There’s always a bit of trepidation when a great show reaches its end point, a worry that somehow the finale won’t live up to expectations and the show’s entire run will be left tainted as a result. It’s happened before to great FX shows — Sons of Anarchy comes to mind — so when it was announced that this would be the final season of Justified, fans were undoubtedly concerned with how it would end.
Those concerns were misplaced. The Justified finale was absolutely perfect, honoring the show’s rich history and giving its characters the (almost) happy endings they deserved. And it cemented Justified‘s place in TV history as one of the best shows cable has ever produced.
What the finale did right was something that seems simple, yet still escapes so many other shows when they reach the end: It stayed true to the tone of the series, not feeling the need to jump through hoops or create ridiculous scenarios for its characters.
At its core, Justified was always about Raylan (played by Timothy Olyphant), Boyd (Walton Goggins), and Ava (Joelle Carter). Other memorable characters populated the landscape, but those three were what held everything together. It was fitting, then, that the finale honored each character in their own way.
For Ava, that meant a life away from Harlan, Ky., from Boyd, and from the circle of crime and death which seemed to encapsulate everything that happened around her. She made off with (some of) the money, made a life for herself in California, and most importantly kept her and Boyd’s son away from both Harlan and the inevitability of the Crowder life. She’s even able to convince Raylan not to take her in and let her raise her son in peace.
For Raylan and Boyd, two characters that have been intertwined since the beginning, the finale brought them together in ways that allowed each of them to grow.
The incredibly tense standoff in the drying shed was one of the show’s best moments: There was Boyd, completely defeated and ready to give up, refusing to draw his gun on Raylan and daring him to shoot anyway. It was Boyd forcing Raylan to look in the mirror and confront the reality of what kind of man he was. The Raylan of old — of episode one who shot Tommy Bucks dead in a restaurant — would absolutely have shot Boyd dead too. But this version of Raylan didn’t; instead, he took Boyd into custody and showed that he’d grown as a character over the course of the series.
The finale provided some great moments for the supporting characters, too. It’s fantastic that Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns) got away with most of the money in exchange for helping Ava escape in a dog grooming van (we think), and I’d love to watch a show featuring his adventures windsurfing in Fiji. Art (Nick Searcy) got the proper sendoff he deserved, back in action and helping Raylan bring down Boyd. Rachel (Erica Tazel) ended up in the Seattle Marshall’s office, and Tim’s (Jacob Pitts) last interaction with Raylan was perfect for their characters. No supporting player felt like an afterthought.
But really, the finale boiled down to one scene: Raylan visiting Boyd in prison after a four-year time jump to lie to him about Ava being dead. It wasn’t because Raylan thought Boyd would hunt her down if he got out — Raylan even acknowledges that Boyd truly loved her — but the scene gives you the sense that Raylan did it to give Boyd some closure in his life.
Through all of their battles, there was always an underlying respect one had for the other, a realization that deep down they were almost the same. And when Boyd asks Raylan why he made the trip in person instead of just calling the warden, Raylan starts to explain before Boyd finishes his thought for him: “We dug coal together.”
That’s what Justified was really all about, in the end. Two guys who dug coal together. It was the perfect ending to an incredible show.
