"Coalition" is the 12th and penultimate episode of the third season, and the 38th episode in the series overall. It was written by Taylor Elmore and directed by Bill Johnson. It first aired on April 3, 2012.
Plot[]
Synopsis[]
While Raylan closes in on an ever-more-unpredictable Quarles, Boyd enters into an unlikely alliance with Dickie Bennett in a last-ditch attempt to recover Mags's fortune.
Recap[]
Quarles swims out of unconsciousness. He is naked and chained to a bed in Ava's brothel. The working girls, Minerva and Cat, meanwhile, are playing with the gangster's tricky sleeve gun device. Boyd was nice enough to leave a bottle of pills behind. Quarles offers some to the ladies, who are more than willing to partake.
At Johnny's bar, Boyd explains to the gang that he is going to deliver Quarles to Tonin and split the $200,000 bounty with Wynn. A good score.
Errol enters the bar... and introduces a sheepish Dickie. Boyd's face goes taut. He attacks Dickie, dragging him into the back room, wrapping a plastic bag over his head and repeatedly punching him in the face. Errol begs Boyd to stop, explaining that there is more than $3 million of Mags' money to locate. "We'll hear him out and then we'll decide," insists Ava who still wears a scar from a bullet wound on her chest, courtesy of Dickie. Arlo, of course, wants to kill Dickie for murdering Helen. After some hesitation, Boyd releases Dickie.
Raylan, looking for Quarles, visits Sheriff Napier, who explains that the gangster was heading for the brothel to sell some pills.
Quarles and the ladies are high on pills and seemingly having a great time. But it's only a short time 'til Quarles turns serious and manages to choke Cat with the chain that tethers him to the bed. He threatens Minerva and makes her run outside to tell guard Jimmy that Quarles is having "some kind of seizure." The unsuspecting Jimmy walks inside the trailer.
At Johnny's bar, Boyd considers Errol's and Dickie's proposition of robbing the bank where Limehouse apparently has Mags' money in a safe deposit box. He asks Ava and Arlo to head to the bank to scout it out.
Raylan arrives at the brothel to find Jimmy, Minerva and Cat bound, gagged and lashed together. Quarles has escaped, and didn't say where he was headed.
In town, Ava arrives at the bank posing as a prospective customer. The manager, clearly taken with the young widow, takes her inside the safe deposit room for a peek, then asks to taken her to lunch. Outside, Arlo cases the joint while from an unmarked KSP cruiser across the street, Raylan, Tom Bergen and another State Trooper surveil the activities at and around the bank. The Troopers have been following Dickie since he arrived at Johnny's bar and called Raylan when Arlo and Ava turned up at the bank. It's pretty obvious the place is being targeted for a robbery.
Boyd heads to the brothel with Wynn where they learn that Quarles is missing. Wynn is panicked, explaining that Tonin will not be happy when he finds out that Quarles has "escaped from a disease-ridden whore-factory up in inbred holler." "I'm going to let that one go," says Boyd, who, not surprisingly, has a back-up plan. When Quarles comes to see his old pal Wynn, Boyd will set a bomb in Quarles' car. Then, when the bomb goes off at one end of town and every cop and Marshal in the county comes running, at the other end of town Boyd will rob the bank, giving Wynn a cut. Wynn warms to the new plan.
Quarles visits Limehouse, who isn't terribly happy to see the gangster arrive empty handed — again. Instead, Quarles offers his services. "Tonight Boyd Crowder is going to rob a bank," Limehouse explains. In fact, Limehouse also knows that Boyd will do it in his normal way: blowing up something across town as a diversion. Limehouse instructs Quarles to take Boyd out as he exits the bank and retrieve the money. Now it's Quarles turn to warm to the new plan. He calls Wynn, explaining that they have a new lease on life.
Raylan pays a visit to Limehouse. The U.S. Deputy Marshal tells of a rumor that Mags' money is stashed in a nearby bank. "I hear that Boyd Crowder is going to rob that bank this very day," Raylan says. Limehouse mentions that he heard exactly the same thing. In fact, Limehouse explains that he also heard Quarles will be waiting for Boyd to rob the money from the robber. Raylan smiles as Limehouse makes it clear that he has arranged things so that law enforcement can take out both Boyd and Quarles, leaving Limehouse with no competitors. Raylan likes the plan, but warns that he isn't about to leave Limehouse alone. Federal agents will swarm the Noble's Holler until the $3 million is recovered.
At Johnny's bar, Dickie, who like his cohort Dewey Crowe has no idea of his own limitations, very unwisely starts to demand a 70-30 split in his favor when Boyd pulls a pair of guns. As it turns out, Boyd isn't concerned with Dickie (yet). He knows there is no money in the bank and demands to know how Errol and Limehouse have schemed to set him up. Errol more or less admits to the ruse, explaining that Limehouse only wanted to send Boyd away to prison for a long time. Back at Boyd's place, Arlo is visited by a vision of Helen who scolds her husband for allowing Boyd to "cut him out" of the bank job. Ava enters the room and asks Arlo if he has taken his pills. Arlo clearly hasn't... and soon pulls a gun on Ava.
At Johnny's bar, Johnny is guarding Dickie and Errol. Dickie tosses a pool ball at Johnny, knocking him to the ground. Dickie then beats the Crowder unconscious with said ball before pulling a gun on Errol and demanding to know where his mama's money is being stashed.
Moments later, Errol and Dickie hop into a car and speed off. Troopers watching outside call in the development to Tom Bergen, who relays the information to Raylan. Boyd then goes to his house to find Ava locked in a basement closet with Arlo is gone. "He's out of his mind," Ava says. Johnny then calls Boyd, explaining that Errol and Dickie escaped... but not before Errol mentioned how the money is with a girl named Loretta. At almost the same time, Limehouse calls Raylan to tell him where to find the money.
Dickie finds his way to Loretta's home, and forces Errol into the trunk of the car. Dickie then lets himself into the house to find Raylan waiting, his service pistol drawn and leveled at the last of Mags' sons. But he doesn't order Dickie to drop his lowered weapon. "I'm coming to pay my respects to my baby adopted sister!" Dickie says. Explains Raylan: "The problem is you keep thinking you're tough... but you're just stupid." Dickie refuses to go back to prison and realizing his hopeless situation and goaded by Raylan's stream of insults, tries to pull on the Marshal, who fires a single round. Dickie goes down in a weeping heap, almost at the feet of Limehouse who is sitting on Loretta's side patio.
At the Marshal's office, Raylan decides to "respect Mags' decision," telling Loretta that he will not pursue the money — as long as Loretta doesn't buy a fancy new car or have Van Halen play her birthday party. "Marshal, do I in any way strike you as a Van Halen fan?" Loretta asks. Raylan smiles and exits. Loretta gets to keep the Bennett matriarch's dirty money.
Wynn returns to his trailer to find Quarles waiting. Quarles is smoking and high as a bleached-blond kite. Limehouse calls, telling Quarles that Boyd won't be robbing a bank, after all, but still must pay for his "intent" to separate Limehouse from his money. Quarles agrees to go to Johnny's bar and kill Boyd. Quarles struggles to get straight before exiting. Wynn's thug Mike pulls the cell-phone triggering device from his pocket that will blow up the bomb that has been planted in Quarles' car, but rather than detonate it, Wynn suggests that they might as well wait to see if Quarles can kill Boyd first.
With matters coming to a head, Tom Bergen calls Raylan to report that Quarles just pulled into the lot outside Johnny's bar. Tom is on his way to the scene. But the drama is already playing out. The Crowder cousins watch Quarles from inside the bar before Boyd decides to move matters along, going out with gun drawn and calling the Detroit gangster out of his car.
Quarles exits his car and Wynn, watching from a nearby car and seeing an opportunity to kill two adversaries with a one blast, tells Mike to activates the device. Boyd, who knows his explosive devices, hears the telltale sound of what is about to happen, and turns to distance himself from "ground zero" as a shot is fired. Boyd is thrown against a wall by the force of the blast and injured. Quarles' back is set briefly on fire before he rolls over a few times to extinguish the flames. He stands up as Tom arrives and tells Quarles to drop his weapon. Another shot is fired.
Raylan, driving to Johnny's bar, sees the fireball in the distance and steps on the gas.
Raylan arrives to find Tom motionless on his back in the parking lot — another victim of Quarles' tricky sleeve gun, even though Tom had the drop on the gangster and his .32 ACP hide-out pistol was already in his hand? Boyd and Quarles are nowhere in sight.
Aid arrives to tend to the wounded, including Johnny Crowder, as Raylan scans the area for some sign of Boyd or Quarles.
Appearances[]
First Appearances[]
- Bank Manager - A bank manager working at Gallentin's, where Ava Crowder poses as an interested client in order to find Mags Bennett's $3.2 million supposedly stashed in a safety deposit box by Ellstin Limehouse. He flirts with Ava and even asks her out for lunch during his lunch break.
Deaths[]
- Tom Bergen - Believed to have been shot by Robert Quarles, but the killer turns out to be Arlo Givens.
Production[]
Cast[]
Starring cast
- Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens
- Nick Searcy as Art Mullen (credit only)
- Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder
- Jacob Pitts as Tim Gutterson (credit only)
- Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks (credit only)
- Natalie Zea as Winona Hawkins (credit only)
- Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder
Guest stars
- Raymond Barry as Arlo Givens
- Jeremy Davies as Dickie Bennett
- Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy
- David Andrews as Tillman Napier
- Kaitlyn Dever as Loretta McCready
- Gill Gayle as Bank Manager
- Linda Gehringer as Helen Givens
- David Meunier as Johnny Crowder
- Demetrius Grosse as Errol Butler
- Cleavon R. McClendon III as Bernard
- Peter Murnik as Tom Bergen
- Mykelti Williamson as Ellstin Limehouse
- Neal McDonough as Robert Quarles
Co-stars
- Madeline Blue as Minerva
- McCready Baker as Cat
- Jesse Luken as Jimmy Tolan
- Jonathan Kowalsky as Mike Cosmatopolis
- Mark Chadwick as State Trooper