Boyd isn't out of prison no time and he's already kicking up a dust storm. He's got a flock of hicks and the rejected rungs of Lexington/Harlen society congregating together in the backwoods, with Boyd claiming this is his church. Raylan finds Boyd's flock and lets it be known that he is not oblivious to their presence and will be around. But Boyd's nights are taken up by protecting an unpopular judge known for his lack of leniency towards the criminals that appear before him in the court, Judge Mike Reardon (a hilarious Stephen Root, expertly cast). Reardon was in the process of sexual relations with a local hottie when someone set a snake loose in his room. Because of a bite that the hottie sucks venom from (!), it's clear that the judge has someone out to kill him. The fact that he has a list of enemies doesn't help his cause, either. Boyd forewarns meth cookers in the deep woods that they are to stop or else (his flock has former addicts with firearms ready to do his bidding!) a "combustible" response might result. Boyd and his dopes jerk out two of the meth cookers but are unaware that an undercover officer posing as a member of their team is sleeping inside the building. Boyd hurls a Molotov cocktail at the building, blowing it up and killing the officer in the process! So, already this menace to society has killed someone, with Raylan pretty uneasy about being partially responsible for Boyd's being able to do so outside of prison. The Raylan/Ava "romance" seems to be coming to an end, with Ava unhappy that Raylan allows Art and Vasquez to influence him into a decision to split up what could have probably been a good thing hadn't Boyd's interference caused such a detriment. I think "The Hammer" assures us that the show was about to leave behind the episodic "one-offs" where investigations/cases are started and solved in 45 minutes; the characters that have such importance/relevance over the long haul are no longer relegated to small scenes that either open or close each episode (or have tiny scenes in the middle). The judge's central plot doesn't meet the typical resolution. Sure a released convict is established as the probable threat to the judge's life, but it is resolved in a rather anti-climactic way that seems open-ended, as if this isn't the conclusion but just a first act. Reardon is quite a character: he wears spandex and socks only under his robe (along with packing heat!), carries a gun for safety (and isn't afraid to use it), and loves to frequent the local titty-bar for picking up girls and amusement. Raylan hopes he can convince the Reardon to use his power to influence the judge keeping Ava in Lexington as a sentence for a past crime to allow her the freedom to leave town (concerned for her safety now that Bo and Boyd are out and about). An ex-convict eyeballing the judge in a strip club gets Raylan's attention and his suspicions about him are correct (because he was sent away, his wife and kid were left to struggle in his absence financially). Also, Raylan has a chance to perhaps put Boyd back in prison thanks to a supposed witness who was in the area when the explosion of the bank took place
but this doesn't provide the results Raylan hopes for.
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