No country for Raylan Givens
It’s not a good thing when the bad guy underestimates the good guy. A natural idea that doesn’t require a ton of inception, they think the more noble soul won’t go to the end of the line and back to clear scum from justice’s path. When it comes to Raylan Givens (the forever excellent Timothy Olyphant), a righteous kill comes almost too easy. Justified: City Primeval wrapped up its season this past week, so let’s get into the takeaways and review while the pan is still hot.
If there’s a single takeaway from the follow-up to the excellent (holding up quite well) FX drama series, it’s that even the sharpest of crime fighting-gunslingers hit a wall at some point. While I didn’t adore The Coen Brothers’ Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, I felt that I understood its message. I respected what Cormac McCarthy said about the human race and species. The idea that there is some high-level form of evil that just can’t be stopped. If one can find a way to put it down, the effect will be too much to bear another fight.
After distinguishing Clement Mansell, a long time felon (a snake-eyed Boyd Holbrook) with an easy-to-kill urge and enough charm to let you get too close, Raylan had discovered that this was too much for the rest of his life to share a bed with. Earlier in the television series run portion of the story, Givens had chosen to continue chasing the notorious Kentucky criminal, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins, a gift to any show or movie), instead of settling down with his girlfriend and their kid in Miami.
City Primeval finds Givens getting ready to choose family time over convict-tracking time, taking his daughter on a cross-country road trip to college. But an unfortunate encounter with a couple asshats on the side of the road attaches his path to Mansell, who is rampaging through Detroit. Holbrook’s killer isn’t just taking down a judge and his wife before skipping town; he’s the kind of cold-hearted human who sticks around to kill as much as one can without colliding with an immovable force.
That’s Raylan, the guy who was underestimated for several seasons on the show and finds another trigger-happy target making the same mistake. Raylan doesn’t budge, scare easy, or quit until the killing is done. He’s too deft for Internal Affairs to nail, and too quick on the pull to fire second.
But City Primeval allowed him to stop a mad man and make a choice to step down. Retiring is something he didn’t know how to do back when he put Crowder in jail but kept the badge on. This time, he put out the fire and set down the badge.
You could see it on his face after he fired three bullets into Clement’s chest. As the disbelief rolled down the windshield of his final expression, Mansell could only look up at a stone-cold Givens as his clock stopped. What he didn’t realize is that he would most likely be the final victim of a legendary lawman.
After years and years of taking down bad guys, Givens discovered this was no country for even a righteous-killing U.S. Marshal. Mansell had some motive during his killing spree, but he really didn’t at the same time. He was killing simply because he enjoyed it; facing down that sort of evil soaked the rest of the righteousness out of Raylan.
Like Tommy Lee Jones’s cop in the movie realized at the end, it’s nearly impossible to stop all the evil in this world. There’s too much, and the edge has grown too wicked. While quietly creating a way out for Givens, City Primeval managed to produce a solid message.
While you can’t shoot down all the badness in the world, it’s most wise to spend the rest of your days with family. City Primeval allowed a Justified hero to make an honorable exit.
YES. I know Crowder escaped prison. I know there’s discussion of another season. I would love to see Olyphant’s better-than-perfect cowboy walk for another batch of episodes--or even a movie. But a good part of me would like Givens to let that cell phone continue to ring while he’s out on the water with his daughter.
A visit to Detroit didn’t take Raylan’s life; it simply redirected his priorities.
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