Justified Season 3 Episode 11 – “Measures”

We’re down to the last three episodes of the season and in this one we are going to see more of Raylan’s new girlfriend/tormentor, mouthy barmaid Lindsay Salazar, while Robert Quarles continues his downward spiral into insanity or a shallow grave, whichever comes first.

One of the things that strikes you about this episode right away is that if anyone else had this many people out to kill him, he’d already be dead. And yet Quarles just keeps on kicking, kinda like a cockroach after a nuclear holocaust. As for Lindsay, it’s really clear that Raylan is deeply conflicted about getting involved with her, but it’s okay because she’s just using him for sex.

We start in Wynn’s winnie where he and Quarles are having a discussion about why Quarles is suddenly going out of town directly after having threatened to kill Raylan. Quarles is disappointed in Duffy’s lack of faith:

Word around the Detroit campfire is that you are a wild man! Comes to a little nut cutting and suddenly you want to bitch out? Don’t be like the rest of them, you can’t have the Duffy without the Wynnnnn!

You can say what you want about Quarles, but the man can sure give a pep talk.

Raylan is just waking up and coming into the bar where Lindsay is setting up for the day. He’s tiptoeing around her so solicitously that you know he’s regretting the previous night’s activities. Lindsay’s not so concerned, however:

Raylan: Listen, Lindsay…

Lindsay: [Moans in exasperation]

R: You don’t even know what I’m going to say.

L: I think you’re going to apologize again for not giving me a full accounting of every second of your life before you heartlessly accepted the gift of my feminine virtue.

R: Oh, well, you put it that way I guess I don’t owe you an apology.

L: First time you came in here i knew you were going through something. To tell you the truth I feel a little bad taking advantage of you.

R: Really.

L: I mean not so bad I’m not planning on doing it again.

R: Listen, Lindsay…

L: You said that already.

R: I’m about to become a father.

L: I know, I saw the sonogram. He’s a good looking kid; he’s got his daddy’s eyes. An unfortunate nose though. That must be your ex’s.

As Lindsay leaves the room, two serious looking gents walk in asking about Quarles. Raylan makes them for Detroit trigger men and he’s not wrong. He proceeds to seriously piss them off and gets in a brawl that stops only when Lindsay walks back in. Raylan figures they’re in town on Theo Tonin’s orders to support Quarles against Sammy’s premature attempt to cut him off. He’s going to find out he misjudged that issue, and he’s going to have to clean up the mess he made in the bar.

After the opening credits, Raylan is with Art trying to figure out how to write up his report on the encounter with Quarles in the bar. Art is trying to turn the encounter into a federal warrant on Quarles but Raylan isn’t buying it and is walking out the door in a sulk after being told to pick up Quarles. Art tells him to wait.

Why? I thought it was a top priority for me to go bring in Quarles for the capital offense of hurting my feelings.

It is, but the sonofabitch is threatening your life, I can’t let you go by yourself.

Raylan needs chaperoning, so Art’s going with him. This will be fun.

Meanwhile, Dickie Bennett is getting released from prison and wouldn’t you know that Limehouse has Errol there to welcome him back into free society . Errol wants Dickie to accept the cooler with 46k in it, but Dickie’s not going to go there, or take a ride neither. He’s principled like that. Rachel and Tim are sitting on the situation and speculating about what’s in the cooler.

Rachel: Probably not a human head

Tim: But that’d be cool.

Turns out Quarles’s errand is to see his candidate, former sheriff Napier, as he’s packing up his office. Napier is still PO’d about the way Quarles was trying to take over his office back when they thought they had won the election. Quarles is past that, he wants the money back that he put up to fix the vote. Napier says the money’s gone, so Quarles insists on getting some ideas on where to get more. He wants to take down a drug dealer who pays Boyd Crowder for protection. Napier isn’t in love with the idea, especially about his own involvement in it, but Quarles isn’t giving him a choice.

Dickie’s meeting with his old pal from Memphis, Hot Rod Dunham, who listens impatiently to Dickie’s predicament. He’s not really interested in taking on Limehouse, but he could be convinced if Dickie can find out where exactly his 3 million dollars is located.

Dickie’s ears must be burning because Boyd and the gang are discussing him at the bar. They have two problems: they want to kill Dickie but not before he leads them to the money, and they want to keep collecting protection money, but a lot of people aren’t paying since Delroy went missing and Ava took over his business. Boyd sends Johnny out to see what he can find out.

Art’s concerned about the situation with Raylan and Raylan is touched because he thinks Art is worried about him. But no, Art just doesn’t want to get shot.

Quarles pays a call on a drug dealer and relieves him of his stash and cash, while shooting his associate and bashing the dealer’s head in. It’s all good fun until the dealer’s blood sprays on Quarles. Damn hillbillies. In Detroit, people probably had the good manners to die without ruining your outfit.

Rachel and Tim go to talk with Hot Rod and his associates. Rachel has to put one of them down with a blow way, way below the belt. They’re all going to have a pleasant chat.

Dickie goes to see Ellie Mae, who he knows used to hang out with Limehouse. He wants to know if she knows where he hides his money. Ellie Mae says it’s buried under the church, but Dickie thinks that’s a fairy tale. Ellie Mae says Trixie saw it with her own eyes and wants Dickie to promise to make her queen.

Art is giving Raylan a fatherly talk about not being any more reckless than he already is:

Whatever your failings are going to be as a father, I’m pretty sure that your child is going to be better off if you manage to stay above ground long enough to make his aquaintance.

Johnny’s back at the bar with info: he found the two drug dealers dead.

Duffy is talking with the two thugs from Detroit and they think he set them up by telling them to look for Quarles at the bar where they found Raylan. They have a story about Theo Tonin carrying around a human ear in his pocket and taking it out and talking into it when he wants to make a point with someone. The message: he’s not just messing with them, he’s messing with Theo, which may not be in his long-term best interests.

Boyd is at the drug dealer’s place and talks to the neighbor lady who saw the guy that killed the dealers. It was a “husky-looking” guy, by which she means, not that he was heavy-set, but that he had eyes like a husky:

She’s kooky, but she’s not wrong.

Dickie passes along the info about the church to Hot Rod, but by this time, of course, Hot Rod has been compromised by our friendly deputies Tim and Rachel, who are listening in via cell phone. Hot Rod packs it up and heads back to Memphis after receiving the thanks of a grateful nation from Tim.

Boyd pays a visit to Napier and tells him he kmows that he told Quarles where to find the dealers he killed. He wants Napier to tell him where to find Quarles, and makes his point with a letter opener shoved up Napier’s nose.

Tim and Rachel sieze the money in the cooler that Dickie is picking up from Errol, while Duffy and his new friends from Detroit search for Quarles at the hotel room where he’s keeping Donovon chained up in the bathroom. Art and Raylan arrest the older guy of the Detroit thugs outside the hotel, while Quarles watches from a distance. The Detroit thug says they should just “let nature take its course, because it’s not like the world won’t be a better place.” They don’t know what he’s talking about yet. Inside, Donovon tells the youger thug that Quarles has gone to Harlan. When he tries to escape, the Detroit thug pulls a knife just as Raylan and Art bust in and arrest everyone. They end up shooting the thug, just before they finally realize that the thugs are there to kill Quarles, not help him. Raylan wonders if God is laughing at him and it’s a good question. If only the bad guys would issue programs when they came to town.

Quarles heads back to Harlan to find a place to lay low. He’s talking to Limehouse, who may be the only person in the county who isn’t already trying to kill him. Limehouse wants money before he’ll agree to anything and Quarles gives him the dealer’s money but it’s not enough. Limehouse tels him to take the drugs and get cash before he comes back, so Quarles heads out. He talks to Napier, who is under duress from Boyd, and tells him to go to Audrey’s, the hillbilly whorehouse run by Ava. Something tells me he won’t have a successful transaction there.

Duffy calls Theo Tonin, who is aware his guys got snatched by the Marshals before they got to Quarles. Unbeknownst to him, the marshals are just now regretting that very thing. Duffy wants to cut a deal with Tonin to step into Quarles’ shoes after Quarles is gone. Tonin’s not interested, unless Duffy can deliver Quarles dead or alive. Duffy accepts the deal.

Quarles makes smalltalk with two hookers at Audrey’s, and calls Duffy to chat about the Detroit thugs. While he’s talking Boyd tases him and picks up the phone. Duffy knows it’s Boyd and tells him the price Quarles has on his head. They make a deal for Boyd to deliver Quarles to Duffy when he comes to pick him up. Duffy is going to have to share the bounty with Boyd for the convenience of having Quarles all trussed up and ready to go.

Art and Raylan are making up their arrest reports on the thugs and Art tells Raylan that Tim and Rachel are going to raid the church in Noble’s Holler. Raylan thinks it’s a fairy tale too, but he’s headed to Harlan to talk to Napier, so if he trips over the money, he’ll bring it back.

Tim and Rachel get the warrant and head off to the church. Dickie and Errol are left to discuss things and Errol says the church is not the place but he knows what is. He cuts a deal with Dickie and wants to use Boyd to help them. Yeah. That’ll work out great.