The essential episodes of Justified
Watch these 15 in order and you've got Justified — each pick states its reason.
- 01
After some bad publicity involving a shooting, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens' boss transfers Raylan from Miami to Lexington, Kentucky. Under Chief Deputy Art Mullen, an old friend from the academy, Raylan takes on the case of the murder of a young white supremacist who is linked to a church bombing. The chief suspect is Boyd Crowder, a childhood friend of Raylan's. In order to catch him, Raylan returns to his hometown of Harlan. Boyd gives Raylan an ultimatum: leave Harlan within twenty-four hours or be killed. After a tense confrontation at an old acquaintance's house, Raylan gets the drop on Boyd and shoots him in the chest, though he survives and is hospitalized.
- 02
Raylan and the Miami mob compete to capture a fugitive, Roland Pike. The Miami mob wants to kill Pike because Pike was their former accountant and he stole their money and disappeared. The authorities want Pike to act as an informant. Raylan once had a chance to nab Pike, but Pike lied to him and ran off. Pike comes out of hiding as a result of brutally attacking a client from Pike's dental office. The Miami mob spots Raylan looking for Pike, and decides to kill both Raylan and Pike when they have a chance. Raylan eventually kills two of the mob henchmen on his tail (marking the third episode in which Raylan kills someone), and then finds Pike. Pike decides to let a sniper shoot him.
- 03
Raylan's step-mother and aunt, Helen, calls him to tell him Arlo is in jail. Raylan reluctantly goes to Harlan, where Helen tells Raylan he needs to bail out his father. Raylan is wary about getting too involved with his father, who made Raylan live in fear growing up and who was constantly involved in some sort of scheme. Arlo in part blames his behavior on his own father, a religious man who mistreated him. Raylan eventually discovers that Arlo planned to use his own son as a shield from Oxycontin ("hillbilly heroin") runners, whom Arlo had stolen from. Arlo's plan works, as Raylan finds Oxy at the drug runners' house (planted by Helen) and threatens the Oxy runners with jail if he goes after Helen and Arlo again. Raylan doesn't even bother asking Arlo where the stolen Oxy or money is because he knows Arlo will not tell him.
- 04
Raylan is turned hostage negotiator when a dangerous inmate holds a group of people hostage. Raylan's affair with Ava inadvertently grants Boyd an early release from prison.
- 05
Having been suspended from the Marshal's service, Raylan decides to use his free time to go head-to-head with the gangsters who are bothering Winona's new husband.
- 06
In the first season finale, Harlan is turned into a battlefield when the tense situation between Raylan, Arlo, Boyd and Bo Crowder finally comes to a head. When Bo sadistically kills all of his son's followers, Boyd looks to Raylan for help. Arlo's plan to betray Raylan is found out, and he is shot by Raylan. Ava is kidnapped by Bo and Johnny Crowder, after which, Bo shoots Johnny for suspected collusion with Boyd. Boyd and Raylan go after Bo to rescue Ava. At the standoff, Bo is unexpectedly killed, in an ambush, by Miami gun runners who are after Raylan. Raylan and Boyd manage to save Ava and kill three of them, but one of them escapes. Raylan is forced to let Boyd (who calls Raylan his "only friend") chase after Bo's surviving killer.
- 07
As the coal mine makes one final attempt to negotiate with the Bennett clan, Loretta begins to piece together what the Bennetts did with her father.
- 08
Raylan tries to track down Dicky after Helen is killed, but he is forced to turn to Arlo to make a deal and get Mags' blessing.
- 09
The bad blood between the Bennetts and the Crowders reaches its boiling point and results in bloodshed, and Loretta returns from Lexington to avenge her father's death.
- 10
A shocking murder forces Raylan to confront his past mistakes. Boyd grapples with Harlan's corrupt sheriff.
- 11
While Raylan closes in on an ever-more-unpredictable Quarles, Boyd enters into an unlikely alliance with Dickie Bennett in a last-ditch attempt to recover Mags's fortune.
- 12
After the murder of his friend, Raylan is a man on fire as he goes after any- and everyone he holds responsible on the way to a bloody final showdown.
- 13
Boyd and the Detroit Mob try every dirty trick there is to stop Raylan and Drew Thompson from leaving Harlan alive.
- 14
Raylan puts pressure on every criminal in town as a ploy to arrest Darryl Crowe Jr., while Boyd and Duffy enlist an unlikely ally to fight off cartel killers.
- 15
In the series finale, one last battle between Raylan, Boyd and Ava will determine who—if anyone—gets out of Harlan alive.
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