Wendell Robinson is a main character in the seventh season of the FX series Justified.
Biography[]
City Primeval/Season 7[]
Wendell Robinson is a detective with the Detroit Police Department. He has seemingly seen it all during his long career and is now close to retirement. He hopes to retire to Margaritaville, if he can keep his head low.
In "City Primeval," Wendell Robinson is introduced to U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens, who has been assigned by Judge Alvin Guy to join him and the other members of the Detroit PD in investigating the bombing of his car. Lou Whitman, the head of the local marshals, explains that he wants Raylan serving as the lead for the marshals on the investigation. Raylan is surprised at this, as there had been friction between him and the judge when he was in his court before, but Wendell comments that "Sometimes I guess it takes an angry white guy to catch an angry white guy."
Later, Judge Guy is discovered shot and killed in an incident apparently unconnected to the car bombing, the body of his assistant Rose Doyle found killed in a similar manner in a nearby park. Asked if there are any witnesses, he says that there's none yet, but that they're going to need one if they have any chance of closing the case.
In "The Oklahoma Wildman," Raylan and Wendell team up to investigate a lead: a Range Rover suspected of belonging to someone named Del Weems which was involved in a traffic accident the night before. This leads them a penthouse, where they find Sandy Stanton, a woman who is known for being involved with a gangster named Clement Mansell who several years before miraculously managed to escape charges on multiple murders. They question Sandy, who feigns illness and claims, when asked, not have lent the car to anyone. She suggested that it might have been stolen and Raylan asks her if they can take a look, but she claims not to know where the keys are. She offers to go look for them and slips away to a back room, where Clement Mansell is secretly hiding. He tells her not to give them the keys if they don't have a warrant, but she just asks if he wants to tell them that. He gives in, claiming to have gotten the car in a "little fender-bender." Sandy then returns and hands over the keys. After they have gone, Clement directs Sandy to take the gun he used in the killings and dump it in the river.
Raylan and Wendell head down to the parking garage and examine the Range Rover, finding it to be badly beaten. Wendell discovers some paint and wonders if they might be able to make a match to Judge Guy's car. They then spot Sandy getting into her own car and Raylan suggests that they tail her. They do so, but when she gets to the bridge overlooking the river, she panics and ends up not dumping the gun. Wendell and Raylan are left to speculate regarding her motives. Wendell wonders if she might have spotted them, but Raylan suspects that she might have just done the math and realized that she might be being followed. Wendell says that he can't wait to see where she goes next. This turns out to be a tavern belonging to Marcus "Sweety" Sweeton. The two watch as she enters, then comes back out a short while later, looking a lot less troubled, having hidden the gun in a restroom there. That evening, Wendell and Raylan pay Sandy a visit at the casino where she works. She tells them that she already told them everything she knew and that she hasn't heard anything from Del. She asks if they really have to do this there and Raylan replies that it's either there or the station. She asks to at least drop off the drinks that she's serving first and Raylan agrees. As she walks off, Wendell comments to Raylan that she's the type who's her own worst enemy, but Raylan quips that he sees potential. He lets Raylan handle the questioning, asking afterwards if he still sees potential.
Back in their car, Raylan tells Wendell that he has no doubt that Clement gave Sandy the gun and that she had it with her at the bridge. They decide to go check out Sweety's bar. There, Sweety asks if he can help them with something. They outline the facts and Sweety asks if they're there because they think Sandy came to toss a gun. He says that if they're looking for a gun, this is easy, opening drawers and showing them three firearms that are all legally registered. He tells them that if it isn't one of them, then he needs to make a phone call. Carolyn Wilder, an attorney that they both already have a history with, and Clement's attorney, then arrives. She asks if they have a warrant and tells them that if they want to remain, they need to get one. Outside, Wendell tells Raylan that he could get a warrant, but Raylan tells him to not bother, that by the time he does, the gun will be long gone.
In "Backstabbers," the Detroit Police Department arrests several key suspects, hoping to squeeze a confession out of one or more of them. Wendell arrests Sandy at the casino where she works. He personally oversees Sandy's interrogation, telling her that he's seen the squeezed-to-death look on her before and that she had it when she went into Sweety's Tavern, but not when she came out. He also lies and tells her that they found the gun. Ultimately, however, they are forced to release her and the others, not having any actual evidence that would allow them to hold or charge them. They decide to try a new tactic, trailing Sandy and Clement as they meet with an Albanian man, Skender Lulgjuraj, that they are trying to scam money out of. They wait outside as the three of them talk at a bar, then Wendell, along with another detective, Norbert Bryl, follow at a discreet distance. Clement, however, manages to intuit what they are doing. He changes cars and manages to engineer a traffic accident that stymies their pursuit.
In "Kokomo," Wendell is at a local hospital following this incident. Also present is Skender, who was discovered by Detective Maureen Downey and her team, his leg smashed in at least five different places. Raylan asks if anyone but them knows about Del Weems's place and Maureen tells him it's just them. He says that they should check out Sandy Stanton's last known address, keep an eye on the penthouse and perhaps put someone in the casino where Sandy works. Wendell tells him they're already on it. He reports that Skender just got out of surgery and Norbert asks for two minutes with him to try to get him to talk. Wendell, however, tells him that it won't work and that the only person who can make Skender talk is Toma Kostia, who is Skender's uncle and head of the local Albanian mob. The Detroit Police and Norbert, however, are unable to get Skender to admit to Clement having attacked him, so they are forced to monitor the Albanians to see what move they make. Itching for action, Norbert is delighted when Wendell reports that the Albanians are on the move.
In "You Good?," Maureen Downey is made the lead detective on the case following Norbert being temporarily taken off the case after having shot one of the Albanians who was fleeing. With pressure from those at the top, Maureen orders everyone to go back to the start in the hopes of finding anything that may have been missed. As such, Wendell and Raylan return to the original crime scene where Judge Guy's car was found. Wendell shares an old aphorism, saying that you can kill only kill a man once, but murder a crime scene a hundred times. Raylan tells Wendell that the one thing that he doesn't get and that nobody is talking about is that Clement showed them the judge's notebook, a secret book filled with blackmail information, yet nobody has seen it since and nobody seems to know where it is. Wendell tells him that he didn't actually want to be a cop, that he was planning to be a writer, but if this case were a whodunnit, it wouldn't sell a single copy. Raylan asks if he's saying that standing out there is a waste of time and he tells him he'll do him one better: that they'll all be retired or playing pickeball and the case will still be open. Raylan says that they have to make something stick, asking about a suspect they brought in, a drifter named Darrold Woods. Wendell asks if he wants to BOLO Darrold and Raylan says that he might recall something that he didn't the first time. Wendell tells him that Darrold burned Rose Doyle's thigh with a cigarette to see if she was still alive, that he was high on PCP at the time. Hearing this, Raylan is forced to agree that Darrold is unlikely to recall anything helpful.
Later, Wendell and Raylan sit together having lunch. Wendell tells Raylan that at this point the case is likely to go one of three ways. The first is that either they'll get a miracle break and the second being that it just drags on until it drifts away. Raylan interrupts, saying that the third is that they go find Clement and shoot him. Wendell, however, says that he was actually thinking of the Detroit way, though they don't hold the patent. "Entrapment, plant a little dope, or go all the way and frame the guy up?" asks Raylan. Wendell agrees that it's not really his style. Raylan comments that somebody got Clement before, that he isn't the Zodiac Killer. He asks Wendell what the name of the arresting officer was. They next find themselves on the doorstep of a woman, Mary Alice, the arresting officer's ex-wife, who, upon seeing Wendell, asks if Raymond is dead. He tells her that it's his bad, that understandably this is the first thing that she would expect upon seeing homicide at the door. He tells her that Raymond be helpful on a case that they're working on, but Mary Alice says that she doesn't like Raymond, that she doesn't keep tabs on him and he doesn't check in. She tells them that if they find Raymond to tell him that she got fed up with his old Cutlass in the garage and had it towed. She closes the door on them and Wendell comments to Raylan that he told him that was how it would go and that's how it went. Back at the Detroit Police Department headquarters, they find that a bouquet of flowers has arrived for Raylan. "Aw, somebody misses her daddy," comments Wendell, referring to Raylan's teenage daughter, Willa, whom he sent back to Florida. However, the bouquet has an accompanying note reading "Thinking of you Chickenfat," a nickname given to Raylan by Clement Mansell. Raylan comments that he had really hoped the flowers would cheer him up.
In "Adios," Wendell is present when Raylan, aided by Maureen, enacts a plan to try to catch Clement with Judge Guy's book. He uses a county prosecutor named Diane Rogers whose name is in the book. The plan involves a meeting at a local park and Wendell complains about not liking things being off-book like this, that there are too many variables. Raylan asks him what's not to like, noting the presence of an ice cream truck in the park. Wendell asks what this has to do with anything and Raylan replies that it's a little treat when they're done. Ultimately, the plan fails. Although Clement comes and meets with Diane, after they take him into custody, they discover neither the book nor a weapon on his person. Without either, they can't hold him. On the way back, Raylan rides with Wendell, who asks him if there's anything on his mind. Raylan tells him that he can't put his finger on it, but that there was something fishy about the whole kerfuffle. Wendell, however, is skeptical, stating simply that "Dude outfoxed us again." Raylan agrees that this might be so, and Wendell tells him that it is unless he lived a different version of events than him. Raylan replies that he maybe did. He tells Wendell that he's never seen somebody get so lucky so much in his life, that they have Clement dead to rights every time, yet every time he skates away clean. He says he feels like he's being played for a pool and Wendell asks just what he wants from him. Raylan tells him it's nothing more than his professional opinion. He replies that he may be right, but that he wouldn't know either way and also isn't interested, so he might as well change the subject.
In "The Smoking Gun," Wendell is part of the group that arrives following the burning of Sweety's bar and the murder of Sweety by Clement. As Carolyn watches Sweety's body being loaded into a coroner's van, Wendell asks her if there's anyone they should call, but she is silent. Later that day, Raylan arrives at the Detroit Police Department to a buzz of activity. He asks Wendell what's going on and he tells him that Maureen has brought in Darrold Woods, a homeless Afghan vet who was found with Rose Doyle on the night of the murders. He watches along with Raylan, stony-faced, as Maureen and Norbert subject Darrold to a harsh investigation, trying to get him to confess to having murdered Judge Guy and Rose Doyle.
In "The Question," Wendell joins Raylan and Norbert as they pull up in front Maureen's house in the morning, following Raylan obtaining the notebook. As she makes to leave for the morning, she spots the three of them and asks what's going on. Wendell tells her that they need to talk. "So, talk," she replies, but Norbert tells her that this isn't something she wants going down in front of her family. They bring her to the Internal Affairs Division of the Detroit Police Department, confronting her with notations in the notebook, payouts which correspond to trials overseen by Judge Guy in which a guilty verdict was based on her testimony. She, however, laughs the whole thing off, saying that they have nothing but scribblings and calls them out for hypocrisy, saying they have each done worse every day. She asks for her lawyer and her union rep. Outside the interrogation room, Norbert calls it a "shit-show at the disaster factory" and Wendell replies that every dog has his day. "Oh, yeah?" asks Norbert and he says that they can at least get Darrold Woods out of his cell, that Maureen was going to hang a double homicide on him. Norbert tells him that he agrees, but that they're still one murderer short. "Nothing like summer in the city," quips Wendell and Norbert asks what the play is, how they're going to nail Clement Mansell. At this, Raylan leaves, telling them to call him if Clement calls or they get in a shootout with any Albanians.
Trivia[]
Appearances[]
| Season seven appearances | ||||
| City Primeval | The Oklahoma Wildman | Backstabbers | Kokomo | |
| You Good? | Adios | The Smoking Gun | The Question | |