प्लॉट

Art stumbles on Theo Tonin's right-hand man while investigating Nicky Augustine's death, Boyd tries to tie up loose ends with Lee Paxton, the sheriff, and cousin Johnny, and Raylan tries to get the Crowes to leave Harlan.

Sheriff Mooney calls Lee Paxton late at night, telling him of an anonymous tip leading him to a number of unaccounted for dead bodies of criminals "stashed away" in one of Paxton's funeral homes. Paxton thinks a moment, then "You told me he was dead, you sonovabitch!" He hangs up, swings his feet out of bed and snaps his bedside light on... to discover the decidedly alive Boyd sitting at the end of the bed. When he reaches into that bedside table drawer, Boyd holds up Lee's own snobnose revolver. "Looking for this? he calmly asks, then notes that "disposing of murder victims for money leaves a bad taste in a Christian's mouth," and goes on to paint Paxton's future humiliation. "Your reputationn is ruined. Your good word is worthless, but death will not be the end of your suffering." With that, he presses Paxton's revolver in his hand and forces the weakened older man to shoot himself under his mouth as blood spatter sprays the bedroom wall behind him. An adroitly staged suicide.

In Windsor, Ontario Al Sura ("The Canadian," Will Sasso) is headed to his car when he is interdicted by Elias Marcos (Alan Tudyk) holding a suppressed pistol. Uh oh! Not a good sign. He tells Al (who insists that his name is Eric) that he knows he ratted out everyone several days earlier in the Detroit Federal Marshals' office, and he wants to know everything that Al has told the Marshals. To encourage his forthrightness, he fires with a single round through his left hand. Al quickly gives up everything he had disclosed to Art, and is executed anyway.

At the Child Welfare Protective Services office, Social Worker Allison finishes off the paperwork so Wendy Crowe can take custody of her youngest brother Kendal. They are joined by Raylan who engages in some back and forth about Kendal's welfare, noting that he was "14 years old and slinging beers to whores and johns." Allison says that Wendy is taking Kendal back to Florida. Raylan wants Wendy to pass along to her other brothers that he wants them out of Kentucky, and that he's reinstating Daryl's parole. "And because this is America, I'm going to file enough injunctions that he gets to stay wherever he pleases, as long as he pleases." It's her exit line as she leave with Kendal in tow.

Art is staking out a diner where Winn Duffy and the omnipresent Mike are having breakfast when Ethan Picker shows up and joins them. Art has also been watching another man in a rental car for the past hour, talking on a cell' 'phone. It is Marcos, and when exits his vehicle and starts to follow Picker, Art interdicts him. Terse conversation ensues as Art strongly dissuades him from entering the diner. Marcos resists and tries to continue, but when Art talks about arresting him, Marcos returns to his car. Art snaps a photo of him with his cell' 'phone.

There's a hyper-tense confrontation in the diner as Art intrudes on the gathering between Wynn, Mike and Picker. He has convinced Picker to come and have "a word" with him, and as they rise from the booth, Art sees that Marcos has entered. The Chief Marshal whispers to their waitress (Frankie Sims) that as quickly and quiety as possible, she needs to clear all the patrons from the premises. Before she has a chance to even start, Marcos grabs her and pushes her into a booth seat. As Duffy casually cracks wise, kabitzing from the sidelines, Marcos tries to get Picker alone with him but Art manages to stand him down, and he leaves after making threats in Greek to Picker about his family. Art takes Picker on an escorted walk.

Dewey Crowe is being reflective in his trailer with his two preferred whores, Mina (Aubrey Wood) and Teena (Kaitlin Ferrell). He's still bothered by the murder he did at Daryl's insistance. He seems to have had what appears to have been some sort of epiphany after his recent lethal event with Wade Messer.

Boyd walks into his bar and is served by Jimmy, then engages in some roundabout unpleasant banter with Daryl and Jean Baptiste who want restitution for the one-sided deal he pulled on Dewey. Boyd and Jimmy run the two Florida visitors out of the bar at gunpoint.

Art and Picker are in the conference room at the Marshals' offices when U.S. Attorney David Vasquez shows up with Marcos' file at the same time that Raylan walks into HQ. Hot Rod Dunham meets up with Boyd, and after reminiscing about his adventures decades earlier with the late Bo Crowder, offers to make reparations for the double-cross he pulled with Johnny Crowther. Boyd tries to enlist Dunham in his prospective smuggling of Mexican heroin but Dunham is dubious.

Raylan finds out from Tim and Rachel that Art had been in Detroit the previous week, and insists on accompanying Vasquez into the meeting between Art and Picker. Vasquez reveals that Marcos is "Theo Tonin's consigliere and one man Praetorian guard... went with him to Tunisia." Picker suddenly remembers Raylan from the armed show-down at Raylan's old Evarts High School ("Decoy (2013)") the previous year. Vasquez adds that Tonin had left Tunisia "two days ago seeking help for his heart ailment." Raylan finally wangles a one-on-one session with Picker.

Boyd and an old mine worker friend, Hayes Workman (Patrick Hume), are out on a railroad bridge having a serious midday discussion about mortality.

Raylan and Picker have an exchange of not-so-veiled threats of the blackmail variety as Raylan wants the criminal to give up Marcos' whereabouts. "I want you to think about something," Raylan says, drawing his seat closer to Picker. "The reason you are in a position to blackmail me is because of things I do... things you've witnessed me do." This seems to clarify the matter for Picker.

Boyd, recent widow Mara Paxton and a nervous Mooney meet in a local restaurant. Mooney wants his payoff for swearing a statement that Lee Paxton confessed to his part in the corpse conspiracy in his final 'phone call before his "suicide." Boyd excuses himself to got to the rest room tells Mooney he's "going to get you what you got coming to you." No sooner does he leave than Workman strides in and shouts out, "Sheriff Mooney, this is what you get when you cross my family!" He pulls a revolver from a paper bags and shoots the surprised Sheriff twice point blank in the chest, then leaves as other patrons scream and scramble for cover. Mara, her face lined with blood spatter, is rejoined by Boyd who calmly sits down and explains that Workman "has the black lung and ain't long for this world, won't even see a trial. But in six months time his wife and his boys will have enough money to give them a leg up in this life." Mara realizes that that money was supposed to be hers, which fact Boyd confirms, and orders her to leave Harlan County ..."and don't come back!" Boyd leaves her sitting there as the sounds of sirens grows lounder.

Boyd and Ava's attorney meet with the incarcerated woman in the county jail, as the "good news" is explained to her: with Lee Paxton and Sheriff Mooney dead, the case against Ava is falling apart and she should be out-processed in the morning. Boyd tells the lawyer he wants some private time with his fiancee so he puts on his Walkman headset and turns away. Boyd and Ava exchange optimistic endearments before their visit is over.

Back at Audry's bar, Wendy walks in with her little brother in tow, and explains to a blustering Daryl that if he wants to keep Kendal around, he needs to find him "a better place to lay his head" than a bar and a whore house. They fight about Kendal while Kendal resists his brother Danny's aggressive behavior as Jean Baptiste looks on. Wendy suddenly realizes that Daryl's plan is to keep her around instead of returning to Florida.

Raylan and Art are searching a truck and container warehouse where Picker indicated that Marcos would be holed up. Their seach has been unproductive, and Raylan casually asks Art why he was looking for Picker and had gone to Detroit. Just as casually, Art ignores the question when Marcos suddenly appears firing a large capacity semi-automatic shotgun. Art and Raylan duck for cover throwing ineffectual shots over their shoulders. Marcos keeps advancing as Art reloads his pistol while Raylan stealthily works his way around behind the Tonin thug and kills him with one well-placed shot. "Sh-t, though!" Art exclaims, "that's our link to Theo Tonin dead and gone."

Back in county jail, Ava is having her hair done by fellow inmate Sally (Laura Niemi) when the sadistic pint-sized guard Albert Fekus enters the cell to perform an unscheduled "toss" for contraband. The two women step back, and Fekus quickly finds a shank under Ava's mattress, then lightly pricks himself in the stomach with it before dragging its sharp point across the back of his left forearm, causing it to bleed. As a horrified Ava recoils, Sally apologizes for her part in this set-up, then hollars down the hall, "She shanked a guard! Ava shanked a guard!" Fekus calls on his walkie-taklie, "Man down! Help! Help! Man down."

Back at the container warehouse, a heavily-armed Marshals' SWAT team is searching the premises as Marcos' body lays beneath a yellow plastic sheet. One officer (Tom Riordan) notices blood pooling by a container door; they open it to find a sickly and bandaged Theo Tonin bundled up in a lawn chair.

At Marshals' HQ, AUSA Vasquez, Rachel, Tim, Raylan and several other Deputy Marshals are toasting the capture of Theo Tonin while Art is in his office on the 'phone taking congratulatory calls. Raylan's still trying to garder information about Picker, but Vasquez notes that with Art's retirement just eight months away, the capture of the old Detroit crime boss is a fitting cap to his law enforcement career.

In Audry's otherwise deserted barroom, instead of having gone out for groceries Danny is reading a copy of Guns & Ammo and posturing as a bad-ass for Kendal, talking about how he should have killed the Marshal, demonstrating his knife technique. Jean Baptise comes in and quietly reminds Danny that he still needs to get the groceries. There's a low volume, high testosterone confrontation between the two men, which results in Danny sneakily murdering the Haitian with a blast to the chest with the bar shotgun, and then threatening his kid brother is he ever says anything about the incident.

At Dunham's, Johnny Crowther is playing poker with brothers Jay and Roscoe, and Ali (Reggie Watkins) when Hot Rod tells him "Game's over. I need you to come with." Guns appear, all aimed at Johnny and it's apparent that Dunham has cut a deal with Boyd and Johnny's going for the big dirt nap. He asks Dunham what he did with his proceeds of the hijacking of Boyd's Canadian heroin. When Dunham responds, "I invested it," Johnny responds, "That's funny. I did much the same," as the guns are now pointed at Hot Rod. "I didn't even take my cut! I split it three ways... people power!" A comprehending Dunham takes a breath and says "Well, sh-t!"

At Boyd's bar, Ava's laywer Billy Geist (Don McManus) arrives with the bad news. Boyd immediately makes for the county jail where the Desk Officer (Jim Klock) informs that his fiancee has been transferred to the State Penitentary. He loses it and near hysteria has to be restrained and removed by two burly corrections guards.

AUSA Vasquez sits with Raylan at Art's desk as the Chief Deputy enjoys a cigar. There's some casual banter before Vasquez rises to leave. But before he does he says, "By the way, in all the hoopla I almost forgot... Picker did volunteer one tidbit. You know there's a rumor going around that a Federal lawman was instrumental in the death of Nicky Augustine. Picker said he was there on the tarmac... watched the whole thing go down." "No sh-t!" Art exclaims. "Umm hmm," Vasquez replies, and turning toward Raylan, says, "Wanna guess who he says it was?" There is an interminable silent pause as Raylan and Art, intently, look at the man. Art also looks at Raylan before returning his attention to Vasquez. "Our favorite FBI asshole," he finally says, "Special Agent Barkley. Still missing by the way. Can you imagine that, Barkley? That's crazy!"

He does exit this time, and Raylan and Art look at one another, a little smile playing around the Chief Marshal's lips as he returns to puff on his cigar. "I guess I should go, too," Raylan says a moment later. "Unless there's something else," Art says. The two men raise their glasses to one another and drain them as Raylan rises to go.

Raylan exits part way into the outer offices when he stops, thinks a moment and returns to Art's door. The two men look levelly at one another before Raylan breaks the silence. "It wasn't Barkey! And I can tell you that for a fact."