"Just be careful
12 gauge has a helluva kick."
This episode allows us to get a real glimpse into the uneasy relationship between Raylan and his long-time criminal father, Arlo (Raymond J Barry; this is perhaps the role of his career). Arlo's wife, Helen (the sister of his deceased first wife and Raylan's mother), rents a house to a supposed small businessman named Stan Perkins (Eddie Jemison). Stan is actually dealing Oxy with a lot of stash missing; presumably Arlo or Helen (or both) took most of it, leaving a small portion to implicate Perkins and not them. Raylan is respectful of Helen (Linda Gehringer) for what she did for him as a child when Arlo would become impossibly hostile a father, providing him a refuge in the very house Stan now rents, knowing about the hidden compartment in the wall of a certain closet. Stan and Helen have a rather heated confrontation not long after Arlo kneed him in the testicles the night the old coot trashed the rental property (Arlo claiming three months rent Stan hadn't paid). Stan's cousins rough up Helen when she pulls a knife on him! Arlo then retaliates on Stan's cousins in a diner with a bat! It seems Arlo had a heart attack, but Raylan could very well uncover a scheme by his father involving the batch of Oxy that had been thieved from the hidden wall compartment. Meanwhile, in a subplot, the US Marshall Office is staking out the home of a fugitive's wife, with Raylan and Rachel believing he's hiding out in her home. With several days of surveillance under their belt and no visible sign of his presence, Art is getting restless, so Raylan decides to impersonate a gardener so he can perhaps earn the trust of the fugitive's wife and get a peek in her house. Raylan not only succeeds in the role of gardener, but he fingers his father for the Oxy theft, knowing the proceeds of the "hillbilly heroin" is buried somewhere. The tensions between father and son will be inflamed thanks to Arlo's criminal behavior (he even challenges Raylan to find his drug money and implicate him), with Helen trying to build a bridge that may forever be toppled by the long-term discord and opposing sides of the law they both have. This episode really is a step forward in developing characters over the series; Boyd will be getting out of prison soon, Winona emerges working for an attorney in the divorce proceedings of Ava and Boyd (excusing herself because she was once associated with Raylan), and Raylan has a conversation with Boyd's relative, Johnny (David Meunier) with baseball used to get inside info on Stan. Johnny would be another character of considerable importance in stories involving Lexington and surrounding territories as the series progresses. Raylan and Ava have a steamy encounter in a cheap hotel after a conversation regarding their relationship (will it just be sexual or is there about to be a genuine romance and something of more value down the line? Obviously answered down the road when the two go their separate ways, at this point Ava and Raylan were hotly involved). Natalie Zea looks might appetizing in her tight-fitting court suit, as Winona, immediately telling us that there's just one of many reasons Raylan was hung up on her. Barry is quite an actor; in turns suspicious, explosively temperamental, manipulative, derisive, charming, and even likable, this is the kind of complex role an actor of a certain caliber can chew the fat of.
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