Justified Recap: Leave It to Cleaver

Season finale time! Wasn't it just yesterday that Raylan and Winona were goofily talking baby names and Not Karen Sisco seemed like she was going to be a much bigger recurring character?

I guess the occasion of a finale is the David Simon–approved time to talk about the season's success as a whole. No point in beating around the bush: It's been tough for Justified to live up to last season's standard. Certainly this season's crop of villains — a baker's dozen of swirling allegiances who ended up policing each other as much as Raylan policed them — hasn't quite been able to add up to one Mags Bennett. That's not exactly the harshest of criticisms. A TV show is lucky to even get one Mags in its lifetime, and just off the top of my head I can rattle off several episodes that I'd put among the series' best (Dewey Crowe's kidney search; Raylan framed for Gary's murder; that triple-shootout with Pruit Taylor Vince). Read More...