Television Review : "Justified" Season 1, Episode 2 “Riverbrook”

Television Review

"Justified" Season 1, Episode 2 “Riverbrook”

By our guest blogger, Sanela Djokovic

Marshall Givens isn’t in Miami anymore and his hometown of Harlan Country, Kentucky couldn’t be more of a contrast for him. The second episode of “Justified” throws Givens a big distraction from all the giant problems surrounding his life when he is asked to track down an escaped convict. And, the chase is a fun one, but the lingering shadows revolving around the situation with boyhood friend Boyd Groggins are what bring on the goosebumps.

Gavins day kicks off with a visit to the Federal Detention Center, where Boyd Goggins is recovering from the gunshot wound to the chest, brought to him by the U.S. Marshall standing in front of him. They talk about the shooting and Goggins in under the impression that Givens missed on purpose, but Givens assures him that he always aims to kill. Goggins calls the shooting “an act of God” and says that he is “born again.” Sounds like he’s got something up his sleeve, but Givens will be the last one to bite.

Next order of business is driving Goggin’s pawn Dewey home from jail, except that Dewey does the driving. Dewey tries to get tricky with Givens, but Givens seems to see everything, know all and fear nothing. As is typical the situation is handled with some more blood being drawn, but boy, don’t we love the Marshall kicking some white supremacist ass?

But, just like that, we learn that Givens is not untouchable when Coop, the escaped member of the bluegrass convict group that Givens is asked to find, jumps him, taking his badge, guns and Stetson. Before getting back to capturing Coop, Givens receives a visit from ex-wife Winona, who asks him to stay away; he learns he has to answer a whole lot of questions about the Goggins shooting; and he is warned by his boss not to sleep with Ava, Goggin’s ex-wife. But Ava isn’t going to make that order an easy one to follow--she's waiting for him in his hotel room. Givens swiftly, in cool, Stetson-fashion, says: "I can't be getting amorous with a witness in a shooting I was involved in."

Meanwhile, Coop has found his ex-wife and her boyfriend/cousin (Kentucky, remember) and they go looking for the large sum of money he hid 15 years before. But he doesn’t remember where he hid it and the new boyfriend shoots him, but doesn’t kill him. The rest of Coop’s team searches for the money and find it is the home of a couple who got to it before them, so they are taken hostage. Givens shows up with no arms, but with back-up and warns them of the sniper outside. The boyfriend thinks he’s bluffing and catches a bullet while Coop heads back to prison.

Crazy escaped convict running around town waving guns and looking for money--it's all in a day’s work for U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens. Ava may have just been a blip on this week’s radar, but we can sense that she is going to factor in to the already messed-up situation between Givens and Goggins. We as viewers have a lot to learn about these fresh new characters and, even better, they are going to have to learn a lot about each other.