just took out some “competition.”[/spoiler]
ETA: added spoiler boxes just in case.
Limehouse is my favorite character - I am not sure why. I think because he looks like he’d smile and feed me ribs and tell me all about his dreams about the shrimping business as he tortured me to death.
I’m going to have to flowchart all the double-crosses. I’m still not sure if I have this right.
Limehouse never double-crossed Dickie over the 3.2 mil; it was Mags’ wish that Loretta get the money.
Wynn double-crossed Quarles to Boyd, for part of the Detroit bounty money, and when Boyd dropped the ball, double-crossed Boyd back to Quarles.
Boyd was playing it straight with Wynn. But he never believed the part about the money being in the bank.
Limehouse did double-cross just about everyone trying to pressure him over Mags Bennett’s missing money (via his playa, Errol) with false info as to its location, hoping for a Polish Firing Squad, and in the end, sold them out to Raylan in the hopes that he’d sweep them all up.
Again, I think I have the right of it.
I don’t think Wynn double crossed Boyd back to Quarles, he just hoped they’d take each other out. He was still planning on taking out Quarles with the car bomb.
I’m going to have to go back and read that when I haven’t had a bottle of wine.
Anyway - I hve been really half assed involved with the last few episodes it felt like this was so much more of a payoff for what has been building. I really loved it! Can’t wait to see what happens with Q!
I would not want to be anywhere near the vicinity now that Raylen is thoroughly pissed off by the shooting of his state trooper friend (Tom?).
And while technically not a double-cross (due to dementia), we also have Arlo going against Boyd out there doing who knows what.
I don’t know about y’all, but I’m braced for a bodacious season finale. My only concern is how many of the current cast will be back next season.
Can Yost and the writers come up with a totally new set of circumstances and issues to have the show essentially “start from square one” next year?
Who all has to be in the cast for the show to carry its current sense of excellence going forward? The bare minimum (for me) would be Raylan and Art. Next most essential is Boyd.
I’m still trying to figure out how Quarles managed to shoot Tom -
a) the girls totally screwed with his gun thingy
b) he was higher than a kite and blowed up
c) the gun thingy was hanging down past his hand -
And yeah - Wynn was trying to take out both Quarles and Boyd - fully showing the Detroit boss that he can do the job.
It was a really good episode, and kept tension high, but I was bothered by how they only chained the ankle of Quarles. Boyd’s employees might think that just the ankle cuff is enough, but Boyd should have known better and told them to get him more secure. It would have been better if he started out handcuffed too and convinced someone with his smooth talking ways to just loosen them or something like that. I understand Boyd was distracted once Dickie came into his bar, but Quarles was already captured before that. But it’s a minor issue for me, and I enjoyed seeing Quarles party with the hookers.
I’m also curious about Mags leaving the money to Loretta. Why wasn’t Dickie told that Mags wasn’t leaving the money to him? Did Mags and Limehouse know that it wouldn’t make any difference if he was told, and that he’d try to get the money anyway? It’s not like Limehouse’s lie about Mags spending most of the money stopped Dickie from wanting all the money. And if I’m remembering correctly, Doyle Bennett was killed just minutes before Mags died. I know Mags cut off Dickie earlier in the season, but did she also decide to cut off Doyle by just leaving money to Loretta? It’s a moot point now since Doyle’s dead, but at the time that Mags would have been discussing her financials with Limehouse he would have been alive. This doesn’t really affect anything, I’m just wondering about it.
I was also wondering why Boyd sent Ava and Arlo to check out the bank when he was suspicious from the start about the plan. Was he just killing time until he figured out what to do, and had to have Dickie and Errol convinced that he was going along with it?
It sounds like I have a lot of issues with the episode, but overall I really liked it. Walter Goggins is always great, but he was really great in this episode. I loved the look on his face when Dickie came in the bar and then attacking him. I also really liked his interactions with Arlo and his look when Arlo called him Raylan.
IIRC, in S2, Mags Bennett’s deal with Black Pike Mining was a wad of cash up-front (I’m assuming that’s the 3.2 million, or that the 3.2 mil was a part of the cash) and a stock deal and/or % in Black Pike’s parent concern “for the future.”
Mags kept saying Doyle and his kids were the future of the family, so I’d guess that they got a wad of cash and the %. The remainder of the cash was probably for Mags herself, but she banked it with Limehouse and provided for Loretta, perhaps as an apology for killing her Dad.
So in the end, Limehouse kept to his bargain with Mags, even though she was dead, and attempted by misdirection to keep Dickie away from Loretta and the 3.2 mil. It took Raylan threatening to park a couple hundred U.S. Deputy Marshals in Noble’s Holler and overturn every rock, leaf, and pine cone, and stay until they found that money, for Limehouse to finally tell Raylan where the 3.2 mil was.
As far as next season goes, I’m going to take a WAG and say that Detroit is going to try to step in and fill the shoes of Emmitt Arnett & The Dixie Mafia (band name!), basically following in the same pattern of Robert Quarles, but with more muscle and backing from other OC families (Russian, Italian, perhaps Armenian…).
This does make good sense, at least in terms of having Adam Arkin already established as an out-of-town baddie with interest in the region. I could see Ironside coming back in an enhanced role. Whatever is left of Quarles after the just-has-to-be showdown will give the creative staff some basis for a new complex next year. I suspect the Bennett thread will be tied up neatly this next episode.
Noble’s Holler still has some wind left in it if they choose that route.
Walton Goggins (I was similarly corrected in an earlier thread.)
The title of the finale is “Slaughterhouse”… That should be good.
Subtle as ever. I picture Limehouse getting all medieval on somebody or some group. Maybe they’ll finally uncork Raylan’s genie in the bottle, too.
Aside from Quarles and Dickie, who else has to get slaughtered?
I have a feeling Arlo is a goner. What’s the point of keeping him around now?
Well…(speculation follows)
Who says Quarles shot him? Jimmy did, but then, he’d just be blown to hell and back and was about to pass out. He may not have seen very clearly. What we do know is that Wynn was there and watching. We also know that Quarles AND Boyd are gone from the scene by the time Raylan gets there. My guess is that either Boyd or Wynn shot Tom. Probably Wynn, which means that Wynn now has both Quarles and Boyd.
Boyd is lying passed out on the ground.
Was he? I know the blast knocked him into the railing where he hit his head and got knocked unconcious, but they never showed an establishing shot of him still lying there when Raylan et al arrived at the scene. Raylan was pretty close to the explosion, but I was looking to see if they showed Boyd on the ground and didn’t see him.
I thought he was still there as well - the only person I know is gone is Quarles.