Review: Justfied Season Premiere

After what feels like entirely too long of a delay, Raylan Givens has finally returned to be his usual badass self and take down the bad guys. Was the season 2 premiere worth the wait? Read on to find out!

Season 2 of Justified throws us right back into the action, as Raylan, Boyd, and Ava are pinned down in a house by some approaching drug warlords from Miami that have a bone to pick with US Marshall Givens. They tell the group they only want him and Raylan offers to come out unarmed if they're unarmed and talk about it. Boyd takes Ava and they high tail it while Raylan walks outside. Knowing better than to walk out unarmed and unplanned, Raylan realizes the woman he talked to has a friend waiting to pop him when he walks out. Luckily for him, Boyd gets him first from the woods.

The woman, however, escapes, as does Boyd when he pulls a gun on Raylan and calls his bluff for having an empty magazine. The woman hijacks a trucker into taking her to a private plane back to Miami...only to be stopped by Boyd. But before Boyd can kill her for for killing his father, Raylan talks him down-not for moral reasons ("I wouldn't blame you") but because he needs her alive to have some leverage against her boss.

Raylan stops Boyd just in time

Raylan drags the woman back to Miami and speaks with her uncle, the head of the organization. Just as he tells the man to give him his word that he'll stop coming after or "in ten seconds I'll shoot you in head,", Raylan's former Miami boss steps in a diffuses the situation. Afterwards, Raylan is invited back to Miami by his former boss, who, as it turns out, was recommended to be returned by his boss in Kentucky.

Raylan heads back to Kentucky to the news that his boss has put him up for re-assignment, unsure if he's ready to leave home again. But in the meantime, he's asked by his fellow Marshall Deputy Brooks to help track down a registered sex offender who was released released from prison and has been sexually aggravating a twelve-year-old girl in Arlan. As it turns out, the story goes deeper as the man works with a crime gang growing marijuana and the father of the girl he is sexually aggravating uses their land to grow his own stuff. In the process, Raylan reconnects with an old acquatince from growing up in Kentucky, a woman who is herself involved.

Raylan tires out some home-made moonshine

I've been greatly anticipating the return of Justified. It quickly became one of my favorite shows when it premiered last year and I even wrote an article here on Words Finest about why you should be watching it. I can happily say I was not let down-the premiere was exciting, sharp and sometimes funny, and intriguing with what is still some of the best dialogue on TV.

Welcome back Justified-I can't wait to see what you have in store!