‘Justified’ season 6 premiere reaction: Show boss on surprise death

“Justified” proved in its final-season premiere one very simple thing: This is a show not afraid to do some surprising things as it gets closer and closer to dropping the curtain. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

Before the premiere concluded Tuesday night, we saw one of the more shocking moments of the series as Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) made the choice to kill Dewey Crowe (Damon Herriman), thinking that he was a rat over what he knew about Raylan’s recent actions in Mexico. This move further cemented Boyd as a man completely off the rails, but it also had us struggling to say goodbye to a very popular charter.

Killing off a character like Dewey is not something that showrunner Graham Yost takes even remotely lightly. With that in mind, he told TV Guide the following about why this particular decision was made:

“The three hardest calls we had to make on the show were killing Mags Bennett, killing Arlo, and, now, killing Dewey … We love Damon. We’ve had so much fun with him over the years. Other than Boyd, he’s one of the few bad guys who survived from the pilot. So that was a hard choice.”

So why make the move if it is so hard? Yost explained that in killing Dewey, who was in many ways innocent of the charges fired at him, Ava may have more motivation now than ever to get away from Boyd. Remember, if he is willing to kill someone like Dewey, what could he do to someone who genuinely did cross him? It could motivate her to leave completely, or make her so afraid to cross him that she stays long-term. Either is an intriguing option.

As for where you stand, we want to hear with a comment below!