The Question

Season	Episode
7	8

Air date

August 29, 2023

Directed by

Michael Dinner

Written by

Dave Andron & Michael Dinner

Episode guide

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"The Smoking Gun"

"The Question" is the eighth and final episode of Justified: City Primeval, a limited series followup to the series Justified. It was written by Dave Andron & Michael Dinner and directed by Michael Dinner. It first aired on August 29, 2023.

Plot[]

Summary[]

Raylan and Carolyn cross the line; Raylan attempts to make it out of Detroit alive.

Recap[]

Raylan, Clement and the Albanians arrive at a warehouse in a remote area of Detroit. The Albanians make them get out of the car, leading them up to the entrance, where Carolyn Wilder is waiting. Seeing her, Clement comments that it's a good thing his lawyer's there. "You believe the nerve of this guy?" he asks Carolyn, telling her that Raylan tried to bait him because he doesn't have anything. He says there's no way he'll lay the judge or anyone else on him. "Have we got him by the gonads, Counselor, or what?" he asks.

"We had a deal," states Carolyn, stepping forward, and Toma agrees, nodding. "You want this one taken care of and you want this one taken care of," he says, stepping forward. He tells her to watch, taking the notebook off Clement. He leads him into a room and Besnik destroys a fusebox. Clement says if they're done with their "Albanian and pony show" that it's time for him to hit the pavement. He tells Raylan it's a good time to surrender, saying that his lawyer is standing right there. Raylan hits a button, closing the door on him. He shouts, pleading and cursing for them to open the door, but they do not. "And where'd he go?" quips Toma, giggling. "Carolyn" asks Raylan and she tells him she'll be in the car. Lighting a cigarette, Toma asks Raylan if he knows why he did what he did. He tells him that this way satisfies them both, that for him it's like Skender doing it, but better. He says that for Raylan, it's the only way for him to get this man who kills people. He says that it's a soundproof room, but maybe one day a tenant complains about the smell and "Oh, this is where he's been hiding." He hands Raylan the notebook and his gun. "Goodbye Marshal," he tells Raylan as Raylan walks off.

Inside his isolated room, Clement lights a lighter. He discovers a lamp and turns it on. He picks something up and heaves it at the door. In a cafe, Raylan and Carolyn sit across from each other in a booth with the notebook. Carolyn asks him what he's going to tell the Detroit Police Department. "That God himself sent down a lightning bolt and the book came with it," he tells her. Clement continues his assault, using any object he can to try to damage the door. In the cafe, Carolyn tells Raylan that the world is better off and that she's tired. She suggests they go to her home. He, however, tells her there's some stuff he has to deal with. Exhausted, Clement sits panting, seeming to despair.

Raylan pulls up in front of the house of Detective Maureen Downey, along with Detectives Wendell Robinson and Norbert Bryl. She is exiting her home, telling her family she'll see them that night, when she spots them arriving on her doorstep. She asks what's going on and Wendell tells her they need to talk. "So talk," she says, and her husband Bill asks if everything's okay. She tells him everything's fine and Norbert tells her this isn't something she wants going down in front of her family.

Meanwhile, in Lansing, Michigan, Carolyn is with an aide, who tells her that the lieutenant governor's schedule is only free for 30 minutes. The Lieutenant Governor opens the conversation by saying that she's sorry about Judge Guy. She asks if she knew him well and Carolyn replies that it was enough to know that he should have been better. "As a man or a judge?" she asks and Carolyn tells her it was both. She asks if Carolyn is there because she thinks she can do better. Carolyn tells her that she's read her application and that she understands Detroit. She tells her she's worked both sides of the line, that everyone is entitled to a defense, but some need to sit in a room and think about what they've done. She says she's going to be told that Carolyn is not good at playing the game. She tells her that this what makes her ideally suited for the bench. The Lieutenant Governor tells her that she respects that and appreciates her resume, but that the process is complicated. Carolyn replies that this means that in the eyes the governor, nothing she just said matters a whole lot. She tells her she can be an ally to her and she asks how this is. She says that she she probably tell her boss not to nominate any of his country club friends or someone he thought he knew well, like Diane Rogers.

"You wanna explain this?" asks a man of Maureen, showing her a plastic package with a page from the notebook. Maureen asks if he wants to explain what it is Internal Affairs thinks they have, or if they want to sit there looking like their prize poodle died. "Okay," says Norbert, telling her that her name is listed next to payouts, which correspond to trials that Judge Guy presided over in which a guilty conviction was based on her testimony. She just laughs. "So you have nothing," she says. She continues that the worst thing she's done that day is put full cream in her coffee, that every one of them has done worse every day before she's out of bed making lunches for her children. She asks just what they think they're going to accuse her of, if it's really going to hold up. She says it's just some scribblings in a book and she hopes they remember that when they look themselves in a mirror. She tells them she wants her lawyer and union rep. Back outside, Norbert says he's not saying it's not the way it's supposed to go down. Wendell tells him that every dog has its day and they can at least Darrold Woods out of his cell now. Norbert says he agrees with him, but they're still one murderer short. He asks what the move is, how they're going to nail Clement. Raylan replies that the move is for him to get some shuteye, and that to give him a call if Clement shows or they get in a shootout with some Albanians. He tells them he's had enough excitement for one day and leaves.

As Carolyn sits in a bathtub, Raylan rubs her shoulder. She tells him that she hates her house. He replies that hate is a strong sentiment and she tells him that if creatures came down from another planet, they would wonder what kind of human lived there. After they got done with their probing and cataloging, they still wouldn't know. She continues that it was her ex-husband Jamal's dream, that he wanted his place to stand out from the neighborhood. He even insisted on having a heated pool in the dead of winter, despite the cost to heat a pool in Detroit in the winter. She tells him that the only part of the house that's hers is the tub, that she always wanted a freestanding tub. "Don't stop," she tells him, as he breaks from rubbing her. She says that he'll probably be heading back home soon and he agrees this is likely. She tells him that she's sure Willa will be happy to have him back. That evening, he lies next to her in bed, restless. He sits up. She tells him to come back to bed, but he gets up and starts getting dressed. "God damn it, Raylan," she says and he tells her he gets that a lot. Driving in the rain, he returns to the warehouse. "Oh shit, " he curses, once inside.

A flashback takes things back to two hours before. At the Venus Adult Center, Skender lies in a bed, watching a show on a tablet. Irritated, he tosses the tablet at wall, cracking the screen. He gets on crutches and goes to a game room, shouting for Toma. Besnik tells him he should be in bed, but he says he is tired of being in bed. He tells him that he wants Clement dead, that he had said this to Toma, but he told him it was being taken care of. "Then perhaps it is," Besnik tells him and Skender says that he knows something. He asks him what it is that he's not telling him. When Besnik doesn't speak, he says he will find Clement himself. "Wait," comments Besnik as he starts to walk away. "Take this," he tells him, handing him a gun and telling him in Albanian "Go get your honor." Skender gets a taxi. He arrives at the warehouse and enters the code to open the door. He steps forward, waving the gun around, when he is ambushed by Clement from behind. Clement grabs the gun, then bashes him repeatedly in the head until he is dead. He laughs. Back in the present, Raylan stares at Skender's lifeless body. Outside the warehouse, he gets on the phone, telling Carolyn that she needs to leave, to get out of the house.

Raylan puts in a call to Norbert Bryl. He tells him that he spotted Clement Mansell, that he's on the move and that they need to get people over to the Venus, that he might be going after the Albanians. Norbert asks him where he is and he says that he'll be in touch. Clement arrives outside the Venus, gun in hand. Inside, Toma asks Besnik why he told Skender about Clement's location. Besnik replies that he needed to be a man. Toma argues that Skender is not a man, but rather a boy, and an idiot. "How many ways can this go wrong?!" he shouts. Besnik replies that they cannot deny him his right. Toma tells him to shut up, hearing screaming in the distance. Clement wanders the halls, shooting Albanians. As he reaches the room with Toma and Besnik, Toma races for a drawer, but he shoots Besnik. Toma grabs a gun and fires off a shot wildly, but Clement shoots him, then shoots again to make sure he is dead. He rifles through a drawer and grabs a stack of hundred dollar bills. In a hallway, an old man finds a gun on one of the men killed by Clement. He goes to the room and points the gun at Clement. His hand shakes as he sees Besnik and Toma's dead bodies. Clement points his gun, but instead of shooting him, he goes over to him and grabs the gun from his hand. "Thank you," the man tells him as he walks away.

Raylan arrives back at Carolyn's house. He takes a call from Norbert, who tells him that he guesses he could say they're a little late, as he walks through one of the halls of the Venus. At a gas station, Carolyn finishes fueling up. Looking at her phone and seeing that it is 12:13 A.M., she curses Raylan's name again. As Raylan stands inside Carolyn's house, the glass on the door shatters and Clement enters. Raylan is now sitting down at the table and Clement asks him if it was a bit much. He says that he might have just opened the door, but asks who would leave it unlocked, that it's a dangerous world. He asks where Carolyn is and he tells him that if he was hoping to see her, he should have come straight there after he killed Skender. "Oh shit, you came back for me," comments Clement, saying that he knew he couldn't just leave him in the room. He says that in case he thought so, they aren't friends, but they could have been if things had been different. "And if your mama had wheels, she'd be a streetcar," quips Raylan. Clement says that it's what he likes about him, that he's never too serious and has a sense of humor. He asks if he wants a beer. He goes to the refrigerator.

Raylan gets up and he slides him one. He asks Raylan if he likes music, that he's been told his old man was the real deal and played with Waylon back in the day till his mother ran him off. He says his father was a real barn-burner and he has his DNA, that they're made up of the same atoms and molecules as those who passed before them. Raylan tells him to stop and he says he can tell he's losing his patience. He tells Raylan that he has to get going, but he got him something to remember him by. "I think you're really going to like this," he tells him. He reaches for his pocket and Raylan draws his gun, shooting him three times in the chest. He slides down against the refrigerator, leaving a streak of blood. Clement asks why he shot him, pulling out from his pocket not a gun, but a cassette tape. Just then, Carolyn arrives. She pulls out her phone and makes a call, telling the person on the other end of the line that she needs assistance at 66 Motor Hill Road. Clement asks if she called EMS and she tells him she called the Wayne County Morgue. Wheezing, Clement states that he can't believe he's checking out. "What'd you kill me for?" he asks Raylan, and dies.

It is now six weeks later and Raylan is at a party back in Miami, Florida. "U.S. Marshals, huh? Can't live with us, can't live without us," comments Gregg Sutter. He says that it's a select club and within that is another: marshals with daughters. He says he remembers comparing notes about his own daughter, Kate, and how she told him she wanted to be a marshal too when she was a kid. He says that he would go into her room in the middle of the night and whisper in her ear "business school." He says that it didn't work, that Kate is there tonight, a fine marshal in her own right. He says that he warned Kate that the days are long but years are short. He says that he could say the same about their marshal service. "Unless you're a chief, and you have to babysit assholes. Not like me, but like Givens," he quips. He says that this could make 20 years seem like an eternity, but that Dan did it. He tells Dan that they wish him all the best and they toast to him.

After the party is over, Raylan goes to Dan, sitting alone at the bar. They agree it was a good party. Dan tells Raylan that he's never seen anything like it, how he stepped in a pile of shit in Detroit, yet scraped it off his boot and got his man. He tells him that his pay bump is well-deserved and to take it from him that it goes a long way towards his pension. "Listen, I'm sorry to do this--" starts Raylan, but Dan cuts him off, saying that he knows what he's going to say. He says that he had their ups and downs, but that they've come a long way and that if he had something do with him being a better law enforcement officer or a better man, then he's happy about that. He tells him he never thought he'd be ready for the big chair, but that there's something different about him now. He says if he asked him if he would be willing to recommend he finish his career as a chief that he'd be happy to. Raylan tells him this wasn't what he was going to say at all. "Dan... I quit," he tells him, taking off his badge and setting it down on the counter.

Raylan is now at his home, outside applying a fresh coat of paint. A van pulls up outside and he climbs down the ladder, accepting a package delivery. He takes the package inside and opens it. Inside is a potted plant and a note from Carolyn Wilder. She tells him that she ran into Lou Whitman the other day and he told her some good news: that Raylan put in for early retirement. "You can imagine my surprise" she continues, as she is shown moving out of her home and then presiding over the bench as judge for the Wayne County Third Circuit. She tells him that it made sense the more she thought about it and that it occurred to her that there might not be too many people in his life who understand why. She suggests that maybe that winter when she can't take the cold anymore, she could come down to Miami and they could talk about it. A car arrives outside, honking. Willa gets out, telling Raylan she got her learner's permit. "She got her learner's permit," agrees Winona. Willa asks if he's been painting and he agrees that he has, saying he needed a change. She tells him he'd better not be expecting her to help and he says he's glad they got that cleared up. Winona asks about the plant and he calls it a retirement gift. She says it's funny and he tells her it isn't a joke. "You quit?" she asks and he tells her it's like he said, that he retired.

Winona asks Willa to give them a second. Willa asks if they're going to fight and Raylan tells her he thought her room could use a fresh coat of paint too. She asks if she can pick the color and he agrees, saying he also has some furniture coming and an Elvis poster he found for her on eBay. She goes inside and Winona asks him when it was he decided to retire. He tells her that it was a week ago. "You didn't talk to me about it?" she asks and he tells her he didn't think he needed to. She asks if he's okay and he nods, agreeing that he is. She asks him why now and he tells her that the question he's been asking himself is why he didn't do it sooner. She says that if he couldn't do it for her, she's glad he did it for Willa. "Don't muck it up," she tells him, walking away and getting back in the car. She drives away. Raylan is next leading Willa towards a boat. She asks whose it is and he tells her it belonged to a drug dealer named Andy Hunt. She asks who it belongs to now and he tells her that it belongs to the U.S. government, but they're letting him borrow it. He tells her he still gets some perks. He says that she always wanted a house with a boat, that when she was 5, she drew a picture. He asked her to explain it and she told him that it was going to be her house when she got older and that over there was where she was going to keep her boat. He pointed to another little square and asked what it was and she told him that it was his little house. It was where he would live. "And if we like it, maybe we'll get a boat?" asks Willa, finishing, and he asks if she would be into that. She asks if she can take it out with her friends. He tells her that she can if she learns to drive it and she asks if he even knows how. He tells her "sort of" and suggests that they could learn together.

In the Tramble Penitentiary in Kentucky, Boyd Crowder visits a group of inmates, carrying a Bible. He tells them he's known them a long time and that his heart was once filled with hate for people he'd never even met. He tells them he still bears the scars of the hate today, showing them scarring on his arm. He tells then his health has been in decline and that he's being transferred to a hospital so they can identify the source. He says if it's God will that today is the last time they speak, he needs to impart the great lesson he's learned during his time there. He says that they are all capable of replacing the hate that lead them there with something infinitely more useful and powerful: love. He asks to hear them say it and they all chant "Love!" He has them repeat it a couple of times. He is returned to his cell, where he hands a cellmate his Bible, telling him "What's mine is yours." He is handcuffed and brought outside to an Officer Ramirezwho asks if he isn't going to give him any trouble. Boyd tells him that he won't, that he's just looking forward to the sun on his face, even for a brief moment. He and a female officer, Gerret, take him outside to a waiting van and place him in the back.

Once they are some ways on the road, Boyd starts screaming and pounding. "What the hell?" asks Gerret and tells Ramirez that if Boyd wants something to holler about, she'll give it to him. She pulls over and they both get out, Boyd shouting to hurry up and open the door. Ramirez does so and Boyd, calmly, says that he was beginning to think they couldn't hear him. Ramirez says he's going to wish they hadn't. With "all due respect," Boyd tells him that he thinks he has that backwards. Gerret cocks a shotgun, pointing it at Ramirez. "Are you kidding me?" asks Ramirez. He is next in the back of the van, watching Boyd and Gerret kiss passionately. Boyd asks if this clears things up for him. "Now you ain't gonna give me any trouble now, are ya'?" he quips, tossing the keys into the van and closing the doors. He and Gerret walk away. They are next together on opposite sides of a car, Boyd looking more like his old self wearing a crisp suit-shirt. He asks if she's thought about where she wants to go and she suggests Mexico. They get in the car and take off, zooming by the police transport van, wherein Ramirez sits shaking his head. Boyd cheers as he tosses his orange prison jumpsuit out the window. He laughs at his freedom.

On the boat in Florida, Raylan and Willa sit and relax. Willa comments that it's kind of boring, but he tells her that kind of likes it boring. She asks if they're going to talk about it, why he quit. He tells her they can talk about it if she wants, that they have plenty of time. His phone dings. He grabs it and sees an alert that a Federal inmate has escaped from the Tramble Penetentiary in Kentucky, that the inmate should be considered armed and dangerous, and to contact the local US Marshals Office for additional information. "What?" Willa asks, but he puts the phone away, apologizing and asking what she was saying. She tells him he was going to answer the question. "Right, the question," comments Raylan. His phone rings and it says it's the Marshals Office in Louisville, Kentucky. He does not pick up, nor even reach for it as it continues to ring.