A lot of shocking things have happened on Justified this season: Arlo managed to kill someone in jail, Boyd and Ava ordered Colton to off Ellen May, and Raylan lost his girlfriend to a washed-up wannabe MMA fighter whose real dream was to manage cockfights. But perhaps the most shocking thing of all came at the beginning of Week 7’s “Money Trap,” when the show flashed back to the point where Raylan handed double-homicide suspect Jody Adair over to bail bondswoman Sharon Edmunds. That moment would have come, chronologically, toward the end of Episode 1. So imagine my surprise when “Six days ago” flashed on the screen to ground the reader in the time-setting. Six days? That means that the entirety of the season—seven episodes so far—has taken place over the course of about a week.
With all that’s happened, Raylan’s had a week to rival Jack Bauer. Let’s review:
Raylan’s long week starts when he gets a call from Sharon Edmunds, who offers him cash to track down Jody Adair. Raylan apprehends him that night. Meanwhile, two teenagers break into Arlo’s house, steal Raylan’s car (and Jody Adair, who’s in the trunk), and then later pull a gun on him. “You just showed me your tits 45 minutes ago,” Raylan protests to Roz. At some point, he turns Adair over to Edmunds. This happened over parts of two days, but Raylan never slept.
Day 2: Raylan meets Lindsey’s supposedly former husband and then gets guns pulled on him by the Truth kids. Still, this is a pretty uneventful day; maybe he had time to read a book or go bowling or something.
Day 3: He has sex with Lindsey, runs off Randall (or so he thinks), watches an FBI agent kill himself (but not before making it look like he might shoot Raylan), rescues Drew Thompson’s “widow,” and returns home to find his apartment trashed and Lindsey—and his money—missing.
Day 4: He hunts down Bonnie and Clyde, loses Lindsey, cuffs Randall, and discovers that the “goodly sum” he’s been socking away for his unborn child has been converted into a van full of chickens. On the bright side, he eventually gets a decent night’s sleep, and the only gunfight involves bean-bag rounds.
Day 5: Raylan is captured and locked in a shed with Boyd by some hill people, who quickly shoot at them. Boyd and Raylan scrap their way out, and Raylan talks the hill people into sparing their lives, right before he handcuffs Boyd to a tree. All night. Elsewhere, Josiah Cairn goes and gets his foot cut off and disappears, wrecking Raylan’s plans to cuddle up with a good book the next day.
Day 6: Raylan and his new friend Sheriff Shelby track down Josiah Cairn—in a truly Jack Bauer-esque moment—right as one of the morons who kidnapped him is cauterizing his stump with a blow torch. Shockingly, guns are drawn. Sheriff Shelby shoots one of Josiah’s kidnappers, wounding him.
Day 7: Raylan chases Joey Adair all over Lexington, scoops up a sweet young damsel in distress, and eventually confronts Adair at the Highnote. Like most of the people Raylan encounters this week, Adair tries to pull a gun. Raylan draws faster. Lights out.
So, what did you do this week? Is there a body count involved? Raylan’s week, by the numbers:
Killed in action: Sharon Edmunds, her partner, Agent Barnes, Jody Adair
Wounded: Roz (stabbed by Constable Bob), Josiah (chopped), the convenience store clerk (beat up by Randall), the bumbling idiot who chopped Josiah’s foot (shot but alive)
Kidnapped (and rescued): Josiah, Eve Munro
