Justified "Cash Game" Review: *Gulp* Should We Fear for Ava?

Justified S06E02: "Cash Game"

After spending most of Justified's unmemorable fifth season in a cheap reenactment of Orange Is the New Black, Ava appears to have been catapulted into the show's most interesting position for this final chapter. With Raylan and Boyd now destined to go head-to-head, Ava is firmly entrenched between them thanks to some crafty late-season work that finally put her back on track.

In "Cash Game," which continued setting the table after last week's fine and dandy Season 6 premiere, we caught a glimpse of just how fantastic the game of Tug o' Ava between Raylan and Boyd can be. On one side of the rope, Ava is beholden to Raylan because he sprung her from jail by using some Marshal sorcery to make some testimony disappear. Unfortunately for her, the deal requires snitching on Boyd, or else she's going back to prison where people don't like her too much and have a habit of dislocating her shoulders. And on the other side of the rope, she's almost engaged to Boyd (she broke off their betrothal while she was locked up), so she's shackled with the emotions of being nearly wed to a man she's loved for years. Of course, Boyd is a sociopath who's on the road toward becoming a psychopath, and he likes to creepily stare at her when she's sleeping. So, given the history of these three characters, Justified is in the perfect spot to let Ava to teeter on the fence between the two sides.

To me, it seems that showrunner Graham Yost is borrowing from another TV series he executive produces, network buddy The Americans, and shaping Ava into a slightly altered version of Russian triple-and-counting agent Nina Sergeevna. The most amazing thing about Nina is that we don't know who she's being sincere with and who she's taking advantage of. And while Ava currently seems split down the middle, she isn't quite as cunning as Nina... at least not yet. At the moment, she's operating mostly out of fear of angering Boyd, but "Cash Game" hinted that she's not merely a pawn in the chess game between Mr. Givens and Mr. Crowder. Instead, she's a third player whether she wants to be or not.

Even after Raylan suggested to Ava that Boyd planted the stolen documents in her barn at the buttcrack o' dawn with the intention of weeding her out as trustworthy or not, Ava still pointed out a key detail from the papers that Boyd had overlooked. Did she do it to regain Boyd's trust and throw him off the scent that leads to the truth about her working against him? Is she not ready to say goodbye to the outlaw life and team up with Raylan? Or does she still love Boyd just enough, deep down inside, to keep things going between them? I'm hoping the answer is a muddy "all of the above." Ava appears to be working every angle she can think of in order to figure out what's best for her, and until she does, her top priority is simply to stay alive and out of the clink.

That puts Ava in control of the situation even if she feels totally out of control. It also means that even the slightest slip-up could leave her staring at a photo of Boyd's old-time family and *BANG* she goes the way of Dewey Crowe (who no one knows is even missing yet, by the way). And for us, it makes Ava the most interesting character on Justified—if not television—for the time being.

POSTCARDS FROM HARLAN COUNTY

– What a great, solidly built set-up episode this was. To me, it paired perfectly with the season premiere to form a two-part opener. Great writing, great sense of direction for the rest of the season, and great tension.

– Let's all give a warm welcome Harlan's greatest new resident, Choo-Choo.

– We also met Sam Elliott's Markham, who was cleverly introduced via a romantic scene with Katherine. It's nice to see him as a human being before we see him as a villain. Elliott and Steenburgen burned up the screen, didn't they?

– "Oh good so that is your kid, I was scared that was some random internet baby." The wisdom of Tim Gutterson, ladies and gentlemen.

– Hello, Buddy Garrity! That's Friday Night Lights' Brad Leland as Calhoun, the slimy real estate guy.

– So, what's so important about a place that USED to be a bank?