- Raylan takes the fight to Nicky Augustine after he threatens Winona and their unborn child, while Boyd and Ava try to dispose of Delroy's dead body before it is identified by the authorities.
- All seems upbeat at marshals' headquarters. Drew Thompson is in custody in a safe house, Ellen May is being put somewhere under guard "in a no-tell motel until we figure out what to do with her," and Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens has completed all the necessary case paperwork. Now he can relax and enjoy his suspension.
On his way out of the office, Raylan asks Tim, "That guy you shot... you good?" Tim replies, "He called it." Raylan says, "Well, if you need someone to talk to..." and they finish in perfect unison, "...call Rachel."
Boyd, a very nervous Jimmy and Ava, in the meantime, are considerably more stressed as they are gearing up for the 150-foot splinter mine shaft descent to retrieve Delroy's body. Ava calls Boyd aside for a word: "You always said moving a body was a real good way of getting caught." Boyd tells her: "Well, that's why it's only an option when you have no other option. It's a bird in hand, Ava."
Unfortunately, it appears they are too late... there are flashing lights and police cruisers surrounding the site off Black Lick Road. One of the deputies (Timothy Eulich) has found the body and it is being hauled up. Deputy Sheriff Nick Mooney tells Boyd that the Kentucky State Police passed a tip onto his department about the body in the shaft. "What do we do?" a panicked Ava asks when Boyd returns to the van to share the news. Boyd, for once, has no answer.
Raylan heads to Winona's house only to find armed thugs waiting within. Dominic (Troy Ruptash), in command, tells Raylan, "let's talk about how to keep this from being the worst day in your life."
Raylan is searched and disarmed by Lex (Zoran Korach), then taken upstairs to the nursery where Cobb (A.J. Dunn) has a gun on a scared Winona who has been crying. "Do you know what she said earlier?" an amused Dominic asks. "If we're gone before you arrive, we might live through the day." "Well... that's why I love her," Raylan calmly responds. Dominic lays out the day's plan, asking if Raylan has seen "The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)" and drawing similar plot points. "You guys saying we're gonna rob a bank?" Raylan asks, knowing better. "Shelby Parlow," Dominic shoots back." "We're gonna rob Shelby," Raylan asks incredulously? Lex slugs Raylan on the side of his face, and is immediately reproached by Dominic. "Hey, assh-ole! How's he going to get us into the safe house if it looks like he's just been worked over? Hit him in the gut next time... or the balls!" He turns back to Raylan. "You're going to take us to where you're keeping Shelby, and get whoever's guarding him to open the door." And if Raylan doesn't? Winona dies. The Deputy Marshal says "I can't do that." Raylan runs his mouth at the next opportunity and gets Lex to slug him in the stomach -- which is close enough for the marshal to take the man's pistol and gut shoot him dead, then head-shoot Cobb who drops his own gun at Winona's feet. Dominic grabs Winona out of her chair and holds her as a shield with his own pistol against her belly, yelling how stupid Raylan is because now he and his wife are going to end up on Nicky Augustine's "list, marked for life." But the mom-to-be has corralled Cobb's pistol and shoots Dominic in the crotch just as he's about to shoot Raylan. As he screams in agony, Winona breaks free and spins around. She and Raylan quickly deliver a fusillade of more than a dozen rounds into Dominic's body, He crashes to the nursery flood, dead.
The Givens: 3. The Augustine delegation: 0.
Ava tells Boyd that she doesn't "want to go some place and start over. But there's nothing left to do but run." But Boyd thinks he might have one more card to play.
Back at Winona's, Art, Raylan and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Vasquez (Rick Gomez) discuss the situation. Art tell Raylan that several days ago Theo Tonin fled the U.S. to Tunisia, a land of no extradition and topless beaches, that son Sammy Tonin is set to take over, and that Sammy and Nicky Augustine don't get along. Naturally, Raylan is furious that Art insists that he's still suspended and that he can't work the case. He wants to pay a visit to Nicky to make sure nothing else happens to Winona and his unborn daughter. Art assures Raylan that Sammy will likely take care of Nicky before the man can make good on any threats. "They're wheeling bodies out of my baby's nursery..." Raylan says angrily. "That's why!" Art shouts Raylan down, then sympathizes, saying that he can't imagine what Raylan "is going through right now. And I feel for you. But just so we're clear," Art tells Raylan coolly and levelly, "if you go after Nicky, don't bother coming back."
Raylan joins Winona propped up on a gurney in the back of an ambulance. She's overheard the exchange with Art. Raylan tells her, "We're gonna take you to a hotel." "Do I get a protection detail or WitSec?" Winona wants to know. "A protection detail," Raylan says. "'Cause if it was WitSec," she continues without missing a beat, "then, you know, we wouldn't have to change the baby's name seeing as she doesn't have one yet." "Just a protection team," Raylan says. "Okay. Maybe one of them could be my birthing coach," she says, and asks her first ex-husband what he's going to do. "I'm going to find the guy responsible for this," he says earnestly, "and I'm going to take care of it."
Back at Johnny's bar, Boyd has invited Clover Hill bigshot and local funeral home operator Lee Paxton (Sam Anderson) and Deputy Sheriff Mooney to a meeting. Mooney wants to know why he's there, telling Boyd "I don't work for you anymore." "No," Boyd replies, "but you work for him," indicating Lee, "and he works for me." Turns out the cops store bodies at the funeral home, including the corpse recently recovered from the mine, believed to be one Delroy Baker. Boyd forces Mooney to admit the body hasn't officially been confirmed as Delroy. "Medical examiner's coming down from Lexington in the morning to identify the body and the cause of death," Mooney says. "I need you to help me make that body in your morgue not Delroy," Boyd explains to the funeral director. Lee says they'll need a second body. Boyd says he'll wipe the man's debt clean if he lets them swap out the body for another. Lee reluctantly agrees.
Boyd has to come up with the replacement body on his own, so he and Jimmy head to a graveyard and start digging up "the mortal remains of Henry Willis," a dearly departed Oxy addict known to Boyd. The grave-robbers wrap it in plastic and drag it into the back room of Johnny's bar. Ava comes in and is horrified to see the body on the table. Boyd sends Jimmy off the the funeral home to bring back Lee's hearse.
They are about to take the next step in their plan when Raylan enters and wonders if Boyd gave Winona up to Nicky Augustine. Raylan then implies that Ellen May has been doing lots of talking about Ava while in custody. There is a tense confrontation: Raylan wants him to take him to meet with Nicky Augustine, Boyd wants to stay with Ava and get the mummified Willis out of there. Raylan prevails, so it's up to Ava and Jimmy to do the rest of the grisly body-switching deed.
At the mortuary Mooney lets them into the cold storage room where he points Ava and Jimmy to a slab with two bodies on it as they prepare for the swap. "Which one's Delroy?" Ava asks. "The one that looks like beef jerky," Mooney says."
Nicky Augustine and Picker share a late night repast at a local diner and discuss the situations facing them, with Boyd and Raylan and with Sammy Tonin. Picker worries that they should attempt to make peace with Sammy Tonin "who's already pissed we went after the ex-wife," rather than worry about the marshal. Nicky, dismissing Theo's son as "a rat-faced bitch boy," insists on at least meeting Raylan to hear him out, exuding confidence at his ability to stay on top of everything.
Along the way to meet with Nicky Augustine at the airport, Boyd and Raylan debate the latter's plan to "sit across from Nicky, tell him the game's the game but you don't go after a man's family." "Well, just so you're aware," Boyd says, "whatever Nicky knows about Winona did not come from me." Raylan accepts that with a simple "Okay." Boyd takes a beat, then says, "Now what you mention it, though, I'm not sure you're one to talk about going straight at a man 'stead of what he loves." Raylan questions if Boyd loves Ava the way he loved his faith, or racial purity previously, or how he loved Arlo. Boyd thinks Raylan's jealous. Raylan accuses Boyd of loving things that make him feel like he isn't the bad guy, but Boyd retorts that Raylan generally does the same, hiding behind his badge as he goads criminals like Nicky Augustine into pulling their guns, and ending up dead for it. "They always pull," Raylan notes. "You know what I'm wondering, is what do you tell yourself at night when you lay your head down, allows you to wake up in the morning pretending you're not the bad guy?" Boyd says to Raylan.
On the road to Delroy's new final resting place, Ava stops and orders Jimmy out of the van. He argues that Boyd told him to stay with her, but Ava interrupts him. "Boyd ain't here. Get out!" "Yes, ma'am," he says and complies. Ava drives off.
Pulling into the airport, Boyd tells Raylan, "You might as well give me my gun back." Raylan laconically replies, "I'm sure you'll be fine." "Not me I'm worried about. Just offering to even up your odds a little bit," Boyd says, "I count four to one. That hardly seems fair." Raylan wonders which Boyd means, but returns his pistol and thanks him for the ride. Boyd says, "Good luck, cowboy."
After being dropped off, Raylan is met by Picker who is beginning to doubt his allegiance to Nicky Augustine. He pats Raylan down for a wire... he has no concerns about the marshal being armed, and mentions that his boss isn't. Raylan gets in a nearby limo with Nicky Augustine, getting straight down to business. The men feel one another out before Augustine tells Raylan he's going to Detroit to kill Sammy Tonin and then he'll be back to kill Raylan's family. Raylan's willing to make a deal: Augustine can turn himself in and admit to all the crimes he's committed and he can swear to leave his family alone... or he'll die in the limo. That's Raylan's best offer. Augustine notes. "Oh, I don't have a gun." Raylan suggests "Maybe you should get one." Again, Augustine scoffs, "Why? So you can have a reason?" Raylan replies, levelly, "You already gave me a reason." Augustine accuses Raylan of making a "cop threat" he can't carry out and tells him emphatically: "All I got is my word. So if I say I'm going to kill your family, then I'm going to kill your family! 'Cause these animals out here, they think they can get over on me, they'll tear me to pieces." He tells Raylan that he's now going "to Detroit to kill Theo's pasty little pussy of a son. But I'll be back, for your family." He notes that Raylan had a chance to save his family that morning, but instead took out three of his men. Since Raylan's not there to kill him, Nicky orders "get the hell out of my car!"
Resigned, Raylan leaves the car and heads straight for a nearby executive jet from which young Tonin (Max Perlich) descends. "Sammy, thanks for coming," Raylan greet him. "Thank you for reaching out," Sammy responds with sincerity. "What'd he say?" "He said he's going to murder my wife and child," a grim-faced Raylan replies. "Yeah, no, I heard, and I feel terrible about that," Sammy says, but wants to know what Augustine had said about him. "He said you're a pussy and he's going to kill you." Sammy considers this information while Raylan looks around. "I guess his guys ain't gonna give you too much trouble." "You want to survive in this business," Sammy says, "you have your money on the horse that's out front." Raylan explains to Sammy that Augustine intends to kill him, but when Sammy asks how Raylan can justify walking away from what's about to happen, Raylan insists he offered Nicky a chance to turn himself in. Sammy wonders if Raylan will report anything if Nicky were to turn up dead in a matter of minutes. "I'm suspended," Raylan says, and walks away as Sammy gives the signal to Picker. His men light up Augustine's limousine with automatic weapons fire, killing him. Raylan continues walking and doesn't look back.
Boyd rushes back to the bar to find Ava already gone, as Jimmy tries to tell him that Ava made him get out of the van so she could continue on alone. He turns around and rushes right out again, and speeds to where he knew she was headed.
Ava is in the process of trying to get the corpse into the slurry when a Harlan Sheriff's car shows up. It's Nick Mooney and another deputy, pretending surprise at her actions. But they're disappointed that Boyd isn't there as well since they were expecting him to be. Mooney insists Ava will do instead. Ava is arrested, and theorizes that Lee Paxton put the cops up to it
Shortly after sun-up, Lee Paxton positively identifies Delroy's body as the one stolen earlier from his mortuary, when Boyd pulls up in a panic at seeing Ava in 'cuffs in the back of a deputy's car. Boyd punches Deputy Mooney to the ground and falls on him with more punches and tries to choke Mooney. Other Deputies pull him off and begin administering a beating and stomping as Boyd lets out a prolonged primal scream. They are going to arrest Boyd but Lee menacingly asserts that Boyd won't be trouble anymore. Boyd observes Cassie St. Cyr watching over the scene, before leaving in her battered pick-up truck. Boyd rushes back to share one last kiss with Ava, telling her he'll get a lawyer and have her out in the morning. She realizes that's unlikely, and the authorities drive off with her in custody. Raylan sees Winona off, helping her Winona pack, sharing a kiss.
The next day, Wynn Duffy shows up at Johnny's bar to give Boyd his news: with Sammy as the new head of the outfit, Wynn is now the new man East of the Mississippi. "I'd like you handle my heroin distribution in Kentucky," Wynn tells the uncommonly morose outlaw, and explains that they're both about to become very rich men. They talk quietly for a moment and Wynn becomes philosophical: "Kings fall. Princes rise up. And here we still are, the survivors." Boyd doesn't say much. "I'll be in touch," Wynn says.
Later, Boyd breaks into the nice Clover Hill home he and Ava were going to buy with and looks around wistfully at the dream that he and Ava had shared, at what their lives might have been, a Dairy Queen franchise and redemption of the Crowder name.
At the Givens homestead, Raylan finally has time to spackle over the "Hole in the Wall (2013)" made by Benny and Roz where they retrieved the satchel of Drew Thompson's cash Arlo had hidden there for safe-keeping while he was incarcerated. Art calls to inform him of Nicky Augustine's demise, unaware of Raylan's role in it. Raylan thanks Art, assuring him he'll sleep well that night.
Then, Raylan sits alone in a chair looking out from the porch where, behind the house, Arlo's fresh grave marker sits in the family burial ground.
The mournful stains of "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" come up on the soundtrack.
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