Justified: City Primeval Episodes 4-5 Roundup
"Choose your workplace colleagues carefully so they can clean up messes created by your nincompoop relatives." - An ancient Albanian mafia proverb
We’re well on our way into this season’s grittiness with the # of victims now at one of your dominant hand’s finger counts or close enough to it if you include collateral damage. Don’t worry though. The violent guys here rip out teeth and not fingers to extract vital information from innocent people.
Note: Some spoilers in the way of plot highlights.
Episode 4 can pretty much be summed up as baddie Clement Mansell comes out on top and Raylan goes head to head with Albanian mob boss, Toma Costia (portrayed by actor Terry Kinney of Oz and Billions) while also courting DA Carolyn Wilder and protecting her from the Albanian mob because she’s just a woman standing in front of a man asking him to rescue her. Hope you got the Notting Hill reference here.
RIP Justice
One of the central themes of Justified rests in the tense interplay between those that believe justice should be handed out based on the legal system’s due process and those, mostly crime families, that believe in retributive justice. Toma, the new character falls in the latter category and IMHO, episode four’s most memorable lines can be found in his delivery on the difference between justice and order. I highly recommend you watch it. And it’s not a coincidence that Toma, Clement and Sandy, Clement’s villain partner can both be seen casually rolling or lighting joints in this episode. In the Primeval universe, bad people do drugs.
Primeval does Beach
Bar owner musician Sweety precariously toes the line between allying himself with decent folk like Carolyn and lying in bed with bad dogs like Clement. A discernible pattern can be heard in the common Sweety retort, “Let’s get Clement out of our lives for good, Carolyn” conversations with his lawyer and friend and her urging him to do this “by the book.” This is then followed by Sweety colluding with Mansell to extort money from blackmailed people, and honoring their partnership by sway dancing to the whitest song ever sung, The Beach Boy’s “Kokomo” alongside Clement Mansell at the bottom of episode 4 as the two conjure up tropical island dream getaways. Money can make people do bad things. Just ask Alex Murdaugh. Whatever partnership is brewing here, it’s not going to end well for Sweety, and whatever game he’s playing is still unclear. Even if his ultimate goal is to one up Clement, by getting closer to him and then striking a deal with law enforcement to turn on him, something tells me Sweety’s going to draw Sandy’s milkshake short straw. (Reference to episode 5)
Shooting from the Hip
If there was ever a time to shiv Mansell, it was at the end of episode 4 when Mansell pulled Sweety into a dance and singalong to Kokomo. It was humiliating, but mostly for Mansell. If Sweety is disciplined enough to refrain from a violent outburst at this point, he’s in it for the long run.
No Willa in these episodes. Not complaining.
The Albanians make for an interesting side plot especially as now both the police and this group are out to get Mansell but watching the Albanians gruesomely torture people and represent some sort of Eastern European stereotype cliche is not particularly fresh storytelling.
Mansell’s luddite quote of the week which proves he’s an old soul Millennial: “Oh damn I do love a tape deck, but I got to boost a lot of shitbox old cars.” Maybe next episode he’ll graduate to CD players.
Source: History.com / Mansell’s ancestors raging against the machine of industrialization. “Just cause you got into my panties, doesn’t mean you can get into my business.” Carolyn to Raylan, the morning after their one night stand that they both agree never happened but will likely happen again cause Carolyn is “[is] also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her.”
Lending some 2023 credibility to this show, the Verizon detective to Raylan, “Tell you what. We’re all gonna be retired and playing pickleball and this case will still be open.”
Source: The New York Times / Raylan and the Verizon detective. David Cross (Tobias, Arrested Development) plays Burt Dickey, one of the guys being extorted by Clement and Sweety, and discovered via Judge Guy’s log book. It’s a solid casting. He’s an easy guy to dislike.
It’s hard to take Clement Mansell seriously when he walks around conducting business in this attire - like a reformed bad guy Karate Kid’s Johnny Lawrence’s X-rated Cobra Kai cousin who is also bad news
Carolyn’s Back Story with Jamal
I’m debating if the amount of time episode 5 spent on Carolyn’s ex, Jamal is going to be paid off in any way. Is this the guy that’s going to bring her down? We already know that his actions are connected to her financial debt, i.e. the lien on her home, which she pays off. Perhaps he is her Achilles Heel and will be her undoing. Given the amount of times he’s broken up her multiples dalliances with Raylan in <12 hours, I’d propose he’s not going anywhere.
Carolyn is compromised by her ambition as we see near the end of episode 5. Her road to the judgeship is going to come at a steep price.
With only 3 episodes left, what are your predictions for how this season will conclude?
How many of Detroit’s finest (police) are compromised by the blackmail book?
Well, I finally caught up to episode 5. I’m getting close to no TV time lately, and the fact that this new Justified is getting lamer by the episode. Every earlier season is better than this. Like you point out, it’s cliche central here. I’ve actually moved on to Mrs. Davis on Peacock. Now there’s a show I do love and is not about cliches at all.
The whole Albanian plotline is lame and the obligatory DA romance bit has zero chemistry. Hopefully the last 3 are much better.