Justified: "The Hunt"

This post will be a review/rant as it prominently featured my least favorite character in the series: Raylan's ex-wife Winona. I have never liked the two of them as a couple. The way Natalie Zea portrays this character, you never get the sense that she ever truly loved Raylan (or felt anything else toward him for that matter). When they rekindled their sexual relationship a season or two ago, she claimed to love Raylan while continuing to sleep with her then-current husband Gary, the realtor she left Raylan to be with.

This week, Raylan met his infant daughter Willow in person for the first time. Willow brings up a fan theory that both my aunt and I have: She is not Raylan's biological daughter. We think she was conceived during one of Winona's trysts with Gary; after his shady business dealings got him killed, she told Raylan the baby was his to trick him into going back to her. Indeed, Winona dumps the screaming infant on Raylan early in the episode without so much as a spare diaper. She complains to him that she never sleeps because Willow cries nonstop (which the baby does), yet still is in the mood to have sex and risk making another baby.

Anyway, Raylan takes Willow to the Marshals' office with him. Art is hanging around even though he's still technically on leave. Markham is in the conference room being interviewed about something and we learn he was a big fish that once escaped the chief deputy. I wish this scene had been longer because Nick Searcy and Sam Elliott had some great chemistry.

Boyd is growing suspicious of Ava because he knows she tried to leave via Limehouse's underground railroad. He drags her to his dad's old hunting cabin, though Ava heartily protests going. He forces her to drink a shot of bourbon. Boyd doesn't stop there; he hits Ava and tries to choke her, much like his brother Bowman (Ava's late husband). He drags her out into the woods and threatens to shoot her. Ava cracks and admits that she's Raylan's informant. Boyd asks for her help in getting to Raylan. Ava agrees because she's terrified.

The last two weeks have given us more input on Ava's past. Her father was a coal miner who died after being trapped in a collapsed mine for about a week, which caused Ava to be afraid of the dark as a child. The demolitions expert that Boyd hired to help with the safe heist is her uncle Zachariah. Also, ex-military enforcer for Markham, Choo-Choo, is no more.

Markum's beared henchman Walker is proving to be as dangerous and unpredictable a character as Quarles. After being shot at the end of last week's episode, he dug the bullet out of his own shoulder in a dirty gas station bathroom a la Patrick Swayze in Road House. To keep the Marshals from tracking him, he gave his credit cards to a couple of jackass frat boys on their way to spring break in Orlando. (It didn't work; they racked up big charges at a liquor store and porno place, raising the suspicions of Tim). He also threatened to kill said frat boys. When Walker's car broke down on a back road, he called in a fake hiking accident. He fatally shot the EMT and the paramedic who responded and stole their ambulance.

I have a feeling that Tim might get involved in tracking down Walker, given that he's a former Ranger sniper. He gets the honor of best line in the episode. Rachel states that they're "chasing their dicks" in regards to finding a suspect and he replies, "Sounds really weird when you say that."