The Prestige TV Podcast - 'Justified: City Primeval' Episode 7 Recap

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

The Albanians are back and it is the penultimate episode of 'Justified: City Primeval'! Joanna and Rob are here to give you all you need to know and predict how the finale will shake out! Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For decades, the Vietnam War has been a Hollywood obsession. Apocalypse Now, platoon, full metal jacket, first blood. These were blockbuster films, embraced by audiences and critics alike. And for decades, they've helped us understand a painful war and understand each other. From Spotify and the Ringer podcast network, I'm Brian Raftery. And this is Do We Get to Win this time, how Hollywood made the Vietnam War. Listen on the big picture feed. Prestige TV podcast feed, I'm Joanna Robinson.

Joining me today, some very interesting updates about our guy Skinder. It is Rob Mahoney. Hey, Rob, how you doing? A lot of great Skender content this week, Joe. But first I've been thinking about something. Can you explain what Twitter is? I put that in all caps. And what's really sad about that line, which Boyd-Hulberg delivers incredibly in this episode, is it's

now out of date, I guess. Can you explain what X is? Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, I suppose. No, unfortunately not. And God bless, you know, poor Dell. He like starts to try to explain what Twitter is. Anyway, we're here to talk about episode seven, smoking gun. Speaking of smoking gun,

Clement uses one of those on Dell himself in this episode. It's like smoke and feathers happen when Dell dies. We, this is an ultimate episode. Of justified city primeval, a lot of things are happening. The Albanians are back, Rob. Are you thrilled? Do you miss them? I always do.

I wish we had more Albanians speaking Albanian in this episode, but we'll take what we can get. We got some proverbs, at least. This episode was directed by Cottrell Kindred and written by Dave Andron and Michael Dinner. This is the pair that wrote the first two episodes, and I believe they wrote this episode in the finale. So it's sort of like, these are our main restaurants. are back back in the habit. This week, we started,

we ended last week with the death of sweetie, the bar getting burned, we start with a flashback to 1988 and we get to see a younger sweetie. I mean, younger sweet. The guy hasn't aged in 35 years, you know?

Well, I was going to say an incredible scarf on his head to, like, cover the salt and pepper. And that's all you need. No de-aging required. It's all takes. Just like, just put the scarf on his head and we're good.

And this is devastating to see him, like, in his element, playing the music that he loved, in a sort of, like, more thriving Detroit in the 80s, all of that. And we get a little bit more information on his backstory with Carolyn. We get young Carolyn here. What do you think of what we learn about Carolyn, her dad, and her relationship with Sweetie? I love seeing this side of them and seeing young Carolyn, seeing this dynamic, seeing, again, sweetie thriving,

as you mentioned, slapping the bass, crushing it on stage. The rare base fronted band. So good for him. Good for him. Yeah. Doing his like, I mean, Paul McCartney seems like a stretch as kind of a co-front, but Sting? His Sting? His Thundercat? His something. But he's crushing it up there.

Is G. Smith of G.E. Smith and in the Sondentland Live band, is he a bassist? I simply could not tell you. He probably isn't. Okay, anyway, go ahead. But I love this setup as it, you know, again, creates more emotional impact, more stakes for the burning of Sweetie's Bar, for his death, for that character.

And then especially as it applies to Carolyn really being pushed to the edge. You know, we saw her pretty emotional in previous weeks in her conversations with Jamal, kind of being pushed in the way that only an ex can push you. But here she's packing up the man who's like a father to her. into the back of a coroner's truck. And we're seeing a side of this very strong, very resolve, very resourceful woman

who's just kind of had it with all of this shit. And I think where that takes her and her character and the plot of this show, all very interesting stuff. But rest in peace to sweetie, I thought ultimately a pretty effective character for this season, a pretty effective kind of through line between Detroit and the criminal side and Carolyn's history. I was into it.

And I love the way. that they tie Carolyn's backstory of like her father falls on hard times because he because the auto industry uh, like losing his job in the auto industry and I'm like, I don't know when the auto industry started dying out in Detroit. I didn't know it was as early as the 80s, but I'm willing to believe it or, um,

but so like tying that to such a specific Detroit, uh, trade and then this conversation that Carolyn over hears of anyone who works a trade job as a chump is one of Swedish's like, like, you know, friend says, and then, you know, later she calls sweetie a chump, right, in her grief, essentially. And this, the question we're asked again and again throughout the series, and very much, very much so in this episode is what line will Carolyn cross?

You know, this, like the, the, like, potential fall of Carolyn Wilder has been, to me, the most interesting character movement. Because, like, how much is Raylan's character actually moving in this show? He thinks he's moving. Not very much, right? I think he believes he has evolved, and in some ways he has, but... We'll find out. He's sitting at that bar with Clement at the end, and it's like...

That seems like the Rayland of Old to me. This is like a rooftop bar in Florida at the very beginning of Justified. Like, it doesn't seem that different to me. No. So Carolyn's character is the one that I'm, like, very interested in. And so, like, for her to have this, you know, revelation, grief, grief-stricken revelation about sweetie of like trying to have a bar, trying to own a business in Detroit, watching a national, we see the bar before what became what Sweetie built it into.

This is his dream. And he says, I'm going to play only the music I want to play, serve only the people I want to serve. Right. That's the dream, American dream of every like small business owner or landowner or whatever. It's like, this is going to be mine and I get to say what goes here. So it makes the fact that Sweetie went. out listening to Shini White Stripes cover music when he said I'm going to play only the music

I want to play is just indignity upon indignity. You know what I mean? That chicken fat bullshit. The honky chicken fat bullshit to the very end. Cover. Cover bullshit. Not even original honky chicken fat bullshit. Trinolo's week suspected is the one with the gun, right?

He has the gun. He took it out of the jukebox. He does not know None of them know that that move Might have cost Sweeties. I'm not convinced he would have been able to draw down Faster than Clement could draw on him

But probably would have killed him even faster Than the gun and the bullet already did. Trudella is just another character talking about getting out of Detroit. Right? Yeah. Everyone wants to go. No one wants to stay. He wants to go to the Great American West though.

You know, he wants to get out into the Was it New Mexico, Arizona? Where was he talking about? like open up a restaurant in Santa Fe sorry that's a that's a rent reference um hard no this is when I find out where you're like line on musicals is and it's like

newsies yes rent no is that how it is Rob Mahoney that's exactly how it is and that that's a that's a brick wall that's a wall that will not be tumbling down all right okay um our guy Clement is pissed because Sandy has gotten rid of the Stanley garlic

devastated He, Stanley, garlic is gone. He's in his full sad boy era, all because of this painting. And I like seeing this side of him. I like seeing him so flustered all because of this meaningless thing he decided he wanted. But that's been kind of true of who we've known Clement to be. He's just the guy who lashes out, grabs it something, and then cries a little bit when it's ripped away from him.

What is on Sandy's mind, though? Her shoes. Still her shoes. She says, I got shoes. I guess sneakers worth more than that thing. How much do you think it's worth? How much is that Stanley garlic worth? How much are expensive sneakers were?

I mean, they can go thousands, depending on if you're talking like dead stock. Like, is Sandy on Stock X like that? I think she's probably more in like a designer, sneaker, maybe in like the $600 to $800 range, is what I'm guessing. You think the Stanley garlic's worth like $500 bucks? I don't know. I mean, it certainly seemed pretty precious to Bulldozer Bert.

But we haven't seen Sandy flex her sneaker game in a way that would make me think, oh, she's got $3,000 sneakers. But she had like Jimmy Chuse in her closet back in her old apartment. And Jimmy Chues are expensive. So, you know what I mean? But you didn't hear her crying about the sneakers she lost, you know? Hypey Sandy is just not consistent with what we've been shown in this show. How expensive are Jimmy Chues? They are about $1,000.

Okay, not that expensive. All right, fair enough. I say the Stanley garlic is worth $800 and that Sandy owns a pair of $1,000 sneakers. Okay. I'm willing to go that high. What is really more important, though, is like when, what we learn when Sandy talks to Raylan about Clement, and this is new information for us, which is, she says the thing about, like, he's, why do you stay with him, he's fun. Like, that, that is a Sandy we've already met. But before she says that, she says all this stuff about, like, which shows us how scared she is of him.

She's like, you know, people are going to promise they're going to put him away, but he always comes back. And so I can't snitch on him because he will kill me, right? And like, it happened before, right, that he came back. People promised me he be put away forever and then he came back. So, like, it really, I think it would be interesting to rewatch this season thinking about Sandy as like not just sort of like giddy and excited that he's here, but like very scared that he's. here. She says, if he was dead and buried with a stake through his heart, and even then, it would be nervous. And once again, that underlines this thing we've been getting all season of, like, Clement, not as a man, but as a monster, right? Spoken like a true slayer, you know?

Yeah. In every generation, Joe. Slay, Sandy. All right, yeah, you're right. You're like, we'll disagree over rent, but we can agree over Buffy always. We can always come back to that. I do think, though, ultimately, what I'm taking away from these later stages of this season, is that I think this is going to be a pretty interesting rewatch, as you're saying, to go back and look at Sandy, how she's playing scenes, to go back and look at Clement

and reading every time we think he's in danger as if he's just been told something to absolve him at that situation, to give him more information than everyone he's like, you know, dueling with, so to speak, whether verbally or not, I think there's going to be a lot of those things in this show, even though, you know, we kind of had Maureen pegged from the start,

but everyone else's reactions around that kind of central DPD quote unquote mystery, I think are going to make this pretty interesting to revisit. We've been sort of a little questioning all season, how far is too far for Sandy, and like her discomfort around Skender and what happened with him, etc. She's genuinely upset that sweetie is dead, like genuinely devastated that this happened. And that, like, sweetie being dead feels like the final straw for her.

her. Because this is when she makes a two-prong plan. Prong one. Good old Skandere. See if... You know she's stuck. When you got to go back to the guy

whose leg, you kind of indirectly shattered, who's leg and heart you broke? I can't imagine she thought that was going to work. But I think that's kind of the limit of Sandy's charms, apparently. We see her kind of put the charms on Clement at points in this episode, and clearly she knows how to

press his buttons a little bit in the way that he knows how to press hers. But Skandere, leg shattered, hung up in the adult recreation center, or sorry, at the hospital at that point. He's at the hospital, yeah, yeah. He's not having it. Yeah, you were a dead woman. It was a great line delivery, I thought.

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So I want to give a shout out to a listener, Benjamin, who forwarded me this interview with Alexander Babutski who plays Skindar. Talking about his history as an actor, talking about his long road to justified city primeval, you know, he's been working for a long time, including some choice work as a member of the Blue Man Group. Did you get Blue Man Group vibes from Skindare? I mean, once you said it, it made a lot of sense to me. I could see it because he's like such a like lanky noodle boy, you know what I mean? He is a lanky noodle boy. It seems like, you know, and he's got like nice cheekbones. Like, I feel like the blue makeup would really just sort of like, wow, in such close proximity. to David Cross. Do you think he and David Cross talked about covering themselves head-to-to-to-to-in blue makeup? There's actually a deleted scene where they both blew themselves.

But you got to save that for the Blu-ray. Okay, love that. Yeah, I mean, once you said it, I was like, yeah, I see it. It kind of checks out. And what's deeply weird is I have not thought about the Blue Man Group for like probably a decade. But my aunt literally just emailed me earlier this week. She's going to Boston and she's like, the Blue Man Group is going to be there. Is the Blue Man Group worth seeing?

And I was like, that's the name I haven't heard in a long time. And then you texted me about the Blue Man Group. And I was like, wow, something is in the air. So did your aunt Google like what's happening in Boston? Or did she go to like blue man group.com and be like, you know, wherever the blues go, I got to be there. Yeah, she's a, what do you think the blue groupies columns is just a bloopy? Is it a bloopy? I'm terrified to know.

I'm terrified to know. No, she's not whatever the Band-A-A-Rubies. equivalent is of the people who follow the blue men bloopers. That's Steve Olin, our producer has come through with bloopers, of course. That is, of course, what the Blue Man group is called. Speaking of, thank you for educating me on the Ollie fans' hive. I think that's an incredible fan name. I certainly was not aware of, but man, it fits like a glove.

Yeah, it's pretty smooth. Let's go back to Clement, who is once again, loves a B&E. Late night, early morning, doesn't matter time of day, loves to break, enter, and eat your cookies and drink your milk, which is the rudest part of all.

Leaving crumbs everywhere, it should be said. No, no plate. Just raw, dogging the cookies on the fucking table with some milk in the morning and he says,

you want to know I got these guys? No, he likes me. He tells us the weird tornado story again. This is how you know he's depressed. because of the raw dogging Milano cookies for breakfast. Our guy lost his painting and he's just devastated about it. Okay, and so we find out, we tell that we get the, what we kind of thought would happen. We were like, why did we see it last time?

We got the tornado story again. It's different this time. Yeah. This time, instead of hanging clothes on the wash line, Mama is indisposed. Yeah. Is the word that he used. Getting busy. For money, do we think, or just for fun?

I think just for fun. I feel like if it was for money, he would have mentioned that. But it seemed like, you know, single mom, she's just the woman about town. You know, seeing what the Oklahoma night, life has to offer her. Or the day. I mean, this is the middle of the day. This is why I kind of, like, wondered if it was for money. Anyway.

And then he claims to have killed his own mother. Yeah. Or maybe not, he says. Shub the gun down the throne. Tornado carried her away. How do we feel about this payoff? for the tornado story. I don't love it.

No. I still maintain, as we did then, we don't need to see it. If you want to do this device, just show us Clement telling the story, show us the look on Carolyn's face. Let us read into it a little more than these weird cutaways. But, I mean, clearly they're going for something

where every version of the story is expressing something, including here the fact that he tells Carolina outright, like, I may be lying about this. And the point isn't to tell her that he's a murderer, which she already knows. It's to drive home the fact that he's unpredictable. He can come back anytime he wants. There's nothing you can do to anticipate

what Clement's next decision will be. I can come back any time I want. It was already personal for Carolyn. Yeah. Right? She says you took the only father I've ever known. Fuck your mother. Fuck your mother.

Fuck your dead mother. Great stuff from Carolyn Wilder. He chokes her up against the, The wall, I don't want to, like, fall into gender norms too cleanly, but I feel like that's not going to fly sit well with railing givens. Probably not. That, you know, that he shoved Carolyn up against the wall and choked her. But I can come back any time I want is his threat to her. Then he comes home.

Sandy has packed a bag. She hides it. And I just love, like, you mentioned last time when Clement, like, two weeks ago when Clement was like, am I a good singer? Yeah. And Sandy kind of like. really does a poor job of lying her way through that situation. I thought she did an excellent job here. Oh, great.

Acting indignant that he had never played his music for her. I thought we were in a relationship. What is it tell me that you won't trust me to play your music? And he's like, you want to hear my music, Sandy? And she's like an absolute, like a crunchy rhythm guitar and a white stripes cover band. And with the other heel of her foot is just shoving her. weekend her bag further and further under the bed. It was just incredible.

I loved all of that. Are we to believe, though, that, okay, for one, Clement has serenated Raylan when she's around. She's heard the voice live, but she's never heard the tape. Right. He's given her, like, shitty a cappella cocoa, but not, you know, white stripes full backing band. Do you know what I mean?

And he's driving around in cars all the time, specifically stolen because they have tape decks and she's just never in the car to hear his tapes. And if she hadn't heard it, why was he asking her if he was a good singer if she's never heard the like polished studio cuts? Do you know what I mean? Clearly he's very sensitive about it, you know?

Like his stuff is not up on SoundCloud. It's not available for the masses. It's in the demo stages and Sandy has not been privy to that as of yet. But I guess what we're established, we're trying to establish, is that the tapes themselves versus the little

Acapella moments we've been getting are a precious commodity and act of trust. I give it to you. Here, I will play it for you, sweetie, as this final act before I kill you. And they, you know,

our little fucked up Bonnie and Clyde duo here have been together for a long time, it seems. Awesome. Ever since, what, she was working the cash register at the Marshalls?

It's been in love with her ever since. you know, and she still hasn't heard the tape. So I don't know. I don't know. It's very interesting, a little bit of psychology. What do you make of this conversation that Carolyn has with Raylan about sweetie teaching her to take care of herself? What did you make of that?

I mean, I think it certainly informs what we see of Carolyn throughout this episode where her version of putting the gloves on is not literally putting the gloves on. It's, I'm going to go to the Albanians. I'm going to get into bed. I'm going to cross with a criminal organization. I'm going to cross a line that I absolutely know I should not cross, a line that in a lot of ways you can't come back from. And this is how she has chosen to take care of her business.

And honestly, I think a fairly believable turn for Carolyn, given her desperation, given how sick of everything that she is, including seeing on the news, the DPD bringing in Dorell Woods, our dear friend, Dorel Woods. You were right to flag him for a slightly different, reasons, but you were right to flag him, you know? I was, like, I mean, again, we've been on to Maureen for a while. But the look on, like, Wendell's and Raylan's face as they're watching her interrogate, same, same.

Me same, also, at home. Like, my jaw somehow open, but my upper lip also kind of curled and disgust and shock and horror at what she is saying and doing in that interrogation. horrifying stuff, absolutely. Just how brazen it is, right? Like how brazenly she is pinning this on Durel in front of other cops. Again, like, Raylan is not part of your crime family here. He knows that you had the gun.

And honestly, the chain of custody, like hot potato of the gun is probably something we should talk through at some point. It kind of is a through line for the episode. But, I mean, she just could not care less about who, she says this stuff in front of how brazenly she frames him for this double murder. I will say, Raylan's done a lot of stupid stuff in his day. But the fact that last week he was like, hey, Hey, Wendell, do you think there's something like fishy in the police department? And then in a stairwell, he's like, Maureen, here's the gun.

I was sitting in, I was like watching a sorority girl walk down into a basement in a horror movie. I was like, no, Raylan, what are you fucking doing? Absolutely not. And again, it's so brazen for her to then use that to try to pin this on this poor, like, man that they've brought in.

And then when rail and confronts her in the hallway for her to be like, and go home. Businesses, this is the Detroit way, as they have told this so many times. But you know, Marine is a dirty cop. Who could possibly have predicted it, Joe? But we do get a little surprise in this, right?

because Raylan is sort of beaten down by the Detroit way. He's like, fuck, I walked right into her trap. I gave the gun to the absolutely wrong person. And then he calls out Norbert at the same time, right? You in the book, too, are you just an asshole? The eternal question of this show. And then we get this, like, one of my favorite moments, I think, because he has been such an absolute asshole fuck-up cop this whole season for Norbert to show up.

to Raylan's car, it says, I've never sent a poor devil up the river. I know it didn't do it just to get a win and comes through with the gun. That was, that was, I was surprised and delighted to see it. How did you feel? I certainly, you know, I thought worse of Norbert, clearly given some of our previous episodes of my speculation, I was, I was glad to see him come through here. It was like, it was a great character moment because it was kind of half villain monologue of justifying the things he's done, and it was half doing the right thing. And I think the fact that where that character's position, with a woman who's now his superior on this case, giving him orders, basically suggesting he looked the other way on this stuff. He's put in an awkward spot. And clearly a lot of the officers in the DPD have been doing shit they should not have been doing. But our guy Norbert comes through here

and at least tries to put the gun in the right hands. And again, it's like, where is the line for all these characters and how easy is it to move it? I think one of the more surprising things for me for Norbert is not just like, I guess it's sort of like the whole wire thing. Like, man's got to have a code. Like, what's your code? What's your line and sort of thing?

But like, in terms of like dirty copdom, I feel like usually what happens in real life and in fiction is like you circle the wagons, right? If Maureen's name is the book, this guy, everyone in the department is just going to like circle around her and protect her as she does what she needs to do to make this problem go away. So for him to not do that It's a little fairy tale, you know? It's a little fairy tale, a little... But I didn't mind it in that.

It was just sort of like... Again, I think there's a lot of shots that we've called in this season, and I don't know that the season is really trying to... No, it's not that kind of show. Surprise us. So that was just like a surprising character moment for me and I enjoyed the little like, oh, you know?

I don't mind that it's a little idealistic, in part because the thesis of this show, show has been like, what can you live with? What lines can you live with crossing? And so the idea that even Norbert is wrestling with that. And even he has this idea that like, I'm only going to pin things on guys who I know are guilty of something. It may not be the exact thing we can charge them with, but we're going to get them on something. And they know deep down what they're in jail for. I think that's a fair representation and a fair culmination of that character. What can you justify? Right. Ding ding ding. All right. So, um,

We're going to, we have a little bit more chain of custody of the gun to talk about before the episode's over, but we're going to come back to that. Let's go back to Sandy. Yeah. Really boxed in. We know that she's taken the money. And a question that Rob and I both don't know the answer to, even though we've like scrubbed through the episode and try to figure this out. So like this is just a question we have. And I think the show is meant for us to ask this question or we miss something obvious and you can email us or tweet us. Sandy is taking the money

The bagel toaster It's just a regular toaster I think But the toaster and or the Dells toaster has only crumbs in it No money anymore No book Was the book there? Did Sandy take it? This is what we think we've

figured out in terms of where the book Could be their two options One Clement still has it Hidden somewhere But if he did I feel like he wouldn't react the way he does when he's looking through the toaster, right?

Well, he says she took my money. That's why I think it was money that she took out there. Well, it could have put it there. That's true. That's fair. Clement still has it stashed somewhere because he stashed it somewhere before he went to the park because, I mean, as we, Maureen tipped him off or something like that.

So it's still sashed somewhere that only he knows about. Or Sandy took it along with the money. And then even though we looked very closely in that airport exchange between her and Raylan gave it to Raylan in a moment that we didn't get to see. Those are the two options

as far as we configure it. If you have another idea of where the book is, let us know. Yeah, I guess there's some more far-fetched ones, but they would be a narrative reach, right? Like maybe Maureen already has the book from Frisking Clement previously in hiding it.

Maybe there's something like that, but I would guess the two most likely outcomes at this point are that when we get to the Radisson bar at the end of this episode, one of those two men has the book. And the other one is kind of wondering, does the other one have it? Kind of a nice bar for a Radisson, I have to say.

That's not a Radisson. There's just no way. I have seen the inside of a Radisson that there is not it. Let's just take a moment. We already mentioned the feathers and the smoking end, but let's just take a moment to memorialize Pordell. Oh, my God.

He's like, that's my kimono. Awful timing. Can you imagine? a long day of travel your flight's been delayed you've been away for weeks you finally get home and some asshole is just tearing

into your bagel toaster wearing your kimono and like tidi witties your comodo tidy wetties nothing else and a grin Dell is the real victim here what I love something that Boyd Holbrook does in his

Clement delivery is there's like you know there's this thing that villains like fun villains will do where they'll be kind of like charming to the people that they're menacing at the same time. Yeah. But there's almost there's almost like a slight exasperation that he plays of like, don't be silly. Just like come on. Come on. We're going to come over here now. We're going to do this now. What are you doing? Come on. Let's do. Stop fucking around. Like we got, I got to kill you. Come on. Like, what are we doing? What are you doing here? It's such a fine line, though,

between like what Jason Momoa is doing in Fast X and what Boyd-Holbrook is doing here. Is it? Well, I'm saying, but like, in terms of these zany, cartoonish villainy characters, it's like how far is too far? Or you're saying Mammoa went too broad for Fast X? I mean, he went to every direction. It was not my favorite performance in the world. In the previously very subtle franchise that is Fast and Furious, you're like, well, cars

in space. Yep, very grounded. Charlize their own with White Dreadlocks monologing about like, crocodiles or whatever she did. Look, we all have our line. And my line is Jason Momoa. Oh, that was justified.

This is like, you know, you're tossing the gun through the car window. Okay, got it. Sandy and Realon. I really loved this. I've loved all of their interactions this season. I like when Raylan does this with some of the, like, low-level criminals of Harlan County

where he would be like, come on. Like, I'm not going to bust you down for this. just tell me what I need to know, Dewey Crow and like go on your way. Like, come on. It's fine. Sandy, go, yes. Go back to school. Go find a nice guy.

Get on the plane. Do whatever you need to do. Whether or not I would like, I would like to believe you'll do it. You probably won't. But I would like to believe that for you. Her plane ticket is still going to Nassau. You know, I don't think she's going to college there.

Yeah. I believe in Sandy's charms. We'll get her through something. in the future. I hope that for her. I mean, like, we don't know.

I mean, is this the last we're going to see Sandy? I don't know. But yeah. But what I love is she like gives him

this whole like, I want to do things different. I can go back to school. I want to live honest. Like this whole thing. And he's like, okay, yeah. Okay,

Sammy. I'm going to need your phone. And she gets this sort of like pissed off petulant look on her face. Like, my phone. But a very, you're letting me get away with a bunch of crime.

But like, you want my phone. Come on. A very important. lesson baked in, though, if you're going to turn your phone over to the authorities, delete your nudes. Yeah. Delete the nudes. You got to scroll through it.

It doesn't matter. Yeah. I know your life is in danger. I know you're waiting on your flight. You got to get rid of those photos. Absolutely. 100%. Um, Carolyn tips off the Albanians.

And she tries to get really now out of it. Like, she learned her lesson a little bit from this week. She's like, come on, cowboy. Come on home. Find me a drink. Does not work this time. Nope. And we get the showdown at the Radisson. The showdown we've been waiting for.

The showdown at what is definitely not a Radisson. Cool production design, I mean, or probably more likely just location scouting, of like the neon outside the window. I thought that was like really like Blade Runner 2049 looking in this interaction. The filmmaking of this scene is really cool. I think just the way it's shot, the way it's framed, kind of how it's shifting perspectives and the power dynamics they're in. I thought this was really effective. I'm going to do one more, one last musical reference before we go today. Clement, when he walks in and he sees, like, rail is there and he goes, oh, Sandy, right?

That's a little, a little grease moment from our guy Clement, right? Yeah, one of these days that girl's going to get me in trouble. I love that. I loved, yeah. And I loved their exchange chair. That it was great. A little prelude to a kiss. We're not getting the show down here.

Not yet. Interrupted by the Albanians. That's finale material, my friend. We're not getting it penultimate. This is very penultimate episode vibes. Yeah. This scene, really this whole episode, like a lot of chess pieces moving. But in a way that I think is pretty satisfying in the way sweetie had set up previously, right?

Sometimes we just miss two guys sitting across the table having a conversation just like this one. Just like this one. Yeah, Sandy's off the board. Births out of town. Sweetie's dead. So it's just like Carolyn, Raylan, Clement, and some Albanians. Yeah. Right?

I like that, you know, we had already, we had already had the question, how are you going to get his prints on the gun, right? So that's like all Raylan's trying to do. And Clement knows that's what he's trying to do. And that's kind of my favorite part about all of it is like everyone knows what's going on. Yeah. Is that his plan? Or do you think he just wants to shoot him?

That's what I don't know. Like, is his plan? Like, I honestly think Clement might pick up this gun, or is he just looking for the excuse to shoot? I had very, like, I know people have posed this question, but in return of the Jedi, when Luke shows up at Jabba's Palace, and it's like, what the fuck was his plan to get captured

and then just improvise? Like, what was the plan here? And from the moment that Raylan puts the gun on the table, which, by the way, is very similar. Like, there was this plot threat. that I just recently rewatched in season three. What's that guy's name? Like the ice pick.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. With the tablecloth pole? Exactly. He'll, like, put the gun between them and then stab their hand with an ice pick when they go for it, like on a draw situation. I didn't know, is, Israeli, like, doing a gun draw thing here?

I didn't exactly know what he was after. And maybe that's the point. I was looking for tablecloths on the tables of what is definitely not the bar and the radisson. You got to check it. I love that. I love that tablecloth pole. move. That's like one of my favorite railing moments

of all time. Tremendous stuff. Whether, who has the gun something that we've been asking all season, turns out, doesn't matter. Because the Albanians dumped the gun in the river. Well, before they do, though, I want to, you know, do you know why Boyd Holbrook is the absolute best, Joe? Tell me why. Because of the absolute relish

he throws on this line. You want me to put my prints on someone else's murder gun. Very Logan lucky-ass line reading and I say that in the best way possible. Very like Charlotte Motor Speedway. Foghorn, leghorn

A little bit, but I really, I love it. I'm here every time. I know we're nearing the end. I hope we get a lot of Clement yet to come. I just, I love what he's brought to this show. Anything you want to say about what like the conversation that the Albanians had

when they're basically like, we escaped the horrors of Albanians. Albania to come here. And we lived okay for a while, but now guess what? Detroit's worse than Albania? Is that the vibe that was happening in the car? I think so. I mean, again, neither material for the Detroit Tourism Board or the Albanian Tourism Board.

This is not a ringing endorsement of either. No. Look, I like that, you know, ultimately, Toma does what Sandy couldn't and throws the gun in the river. I like kind of the circular nature of that story. But otherwise, let's be honest about what's happening here. And if the Albanians are here to kill the. vibe. They're here to kill the vibe on the standoff that we all want to see, to delay what we know to be probably pretty inevitable, and to just give us one little plot twist before the end.

I, you know, I appreciate their presence. I like some of what they bring to this show. I can't say this was like the most dynamic turn in the story. What is your prediction for how this is all going to play out next week? We've only one more episode to go. The Albanians don't seem like they're just out here just like murdering cops per se. So I'm going to guess Raylan is not in any kind of mortal and immediate danger. Hard to imagine our guy Clement living past the finale. One way or the other?

Yeah. Yeah. I think railing has to... But it has to be railing, right? Not the Albanians. That would be such a buzzkill. If one of the Albanians just guns him down in a back alley somewhere, that would be... I think there's nothing in the plot or the narrative of the show to suggest that's where we're headed. And honestly, just given, you know,

to zoom out a little bit, Boyd Holbrook is a one-season commitment kind of guy. He's either getting away and never to be seen from again, or he's getting murdered by somebody. He has major franchises to be henchmen in. He can't just sit around and be the Oklahoma Wildman forever. Absolutely not. He's got hopefully Sandman season two to make.

All right. So, I mean, as far as episodes go, this is not like my favorite of the season. But as you say, Pendleton episodes, unless your Game of Thrones, are usually like place, you know, table setting for what the eventual showdown, you know, we've been promised multiple times

a shootout, a showdown of some kind. Trying to think about, in terms of justified and shootout and showdowns, like there's the one in the final season, but that's not usually, like pistols at dawn is not usually how. No. Or high noon or whatever time of day you want to do it.

It's not usually how justified goes, but it seems like that's, feels inevitable given, or maybe it will be sort of like interesting dramatically to keep teasing that and then do exactly not that. It could be. I will say the pistols at dawn part

usually justified will subvert when that comes up, they'll make the date to show up and duel or fight or whatever, and then one of the two doesn't show up for whatever reason. Usually, and I think this is probably more consistent with Clement's character,

something unexpected, right? They both turn up at the same place at the same time, almost by accident. And in ways that I think lots, like a lot of the plot mechanics over the back half of the season have been kind of born or married out of convenience, right? Like, Sweetie comes up with this plan to frame Clement

almost because this guy happens to show up at his bar, because he happens to get this phone call from the marshals, everything just kind of threads together in the perfect way at the perfect time, or I guess for him, the imperfect way at the imperfect time. I would guess something more along those lines where, just by happenstance, Raylan happens to be one step ahead of Clement or vice versa, and they end up in the same room.

Speaking of the future of Boyd Holbrook, I just want to shout out an upcoming film that he has that I am really interested in. Do tell. The director, Jeff Nichols, who did Mud, midnight special, take shelter, etc., etc., is doing a film called The Bike Riders that I think is essentially,

it seems like a kind of sons of anarchy, but make it the Midwest. Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jody Comer, Michael Shannon, the Jeff Nichols special, Michael Shannon, Boyd Holbrook. Boyd Holbrook as fifth build in a Jeff Nichols Motorcycle Club movie, perfect, of course, absolutely. I'm sure his boots will be amazing. And right build under him is Damon Harriman, Dewey Crow himself. Wow. Look at that.

So a little justified mini-reunion inside of an upcoming Jeff Nichols film. Honestly, that's some ringer-core shit that cast list you just listed off. It's supposed to play a telluride next month, but I don't know what all is going on with everything. So we'll see. But yeah, that is very ringer core. I do love Jeff Nichols. He's a great director. Anything else you want to say before we go?

I mean, just to quote R.A. Clement, nothing from nothing is nothing, but it's got to be something. I love that song, Billy Preston's song. I'm excited for the finale. I'm really interested to see where they go. Well, no, no, this is the other prediction we have to make. Based on very, very, very, not promises, I would say, like gentle teasing at the TCA justified panel.

I am curious, do you think we're going to get any original characters, original series characters in the finale? and if so, who do you think we'll get? I don't know if this is just like modern media has trained me to interpret, you know, like some of the cast members have been asked about this if they're going to show up and they all insist they will not,

which makes me think that someone probably will. I don't know that we're getting the full squad, but maybe do we get Raylan walking back into the Kentucky office, you know, so we see like Art or Rachel or some of that crew again. Winona's obviously a natural one given that Willa will,

if she's... Nona feels like a gimmie. If Willa doesn't show up in the finale, I would be shocked. Like, you have to put a bow on that father-daughter storyline in some way. Will we get anything more? I mean, the elephant in the room is Walton Gaggans, right? Yeah. And he has sworn that he's not in it.

He has said he is, he's like. As Spider-Men have sworn before him. He's gone fully under Garfield. My only question is, like, how would you even include him? Like, how would he even get to Detroit? how would the plot move in a way where he would be involved? I feel like it would have to be a season two tease, if it's anything. I mean, I hope I, look, if that means we get a season two, I'm thrilled about it.

And look, having just ripped through righteous gemstones, I'll take all the Goggins I can get. He's so good in that show. If he shows up in the finale and doesn't do Baby Billy's Bible bonkers, I'm going to be mad about that, but I'm always happy to see him. I say it's, it's, Winona, Boyd. I'm going to say,

Winona for sure. Yes. Boyd, I hope. I'm going to say just Winona. Okay. God. Are you like Dickie Bennett? Is Dickie still alive?

He was so, his health was so failing him, but I would love to see Dickie Bennett again. The thing is with no previous tease, Boyd is like the only character big enough and recognizable enough and justified enough. and justified enough to just like drop in there in a final episode

you're walking me into it I'm on the same page I think Winona Winona and Boyd feels like a fair prediction yeah I don't think we're getting Tim and Rachel in art what a bummer as much as I would love to see them and what is what is Ava doing

she's dead no no no wasn't that the whole thing at the end of the original like why Raylan goes to visit Boyd in prison at the end of the original He tells him he's dead because he's lying to him. She has Boyd's kid and she's hiding and she's like, Boyd can never know that this kid exists. I'm sorry I just spoiled the end of your justified rewatch.

The webs that we weave. I totally forgot. I remember. Hashtag Ava lives. See, this is the problem with I have YouTubeed that ending scene so many times. I have convinced myself that she's actually dead, but hashtag Ava lives. Yeah. Hashtag Ava lives.

Boyd's got a kid out there. Like that has always been the like dangling things. read at the end of like is Boyd going to find out that he is a kid out there somewhere with Ava so season two boyd's son and willa meet conspicuously you know look it it writes itself the junior avengers are showing up he bishops here all right that's it we've done it uh we will be back uh next week for the finale thanks as always to the great steve allman uh source of what was it the bloopers the blue and groupies very good steve excellent stuff from Steve Olman as usual, and we will see you next week. Bye.