Recap: 'Justified,' Season 3, Episode 1, 'The Gunfighter'

"Justified," Season 3, Episode 1, "The Gunfighter" begins with Raylan Givens still recovering from the gunshot wound he took at the end of the last season. The wound proves to be an irritation to television's most interesting lawman.

Spoilers surely follow.

The suicide of Megs Bennett has left some pretty big shoes to fill insofar as villains go on the series. Quarles, fresh from Detroit and loving the Kentucky bluegrass country, seeks to do just that as he proceeds to execute (as it were) some personnel changes in the Dixie Mafia by terminating Arnett, the local underboss and his secretary, and giving Duffy his position.

The other villain who shows up in the episode is a man named Fletcher, also known as "the Ice Pick," whose modus operandi is to pretend to give his victim a chance by placing a pistol between them and on the count of 10 see who can grab it first. However when the victim goes for the gun, Fletcher uses an ice pick to pin the hand down and then shoots him.

He does this during a robbery, killing two men, including Dilmore Cotes and a hapless pizza deliveryman. Later he will try the same thing against Raylan and Winona, but with a far different result. Rule number one for "Justified" is never throw down on Raylan if you want to emerge unhurt.

The reason that Fletcher tries to take out Raylan is that Duffy is connected to the Cotes killing because of a security system Duffy had installed in his house. Fletcher had installed the system and then took it off line before entering the house.

The exception to that rule takes place in the Marshal's office when Boyd Crowder is put out because Raylan won't hand over Dickie Bennett to be killed. There are some things that a United States Deputy Marshal will not do. Boyd gives Raylan a savage beat down, which places the former in jail and in position to give Dickie the shank.

Ava, in the meantime, is coming into her own as part of Boyd's new organization. The marijuana that Boyd and his crew took from the Bennetts turns out to be unusable because of exposure to rats and mold. Boyd orders the whole crop burned. When Deville, as associate of Arlo Givens, objects, she lays him out with a frying pan.

Raylan's wound is slowing him down just a little. This will have some consequences, to be sure, later on. Fortunately it was not enough to prevent him from taking down Fletcher when he played the grab the gun game. That would have ended the season prematurely.

Source: Justified, The Gunfighter, TV.Rage