TV Review: JUSTIFIED: Season 3, Episode 13: Slaughterhouse

Justified Season 3 Episode 13 Slaughterhouse Review. Justified: Season 3, Episode 13: Slaughterhouse was a season finale full of surprises, especially in its last twelve minutes involving both action and drama.

The action surprise in Justified: Slaughterhouse was between Robert Quarles (Neal McDonough), Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), and Ellstin Limehouse (Mykelti Williamson) in Limehouse’s slaughterhouse. The viewer knew something was going to happen but never that: a.) banished Errol (Demetrius Grosse) would intercede on Limehouse behalf and b.) Quarles would get half of his arm cut off by Limehouse.  Completely unexpected but fitting. Limehouse had been threatening people with a cleaver since the beginning of the season yet hadn’t used one on anyone until this point. It made sense that it was saved for the season finale.

The second major surprise or should I say surprises, involved Arlo Givens (Raymond J. Barry). The viewer , throughout the episode, thought it was Quarles that shot Trooper Tom Bergen (Peter Murnik). It turns out that it wasn’t Quarles but Arlo Givens. Never saw that coming or that his crew would all try to protect him, keeping his name out of it.

The best twist in the episode began when Arlo came into Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins)’s bar after the explosion and the shooting. Arlo was surprised to see Raylan Givens, “hearing” that someone in a hat had been shot.

That twisting continued as Arlo, through his police interviews, divulged that he had seen a man in a hat and fired. The implication was that Arlo thought he was shooting Raylan Givens, his son, to protect Boyd Crowder. He choose his paper son over his biological son.

Chief Deputy Art Mullen (Nick Searcy) knew it, sitting Raylan down before telling him that Arlo’s goal was to kill the man in the hat.

When Raylan tells Winona Hawkins (Natalie Zea), the twist completes itself. The viewer sees it all, especially when the viewer watches Raylan donning his hat, leaving the room, the implication of his words bursting in Winona’a mind and on her face.

I thought that the show was really going to shake things up and send Boyd Crowder to prison for over twenty years but it wasn’t to be. It would have been great if he had been, along with all those characters permanently leaving the show: Dickey Bennet (Jeremy Davies), Quarlyes, Bergen, Devil, probably Errol, numerous whores, pimpes, and lackeys. The icing on that cake would have been Boyd. It would have made the season finale even better but it seems teleplay writer Fred Golan and story writer Graham Yost had other plans.

The Raylan Givens from the first episode of the series “Fire in the Hole” (written about here: TV Review: Justified: Season 1, Ep.1: Fire in the Hole), the reckless, throwback gunslinger, showed himself again in this episode multiple times and it was great to see. I hope that incarnation is more apparent next season.

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