‘Justified’ season 4, episode 8 recap: Boyd proves that he is the one true outlaw

On this week’s episode of “Justified” season 4, Raylan tries to strike a deal with ex-Sheriff Hunter for the whereabouts of Drew Thompson, saying that if he doesn’t give him up, that Arlo will.  Instead of talking, Hunter tries to kill Arlo in jail, stabbing him in the chest with a pair of scissors.  Raylan goes to the prison infirmary to talk to Arlo before he dies and asks him one last time who Drew Thompson is, but even on his death bed Arlo won’t say.  Later the next day Arlo dies and Raylan goes back to the prison to collect his father’s body.  We are going to miss Arlo, he was one mean, crazy old man.

Boyd is on a job for the rich men of Harlan county to take out a guy named Brownen, but he instead tries to strike a deal with Brownen – money for his life.  Brownen turns the deal down and when Boyd heads back to the bar he lies to Ava telling her that Brownen took the deal.

Wynn Duffy comes to Boyd’s bar to tell Boyd that he’s run out of time in his hunt for Drew Thompson and that Theo has sent a man down to Harlan to kill Boyd and anyone who is in the way of him finding Drew Thompson.  Boyd gives him two names (Brownen and Sam) saying that he’s narrowed it down to them. Wynn gives the names to Theo’s man and he kills Brownen and Sam, but later Johnny tells Wynn that it’s impossible that these men were Drew Thompson – they are really just Boyd’s enemies.

Raylan goes down to Boyd’s bar to talk to him, but Theo’s killer (dressed as a cop) has Boyd in hand cuffs and is dragging him out of the bar.  Raylan isn’t convinced that this “cop” is who he says he is.  The “cop” threatens to shoot Raylan, but as usual Raylan gets the jump on him first. Later Boyd meets with Lee and his rich crew to tell them that Brownen and Sam are dead, but not by his hand.  They threaten to ruin Boyd’s life for what he did to Sam, but Boyd has destroyed their relationships with their contacts leaving the rich men defenseless against Boyd.  He tells them that he wants $100,000 from each of them along with a Dairy Queen franchise and in exchange he will let them live.

Colton is getting text messages from someone claiming to be Ellen May and asking for $20,000 to stay hidden.  Colton goes to his dealers house and asks him to loan him the $20,000, but when the drug dealer gets lippy, Colton shoots him and takes the money.  Colton delivers the money to the drop off location and we learn that the person that is really trying to blackmail Colton about Ellen May is Johnny.

Do you think that Johnny is going to expose Colton now that he knows the truth?  Will Boyd really be able to get those men to hand over that kind of money without repercussions?  Leave us a comment and tell us what you thought of this week’s episode of “Justified” season 4.

Photo: FX