Trama

Raylan is captured by the authorities, but Art reluctantly lets him go and puts him back on the case. Avery gets to Ava and questions her about his missing money, but she winds up leading Boyd straight to them.

KSP Deputy Lappiccola (Jeffrey Pierce) cuffs Raylan and puts him in the rear of a KSP cruiser.

Boyd searches Grubes' cabin for the rest of Avery Markham's money. He spots a shovel with dirt on it.

Birch and Crosley, the two crooked County Cops, bring a bound Ava before Markham. She reluctantly tells him that the rest of the $10 million is up on the mountain at Grubes' place, that her uncle helped her drag it up there, but that he had nothing to do with the taking of the cash.

Tim and Rachel brief an assemblage of law enforcers on the search for Boyd and Ava, and give instructions, Costanza (Robert Dolan) tells the two Deputy U.S. Marshals that dog teams have tracked Ava across Tates Creek Bridge before scent ran out, but then alerted to something it the grass. He holds up a small evidence bag containing Dewey Crowe's 'gator tooth necklace.

When this information in broadcast over law enforcement radio referring to it as "animal tooth," KSP prisoner Raylan tells Deputy Lappiccola to ask if it's an alligator tooth. The Deputy ignores him and the two men keep driving as dawn arise. Rayln asks "Please!" Lappicola picks up the mike and calls in with Raylan's suggestion, but the dispatcher will only say that "the teeth are about an inch long and sharper than sh-t." As he disconnects, Raylan starts to pursue that thread, but the KSP Deputy cuts him off abruptly, and tells him for the final time to "sit back and shut up." A frustrated Raylan complies.

The two men pull into a KSP sub-station, and as Deputy Lappiccola begins to escort Raylan inside, he is met by Art, who wants to take custody of the prisoner. There's a minor jurisdictional dispute, and the three men head inside to have Duty Officer Mathis make the decision.

Outside Grubes' cabin, Boyd, favoring his damaged left arm from Zachariah's makeshift suicide garment, is digging up Grubes' gravesite. His shovel strikes something, and as Boyd excitedly continues digging and clearing with his hands, his discovers Grubes' face. This unnerves him considerably. He laughs with irony, when a 'phone is heard to ring inside the cabin. He goes in and answers an old style rotary desk instrument. It's Ava. "Uncle Zachariah," she says, and carries on a conversation pretending it's her recently deceased Uncle. Boyd is not in a very forgiving mood, but as Ava holds up her end of the pretense in front of Avery explaining that he's going to kill her if she can't deliver the rest of the stolen money, and that she and Zachariah are the only ones who know where it is. Boyd instructs her to tell Avery to send one unarmed man for a meeting at Compass Rock, and hangs up.

Markham sends Boon, with Loretta as a guide, off to meet with Zachariah to get his money. "Make sure you get all of it," he tells them, "then kill him!" The gunman tips his black-hat in acknowledgement, and leaves.

Art escorts a still-cuffed Raylan out of the KSP barracks under the watchful eye of KSP Deputies Mathis and Lappiccola. Once they are alone in the Marshal's SUV, Raylan tries to explain what's going on with Ava and Markham, causing Art to pull the vehicle over and make a decision. He opens the console compartment, gathers up Raylan's badge, ID and pistol and gives it back to his prisoner. "You dumb son-of-a-bitch!" he tells Raylan.

With helicopters overhead, Rachel, Tim, Costanza and others take the door to Grubes' cabin. After a quick search of the location as Boyd watches from higher ground, they find Grubes' shallow grave and Zachariah's blown-up body. Costanza spots Boyd taking off up the mountain. "We got a runner!" he hollers, and at rifle distances, there is a fusillade of pistol fire as Boyd keeps running.

As he gets to a ridge, tracking dogs and a sizable group of Marshals, guardsmen and Sheriffs behind him, Boyd ducks behind a rock outcropping to begin lighting the fuses of some of Zachariah's dynamite sticks and tossing them one by one at the pursuers closing in.

Art and Raylan walk into a bar to interrogate off-duty Stiles, sitting on a stool nursing a drink. His battered face gives him away as the crooked cop who sneaked Carl into Boyd's hospital room to affect an escape. Before the Deputy Marshals can continue, Leon (Jack Conley) the bartender tells them in order to drink there, they "need a badge or a pair of tits." "Show him your tits," Raylan tells Art, but Art prefers showing their badges instead. "Fine," Leon says, "but you needs to check your guns at the door." Raylan is incredulous, and a cocky Leon pulls a baseball bat out from under the counter. In short order Art decides to cut to the chase, unholstering his sidearm as Raylan relieves Leon of the bat. He continues interrogating Stiles, punctuating his questions by violently whacking the bar top with the bat. Stiles, still suffering the after-effects of the concussion he received from Carl's beating, quickly gives up Markham's location: the Bennett pot-drying barn.

As they leave the bar, Art gets a call about the stand-off between Boyd and his dynamite, and his pursuers, and decides to respond to that location. He tosses Raylan the keys to his Marshals SUV and says he'll have Nelson Dunlop take him to meet with Rachel, Tim and the others. His final instructions: "Hey, and Raylan, no matter what you find at the drying shed, whatever they've done to Ava and Loretta, you...." his voice breaks off into a sigh. Raylan looks at his boss. "I understand," he says as he opens the door to the SUV.

At the drying barn, Avery gets a call from Boon that Zachariah wasn't at Compass Rock, and angrily ends the call. He turns on Ava and threatens her with his pistol under her chin. The barn door creaks open... it's Birch. "WHAT?" a greatly perturbed Avery yells. And arm appears with a pistol in its hand as Boyd marches Birch in at gunpoint. "Keep those gun hands where I can see them," Boyd orders. Matters get very ugly, very quickly, and lead to Avery stepping out from behind Ava and opening fire on Boyd. A furious gunfight ensues, with Boyd prevailing, one on three as the two crooked cops die quickly, and finally Avery as Boyd puts a round through his left eye.

Ava makes a move for one of the dropped handguns but Boyd stops her. "Look at me!" he commands. "LOOK AT ME!" She rolls into a seated position and looks at him. He pulls the trigger, twice, only to be met by the click of a hammer falling on an empty chamber.

The frozen moment between the now-former lovers is interrupted by the sound of the door opening again. Boyd turns his head and sees his old adversary.

"Goddamn, Raylan," he yells at the intruder. "Your timing SUCKS!" "So I've been told," the U.S. Deputy Marshal rejoins, his gun hand on his holstered weapon. There's a discussion, and a greatly disadvantaged Boyd suggests that they resume their last confrontation, the previous night in the woods.

Raylan says "There is another way," but that doesn't suit Boyd because he knows drawing on Raylan is a losing proposition. There are more words exchanged, but Raylan cuts it off, "Either way, I'm going to put you down." He makes Boyd drop his empty pistol and pick up a loaded on he's kicked over to his feet. Boyd just wants to ask Ava one last question.

"Why?" he entreats. "We had the money. We were home free."

"Honestly, Boyd," Ava answers with obvious emotion. "I put myself in your shoes. I did what I thought you would do." The couple looks at one another, then the outlaw decides. "I'm not going to pull on you, Raylan."

The Deputy Marshal counters, "Yes you are." They argue back and forth for several moments, as Boyd refuses to raise the pistol in his hand. But he tries to goad Raylan into shooting him, insisting that when he gets out he's going to kill Ava, and then he's coming looking for Raylan. It's a tough decision, and it's all Raylan can do to keep from killing the man across from him in the barn.

Then there are helicopters overhead, and Boyd is marched out in custody of the police as Ava sits handcuffed in the front seat of a Marshal's Crown Vic sedan. Tim tells Rachel and Raylan that they'd been out to Compass Rock but there was no sign of Boon or Loretta. Rachel decides that she's the one that'll drive the prisoner, Boyd. Art comes along and shows Raylan a duffel with some stacks of money in it, and say that Ava wasn't very forthcoming when he asked her about the rest. "It's a long way to Lexington," Raylan says, handing the bag back to Art. "I'll see what I can do."

Alone in the Crown Vic with Raylan driving, the cuffed Ava says "You know I'll never make it inside. I can tell you where the rest of the money is... almost $9 million, Raylan." "You trying to bribe a Federal officer now?" he asks.

"I'm just wondering if there's still a deal to be made," she entreats.

"No! No deals. No outs," he says matter-of-factly. "I'm sorry Ava."

They ride in silence for a bit before she asks, "Why didn't you just kill him? You heard him. You know there ain't a cell came keep him. What's it prove, letting him live?"

"Maybe nothing," Raylan says.

The pair continues driving as the mournful stains of Darrell Scott's version of "You'll never leave Harlan alive" are heard on the soundtrack as the Crown Vic rolls pass the Harlan County sign. On a straight section of road, a silver pick-up truck races up behind them and rear ends the Marshal's car. Raylan makes a skidding 180 degree stop as the truck stops about 50 yards away. The drivers look at one another.

The truck door opens and Boon gets out, and closes the distance a little. Loretta is in the passenger's seat. Telling Ava to "Stay down," Raylan steps out and moves to the front of his vehicle, a look of concern on his face as he realizes that Boon is about to get his long-desired Old West show down.

There's a little palaver and Raylan draws his duster clear of his holster as Ava sinks lower in her seat. They two men stare wordlessly at one another before Boon draws his single action six shooter and fires... no empty chamber under the firing pin this time around. A split second behind him, Raylan draws and fires as well.

Both men are hit.

The Deputy U.S. Marshal falls flat on his back and doesn't move. Boon drops onto his knees, and slowly falls forward onto the roadway, his shirtfront bloody high on his chest as blood trickles from the right side of his mouth. Raylan lies motionless on the road. Boon, his eyes losing focus, struggles to bring his muzzle to bear on his fallen foe. A booted foot steps on his gun hand... he looks up to see Loretta, his last sight as his body goes limp and he dies on the spot.

Loretta kicks the six-shooters away from Boon's dead hand and walks toward Raylan's body. There is movement as the Deputy Marshal regains consciousness and reaches back for his hat, which is sporting a .45 caliber hole in the front. He has a bloody grazing wound on the left side of his scalp. Just then there's a squeal of tires as Ava has slipped behind the wheel, put the car in reverse and stepped on the gas. "GODDAMN IT!" Raylan yells, but the Crown Vic makes a flying turn and disappears into the distance while he watches helplessly.

A patched up Raylan walks into Art's office in Marshal's HQ.

"When's your flight leave?" the boss asks. "Couple of hours," Raylan says, but he is reluctant to leave with Ava still on the run "out there," and $9 million unaccounted for.

Art tells him not to worry about it. "You got Boyd Crowder, and you got him right." They shake hands, but as Raylan turns to leave, Art holds him up so they can have a last drive from Art's special bottle. "Say hello to Winona for me," he says.

Nelson comes in to tell Art he has a call waiting. Raylan goes to his desk and pulls a well-worn paperback, George W. Higgin's "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," from his desk drawer. "You read that a bunch or buy it used?" Tim asks. "If I say I've read it ten times, I'm low," Raylan says and tosses it over to Tim at the next desk, then picks a hat off a credenza behind him. He passes Rachel entering the offices. "Nice hat," she tells him with a big grin. "I tried it on and it fit," Raylan replies with a smile, then heads for the elevator. As he gets on, he places the hat on his head. It was the one Boon was wearing when he died.

Four Years Later - Miami, Florida

Raylan and his daughter Willa (Eden Henderson) are eating their ice cream cones at a table in a public playground. They are enjoying one another's company immensely. She goes off to play on one of the contraptions and Winona saunters in, chiding Raylan for Willa's ice cream. "So much for the kale salad," she sighs, taking a seat next to Raylan. They chat amiably about their daughter as the girl bounces back to rejoin them. "Can daddy come for dinner?" she asks. Uh oh. Raylan begs off because of work. Richard (Jason Gedrick), Winona's new husband shows up, and the two men greet each other cordially. Willa is perfectly comfortable with Richard, and she says goodbye to her father and leaves with her stepfather. Winona and Raylan talk a little more, and have a light argument. "You're the stubbornest man I know," she says. "At least I'm not angry," he ripostes, then agrees to Winona request to pick up Willa after school on Wednesday.

Raylan, still wearing the dead gunman's hat, enters the local Marshal's HQ and discovers from U.S. Deputy Marshal Greg Sutter (David Koechner) that he has to transport a prisoner to the Glades Correctional Facility. He picks up an opened envelope from Rachel Brooks, now posted in Seattle. It contains a clipping from an area newspaper, a story about the profits from a pumpkin patch benefiting schools. The accompanying two column photo shows Ava among the pumpkins.

Lebec, California

Raylan drives a rental sedan through farming country up a hill to a nice-looking ranch house. He walks up on the porch and knocks on the door. In short time, Ava Crowder pulls back a curtain, sees who it is and opens the door. They stand looking at one another. "You ain't gonna invite me in?" Raylan finally says.

"All I got is water... and water," she tells him, showing a bit of unease.

"No cola or RC?" he asks. "Coffee?"

"I have enough trouble sleeping as it is," she says, starting to fidget.

"I imagine," Raylan replies, taking her meaning.

"I'd invite you in, but the place is a mess," she says. "Besides, I want to enjoy being outside. We can walk if you want." Raylan agrees... if she doesn't bring the rifle she's holding out of his view. She lets loose of the gun and they wander around outside talking about nothing, then how she got out of Harlan. Raylan tells her that at first they thought it might have been Ellen May, but her WitSec Marshal could account for all her time, then they thought of Ellstin Limehouse but he's been elsewhere indisposed. Their best guess had been Wynn Duffy (Bingo! Remember his special order for a mobile dog grooming trailer with a super secret compartment.) Ava refuses to confirm anything, to betray a friend.

"If it was Duffy," Raylan says, "don't worry about it. He's vanished from the face of the earth. Rumors of him surfing in Fiji, but that's it."

After he satisfies her curiosity about how he caught up with her, he asks her how she's making ends meet. She talks about working on the ranch, mucking and feeding the horses the owner uses with special needs children, working at the school in town, volunteering at the local church.... Raylan cuts her off. "You trying to talk me out of taking you in, or are you shooting straight for sainthood?"

"You gonna take me in?" she asks. "You ran on me three times," he points out, "once at gunpoint."

"It's not like you found me here, running whores or robbing banks," Ava replies.

Raylan laughs. "Every long-time fugitive I've ever run down expects me to congratulate them for not doing what no one's supposed to be doing anyhow."

Ava has no answer for that, but makes a decision. She swears Raylan to secrecy, especially from Boyd, and tells the Deputy U.S. Federal Marshal she has something to show him. She takes him around to the rear of the ranch house and introduces him to the son (Ryder Cohen) she'd had with Boyd.

When Raylan asks his name, she says "Zachariah, the only man in my life who never wanted anything from me." With that off her chest, she tells Raylan that if he's going to take it to the next level, she needs to make arrangements for her son. He tells her he's not going to take her in. Tearfully she thanks him. He tells her that hopefully she'll be able to sleep better.

"You're not the only one I've been afraid to see at my front door," she says.

Tramble Supermax Penitentiary, Kentucky

Boyd is back to some serious preaching again, this time with a captive audience in matching orange jumpsuits in the prison chapel. Prison Guard Cregger (Christopher Grove) interrupts to inform Boyd he has a visitor.

To his surprise, it's Raylan who's there to tell him, with supporting (forged) documents... Oklahoma driver's license, death certificate... that Ava had died three years earlier in a car crash late one night in West Texas.

At first Boyd is saddened, but then gets suspicious as to why Raylan would come all that way to bring him this news. "Now, you could have called the warden, sent word through my lawyer."

"You asking why I came," Raylan asks, and when Boyd nods yes, "Thought it was news that should be delivered in person."

"That the only reason?" Boyd probes, and when there's no response other than a smile, "after all these long years, Raylan Givens, that's the only reason?"

They look each other in the face for several moments before Raylan says, "Well, if I allow myself to be sentimental, despite all that has occurred... there is one thing I wander back to...."

"We dug coal together," Boyd finishes for him.

"That's right," Raylan says.