Justified: City Primeval Was A Triumphant Return – But What About Season 2?
This post contains spoilers for the finale of "Justified: City Primeval."
When "Justified: City Primeval" signed off last night, the limited series finale was expected to be the final word on Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant). After all, fans of the straight-shooting, contemplative modern cowboy got six seasons with the character, plus a surprise bonus in the form of the revival series — an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard story that didn't originally feature Raylan. And isn't that enough? Wouldn't it be greedy for us to ask for more time in this stylish, thrilling world?
Not according to the show itself. In an exhilarating surprise epilogue, "Justified: City Primeval" ended with a fantastic cliffhanger, bringing crime kingpin (and Raylan's ex-friend) Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) back into the fray in typical over-the-top fashion and putting an immediate question mark on the end of Raylan's early retirement. The final scene, in which Raylan happily spends time with his daughter after leaving the soul-corroding world of law enforcement behind, is an excellent, darkly funny stopping point. Just as Willa (Vivian Olyphant) asks her dad why he quit, his phone begins ringing — and it's almost certainly his colleagues from Harlan telling him his frenemy is on the loose.
Will Raylan answer the call? It seems likely. In a post-finale interview with Rolling Stone, Olyphant indicated he'd be open to it, saying, "if we were so lucky to come back in some way, I am just as excited to bring back characters from the original show as I am characters from this incarnation." At this point, "Justified" has delivered two near-perfect endings (it's sort of the anti-"Dexter"), but there's no reason it should stop here. In the event that the show does continue, we've already got our season 2 wishlist handy.
A sentimental showdown
Smooth-talking criminal Boyd has always been opposite Raylan at the center of "Justified," so it feels right for him to make a comeback in the finale's last moments. That being said, his sign-off at the end of season 6 of the original series was tremendous, so I hope any face-off the pair end up in will keep in mind the character development he's gone through over the years. Boyd started the show as a Svengali-like leader decked out in white supremacist regalia, and ended it as a dangerous yet bizarrely endearing man in black with a whole lot of blood on his hands. He and Raylan have also always existed as two sides of the same coin — one a surprisingly heartfelt criminal, the other a surprisingly violent hero.
Raylan's struggled with his own morality and the weight of his badge and gun since the beginning of "Justified" (the show, after all, began with him shooting a man for revenge's sake), but "Justified: City Primeval" upped the ante by taking a hard-boiled neo-noir approach to the justice system. By the time Raylan takes an early retirement in the finale, taking his ability to shoot an unarmed Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) as a sign he needed to quit, it's clear the character has little faith left in the law and order system. Yet he'll need all the help he can get to track down Boyd, a man whose life he spared several times before because, as he put it, "We dug coal together."
Any showdown between the pair should be appropriately loaded given their complicated history, but I hope if "Justified" returns, it won't make Boyd a simple supervillain figure. The relationship between the two opposing forces is more interesting than that, and the show knows it.
Returning supporting characters
If Boyd is back, "Justified" fans will naturally be inclined to think next of Ava (Joelle Carter), the third main character in the original series who faked her death at the end of season 6. Boyd and Ava had a surprisingly captivating relationship over the course of the series, but it went south in a big way in the final season when she became a confidential informant. While it would be great to see Carter return, Boyd doesn't currently know about her — or that he has a son, Zachariah — and she's probably safer that way. Still, it seems unlikely he and Raylan could meet again without the topic of Ava coming up, and it's only a matter of time until Boyd finds out Raylan lied about Ava's death.
With the action once again centered in Kentucky (at least for now, as Boyd is headed to Mexico), any number of Raylan's old colleagues could also make a comeback. Lexington Marshals boss Art (Nick Searcy) would almost certainly be retired by now, but tough, level-headed agent Rachel (Erica Tazel) and sardonic, PTSD-stricken Tim (Jacob Pitts) could still be working for the Marshals.
The original series run killed off plenty of its most charismatic and hilarious villains, including pretty much the entire hillbilly Crowe family. A couple of Crowes survived — namely kid nephew Kendal and sister Wendy, the latter played by Alicia Witt — as did equally entertaining crook Dickie Bennett (Jeremy Davies). While I'd love to see all of these characters again, there's no supporting castmate whose return would be more welcome than Kaitlyn Dever's. Long before the actress had star-making turns in "Booksmart" and "Dopesick," she played solemn, resilient orphan Loretta in the show's best season. Loretta came back for the season 6 finale, but where is she now?
Willa in Harlan County
Loretta was a daughter figure for Raylan before his own daughter, Willa, was even born. While it may seem unlikely that the two would ever meet, "Justified: City Primeval" actually planted the seeds for a Willa-in-Harlan plot long before its cliffhanger ending. In the new show's very first episode, Willa confesses over dinner that she'd like to visit Harlan. It's one of the only true bonding moments between her and Raylan this season, but Raylan, who suggests they go on a road trip to Graceland instead, is definitely not into the idea of taking her to his hometown.
Given Raylan's abusive upbringing and the number of times he almost died in Harlan County, I get where he's coming from. Yet I also think Willa was a great addition to the new season, and it would be fun to see her react to the original series' setting — and see the locals react to Dad Mode Raylan Givens. Vivian and Timothy Olyphant have the kind of easy chemistry that only real family members do, and the show's parenting scenes serve as a great, subtle reminder of the gulf between who Raylan wants to be and who he really is. From a narrative standpoint, Raylan also doesn't seem willing to jump back into the action unless there's something massive at stake — which, if Boyd ends up coming after him, could be his family's safety. Sure, that's a reason Willa shouldn't go to Harlan, but it's also a reason she needs to be there to raise the stakes.
More Elmore Leonard characters
Elmore Leonard passed away in 2013, but the man who first wrote Raylan into existence has a prolific back catalog featuring dozens of novels that haven't been adapted for screen. "Justified: City Primeval" already brought one to life, replacing the protagonist of Leonard's 1980 novel "City Primeval" with Raylan while keeping several key characters, including Clement Mansell and the Albanian criminals. The finale also paid homage to another Leonard text with a cameo from Luis Guzmán, who appeared in 1998's "Out of Sight."
The original run of "Justified" also pulled from Leonard's books "Pronto," "Riding the Rap," and "Raylan," the latter of which was written with the series in mind. Leonard was an executive producer on "Justified" before his death, and the show proudly kept up the cool, clever spirit of his work in the seasons that followed his passing. While I imagine a return to Harlan would take a sharp detour from the show's source material, the fact that Boyd's new beau mentioned Mexico feels like a hint that things could take a detour into familiar Leonard territory. Books like "Valdez is Coming" and "The Bounty Hunter" take place largely south of the U.S. border, while others like "Get Shorty" feature ties to Mexico as well.
Whether or not "Justified" seeks the rights to any more Leonard works, it's clear that the show has the juice to keep going on its own merits. For six seasons it was one of the most thoroughly entertaining crime shows on TV, and it picked up this year as if no time had passed at all. Of course, time has passed, and that's what will make future "Justified" stories more interesting. With his career seemingly in the rearview, will Raylan keep answering the call? We sure hope so.