With the glaring exception of Terriers, FX is known for allowing its series’ creators to end their shows when they see fit. That doesn’t make those conclusions any easier to deal with, though, and we’re equally anticipatory and downtrodden that Justified is coming to an end next year. Still, the first Season 6 clip below brings about nothing but fist-pumping elation. Hold on to your hat and check it out!
This trailer is everything that I want out of Justified’s final season: Raylan Givens vs. Boyd Crowder. Actors Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins are beyond perfect as these characters, who are two sides of the same double-headed coin. Their history together and current entanglements keep them as genial as antagonists get. Hell, Raylan has put a couple of bullets in people for doing much less than taking his hat, but Boyd gets a pass here, because it’s easier to let it slide than deal with Crowder paperwork. Nobody better dare try drawing a weapon faster than Raylan, though.
The crude has been bubbling for too many years now, and it’s time for one of these guys to do something so unforgivable that all binding ties are snapped in half. Raylan has been stumbling down a miserably hopeless path for a little while, and Art’s shooting sent him over an edge. He ensured Ava’s release from prison by getting her to cooperate on a RICO case against Boyd, as a final middle finger to Harlan. It’s presumed that this is the direction Season 6 will go, but Boyd has a way of screwing up other people’s plans and he may preemptively strike Raylan where it hurts the most.
The teaser is titled “Hat Tricks,” obviously referring to the misdirection of who’s wearing the hat, but does it mean something more? Is it possible that Boyd will appear to be the good guy for a while, as Raylan takes on the guise of a ne’er-do-well? Or maybe it’s simply Boyd drawing Raylan into a trap to get the upper hand. Regardless of the metaphorical possibilities, this is a showdown for the TV ages, and one that can’t get here soon enough.
Joining the dust-ups this season is Sam Elliott, who will play the ex-husband of Mary Steenburgen’s Katherine Hale, the recent “business associate” of Boyd’s. He’s an old gangster who made a ton of money growing weed and he’s reading to take back everything that was once his. (Give us a Sam Elliot teaser next!) Garret Dillahunt was also added to the cast as a former Special Ops soldier who works security for one of the characters.
After what will certainly feel like a long crawl through the Kentucky heat, Justified will return to FX in January 2015.
