Justified (Season 6)

Justified is an interesting series as each of its seasons feel like one self-contained story, each with its own vibe, storyline, and tone. For a final season, Season 6 might seem oddly small-scale, focusing on the core cast of the series. However, that also makes it the most personal and satisfying season of the bunch, and probably the best.

Season 6 of Justified boasts probably one of the simplest plotlines in the series. Raylan is building a RICO case against Boyd, with Ava being forced to help as an informant. Meanwhile, Boyd is trying to rob a criminal named Avery Markham for his vengeful boss Katherine Hale. That's pretty much all there is to know, and it never gets more complicated than that, though that's not really a bad thing. The simplicity makes the slow build in tension all the better, culminating in a strong second half to the season (and the series as a whole). As villains, I think Markham and Katherine are pretty good. They're both intimidating in their own ways (Sam Elliot without a mustache is downright ghoulish), and are leagues more charismatic and interesting than the Crowes ever were. However, the real focus of this season is the main trio of Raylan, Boyd, and Ava, which I thought was a perfect choice to bring the show to an end. With all of his morally gray-ness, the decision to have Raylan go rogue in his search for Boyd just felt perfect, and the whole season built up to an amazing confrontation between the two. The real highlight this season, however, was surprisingly Ava. Given how much I hated her storyline last season, her storyline about having to rat on Boyd was really compelling. She really starts to realize that she's just trapped between Raylan and Boyd, and some of the decisions she makes in her attempt to escape ended up being some of the more impactful moments in the season.

Outside of Markham and Hale (and a few of their coworkers), Season 6 is almost entirely focused around pre-existing characters. I think this works really well for the final season, as the major conflict feels more personal, and we don't have to deal with having to learn about an entirely new cast of characters. In addition, this also means that even outside of the main trio, pretty much everyone gets a satisfying resolution. Loretta is a surprising highlight as we get to see her evolution and rise to a Mags-like figure, but there's also Rachel taking over for Art, Wynn being revealed to be a rat, and... I don't think anything demonstrates Season 6's love of the Justified cast more than the fact that the series finale has a 20-minute-long epilogue that reveals where all of the characters moved onto. This season also has some excellent pacing and consistency. There's hardly a weak point in the entire season, and the overarching conflicts slowly build, with each episode becoming more explosive and intense than the last.

This entire season is pretty consistently strong, but there are some notable highlights:

Fate's Right Hand: This premiere did a great job of laying out the core conflict of the season, with Raylan trying to get Boyd, Boyd robbing a bank, and Ava having to figure out how to be an informant. There's also a bittersweet tone to this episode, with the many references to the pilot really hammering home the fact that things are coming to an end. But the real highlight was the end times of Dewey Crowe,  ending with a heartbreaking death for a character I thought would be too dumb to die.

Dark As A Dungeon: It's always a ton of fun when Raylan and Boyd get to spend a lot of screentime together, so seeing them both cross paths during the Walker manhunt was a ton of fun. While I expected Walker to bite the dust, his death scene was pretty great, as was the solemn final scene where Raylan sees his father's ghost. It really feels like he's going to leave Harlan this time.

Burned: Loretta goes full Mags in this episode, winning a oratory argument with Markham and Boyd that feels straight out of Season 2. The reveal that Wynn is also a rat was pretty great. But the most striking moment of the episode was Boyd almost dying in Zachariah's mine explosion, a drastic change in tone for the series with shaky cam and a horrifying performance from Walton Goggins that feels uncharacteristically vulnerable.

Fugitive Number One: For me, this is the episode where the sidekicks die. Mikey and Carl both have pretty shocking deaths, the former dying for his boss and the latter dying from his boss. Mikey sacrificing himself to kill Katherine was shocking not just because he killed a major villain, but because of just how gory the whole fight was. It might have been the most intense sequence in the series. There's also a strong cliffhanger where Raylan goes rogue to track down Boyd.

Collateral: I'll be honest, I thought this episode was a bit on the slow side until there was fifteen minutes left. But then we got a tense gunfight, amazing confrontation between Raylan and Boyd, an injured Bob, an arrested Raylan, a captured Ava, some fun interactions between Markham and Loretta, a shocking death for Zachariah, one of Boyd's cruelest acts to date, and a ton of great set-up for the series finale.

The Promise: What a satisfying finale, likely even the best episode of the whole show. There were just so many amazing scenes here. The confrontation in the barn was absolutely dripping with tension, the highway quick draw between Raylan and Boyd was the purest encapsulation of Justified's modern western genre, and of course, the final conversation between Boyd and Raylan was just perfect. Every character gets a satisfying resolution thanks to the time jump, and the sheer amount of strong bookends make the ending feel so unbelievably fitting.

Overall, this was a perfect final season for Justified. It's a personal and character-driven story with pitch-perfect pacing, tense escalation, and a stellar finale that ends the series on as satisfying of a note as possible.

5/5 Stars

My ranking of the Justified seasons is:

6 > 4 > 2 > 3 > 1 > 5

My ranking of the Justified finales is:

6 > 2 > 3 > 1 > 4 > 5

Favorite Episode: Decoy