Justified (TV Series) Brother's Keeper (2011) User Reviews

Mountain blows its top

[Mr-Fusion · 10/10 · 30 November 2016]

So many threads, so much buildup, all coming to a head in one massively entertaining, well-engineered episode. That's 'Brother's Keeper', ideally described. Mags shows off her criminal genius as she completely sells out the people of Harlan to Big Oil. She gets the millions while Boyd gets oxy control of the county; it is a masterful seizure. And the psychodrama that is the Bennett clan climaxes as Loretta discovers her father's body, destroys Coover's psyche and puts a gut-wrenching capper on the whole day - which has all of this happening against the backdrop of a sun-bathed shindig.

For the Bennetts, there's no coming back from this.

10/10

Can you feel sympathy for Mags Bennett?

[amsterdam-92719 · 9/10 · 22 February 2022]

Almost, maybe, kinda sorta for a few seconds?

Get to the end of this stellar episode and find out! If nothing else, you can empathize with her wish to have a human child.... A slow burning episode builds to an inevitable end, and we learn that lesson, once more, that it is the trip and not the destination.

Young Loretta finds out what those around her have known, and it is a most dangerous, and painful bit of information.

A mesmerizing performance by Margo Martindale (Mags Bennett) in this and the previous episode as she hit the heights of her power and influence and falls faster than Icarus when the wax of his wings melted.

A great episode - so good that it could be a season finale - that checks almost all the boxes for a great Justified show: great writing, sympathetic glimpses of the most awful characters and a laugh or two to keep it from becoming as "heavy" as some other quality shows (looking at you "The Wire"!). If you're a fan, you'll love this one!!!