Willa Givens is the daughter of Raylan Givens and his wife Winona Hawkins. Although she was portrayed by unknown child actors during her earlier appearances, she is portrayed by Eden Henderson in the sixth season episode "The Promise". In Justified: City Primeval, she is portrayed by Vivian Olyphant, who is the real-life daughter of show star Timothy Olyphant.
Biography[]
Background[]
Her mother, Winona, first found out she was pregnant with her during the third season. She was born prior to the events that took place during the fifth season, putting her birth date at either 2013 or 2014, though this was later retconned as the character is stated to be 15 in Justified: City Primeval, despite the events of the season taking place in or around 2023.
Season 5[]
In both her appearances in the Season 5 episodes, "A Murder of Crowes" and "Restitution", she is seen being held by Winona as she talks to Raylan on video chat.
Season 6[]
In "Fate's Right Hand", she lays in her crib as Winona talks to her, wondering what Raylan could find more important than his own daughter. In this episode also, Raylan tells Art that Willa was baptised Catholic at the insistence of Winona's mother.
In "Cash Game", she appears on a video that Raylan is watching at his desk.
In "The Hunt", Winona and Willa fly into Kentucky in order to visit Raylan to spend time with him as Willa has been diagnosed with a minor heart murmur. Raylan takes care of Willa for the day when Willa is fussy due to an earache and in order for Winona to finally get some rest.
In "The Promise", Winona and Willa are seen during the four-year jump in a park with Willa and Raylan talking about terrible ice cream flavors before she departs with Winona's new husband, Richard.
City Primeval/Season 7[]
In "City Primeval," Raylan is taking Willa to summer camp after she punched a girl in the face. Willa argues that the girl deserved it, but he tells her that this isn't the point. She complains about being sent to "conversion therapy" while her mother is off with "the Stache" (Richard), asking why she can't just stay with Raylan. Their trip is interrupted when a pair of teens try to carjack Raylan, threatening Willa in the process. He pulls a rifle on them, preventing the carjacking, but in the process discovers that one of them has a warrant in Michigan. Rather than taking them directly to the courthouse, however, he tries to still take Willa to camp, only to for her entry to be denied due to their arriving late.
Willa ends up in court in Detroit, Michigan, with her father. She disrupts the proceedings of Judge Alvin Guy by watching cat videos on her phone. Annoyed, he orders her sent to a holding cell, and ends up sending Raylan there as well as after he irritates him. The two are eventually released by Lou Whitman, the chief marshall in Detroit. Raylan's new plans to take Willa on a road trip, however, are dashed when Whitman explains to him that Judge Guy has enlisted him as part of the case to hunt down the man who bombed his car before the morning's proceedings. After this wrapped up, Raylan proposes to Willa that they head back to Florida via Memphis, and see Graceland. When Willa rejects this idea, however, he instead says that they should east, follow the ocean and hit some ballparks. Willa, however proposes that they visit Harlan, telling him that she'd like to see where they're from. He, however, tells her that she'd be bored out of her mind, that there's nothing to see there. She, though, points out that it's pretty much a direct shot from Detroit. She then notices him staring at Carolyn Wilder, the defense attorney who went hard on him in court. She pranks him by ordering "the dumbest drink on the menu" and having it sent to her table. Ultimately, their road trip plans are derailed when the judge and his assistant Rose Doyle are killed, forcing Raylan to remain for the case.
In "The Oklahoma Wildman," stories of Judge Guy's murder are all over the news in the hotel where Willa and Raylan are staying. Raylan is bemused when he discovers that Willa ordered everything on the hotel's room service breakfast menu, including $34 a pot coffee with a 20% service charge included. He tells her that they've just hit a temporary snag and will be on the road before the know it. Summoned away, he tells her to stay in the hotel room, that it should only be a couple of hours. She asks what if she wants to go out, to which he points out that when he's suggested getting off her phone and going outside in the past, he's gotten rolled eyes. She tells him that teenage girls are complicated and he tells her that she can go wherever she wants in the building, but must remain on the grounds.
Willa lays around for a while in the hotel room, surfing the channels on the TV. Eventually, however, she hears the noise of a pigeon cooing outside and gets bored. Ignoring Raylan's orders, she heads outside, taking in the music of sidewalk performers. She is stopped by a street merchant who offers to sell her what he claims to be a "genuine Rolex" watch, claiming that he has a liquidation sale going on. She is dubious, however, when he tells her that it's only $40, and he claims he buys them in bulk. He tells her gets it from France and she retorts that she likes hers from Switzerland. He offers to reduce it to $20 and she asks why she would spend $20 on a crappy knock-off. He tells her that they're done, but she offers $7 for it and gets a deal. She continues to wander, eventually finding herself in what appears to be some sort of warehouse area. She calls Raylan, asking when he's coming back, and he realizes from the noise around her that she's not at the hotel. He tells her to turn around and be at the hotel when he returns, or he's going to put a BOLO on her. She replies that she can't tell if he's joking our not, but nevertheless returns to the hotel.
Back at the hotel room, Willa receives a call from someone. She asks who's calling and then comments "So instead of Dad, I get stuck with you?" "Yes, ma'am. That's right. You get stuck with me," replies the voice on the other end. Unknown to Willa, this man is Clement Mansell, a dangerous murderer that her father is pursuing and the man who killed Judge Alvin Guy and his assistant. When Raylan returns to the hotel, he finds Willa in the hotel's dining room, Clement having bought her a dinner of chicken fingers, fries and a milkshake. He greets Raylan as if he is an old friend, asking if he never told Willa about his good friend Clement after the time they spent together at Glynco, saying that they used to call Raylan "Chicken Fat." Raylan urges Willa to head upstairs to their room. When she resists, he pleads with her for the first time in her life to just say "Yes, Dad." He then takes Clement outside and beats him up, telling him that he'll kill him if he sees him near his daughter again. "Not if I see you first," replies Clement.
In "Backstabbers," Raylan takes Willa to the Detroit Police Department headquarters while trying to figure out what to do with her next. When Maureen Downey, one of the detectives there, asks her how she's doing, he tells her to ask her, that she's not speaking to him at the moment. After some discussion of what he did to Clement, he goes over to Willa, who asks them where they're going. He tells her that it's the marshal's office and he asks where later, if he has a plan. He tells her it's his concern, but she asks if he's just making things up as he goes along. He asks what she wants from him and she tells him that she wants to eat, and not just have soda and nuts from the vending machines behind them. He therefore takes her to a restaurant, but when they get there, she only orders tea with lemon. He comments that she's angry, but she claims to be in the "Green Zone." He tells her that he knows she's mad because she saw him in the Red Zone, but that Clement Mansell is a killer. She goes to sit at another bench and eventually, annoyed, he tells her that they're leaving because it's obvious she doesn't actually want to eat. She asks if she's slowing him down, saying that she wishes he would just admit the truth: that she's slowing him down. He tells her that it's hard and she asks what's so hard about his life, that he just does whatever he wants. He tells her he'll do better and she tells him he'd better not backstab her. "Or what?" he asks and she asks why he thinks she broke the girl's nose.
The two of them later arrive at the home of Maureen Downey, who tells him that the both of them are welcome to stay as long as they want. Raylan watches as Willa chats happily with the Downey children and later as she is sleeping. However, not long after this, he reveals to her that he is sending her on a flight back to her mother in Florida. Willa protests that her mother was on vacation and he tells her not anymore. She complains that he backstabbed her after saying that he wouldn't and he tells her that he can't do his job and take care of her and that he's not willing to put the Downeys at anymore risk. She counters that if he really wanted her there, he would find a way to make it work. At the airport, he tells her that her mother and Richard will meet her at the gate and to wait for them if they're not there. He tells her that he'll be back as soon as he can. He asks her if she will at least give him a hug before she leaves. "Please, Dad?" she pleads, not hugging him. She tells him they can go to Memphis and Graceland like he wanted, but he takes a call from Maureen Downey about the ongoing case. By the time he gets off the phone, she is boarding the flight.
In "You Good?," Raylan receives a bouquet of flowers that he at first believes to be from Willa. However, they come with a card reading "Thinking of you Chickenfat," indicating that they are actually from Clement Mansell. Later, while waiting for Raymond Cruz at a bar, he texts Willa, telling her that he misses her and asking how she is. She, however, replies back almost immediately, telling him that she doesn't feel like talking.
In "The Question," Willa arrives at Raylan's home in Miami with her mother, Winona. She is the one driving, having just recently gotten her learner's permit. They are both surprised to discover Raylan painting and even more surprised to learn that Raylan has quit, or "retired," as he describes it. When Winona asks Raylan for a second, Willa asks if they're going to fight. He just sends her inside, telling her he thought that her room could use a fresh coat of paint too. She asks if she can choose the color and he agrees, saying he also has some furniture coming and an Elvis poster he found her on eBay. Later on, he takes her to a boat. When she asks who it is, he tells her that it used to belong to a drug dealer but that the U.S. government is letting him borrow it now, that he still gets some perks. He tells her that when she was five, she showed him a drawing. He asked her to explain it and she told him it was going to be her house and that over there was going to be her boat. He pointed to a little square, asking what it is, and she told him it was his little house, where he would live. "And if we like it, maybe we'll get a boat?" she asks and he asks if she'd be into that. She asks him if she can take it out with her friends and he says she can if she learns how to drive it. She asks if he can drive it and he suggests they could learn together.
Later, the two of them sit together on the boat. Willa says that it's kind of boring, but Rayan tells her he kind of likes it boring. She asks if they're going to talk about it, why he quit. He says they can if she wants, that they have plenty of time. Raylan's phone pings with an alert. He picks it up and reads that a Federal inmate has escaped from the Tramble Penitentiary in Kentucky and that the inmate should be considered armed and dangerous, and to contact the local US Marshals Office for additional information. "What?" asks Willa, but he puts the phone away, apologizing and asking what she was saying. She says that he was going to answer the question. "Right, the question," he replies. His phone then starts ringing, the caller ID reading that it's the Marshals Office in Louisville, Kentucky. Raylan, however, does not pick up, nor even reach for it as it continues to ring, considering Willa.
Relationships[]
- Raylan Givens: Father
- Winona Hawkins: Mother
- Richard: Stepfather
- Richard's parents (unseen): Grandparents
- Arlo Givens: Paternal grandfather, deceased
- Frances Givens: Paternal grandmother, deceased
- Helen Givens: Paternal step-grandmother/great-aunt, deceased
- Gayle: Aunt
- Mary: First cousin, once removed; deceased
Trivia[]
- Willa's age in Justified: City Primeval, 15, does not seem to match with that of the original series, as the character was four at the end of the original series and Justified: City Primeval is set approximately eight years later. Timothy Olyphant stated that they considered making the character younger but were attracted to the idea of making her a ticking clock.[1] Natalie Zea, who portrayed her mother, Winona Hawkins, also noted that the character's age does not work with the math.[2]
Appearances[]
| Season five appearances | ||||
| A Murder of Crowes | The Kids Aren't All Right | Good Intentions | Over the Mountain | Shot All to Hell |
| Kill the Messenger | Raw Deal | Whistle Past the Graveyard | Wrong Roads | Weight |
| The Toll | Starvation | Restitution | ||
| Season six appearances | ||||
| Fate's Right Hand | Cash Game | Noblesse Oblige | The Trash and the Snake | Sounding |
| Alive Day | The Hunt | Dark as a Dungeon | Burned | Trust |
| Fugitive Number One | Collateral | The Promise | ||
| Season seven appearances | ||||
| City Primeval | The Oklahoma Wildman | Backstabbers | Kokomo | |
| You Good? | Adios | The Smoking Gun | The Question | |
References[]
- ↑ Sioux City Journal - RE-JUSTIFIED by Bruce R. Miller, July 9, 2023.
- ↑ Bleeding Cool - Justified: Natalie Zea on Willa's "City Primeval" Age Not Adding Up by Ray Flook, July 4, 2023.