- While Raylan heads to the hills to find Drew Thompson, he discovers that Boyd is searching for him too on behalf of Wynn Duffy. Meanwhile, Colt tries to tracks down Ellen Mae after she runs away.
- Colton approaches the attendant (Ted Cannon) at the Reliable gas station where he lost Ellen May and asks to look at surveillance video. He knows that there will be hell to pay if he doesn't find her and finish the job. The checker resists and reaches under the counter for a revolver. It looks like the tense confrontation is going to get hot until Colt flashes his old military police credentials and explains that the young woman who absconded is an AWOL soldier he was trying to get back to Fort Knox. The attendant relents. Watching the video, Colton sees Ellen May step out of the frame just as what appears to be a sheriff's cruiser pulls up. Colton grimaces.
Raylan meets a radiant Winona (Natalie Zea) at the healthcare office for her prenatal checkup, and mentions that he has been put in charge of what might be the biggest case the marshal's office has ever seen. Winona isn't terribly impressed. "I'm going to be here for you and the baby," he tells the future mother of this child. Then work calls. "Just get here -- now," Deputy Marshal Rachel tells him, and Raylan dutifully leaves.
At Marshals' HQ, Art, backed by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Vasquez (Rick Gomez), is happily informing an angry FBI SAC Jeremy Barkley (Stephen Tobolowsky) that the marshals are taking over the Drew Thompson case. The Department of Justice has decided that the suicide of the dirty Agent Barnes ("Truth and Consequences (2013)") "taints the case," so all of the FBI's case files have been transferred to Art's office.
Arlo, in his prison garb, and his attorney, Sonya Gable (Romy Rosemont), watch the pantomime from an adjoining room. "Looks like we've got them all spun up," Arlo says between bites of his breakfast. "They want this so bad they can taste it," she says, then smoothly tries to get Arlo to share with her the information the Feds are seeking.
"He's going to hand over Drew Thompson," Vasquez explains. "In return, we're going to let Arlo walk." A furious Barkley says if there's anything else he can help them with, "Get a subpoena!"
On the way out Barkley confronts an arriving Raylan, and accuses him of being behind "all this," as revenge for Barkey coming after Raylan and trying to prove him dirty. Raylan has no idea of what's going on, and tells Barkley "Kiss my ass!"
Worried that the Tonin family might find Thompson and kill him, Raylan demands that Vasquez give him time to find Thompson himself, so that he can make sure that Arlo "dies in prison." He is afforded 24 hours.
There's a shady meeting in Wynn Duffy's mobile office attended by Theo Tonin associate Nick Augustine (Mike O'Malley) and Agent Barkley, who has been watching Nicky's back all these years while protecting the Tonin interests... the FBI Special Agent and the gangster grew up together. Augustine's thug (Kevin McNamara) pats Wynn down, asking him if he has any cats. "Do you see any cats?" he replies, "No!" Nicky's man stands by as Wynn's thug leaves. Augustine and Barkley swap tales of past youthful adventures.
Augustine then asks "Drew Thompson's alive... how'd you miss that, buddy?" Barkley counters that everybody missed that, and enumerates the various agencies involved. "Point is, Theo... is he upset?" Augustine says "Theo's talking to the ear, you tell me." Tonin wants Drew Thompson alive... he had "shot Theo in the eye and left him for dead on a runway in Panama. He stole two million dollars worth of cocaine from the outfit. Losing that cocaine had put Theo in a jam with some very nasty people. But you know what really hurt? Getting shot in the eye. Theo wants him alive." Wynn jumps in and offers to be of help since he knows the Crowders and Arlo. Barkley tries to shut Wynn out of the conversation, telling Augustine that he can handle the Thompson extraction on his own, for a quarter-million dollars. But it has to be an execution, not a handover, because it's difficult to get a man out of FBI custody once he's taken in. "It's not like I can be checking him him out like a book, at the library," Barkley says. Nicky just smiles and reveals that he knows the FBI is no longer running the case, that the U.S. Marshals have taken over. Barkley is very surprised that Augustine would know something like hat. Augustine asks "Do you really think that you're the only guy Theo's got left in the FBI?" and quickly shoots his old friend Jeremy between the eyes, then calmly turns to Wynn and says, "Mr. Tonin would like you to find Drew Thompson." Wynn, who has learned to take such surprise developments in stride, accepts the commission with "Not a problem."
Colton shows up at Sheriff Shelby's office, identifies himself and states that he works for Boyd Crowder and is looking for Ellen May who works for Ava Crowder. "She was picked up by one of your deputies last night." Shelby knows who he is, checks his blotter and says no such entry is shown. Colton persists but Shelby remains steadfast. "If I find anything out, should I call you at the bar or Audry's?" "No," Colton warns, "not unless you want Boyd to find out how badly your boy screwed this up."
At the bar Boyd tells Johnny that he is expecting "a gentleman from Frankfort," but it is Colton who shows up first. He tells Boyd that he killed Ellen May and disposed of the body, exactly per Boyd's instructions: "dead and dumped in the slurry." Boyd interrogates him for details, and finally asks, "What were her last words?" Colton replies after the briefest of pauses, "I'm cold."
Whether this satisfies Boyd or not, is not known because at that second there is a hard knock at the door. Boyd tells Colton that the next time he reaches out to him, "I don't care if it's a smiley face, you text me back! Now stand by that bar and look mean!" as he goes to answer the door.
Wynn enters the bar to talk privately with Boyd. The two men sit down at a back room table as Boyd pulls out his pistol and puts it on the table. "And here I thought we'd begun to establish a basis of trust," Wynn says, eyeing the handgun. Boyd says "Mr. Duffy, we are not trustworthy men." After some banter, the Dixie Mafia delegate slides a wad of cash across the table. "I need you to help me find someone," Wynn says.
Raylan meets up in the countryside with Constable Bob Sweeney who has Roz, the young woman who originally broke into Arlo's house ("Hole in the Wall (2013)") looking for the bag hidden there. Raylan interrogates her and finally obtains an admission that she had been sent there by her stepfather, Josiah Cairn, a name known to the deputy Marshal.
Raylan pays a visit to the Cairn place and finds Josiah (Gerald McRaney) sitting on his porch, wearing an electronic monitoring anklet. He's reluctant to provide any information, so Raylan handcuffs him to the passenger's side door of his fleet car and runs him a way along a road until the old man tells him that Drew Thompson broke both his legs when he parachuted into Harlan. Thompson got word to Bo and Arlo and they made a deal. "They got the cocaine and he got a place to hide out," going to live with the hill people. "They patched him up but he never did heal right. He's still up there with him." "The hills, huh?" Raylon muses, and an exhausted Josiah says "If ol' Drew's still alive, that's where you'll find him."
Returning to where Constable Bob has been babysitting Roz, Raylan turns her loose to go on her way, as he retrieves a photograph from a box in Bob's trunk. Bob warns Raylan that the hill folk eat people. "Nice knowing you, Raylan," he quips. Raylan dismisses the rumor, but does call in Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Gutterson to provide back-up as he heads on foot into the wild.
Teri (Cathy Baron) one of the whores at Audry's, enters Ellen May's room where Ava's packing up the presumed dead girl's things, and says "Johnny wants you." Ava tells her to say she couldn't find her, but Johnny's right behind her. He kisses Teri on the lips and says he'll meet her back at her trailer "in five" as she exits.
They discuss Ellen May's leaving, and Ava continues with the fiction that she's going to send Ellen May's things to her in Alabama. But Johnny's real intent is to pump Ava for information about Boyd's current dealings with Wynn Duffy. They both play it cagey with Ava giving up nothing... probably because she doesn't know much.
Raylan continues up the hill to the accompaniment of wild animal sound signals, and is shortly interdicted by a group of rough-hewn men carrying rifles and shotguns. Announcing that he's there "alone and with peaceful intent," Raylan is hooded, bound and tossed into a corregated shed... next to a similiarly captive Boyd. "Hello, Raylan," smirks Boyd, "don't suppose you saw Josiah lately?" Actually, Boyd isn't pleased about being given up by Josiah who he thought a better friend. Raylan counters, "Why's that? You got that honor-amongst-dumbass-thieves thing?"
At the bottom of the hill, Tim is awaiting a signal from Raylan when Colton rolls up. The two men eye one another warily. Tim recognizes Colton's footwear as military issue, and the two veterans of the Middle East wars relax their guards enough to talk about common experiences while serving.
Raylan and Boyd are assessing their confined situation. Raylan pulls the photograph out of his shirt pocket and tries to open up a dialogue with his captors on the other side of the door, telling them that the photo is of his mother "as a little girl, and the girl standing next to her is one of yours. 'Cousin Mary' my mama called her." This resonates with Daniel (Mark Engelhardt) but Luke (Michael FitzGibbon) doesn't trust their captives. He fires a shot through the wall next to Raylan, opens the door and the two men drag Boyd from the makeshift cell. "I don't like your plan, Raylan!" Boyd yells.
Luke and Daniel start to beat Boyd. While Boyd is being kicked and butt-stroked with a rifle, Raylan struggles to free his hands. Boyd turns the tables and knocks Luke to the ground just as Raylan frees himself and bursts in to take down Daniel and get his shotgun. Moments later, the outer door flies open and clan leader Cope (Tom Proctor), Hillman (Azmyth Kaminski) and a third man come in and cover the would-be escapees with rifles. Cope says Josiah called and told them that Raylan was headed their way. Raylan seems surprised. "This innit the darkest of Africa here, we got telephones," Cope says. There's a stand-off and brief parlay until Cope explains that "rock fell on Dan'l when he was a boy... now I love him in spite, but I would never give him a working gun. It's got no firing pin." Raylan tests this new information... "click." Boyd utters a groan and falls back on the floor. Raylan and Boyd are captives again.
Cope in turn tests Raylan's claim of kinship, grilling him about old family legends, Raylan has to admit that he hasn't bothered to keep in touch over the years. And Boyd does no better as he tries to bluff that he knows the folks and the stories that Raylan doesn't. The claims are exposed when Boyd assumes that "Sanderson B" is someone with whom he played pee-wee football unstead of the name of a mineshaft. They resume their forced march.
But Cousin Mary (Bonita Friedericy) arrives, retrieved by the simple-minded Daniel while Raylan and Boyd are being led to the abandoned mine to die at the bottom of that 171 foot vertical shaft. She holds up the old photograph in front of the the deputy marshal's face and recognizes Raylan's mother's features. "I see Frances in you," she pronounces and tells Cope, despite what Josiah had said, "Not my cousin's boy!" Just like that, Raylan is spared. Boyd, on the other hand....
Raylan has to make a brief why it wouldn't be in any of their best interests to kill Boyd, saying that if anybody gets killed he'll have to report it all to his bosses at the marshal's office. Cope is dubious, but Cousin Mary has the final say: "I'd say most expedient path is to let'em both go." Done!
As she walks the two reprieved men down the hill, she tells them that the man they are looking for is no longer there, despite the care she took to nurse him back to health. When Boyd makes reference to all that cocaine Drew had, she tells them "Your daddies took all that cocaine for themselves." "Of course they did," Raylan says, "that's another reason we're so proud of them." Mary says the last she saw Drew was at a bluegrass festival ten years ago, high-hatting her and mixing with the mayor and a judge from Clover Hill. "You're looking for Drew Thompson, you're on the wrong hill," she says, taking a last look at the faded photo of the two young girls before she returns it to Raylan.
On the way back down the remainder of the hill, Boyd tells Raylan he has to have a sense of humor about these things, then points out that the race to find Drew Thompson is on. "May the best man win," he says. Raylan agrees, and offers his hand... then handcuffs Boyd to a tree. "How's that for a sense of humor?" the marshal asks. "This is funny! I know I'm laughing." Boyd isn't. "I've come to a conclusion," he replies. "I don't like you." Raylan responds "Never liked you much neither, Boyd."
Colton and Tim are passing the time, still talking about their military service while waiting for Raylan. Colton waxes philosophical: "Well, it's a lot like here if you think about it. Bunch of clans led by guys with beards running around hills shooting at each other all the time." Then he gets to it. "You being with the marshals service and all, you're really good at finding people, right? Where do you start? Let's say someone just ups and disappears... poof!... and they don't want to be found." Tim's no chump, and tells him, "If you're interested, the Marshals Service hires a lot of former military. An MP would be a prime candidate. If you'll give me your address I could mail you some information." Colton laughs and says, "No, I don't think so."
Raylan shows up and indiscreetly tells Tim to call Vasquez to put a hold on "that Arlo deal. We've got a line on Thompson... he's here." "You here for Boyd?" he asks Colton, telling him that Boyd is up the hill. "You got a saw?" Raylan says. "You'll need a saw."
Later, a freed Boyd calls Wynn with a new deal, telling him that with what he learned today, he expects to have Drew Thompson in about a week. In exchange for finding Drew Thompson, Boyd wants half the heroin business in the entire state of Kentucky. Wynn agrees and hangs up. Johnny, who is visiting Wynn, protests. What about their deal to rid the world of Boyd? "I can promise him a rocket ship and a Goddamn unicorn," Wynn says. "Once he brings me Drew Thompson, he and I are done." Johnny is satisfied.
A vexed Colton visits Sheriff Shelby's home to further impress upon him that he really needs to find Ellen May. Shelby explains that one of his deputies saw a girl resembling Ellen May hitch a ride in an 18-wheeler with Tennessee plates, a long-haul trucker that Ellen May seemed to know. "Don't bother Boyd with this!" Colt instructs. "If you find out anything, talk to me. Are we clear?" They are.
Colton exits -- and Ellen May emerges from hiding. She now knows that Boyd and Ava planned to have Colton kill her. "If you're willing, maybe you can help me bring down Boyd Crowder," Shelby tells Ellen May. She appears agreeable enough.
Boyd meets with attorney Gable who expresses concerns about breaking attorney-client confidentiality. He points out that he hired her to represent Arlo -- and pushes two stacks of cash across a table at her, the first for cutting a deal for the elder Givens, and the second for shutting that deal down. She smiles and reaches for the stacks of bills as Boyd chuckles softly.
Raylan returns to Josiah's shack for further conversation and discovers the man's court-ordered ankle bracelet... but not the man. "How the hell did you do that?" the marshal wonders to himself. The answer is several yards away as Raylan follows a blood trail to Josiah's severed foot.
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