FX's 'Justified' returns with laughs, murder, and a mystery 'Hole In The Wall'

FX's "Justified" returns for a fourth season with "Hole In The Wall," and starts with a flashback to 1983, where a home owner finds a parachutist dead in the street, surrounded by bags of cocaine. Nice opener for the show, bloody and quizzical, and open-ended enough to start the ball rolling.

Back in the present, Raylan is woken up from a nap in his office by a phone call from a bail bondsman from Knoxville Raylan slept with a few years ago. It's not a personal call, she needs him to find a bail-jumper, Jody, for her. Raylan goes out to find the guy, which seems odd for a Marshal to be taking side jobs on the clock.

Raylan finds the con trying to get into his old house to see his kids, but his wife won't let him. When he goes to his car to get a gun, Raylan pulls his on him through the car window. The crook has his gun trained on Raylan through the car door, though.

Jody: You think this is the first time I've had a gun pointed at me?
Raylan: No. Could be your last, though.

Jody correctly points out that as a lawman, Raylan won't shoot him, so Raylan shoots his steering wheel and sets off the airbag, then drags the crook out of the vehicle.

And all that before the opening credits.

After the first break, we get our first glimpse of Boyd Crowder (since Walton Goggans showed up on Sons of Anarchy). Boyd is talking to someone named Hiram about getting saved, and asked if he was saved in a church. Hiram says yes, the Last Chance Holiness.

Boyd: Well that's new to me. I don't believe I've ever heard of that collection plate.

Hiram tells him the church is new, and Preacher Billy has been healing the afflicted and addicted, and that's why Boyd's Oxy sales are down. Boyd says he's glad people are finding the Lord, but Hiram still owes him ten thousand dollars for Oxy sales he was supposed to make before his conversion. Hiram says he flushed the poison, and Boyd rebuts him with scripture by equating Oxy with wine. Boyd gets up and walks away from the window as Hiram's car explodes, and tells him that saved or not, if Hiram doesn't give him his money tomorrow night the next explosion will be inside his house.

The scene shifts to a teenage couple breaking into Raylan's dad's house and trashing it, including smashing open a wall and exposing what appears to be the loot bag from the dead skydiver flashback at the beginning of the show. New Constable Bob Sweeney (Patton Oswalt) chases them off and goes to investigate.

Raylan is transferring the prisoner when Constable Bob calls him. Raylan isn't impressed with the prisoner's shifting of the blame for his crimes, and tosses him in the trunk for a quieter trip.

In a truly random subplot scene shift, a guy brings trailer-park prostitute Ellie May some drugs wrapped in a fake million-dollar bill from the Last Chance Holiness Church. He tells her he's got one more surprise for her, so she gets high while he puts on a bear suit.

Yes, a bear suit.

He surprises her, at which point she starts screaming and grabs her pistol and shoots him multiple times.

Meanwhile, Constable Bob brings Raylan into Arlo's house, and we find out he's paying Bob to keep a watch on the place while Raylan tries to sell it. Raylan finds the bag, empty except for a drivers license in the name of Waldo Truth.

On the way out, Bob complains about being a low paid Constable, and he tells Raylan if he ever needs help, to call him. As they drive away, the teenage couple watches them from a distance.
Back at the trailer, Ava is talking to Ellie May.

Ellie May: See, Arnold's a Furry. He usually dresses up in like, a bunny suit? But this one scared me. Plus I was on drugs...and it was a good costume.

Ava tells her Arnold, who's a Judge Executive, can't press charges. Ava tells her she doesn't need a gun, that she'll protect her.

At the hardware store, Raylan talks about Arlo with the manager, but they both realize neither of them plans to see Arlo ever again. On his way out, the teenage girl from the break-in delays him first with a spill of screws, then by raising her shirt. She then turns and flashes the manager and runs out the back, and Raylan realizes she was distracting him while his car's was being stolen.

(For part two of this article, please click here.)