| 1 | [[Characters/{{Justified}} Back to Justified Character Index]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | '''Beware of spoilers! Only major spoilers and spoilers relating to the current season (6) are whited out!''' |
| 4 | |
| 5 | !Main Cast |
| 6 | |
| 7 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | [[folder:Raylan]] |
| 10 | !!Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens |
| 11 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7a9797b91d26767c7195f1d9bd2aac89.jpg]] |
| 12 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"He pulled first; It's justified."'']] |
| 13 | ->'''Played By:''' Creator/TimothyOlyphant & Creator/DannyWildman |
| 14 | |
| 15 | -->''"Did you wake up this morning thinking today was another opportunity to mess up some bad guy's day? I did."'' |
| 16 | |
| 17 | A Deputy U.S. Marshal with an old-school style of keeping the law. After an incident in Miami, he's reassigned to his old backwoods hometown, which he thought he'd escaped forever. |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | * AbusiveParents: His father was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive in addition to being neglectful. Raylan still despises him. |
| 20 | * TheAce: Women love him, men fear him. He never loses his cool, and always dresses to the nines. |
| 21 | * AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: In Creator/ElmoreLeonard's novels, he and Winona had an AwfulWeddedLife and Raylan despised her after they divorced, suspecting that she had cheated on him and even being glad to be rid of her. Here, they're very much AmicableExes who eventually get back together. |
| 22 | * AdaptationalUpbringingChange: In ''Literature/{{Pronto}}'', ''Literature/RidingTheRap'', and "Fire in the Hole", Raylan Givens was raised by a law-abiding coal miner who he's implied to have had a good relationship with, and nothing indicates his childhood was particularly dysfunctional. In ''Series/{{Justified}}'', Raylan's father was an abusive con man and loan shark, and his mother died at a young age. Thus, the television Raylan is much more bitter and maladjusted than his at times naive literary counterpart. |
| 23 | * AlwaysGetsHisMan: Once Raylan sets his sights on you, your days as a free-range outlaw are numbered. |
| 24 | * AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Of the Lexington marshals, Tim is an ever-so-slightly better shot than Raylan. Although Raylan still has a deadly aim and unmatched quick-draw skills, in a tense situation where both men are present Raylan usually trusts Tim to take the shot. |
| 25 | * AmicableExes: Largely with Winona, barring the odd sniping between them. They do eventually get back together. [[spoiler:Following the Season Finale TimeSkip, they've split up again in the intervening four years but neither are bitter and they have a healthy friendship.]] |
| 26 | * AntiHero: He's violent, has a a problem playing by the rules, and is something of a jerk, but you can always count on Raylan to be the first to go up against whatever BigBad is troubling Harlan County. |
| 27 | * {{Archenemy}}: Being the kind of man Raylan is, he picks up bitter enemies like he's collecting Pokémon. There's his own father Arlo Givens, Gio Reyes, Dickie Bennett, Robert Quarles, Nicky Augustine and Daryl Crowe Jr. But Boyd Crowder is his most constant opponent who he returns to face time after time. The entire series builds up to a final confrontation between the two. |
| 28 | * BadassBoast: He has a tendency to make them, and they're usually memorable. Funnily, this is lampshaded a little when he tells Wynn Duffy that the next conversation they have won't be a conversation with his usual intimidating DeathGlare... only for him to have to go back for information in a capacity that means he '''has''' to have another conversation. Duffy finds this hilarious and Raylan is embarrassed. |
| 29 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: On the surface, Raylan is polite and gentlemanly towards everyone, and comes off as an old-fashioned dweeb trying to play cowboy. The reality is Raylan is a deeply troubled and angry man who is very willing to use lethal force if necessary. |
| 30 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: Raylan acts polite and friendly, but it hides a serious mean streak. Winona lampshades it as early as the first episode, telling Raylan that although he does a good job of hiding it, he's "the angriest man [she's] ever met." |
| 31 | * BlackAndGrayMorality: He slides into this as the series progresses. While the criminals he fights are thoroughly evil, Raylan increasingly uses morally dark means to undermine his opponents. He turns a blind eye to the mob assassination of Nicky Augustine in Season 4, then uses Kendal as a pawn to manipulate Daryl in Season 5. In "Starvation", he arranges for Judge Reardon to charge Kendal as an adult, knowing full well that Kendal is innocent of any wrongdoing, because he believes it will drive a wedge between Wendy and Daryl. |
| 32 | * BloodKnight: Downplayed. Raylan doesn't really enjoy fighting, but he'll often deliberately provoke fights to vent his anger and he takes a certain amount of joy in his gunslinging prowess. |
| 33 | * BoringButPractical: Always goes for a center-mass shot when he draws. It's not as directly lethal as a headshot but one is usually enough to incapacitate a target, and it's quicker and more certain to hit the target. |
| 34 | ** [[spoiler: This allows him to win the quickdraw with Boon (who always goes for headshots), having the speed advantage in the fight and managing to walk away with only a graze to the head.]] |
| 35 | * BornInTheWrongCentury: It's notes multiple times that Raylan would have been a perfect fit in the Old West, but his sense of honor and ruthlessness don't gel with 21st Century law enforcement. |
| 36 | * BrokenAce: The later seasons - especially Season 5 - show the negative effects, personally and professionally, of his CowboyCop lifestyle. |
| 37 | * BrutallyHonest: Raylan rarely sugarcoats what he says and is generally honest even if it comes across as harsh. |
| 38 | * TheBully: Deconstructed and probably the second most defining trait of his. He has no qualms about browbeating and even assaulting criminals to get what he wants. However, while his pettiness is often justified and hilarious, it is gradually revealed that Raylan is pretty much stuck in this mentality. This attitude haunts him throughout the series, only to hit overdrive in season 5, when Dewey successfully sues the Marshal's office for $300,000 because of Raylan's brutality, he finds himself a woman who is not impressed by his cockiness and his carefree, provocative approach is the catalyst for most of the season's drama. |
| 39 | * BunnyEarsLawyer: It is implied occasionally that some of the criminals he encounters see his hat and think he's some sort of crazy idiot who thinks he's an invincible gunslinger from a Western. Many have learned to their peril that, in essence, that is ''exactly'' what he is. |
| 40 | * CallingParentsByTheirName: He always refers to Arlo by his name and never any term for father, mainly due to his sheer hatred of the man. |
| 41 | * CantGetAwayWithNuthin: His sidejob from Season 4 - he just wanted to get some money for Winona and his child, but it turned into a wild goose chase almost immediately. And he didn't even get to keep the money. |
| 42 | * CarFu: A criminal draws his gun when he sees Raylan drive up so Raylan simply drives forward and hits the guy with his car. When the guy gets up from this and still tries to shoot Raylan, Raylan reverses and hits the guy with the car again. |
| 43 | * TheCharmer: Raylan is ''really'' popular with women. To the point where in Season 3, Art suggests using the bartender as a witness against Quarles for threatening Raylan until Raylan tells him the bartender's a woman and Art immediately groans because he knows Raylan has slept with her. |
| 44 | * ChickMagnet: Almost to the point of parody, but it's [[IncrediblyLamePun justified]] as Raylan is gorgeous, well-spoken, intelligent, and a bad boy. By season four, it's gotten to the point where Art makes fun of his effect on the fairer sex, asking him of a witness, "She in love with you yet?" |
| 45 | * ChronicHeroSyndrome: Even off-duty he handles dangerous situations. |
| 46 | * ComicallyMissingThePoint: In "Long in the Tooth", after learning Rollie Pike was inspired to become a dentist by Hermey from ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer1964'', Raylan immediately assumes he's gay (referencing the common fan theory said character is gay). |
| 47 | * ConsistentClothingStyle: Raylan always wears Levi jeans, a jacket, boots, and his hat to show that he's an Old West type sheriff in the modern day. He switches between a shirt and tie or a T-shirt/henley with a shirt over it depending on level of formality. |
| 48 | * CountryCousin: Mary, the matriarch of Cope's hill-folk family, was Raylan's mother's cousin. Boyd was surprised to learn that Raylan had "hills" in his lineage. |
| 49 | * CombatPragmatist: In a fight, Raylan can be downright ruthless. He has no problem shooting a man at point blank range or in the back as they are running away, and will take any advantage in a skirmish that he can. His only criteria is that he makes sure that any shooting he does is justified in the eyes of the law. |
| 50 | * CompositeCharacter: Next to being a second TV adaptation of the literary character, Raylan can also be seen as TheNewTens' detective television answer to TheSeventies' Dan Tanna from ''Series/Vegas1978'' and TheEighties' Spenser from ''Series/SpenserForHire'' due to the acting performance and casting of Creator/TimothyOlyphant who in turn bares a CelebrityResemblance to Tanna's and Spenser's portrayer Creator/RobertUrich. |
| 51 | * ConsistentClothingStyle: Raylan always wears Levi jeans, a jacket, boots, and his hat to show that he's an Old West type sheriff in the modern day. He switches between a shirt and tie or a T-shirt/henley with a shirt over it depending on level of formality. |
| 52 | * CowboyCop: This is the driving point of the series, too. It's reconstructed and deconstructed at the same time: Raylan is an insanely effective cop, his unpredictability serves as a terrific scare tactic and his antics rarely cause much of a stir, since the Marshal's Office has a lot of pull. However, he's also very overconfident and hellbent on preserving his reputation, which can render him impotent or give the crooks a way to use his stunts against him. For example, in "A Murder of Crowes", Raylan's bullying of Dewey Crowe ends with Dewey successfully suing the Marshals office for $300,000. |
| 53 | * CreateYourOwnVillain: Discussed. A lot of Raylan's grief comes from the way he solves problems or from past grievances with other families. Allison wonders if it isn't deliberate. |
| 54 | * DeadpanSnarker: Oh, magnificently. Raylan practically shoots more one-liners and quips than bullets. |
| 55 | * DecompositeCharacter: Raylan's almost entirely the same as his literary counterpart, but his status as a war veteran is transferred to Tim. |
| 56 | * DefeatMeansFriendship: [[spoiler:Raylan finally manages to arrest Boyd and put him away, presumably for life considering the sheer amount of murders he'd racked up, let alone the one there's no evidence for. However, when Raylan visits Boyd in prison four years later, they're quite genial toward each other in a more genuine way. Raylan still doesn't trust Boyd and he's wise not to, but they do acknowledge a shared bond.]] |
| 57 | * DentedIron: For the first half of Season 3, due to getting shot in his side and not getting it treated immediately at the end of season 2. This seriously hinders his aim and quick draw, forcing him to rely more on his wits and fast-talking for a time. |
| 58 | * {{Determinator}}: If Raylan sets his mind to something, it's pointless to try and talk him out of it. |
| 59 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: One of Raylan's biggest flaws is that he'll frequently do things without thinking of the consequences. He shoots Tommy Bucks without thinking through how doing so would put him under investigation, and he further fails to realize how much trouble sleeping with Ava - a witness to his shooting of Boyd - will put him in despite Art warning him about it. |
| 60 | * DirtyBusiness: In the Season 4 finale, he arranges for Sammy Tonin to execute Nicky Augustine and gives his word to never tell about it. It is, by far, the darkest thing he's ever done. |
| 61 | * DirtyCop: He's mostly a CowboyCop who never outright breaks the law, but he has his moments of diving into this territory. He covers up Winona stealing money from the evidence locker, and later has Nicky Augustine killed. |
| 62 | * {{Dismotivation}} / StoppedCaring: Mildly at the beginning of Season 4. He's not even trying to hide that he's emotionally drained by the events of Season 3, he remains in a relationship with Lindsey that is going nowhere and he's doing sidejobs to make some money on the side for Winona and his child, with little interest in other things. He gets over it once he pulls the Drew Thompson case out of his family house. |
| 63 | * DrowningMySorrows: Lots and lots. Sorrows not necessary. |
| 64 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: He's introduced meeting with Tommy Bucks in a restaurant 24 hours after having told him to leave town or else he'll shoot the hitman. Raylan arrives with minutes to spare, politely chats with him, makes it clear he meant what he said, and provokes Tommy into pulling his gun so he can shoot him. It establishes Raylan as affable on the surface, but a CowboyCop willing to bend the law when it suits him and very ruthless in his own right. |
| 65 | * EtTuBrute: In "The Lord of War and Thunder", he tells Helen that while he expected Arlo to betray him, the fact that she went along with his scheme to manipulate Raylan hurts him more since he expected better out of her. |
| 66 | * EvenEvilCanBeLoved: For as much as he's justifiably angry at and mistrustful of Arlo, Raylan genuinely does love him. He never lets his guard down around him, but he tends to be quite tender to him and does on some level want to reconcile with Arlo. |
| 67 | * FairCop: Part of how he's a ChickMagnet. Raylan is a very handsome man, and his affable, snarky personality only makes him more attractive. |
| 68 | * FatalFlaw: Wrath, and specifically a violent, patient wrath. He's got a cool head in a fight, but he has an inclination for getting into fights, the series wouldn't have started if he could have controlled his anger at Tommy Bucks. |
| 69 | * FearlessFool: He REALLY likes to get in way over his head. He gets his ass beaten twice for it when he gets into fistfights - the first time, he's drunk and against two bigger men, the second he takes on [[MightyGlacier Coover Bennett]]. And he manages to top himself in Season 3 when he pulls a gun on Limehouse at his own place. Almost immediately, a dozen of men emerge with rifles and shotguns. It's pretty much the only time in the series so far Raylan truly fears for his life. He has gotten quite a bit better about this in Season 4, especially the second half. And even if he doesn't succeed in keeping himself out of incredibly dangerous situations, he at least always has backup. It's a subtle but important part of his arc, since it's mainly due to his growing awareness that he'll soon be a father. |
| 70 | * FreudianExcuse: Arlo's abuse of Raylan as a child and his willingness to manipulate him are responsible for a lot of Raylan's flaws. His anger and propensity for violence are fully adopted from his father, and his dedication to meeting out justice comes from the fact that Arlo was so powerful that no one tried to stop his abuse. |
| 71 | * FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Art calls him out on letting his hatred of Arlo jeopardize their plan to make him work as a snitch, and bluntly tells Raylan he's not going to give him a free pass "just because your daddy didn't hug you very much." |
| 72 | * FriendlyEnemy: |
| 73 | ** With Boyd. Deconstructed later in the series, when Raylan stops considering Boyd amusing in the slightest and is positively giddy at the prospect of getting him into jail in the Season 5 finale. By the final scene of the entire series [[spoiler:Raylan and Boyd realize they're still friends.]] |
| 74 | ** He's quite affable with the Bennetts, particularly Mags, who he genuinely seems to respect. He eventually loses patience with her once he discovers she murdered Loretta's father, but ultimately chooses to respectfully bury the hatchet with her before her suicide. It's averted in regard to Dickie after he kills Helen, at which point Raylan is quite hostile to him. |
| 75 | ** He also tends to be quite affable with his other enemies, although that won't stop him from threatening them from time to time. In particular, he genuinely seems to like Roland Pike, who he genuinely tries to save from the cartel. |
| 76 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: None of his coworkers really like him for his behavior with the exception of Art, and even then he makes it clear that Raylan's strained their relationship close to its breaking point at several moments. |
| 77 | * FriendToAllChildren: While certainly not the most extreme example of this trope, Raylan is still much more patient with kids than he is with any other sort of civilian. He's willing to go on long, time-wasting expeditions to save Loretta (multiple times) and Kendall even when they're far out of his way. He also ended up giving or getting for them pretty decent quantities of money in an attempt to provide for their future. This is justified by his rough upbringing and what he sees as a shared connection with both of them (and he probably sees a little bit of his daughter in Loretta). Somewhat subverted by his own reluctance to pay attention to his own child. |
| 78 | * TheGadfly: It's hard to tell sometimes if he messes with criminals because he's just amusing himself or if it's a strategy to provoke them into doing something illegal. |
| 79 | ** He shows up to Boyd's makeshift church in the first season to talk to Boyd. Before he leaves, he delivers the following "prayer" to Boyd's congregation of ex-convicts and paroled criminals: |
| 80 | -->''"Dear Lord, before we eat this meal, we ask forgiveness for our sins, especially Boyd, who blew up a black church with a rocket launcher, and afterwards, he shot his associate, Jared Hale, in the back of the head out on Tates Creek Bridge. Let the image of Jared's brain matter on that windshield not dampen our appetites, but may the knowledge of Boyds past sins help guide these men. May this food provide them with all the nourishment they need. But if it does not, may they find comfort in knowing that the United States marshals service is offering $50,000 to any individual providing information that'll put Boyd back in prison. Cash or check. We can make it out to them or to Jesus, whoever they want. In Your name, we pray. Amen."'' |
| 81 | ** He turns up to a Bennett family brunch simply to tell Mags that Dickie and Coover are trafficking oxycontin behind her back, knowing full well she hates oxycontin. The only reason he does this is to give Mags a reason to distrust her sons. |
| 82 | ** In an early season 3 episode, he tells Quarles that he knows Quarles likes to abuse male prostitutes. There's no real reason to do this at the time, but it certainly annoys Quarles. |
| 83 | * GentlemanSnarker: He behaves like an amiable Southern gentleman even while making sardonic remarks and needling his foes. |
| 84 | * GoodIsNotSoft: Raylan is generally quite affable to his opponents, but he'll show them no mercy if they try to kill him. He'll also engage in PoliceBrutality if he's provoked, even if the target merely insulted him. |
| 85 | * GreatDetective: Raylan may not look like it on first glance, but he has keen investigative instincts and is able to determine a larger narrative out of only a handful of clues. The only problem is that as a US Marshall, his focus is on hunting down criminals, not solving mysteries, so these skills don't get used much outside of hunting down their targets. |
| 86 | * TheGunslinger: The Quick Draw variety. And he's FamedInStory for it too, he's the fastest draw in the show and regularly wins engagements that are 2 (or more) to 1. |
| 87 | * HammyVillainSeriousHero: Raylan is stoic and a man of few words, contrasting the bombastic personalities of his various enemies. |
| 88 | * HasAType: Raylan sure does love his blondes. Bonus points if they can handle a gun which, in Harlan County at least, isn’t as uncommon as one may think. |
| 89 | * HatesTheirParent: Raylan despises Arlo both for having abused him and because Arlo repeatedly tries to manipulate him whenever he tries to get back in Raylan's life. The feeling's mutual, [[spoiler:to the point Arlo shoots a park ranger after mistaking him for Raylan.]] |
| 90 | * TheHero: Of the entire series. |
| 91 | * HeartbrokenBadass: Throughout the series. Subverted in Season 4 - after it turns out that Winona can't be with him even with a baby on the way, he seems to have resigned at finding any deeper relationship. |
| 92 | * HeelRealization: After Dickie kills Helen, Raylan handcuffs him and drags him out to the woods to execute him. As he prepares to kill him, Raylan recounts how Helen had given him enough money to leave Harlan so he could become a better man than Arlo. He realizes halfway through the sentence that murdering Dickie would ultimately spit in the face of her memory and what she tried to do. |
| 93 | -->'''Raylan:''' ...Goddamn you, Dickie. |
| 94 | * HeroicFatigue: The entirety of Season 3 is this for him. While it doesn't impact his ability as a cop that much apart from getting framed for murder due to his own audacity, it's clear he's emotionally drained by the end of it, once he realizes that his father killed an officer mistaking him for Raylan himself. |
| 95 | * HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Subverted. The fact that Arlo bought a pre-made tombstone for him and put it next to his mother's grave is played for BlackComedy, but once Arlo himself shows up his abuse of Raylan is played completely seriously. |
| 96 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: Narrowly averted in Season 3 where his various stunts come back to bite him when he is framed for Gary's murder. Throwing bullets at bad guys to send a message might be a cool thing to do but it also leaves them in possession of a bullet with your fingerprints on it. |
| 97 | * IAmNotMyFather: Due to his strained relationship with Arlo, Raylan has done everything he can to be the exact opposite of his con artist father, down to becoming a lawman so he'd never turn out like him. |
| 98 | * IGaveMyWord: Raylan always keeps his word, or at least does his best to do so. If he makes a threat, he'll almost always carry it out. |
| 99 | * ImStandingRightHere: n "For Blood or Money", Art is talking to Raylan and describes Rachel as the best marshal under his command: |
| 100 | -->'''Raylan:''' You do know I'm sitting right here?\ |
| 101 | ''[Art eyes Raylan up and down]''\ |
| 102 | '''Art:''' [[{{Troll}} I do.]] |
| 103 | * ImprobablyCoolCar: His Lincoln Town Car is a little more luxurious than the average government-issued vehicle, although it’s possible Raylan could have bought it with his own money. It’s lampshaded by Dewey Crowe in the pilot episode. |
| 104 | * InformedAbility: Played with. Raylan is regarded as a skilled gunslinger and an excellent shot, but in the series itself we don't see him pulling off too many tricky or difficult shots. Rather, his gunslinger skills come down to him being a quick and decisive draw. |
| 105 | * IWarnedYou: A common tactic by Raylan. He makes it very clear to those he goes up again just what they're in for and what he's prepared to do. The downfall of many of his opponents come from thinking Raylan is merely bluffing at how ruthless he is willing to be. |
| 106 | * IWorkAlone: Raylan dislikes working with other people. While most of the time he doesn't need any help, he's often making his job a lot harder without backup - this reaches critical mass in the season 2 finale, where he survives two separate situations only because he had Boyd and the other Marshals following him in secret. He eventually grows out of it by Season 4 - he finally realizes that just having Rachel, Shelby, Tim or Bob stand next to him makes responding to unforeseen events much easier. |
| 107 | * JerkassToOne: Raylan generally makes an effort to be courteous even towards his enemies, with the exception of his abusive father Arlo. Given Arlo's abuse and total lack of remorse, Raylan's behavior is understandable, but it's made very clear that Raylan only cares about Arlo in so much as the fact any harm coming to him would upset [[GoodStepmother Helen]]. |
| 108 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Raylan isn't that much of a jerk on the surface, but behind his gentlemanly facade he hides a lot of anger and a significant mean streak. However, Raylan still has a sense of honor and can be quite compassionate even towards criminals. |
| 109 | * KillingInSelfDefense: He kills numerous people over the course of the series, but only in self-defense. And that isn't to say he won't provoke them into drawing their guns, as the pilot shows when he does so to Tommy Bucks. Raylan even admits he's not sure what he would have done had Tommy not drawn his gun on him. |
| 110 | * KnightInSourArmor: Raylan is very cynical, but he'll always try to do the right thing. Winona admits she divorced him because she was turned off by his pessimism and how content he is to do nothing but stew in his bitterness. |
| 111 | * LikeFatherLikeSon: A lot of Raylan's traits come directly from Arlo, particularly the darker elements of his personality. Like Arlo, Raylan has a poor temper, a propensity for violence, a love of provoking and insulting people unnecessarily, and both men rebelled against the example set by their own abusive fathers. |
| 112 | * LikeFatherUnlikeSon: However, unlike Arlo, Raylan is often quite selfless and looks out for the disadvantaged, where Arlo is only concerned with saving his own skin. |
| 113 | * LoopholeAbuse: Raylan is quite willing to abuse loopholes in the law to thwart the plans of criminals. This is also how he kills most of the bad guys in the show - he arranges situations where gunning a crook down is "justified". Deconstructed in the Season 4 finale, where Nicky Augustine purposefully doesn't give him such an opportunity - Raylan then bypasses ''law'' itself and simply has Sammy Tonin execute him as a one-time deal. |
| 114 | * ManChild: Downplayed. While Raylan is very much a serious adult, he seems to be stuck in his teenage years - refusing to accept responsibility, acting like a dick, doing crazy stuff with no more than a slap on the hand. This is best shown in Season 5, where the thought of visiting his ex-wife and child appears to be completely alien to him. |
| 115 | * MirrorCharacter: |
| 116 | ** From Boyd. Both are determined, intelligent men who know how to use their wits and have dark impulses. [[spoiler: When the hat is ruined in the finale of the show on account of a failed headshot by Boon, Raylan takes Boon's own hat as a replacement.]] |
| 117 | ** To Arlo as well. For all that Raylan justifiably hates him, both men are remarkably similar. Both of them have poor tempers, a propensity for violence, a significant mean streak, and a tendency to make enemies where they don't have to. The only real difference is that where Raylan has a softer side, Arlo is a selfish monster down to the core. |
| 118 | * MistakenForAnImposter: After Dewey Crowe dresses up as Raylan to rob some criminals in "The I of the Storm", they assume Raylan's just another crook trying to pull one over on them. |
| 119 | --> '''Raylan:''' Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens. I'm gonna need you to stop right there, hands where I can see 'em.\ |
| 120 | '''Cutter:''' I ain't falling for that shit again! ''[opens fire]'' |
| 121 | * TheMostWanted: Despite being a lawman himself, Raylan finds himself in this position in the season 3 episode "Watching the Detectives." After the criminals he's pursuing turn the tables and make it look like Raylan murdered his ex-wife's new husband, Raylan finds himself benched by the US Marshals Office of Internal Affairs, wanted by the FBI for corruption charges, being investigated by the US District Attorney for possible unjustified shootings in the line of duty, wanted for questioning about the murder by the local police, and also targeted by the very criminals he was pursuing when this whole thing kicked off. This is all while he's trying to clear his name despite orders to stay out of it. |
| 122 | * NiceToTheWaiter: For all Raylan's faults, he tends to treat the prisoners he escorts pretty well despite having no reason to. He won't hesitate to beat them if they try to kill him, but he also won't needlessly abuse them either. |
| 123 | * NoAccountingForTaste: Unfortunately, Raylan follows ''right'' in his father's footsteps with dysfunctional relationships. Every single canon love interest, or sexual partner, Raylan has in the show is with a blonde woman who is a piping hot mess. It's possibly why he and Rachel never move past slowly burgeoning Unresolved Sexual Tension—being Raylan's partner means she's seen his disastrous relationships and decided to steer clear (although she has her own relationship issues, leaving her husband partway through the show). Raylan and Winona are the least toxic pairing throughout the show, but even that is wracked with problems, starting from divorce and progressing through infidelity and accidental pregnancy. |
| 124 | * NotSoStoic: He's more prone to throwing a fit in Season 3, showing that the Bennett and Winona business from Season 2 left a mark. |
| 125 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: He doesn't go out of his way to do this, but Raylan is well-aware he comes off as a poser trying to live out his fantasies of being a cowboy and is content to let people make their assumptions. All this belies just how intelligent he really is, and the fact that Raylan is as close as it gets to a real-life Wild West gunslinger in the 21st Century. |
| 126 | * OnceASeason: Getting the shit kicked out of him due to completely underestimating his opponent and provoking needless fights. |
| 127 | * OnlyAFleshWound: This is played straight at the end of "Bloody Harlan" only to be then subverted in the following episode. After being shot, Raylan should be on his way to a hospital rather than walking and talking to people. However, three weeks later he is shown to be still in a lot of pain from the wound, restricted to desk duty and unable to perform his usual QuickDraw and ImprobableAimingSkills feats. |
| 128 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 129 | ** Raylan tends to show some deference to Arlo despite their strained at best relationship, and is at times quite tender to him. It's a sign of how furious he is after Helen's death and at how Arlo tried to blame him for it when he was responsible when he decks him for it, and has to be stopped by Tom. |
| 130 | ** Throughout the series, Raylan follows the spirit of the law and only kills in self-defense. It's a sign of just how hard he's taken Helen's death and just how much he's crossed the DespairEvenHorizon when he tries to kill a hand-cuffed Dickie in cold blood to avenge her death. |
| 131 | * OpposedMentors: After her father's "disappearance" in Season 2, Raylan and Mags both take an interest in Loretta's future, with Raylan attempting to extract her from the criminal underworld, while Mags leads her further into it. Loretta eventually sides with Raylan once his cold war with the Bennetts turns hot, but as future seasons show, Mags is the one whose influence has ultimately lasted, even if she ultimately still has a soft spot for Raylan. |
| 132 | * ParentalSubstitute: To Loretta. |
| 133 | * PermaStubble: He frequently sports a little stubble that never goes into a full-blown beard. |
| 134 | * PoliceBrutality: Raylan's bullying of criminals often includes physically assaulting them, though generally only after they go after him first. Still, he's more than happy to injure them even when they're unarmed. In the pilot alone, he breaks Dewey Crowe's nose by cold-cocking him with a shotgun for insulting him. |
| 135 | * PoorCommunicationKills: Raylan, fearing that Winona is in danger, calls her and tells her to leave the house immediately. Winona, upset that both Raylan and Gary have been lying to her and keeping her in the dark, refuses to leave unless Raylan gives her an explanation. He instead repeatedly asks her to leave, then gives up and tells her to lock the doors and wait for him to get there. When he finally arrives (fortunately in time), he quickly explains the situation; it takes less than 10 seconds and he could have easily done it over the phone to get her out of harm's way. |
| 136 | * ProperlyParanoid: He survived this long by distrusting situations that seem too easy and thus being able to spot when someone is setting a trap for him. |
| 137 | * PulledFromYourDayOff: While taking the day off to go house hunting with Winona, he gets a call about a problem in Harlan County. Raylan is the only one who can properly resolve it so he apologizes to Winnona and leaves. Winnona seems to be fine with this but it is actually the final confirmation for her that Raylan has not changed and will not prioritize her and their child over his job. Soon after she breaks off the relationship and leaves. |
| 138 | * QuickDraw: Raylan is quick on the draw and almost always shoots to kill. Whenever he's forced into a gunfight, he's almost always the clear winner. |
| 139 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He delivers epic ones to Boyd and Wendy in season 5. In "Starvation", he reminds Boyd that countless people are dead or incarcerated because they believed Boyd's lies. He also calls out Wendy for being as bad as her brothers and for failing to see that Daryl is manipulating her and that Kendall is innocent. In the same episode Boyd gives one right back to Raylan. |
| 140 | * RefugeInAudacity: Raylan pretty much runs on this and RuleOfCool when doing his job - he'll happily run you down with his car, grab your shotgun straight from your hands when you're aiming at him or kill you at a crowded pool when you're eating dinner. A major reason for him being so feared by both large and small criminals in Harlan. |
| 141 | * SaveTheVillain: He frequently rescues Boyd, or at least lends him aid. He also ''very'' reluctantly saves Dickie from being killed by Ash. |
| 142 | * SharpDressedMan: In a subdued way, but it's there; he dresses very well for a lawman. |
| 143 | * SignatureHeadgear: Raylan is almost never seen without his trademark cowboy hat. |
| 144 | * SpottingTheThread: What makes Raylan a skilled investigator. He's able to pick out and follow a single clue to unearth the bigger picture. It's a skill that comes in handy in interogating witnesses, or talking down suspects. |
| 145 | * TheStoic: He's almost always calm and collected, no matter the situation. |
| 146 | * SummonBiggerFish: After Augustine sends mooks after Winona, Raylan reaches out to Sammy Tonin and warns Sammy that Augustine plans to kill him. Sammy proceeds to have Augustine murdered. |
| 147 | * TallDarkAndSnarky: Raylan Givens is a CowboyCop with a DarkAndTroubledPast that clearly emotionally stunted him in his teen years despite Raylan being in his early 40s. He's impulsive and constantly walking the thin line between law abiding and DirtyCop. He's usually a JerkassWithAHeartOfGold but sometimes just a {{Jerkass}}, with a mouth and wit that cuts deeper than his bullets. Nevertheless, women can't resist him and what is coined in-universe as his Cary Grant swagger. He's so popular with the ladies that it literally gets him in trouble with the law as his bedhopping has lead to cases being dismissed after he slept with a witness or the Marshal's office being unable to bring charges because Raylan was already sleeping with the only witness. |
| 148 | ** He's even had a few men not-so-subtly hint at being interested in him, but they were bad guys and their sexual attention was clearly being used as a weapon to frighten him and visibly effective. |
| 149 | * TechnicianVersusPerformer: What his duel with Boon comes down to. Raylan is the BoringButPractical technician, going for center mass shots and not engaging in flashy antics with his gun beyond his quick draw. He even taught shooting to others. Boon is the AwesomeButImpractical performer, favoring flashy antics and gun tricks to intimidate. [[spoiler: No surprise that in their duel, it's Raylan who comes out on top while Boon is the one to go down.]] |
| 150 | * ThenLetMeBeEvil: Raylan starts to doubt that he's any different than Arlo, but after Helen is murdered by Dickie he decides to embrace his lineage and become just another criminal, like so many of his ancestors. Fortunately, he has a HeelRealization before he can cross the line and murder Dickie in cold blood. |
| 151 | -->'''Raylan:''' This is us, Dickie. This is who we've always been. |
| 152 | * ThickerThanWater: Raylan's late mother Francis was the cousin of Mary, the matriarch of Cope's hill-folk family. This tenuous family tie saves his life in "Kin", when Mary acknowledges their blood bond. Subverted with Arlo, however. Raylan despises Arlo but in the first season, he still helps Arlo out of a bad situation. We are led to believe that the two of them will enact this trope, helping each other because they are family. However, Arlo then sells out Raylan to cartel hitmen and Raylan decides that he will never do his father any favors again and instead commits himself to sending Arlo to jail. The relationship never recovers from that |
| 153 | * ToBeLawfulOrGood: He tends to choose Good over Lawful. Art acknowledges that Raylan's a good lawman, but a ''terrible'' Marshal. [[spoiler:In Season 6, he goes rogue because he sees no other way of stopping Boyd. In the series finale, he learns that Ava fled to California, but he refrains from arresting her because doing so would ruin the life of her young son.]] |
| 154 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: Fitting his "World's Oldest Teenager" motif, Raylan loves ice cream. In fact, beyond that and alcohol, it's the only stuff you see him ingest. |
| 155 | * TranquilFury: When Raylan isn't snarking, he's this. It's a combination of his ice-cold gunslinging skills and his hot-head. |
| 156 | * UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking: Subverted. When Raylan tells Art that he is not very good at testifying in court, Art dismisses it as this trope since he knows how good Raylan is in talking himself out of trouble. It turns out that Raylan really is very bad at speaking in official settings. |
| 157 | * UnderestimatingBadassery: It's surprising how many people take Raylan to be a complete joke, thinking he's some sort of fool for dressing and acting like a wild west gunslinger. They learn far, far too late that is ''exactly'' who he is, and fail to realize what that means for them. |
| 158 | * TheUnfavorite: He may be Arlo's only biological son, but Arlo views Boyd as an adoptive son and much prefers him to Raylan, since he's just as intelligent as Raylan and a con man and criminal like Arlo. |
| 159 | * TheUnfettered: Raylan won't outright break the law, but he's downright ruthless about seeing justice done. His EstablishingCharacterMoment has him threaten Tommy Bucks and deliberately provoke him into drawing his gun so Raylan will have an excuse to shoot him. Raylan admits to Winona he's not sure what he would have done if Tommy hadn't pulled out his gun. |
| 160 | * UnscrupulousHero: Raylan is on the side of the law and fights against very dangerous people, but he's very willing to bend or outright break the law to stop them. He's also very quick to resort to murdering his enemies if the law can't touch them. |
| 161 | * {{US Marshal}}: One of the most prominent in popular culture. |
| 162 | * VillainousLineage: Raylan is wondering whether he has a tendency for crime in his blood in Season 2, after he finds himself jumping hoops to cover up Winona's terrible mistake of stealing money from an evidence locker - it's ultimately subverted, since he concludes that he did it out of love and not because of being similar to his father. Revisited in the Season 4 finale. While his motivations were the same, Raylan no longer feels convinced. |
| 163 | * VitriolicBestBuds: With Art, moreso in Season 2. Huge, monstrous quantities with Boyd Crowder. |
| 164 | * WellDoneSonGuy: Deep down, Raylan really does want Arlo's love and approval, but he knows his father well enough that he realizes the old bastard will never give it to him. It's hammered home when Arlo confesses to killing a "man in the hat" (a state trooper, but he didn't know that) to protect Boyd. |
| 165 | * WhatTheHellHero: Season 5 is essentially an in-universe character deconstruction of him by his associates - multiple characters call him out on his jackassery and recklessness. Done especially often by his unimpressed love interest Allison, who as a social worker has seen the sort of behavior Raylan exhibits in kids from broken homes. |
| 166 | * WhatYouAreInTheDark: |
| 167 | ** In "Reckoning", after arresting Dickie, Raylan knocks out Doyle and drags him into the woods to execute him to avenge Helen's death. He's about to go through with it, but realizes it would go against what Helen wanted for him and can't bring himself to do it. |
| 168 | ** He finds himself in such a situation in the season 4 finale, when Winona's life is threatened by Nicky Augustine, who is in conflict with Sammy Tonin, the new head of the Detroit mob. He can either kill him and lose everything he has or just leave it be, allowing things to settle themselves. Ultimately, he [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]] and arranges for Sammy to execute Augustine personally, so he can secure his family's safety immediately at the cost of being complicit in a murder. |
| 169 | ** [[spoiler:In "Collateral", during a shootout with Boyd, Raylan admitted that he was indifferent to what his daughter would think of him for going rogue. Initially, he was unconcerned after Boyd shot Constable Bob, but eventually chose to help Bob instead of kill Boyd. In the Season Finale, he's presented with the ultimate choice of whether or not to kill Boyd, as Boyd goads him into it. He chooses to arrest the man.]] |
| 170 | * WhiteSheep: One of the only examples played straight. Raylan is a deeply flawed man, but he's the only Givens not to be a criminal or involved in illegal activity. |
| 171 | * TheWhyWaitCombatant: Raylan is generally this, helped by being a QuickDraw. The specific example that provides the page quote happens in Season 3, when Quarles threatens Raylan after finding out that he's not dirty and he's been looking into Quarles's past via the FBI. He tells him that he'll kill him one day, to which Raylan shoots at the ceiling and replies "Why wait?" They don't end up fighting because Lindsey the bartender pulls a gun on both of them and tells them she won't have it in her bar. |
| 172 | [[/folder]] |
| 173 | |
| 174 | [[folder:Art]] |
| 175 | !!Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Art Mullen |
| 176 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/558864289745014a7d38cd66c4b2c837.jpg]] |
| 177 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"Why do I have the office where the deputies shoot people?"'']] |
| 178 | ->'''Played By:''' Creator/NickSearcy |
| 179 | |
| 180 | -->''"That's my bottle. I'm not going to let you drink it all just because your daddy didn't hug you much when you were little."'' |
| 181 | |
| 182 | The grumpy, deadpan Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal and Raylan's boss. He understands how Raylan operates and allows him some leeway, while still maintaining his authority. |
| 183 | ---- |
| 184 | * ArchEnemy: He has a relationship similar to Raylan and Boyd's with Frank Reasoner from "Blaze of Glory". Art spent years pursuing him and nearly caught him once, but Frank was captured by someone else. The two have an old rivalry and a respect for one another, but Art is clearly happy about having a chance to be the one to catch him. |
| 185 | * BaldOfAuthority: Art is bald and the boss of Harlan's section of US Marshals. |
| 186 | * BeleagueredBoss: He spends much of his time all but muttering 'What now?' as he tries to keep his deputy marshalls in line and out of trouble. When a [[SocialClimber social climbing]] Deputy Marshall comes around hinting that it might be time for Art to retire so he can take over Art's job, Art gives an epic description of what he's dealing with: |
| 187 | -->'''Art Mullen:''' You came here about the job, right? You need to hear about this. I got a young kid here, decorated sniper in Iraq War, Army Ranger, I don't know how many kills he had. Always lookin' to kill somebody else. [[ShellShockedVeteran Probably got PTSD]]. Probably an [[FunctionalAddict alcoholic]]. Not a matter ''if'' that powder keg is gonna blow but ''when''. I got a lady marshall here. Brought in two of the top fifteen fugitives to this office, but she's always tryin' to prove herself. I thought she was gonna be the one that would take this office over when I got ready to retire, but now she's left her husband so it's gonna be fun to monitor her emotional state over the next year, see if she can keep it together. Then I got a [[CowboyCop local boy]], born in Harlan county, been investigated so many times internal affairs has got him on speed dial. [[ArchnemesisDad Father's in prison]] for murderin' two people, including a state trooper, and his daddy killed somebody else last night in prison and ''I'' get to be the one to tell him about it! |
| 188 | * BenevolentBoss: He allows quite a lot of leeway and is friends with the people under his command, although he doesn't allow their friendship to get in the way of what's right. |
| 189 | * BrokenPedestal: Raylan ends up as this after he admits to being the one who was behind Augustine's murder. |
| 190 | * CoolOldGuy: His age is a frequent source of irritation for him, as he laments getting older and slower. Still, he hasn't lost much of his edge. |
| 191 | * CowboyCop: He admits he used to be one in his youth, before settling down and becoming more responsible. He half-jokingly tells Nichols Raylan is his punishment for the hell he put his superiors through. |
| 192 | * DaChief: Of the US Marshal's office. He's somewhat lax for this trope as well; while he's obviously opposed to some of Raylan's more self-destructive or violent behavior, he'll let a lot of the things his Marshals do slide. He does admit to Rachel that he privately considers Raylan a lost cause, so he doesn't really bother trying to get him under control. |
| 193 | * DeadpanSnarker: See right. Art always has something witty lined up to say. |
| 194 | * DrinkingOnDuty: He keeps a bottle under his desk. |
| 195 | * AFatherToHisMen: A sarcastic, grumpy father. |
| 196 | * FriendlyEnemy: To Frank Reasoner, an old bank robber he used to chase back in the day. When Reasoner tries to run, Art chases after him...with his oxygen tank, to make sure his heart doesn't give out. |
| 197 | * ItsPersonal: "Cut Ties" has him lead the hunt for the killer of his best friend Bill Nichols. Art winds up acting strikingly like Raylan, to the point of beating a confession out of the killer. |
| 198 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's curmudgeonly and sarcastic, but Art is a law-abiding man who always strives to do the right thing. |
| 199 | * KnightInSourArmor: He's cynical and very much resigned to the fact that his underlings are all deeply erratic and traumatized people, and just the general state of life in [[WretchedHive Harlan]]. |
| 200 | * MeanBoss: Only with Raylan, which means it might have something to do with being more familiar with him due to their past assignment as peers, or Raylan's lack of maturity for a man nearing retirement age himself. Whatever the reason, Art rarely sets boundaries for Raylan's behavior and is virtually never seen offering him any professional guidance. His main strategy to deal with him seems to be to just maintain plausible deniability of Raylan's misconduct and negligence while snarking about it without actually doing anything to intervene. When Art finally suspects Raylan of serious criminal behavior, he outright tells Raylan that not only does he not want to talk about or do anything about it, but instead wants to skip straight to the conclusion that Raylan is, in his words, "a lousy marshal". |
| 201 | * MistakenForMisogynist: When Deputy US Marshal Rachel Brooks is called to task for playing fast and loose with the rules in capturing a suspect, she points out that Art is coming down on her harder than he does any of the male deputies in the office and that she didn't do anything Raylan hasn't done, but Raylan never seems to get in trouble. Art, their boss, agrees but says he doesn't come down on CowboyCop Raylan because he thinks Raylan is a lost cause and he actually considers Rachel his best deputy. This is backed up by Art making Rachel interim Chief Deputy when he is injured in the line of duty. |
| 202 | * {{Nepotism}}: He lets Raylan get away with a lot based on their friendship. |
| 203 | * NoSympathy: When Art calls out Raylan for letting his hatred of Arlo getting in the way of their plan to convince him to spy on Bo, he makes it clear he won't give Raylan a free pass just because of Arlo's abuse. |
| 204 | * OnlySaneMan: He points out he is this in comparison to his deputies: the only black woman in town, an Iraq vet with PTSD and [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Raylan Givens]]. |
| 205 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 206 | ** After Raylan is publicly exposed as sleeping with Ava, Art berates him and refuses to banter with him because of how furious he is. |
| 207 | ** It's a sign of how personally he's taken Bill Nichols's death in "Cut Ties" that he beats a confession out of Terry Powe. |
| 208 | * PayEvilUntoEvil: He tortures a confession out of Terry Powe in "Cut Ties", but considering that Terry was a murderer willing to sell out numerous innocent people out of selfishness and boredom, it's difficult to feel too bad for him. |
| 209 | * PluckyComicRelief: He's one of the most frequent and consistent forms of comic relief in the series, always being ready with a quip or sarcastic remark at Raylan's expense. Unusually for this trope, he's also DaChief. |
| 210 | * PoliceBruality: In "Cut Ties", he beats Terry Powe and threatens to shoot him unless he tells Art which of Nichols's witnesses he sold out. |
| 211 | * RealMenLoveJesus: In the first season, he was furious at Boyd for using Christianity as an excuse to commit crimes. |
| 212 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He gives a vicious one to Terry Powe in "Cut Ties" for killing Art's friend Bill Nichols and selling out numerous protected witnesses. |
| 213 | --> '''Art:''' So, the only people you intended to hurt were your fellow protectees people in the exact same position as you, living scared every day of their lives. Except that maybe some of them were in the Witness Protection program 'cause they wanted to do the right thing and not because [[DirtyCoward they were a sniveling, murdering piece of shit like you, who just wanted to stay out of jail.]] |
| 214 | * TokenReligiousTeammate: Downplayed. Art doesn't mention his religiousness much, but he's one of the only members of the Marshals office to be openly Christian. |
| 215 | * {{US Marshal}}: Chief Deputy, thank you very much. |
| 216 | * VitriolicBestBuds: With Raylan, moreso in Season 2. The two are damn near inseparable, but constantly bicker and snark at each other. |
| 217 | * WhatTheHellHero: He repeatedly calls Raylan out for sleeping with Ava and continuing to do so after Art warned him multiple times not to do so while he was under investigation. |
| 218 | * WorthyOpponent: He's a huge fan of Drew Thompson. He also regards his FriendlyEnemy Frank Reasoner as such. |
| 219 | [[/folder]] |
| 220 | |
| 221 | [[folder:Ava]] |
| 222 | !!Ava Crowder (née Randolph) |
| 223 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7a45ba1e63302059a78e3a76a411c40f.jpg]] |
| 224 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm a big girl, Raylan. I've been taking care of myself long before you rode into town on your white horse."'']] |
| 225 | ->'''Played By:''' Creator/JoelleCarter |
| 226 | |
| 227 | -->''"If I start counting down from ten, I may lose my patience at five."'' |
| 228 | |
| 229 | The quick-witted self-made widow of Boyd's brother Bowman. She's determined not to be pushed around, and has a romantic interest in Raylan and later, Boyd. |
| 230 | ---- |
| 231 | * ActionGirl: Doesn't bat an eye at toting a shotgun, throwing a fist or swinging a frying pan. |
| 232 | * AffablyEvil: She is a criminal (being TheDragon to Boyd, as well as being a madam), but is all in all a fairly pleasant person. |
| 233 | * AntiHero: At first, Ava is rather mercenary and interested in her own financial gain, but isn't a particularly bad person and is simply desperate. |
| 234 | * TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Implied. In the series finale, Ava flees to California and lives a lawful life, volunteering with special needs children on a horse farm and working at the local school.]] |
| 235 | * [[spoiler:BabiesEverAfter: After fleeing to California, Ava gives birth to Boyd's son, unbeknownst to Boyd.]] |
| 236 | * BerserkButton: If you are a man who likes to abuse women, you better watch where she is pointing her shotgun. Subverted in "Slaughterhouse" when she slaps around Ellen May, showing herself to be no less violent than Ellen May's former pimp, Delroy. |
| 237 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: She is extremely nice and polite but if you push her to her limit, she will push back with extreme prejudice. |
| 238 | * BrokenBird: The abuse she suffered at Bowman's hands has hardened her considerably, and when she winds up in prison on a murder charge she really breaks down. |
| 239 | * CuriousQualmsOfConscience: When she finally corners Ellen May at Last Chance Salvation Church, Ava cannot bring herself to shoot her. |
| 240 | * DeadpanSnarker: She's quite sarcastic and witty. |
| 241 | * DefiantCaptive: When kidnapped and spirited away in a van, she grabbed the steering wheel and fought her kidnapper. |
| 242 | * DirtyBusiness: She grows increasingly ruthless in her criminal activities in season 4. For instance, she arranges for Colt to kill Ellen May because Ellen May has become a loose cannon who knows too much about Delroy's murder. However, Ava is conflicted about this decision. We later see Boyd trying to comfort Ava by rationalizing her decision. |
| 243 | * DamselInDistress: She's been kidnapped a few times, by the Cartel (in which situation she turns the tables via CarFu) and by Bo Crowder. |
| 244 | * TheDragon: To Boyd by Season 3. |
| 245 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:In the finale, she gets away from Harlan and finds a peaceful life on a farm in California, with her and Boyd's son, whom she names after her uncle.]] |
| 246 | * FaceHeelTurn: She was never really a Face (being more of a neutral character), but ever since definitively picking Boyd over Raylan she has definitely shifted over to the villanous side of things, AffablyEvil or no. |
| 247 | * FauxActionGirl: Ava talks a big game and doesn't let herself get pushed around, but her track record is mixed. She killed Bowman (who was unarmed), interrupted Boyd's attack on Raylan but would have been killed herself, is kidnapped by Hunter but manages to escape, fails to intimidate Bo, is kidnapped by Bo and left totally helpless, and later loses a shootout with Dickie Bennett. Season 5 shows that Ava isn't good at intimidation or hand-to-hand fighting (as shown when Gretchen and her gang bully Ava on the prison yard and other prison figures intimidate her). |
| 248 | * FishOutOfWater: Ava was clearly unprepared for state prison life, with little knowledge of its culture, economy, and hierarchies. |
| 249 | ** She's also wracked with anxiety and frustration when [[spoiler:serving as an informant]] in season 6. |
| 250 | * FrameUp: In "Shot All To Hell", Albert plants a shank in her cell, which results in Ava being transfered to the state penitentiary. In the Season 5 finale, Albert recants his accusation, allowing Ava to leave prison. |
| 251 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Ava has gone from someone who despised men who abuse women, to someone who abuses other women herself (i.e., becoming a madame, brutalizing Ellen May). In Season 4, Ava is trying to get Ellen May off cocaine and meth. (Whether Ava is doing this out of genuine concern for Ellen May or because she wants to preserve the health and physical attractiveness of a prostitute making her money is up for speculation.) However, Ava has no problem with Boyd and Johnny making money off of the Oxycontin trade. |
| 252 | * {{Irony}}: While in state prison, Ava preaches the virtues of unity and mutual support to Judith's gang. An episode later, the gang rejects Ava because they falsely believe she's a snitch, and Ava's rivalry with Gretchen reaches a boiling point. While in state prison, Ava muses to Nikki about how ridiculous it was for girls to compete with each other and act catty in high school. In the season finale, the drama between Ava, her gang-mates, and Gretchen resembles catty high school bickering between teenage girls. Ava spends much of "Restitution" trying to convince the other inmates that she wasn't a snitch. At the end of the episode, she becomes a snitch for the Marshals. |
| 253 | * ItsAllAboutMe: [[spoiler:When the chips are down, this is what drives her. She's willing to become a CI against Boyd to avoid prison time, then shoots Boyd when her situation becomes desperate.]] |
| 254 | * KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Ava flees to California, where she quietly raises her son Zachariah. She persuades Raylan not to arrest her. However, it's something of a PyrrhicVictory: she had to give Markham's millions to Wynn Duffy, and admits she sleeps with one eye open because Boyd is still alive.]] |
| 255 | * KlingonPromotion: After Rowena manipulates her into killing Judith, Ava moves up in the prison hierarchy. In "Toll", Judith's former followers give Ava their ice cream to signify that she is now their leader. |
| 256 | * LoveMakesYouEvil: Her love for Boyd is what ultimately makes her decide to join his criminal enterprise. |
| 257 | * TheMole: In the Season 5 finale, she agrees to be an informant on Boyd's criminal activities for the Marshals. |
| 258 | * MoralMyopia: Limehouse even calls her out on it. |
| 259 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: Her attempts to cover up Delroy's murder actually result in her being arrested for it. If Ava had simply left Ellen May alone after the latter's exit from the sex trade, Ellen May would not have told Cassie and law enforcement about where to find Delroy's remains. Had Ava not made the ill-advised body swap at Paxton's funeral home, she would not have been arrested while in possession of Delroy's remains. |
| 260 | * NoHonorAmongThieves: [[spoiler:In "Trust", Ava learns that her CI work will not prevent her from returning to prison, and that Raylan is about to arrest Boyd for stealing Markham's money. In a moment of desperation, she shoots Boyd in the chest and flees with the $10 million he stole.]] |
| 261 | * NoSympathy: In "Hole in the Wall", she minimizes the beating she gave to Ellen May, baffled that Ellen May resents her and carries a gun as a result. When Ellen May confesses that she's melancholy, Ava attributes her sadness to drug withdrawal rather than, you know, ''working in the sex trade for an abusive madame''. |
| 262 | * OutlawCouple: With Boyd, eventually. Especially after he proposes to her. [[spoiler:Subverted when she shoots him and flees with the $10 million he stole in "Trust".]] |
| 263 | * PregnantBadass: Downplayed, but [[spoiler:Ava gets some good ActionSurvivor moments in the last few episodes while she's unknowingly pregnant with Zachariah.]] |
| 264 | * ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Ava gradually goes from a self-interested and reckless but still law-abiding woman to an out-and-out criminal. |
| 265 | * ReconcileTheBitterFoes: What she intends to do with Judith's prison gang. She urges the gang members to set aside their differences and work together to protect each other. |
| 266 | * SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler:She names her son Zachariah, after her late uncle.]] |
| 267 | * TheStoolPigeon: Becomes one for Raylan against Boyd in the Season 5 finale. |
| 268 | * TeamChef: She cooks for Boyd's gang and is more than willing to use her FryingPanOfDoom on a disrespectful Devil. |
| 269 | * TooDumbToLive: In Season 1, when she repeatedly walks into situations she can't handle, refusing to leave town no matter how many people are after her, and making a spectacularly poor attempt at intimidating Bo that only pours fuel on the fire. Emphasized in Season 5 when Ava gets involved in Judith's prison gang, makes promises she can't necessarily keep, and rubs some very bad people the wrong way. Ava is getting in way over her head, and any misstep could not only lengthen her sentence but earn her the ire of dangerous enemies. |
| 270 | * TookALevelInBadass: Just prior to the series. She enters the series just after shooting her abusive husband dead at the dinner table. She takes another level when she kills Delroy to protect Ellen May. |
| 271 | * TookALevelInJerkass: Went from being morally ambiguous to an outright criminal with no qualms about murder, prostitution (though she does attempt, perhaps halfheartedly, to make it tolerable for the hookers), extortion, and selling drugs. |
| 272 | * UnholyMatrimony: Boyd proposes to her in Season 4. Subverted when she breaks up with him in Season 5. |
| 273 | * WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: In her final scene, [[spoiler:Ava brings up her actions as TheAtoner and how she hasn't committed any crimes over the last four years. Raylan is initially unsympathetic, given their last few meetings. He still lets her go when he learns she has a son and she just asks him to not tell Boyd and let her find a pair of adoptive parents for Zachariah before bringing her in.]] |
| 274 | --> '''Ava''': It's not like you find me here [[spoiler:runnin' whores or robbin' banks]]. |
| 275 | --> '''Raylan''': [[spoiler:Every long-time fugitive I've ever run down]] expects me to congratulate them for not doing what no one's supposed to be doing anyhow. |
| 276 | * WhatTheHellHero: Limehouse, of all people, calls her out on her descent into crime and absolute lack of forethought. |
| 277 | * WildCard: She's often hard to predict due to her impulsiveness and tendency to focus entirely on her own benefit. |
| 278 | * YouAreWhatYouHate: Throughout the series, Ava demonstrated contempt for men who abuse women, killing her abusive husband Bowman and shooting Delroy after he threatened to kill Ellen May. In "Slaughterhouse," however, she showed no qualms about pushing and slapping Ellen May herself, and later tries to kill her when she views the hooker as a threat. |
| 279 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When Ellen May begs to return to Audrey's brothel, Ava is hesitant to take her back because she's a loose cannon who knows too much. She arranged for Colt to shoot Ellen May, but Ellen May runs off before he can do the deed. |
| 280 | * YouKillItYouBoughtIt: She takes over the local brothel after she kills Delroy, its pimp at the time. She also inhereits Judith's prison gang after murdering Judith. |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:Tim]] |
| 284 | !!Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Gutterson |
| 285 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d2119248c174f56053203e31b3cc1161.jpg]] |
| 286 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"I can't carry a tune. I don't know how to shoot a basketball and my handwriting is, uh, barely legible. But I don't miss."'']] |
| 287 | ->'''Played By:''' Creator/JacobPitts |
| 288 | |
| 289 | -->''"I love this shit... this shit gets me hard."'' |
| 290 | |
| 291 | A Deputy U.S. Marshal and former Army Ranger. |
| 292 | ---- |
| 293 | * AbusiveParents: It isn't seen, but it's briefly alluded to. He wanted to kill his father, who died before he got the chance. |
| 294 | -->''"At least you got to shoot your father. Mine had the nerve to die before I got back from Basic with skills and a loaded weapon."'' |
| 295 | * AmbiguouslyGay: A source of much debate in the fandom, due to his some dry remarks about flirting and one scene in which he's attended a bar with another man...where Raylan and Winona are on a date. It's further confused by the nature of his relationship with his 'friend' Mark and his mild chemistry with Cassie St. Cyr. |
| 296 | *** Slightly less ambiguous now; when asked after the finale if Tim was in fact gay, Yost confirmed he had been written as gay, but due to the nature of the show they could never come up with a way to address or acknowledge it that felt organic and respectful. As such, it was left ambiguous, but is Word of God confirmed. |
| 297 | * TheAlcoholic: Art privately suspects him of this. |
| 298 | * BadgesAndDogTags: Tim served in the Iraq War before becoming a U.S. Marshal after returning to the US. |
| 299 | * BewareTheQuietOnes: Tim doesn't have much to say that isn't an extremely dry comment. But he really isn't a man to screw with; he's an extremely dangerous former Army Ranger who will not hesitate to ruthlessly put his enemies down if it comes to it. |
| 300 | * BloodKnight: It isn't explicit, but Tim does enjoy taking down bad guys. And mind games with Raylan. He loves that shit; that shit gets him hard. |
| 301 | * BrokenAce: Tim is intelligent, quick-thinking, has a talent for strategy and Raylan even admits that Tim is a better shot than he is, and that's saying something. However, he also has a flirtation with alcoholism and suffers from untreated PTSD that he tries to keep buried. |
| 302 | * BunnyEarsLawyer: Tim is lackadaisical and never takes things too seriously, but he's an excellent marksman and not someone to be crossed. |
| 303 | * ColdSniper: Only to his enemies. If you're a criminal and you find yourself in Tim Gutterson's crosshairs, you aren't long for this world as Doyle Bennett found out to his detriment. |
| 304 | * ConsummateProfessional: Even when alone with a gun-wielding Colt, a man who Tim has every reason to kill, he still gives Colt plenty of opportunity to surrender peacefully. |
| 305 | * DeadpanSnarker: A particularly glorious example of "deadpan", too. Tim knows no other language than snark. |
| 306 | -->''"''[to a fellow veteran]'' Evening soldier. Uh, I didn't bring my cape. I'm guessing this will suffice. ''[shows military I.D.]''"'' |
| 307 | |
| 308 | -->''"Relinquishing a firearm can be a very emotional moment, and there always must be another deputy in attendance. Add in some premium alcohol, what could possibly go wrong?"'' |
| 309 | |
| 310 | -->''"I'm officially requisitioning this chicken."'' |
| 311 | * DecompositeCharacter: His status as a war veteran turned U.S. Marshal is lifted directly from Raylan in the original Creator/ElmoreLeonard novels. |
| 312 | * DrowningMySorrows: Subtly implied that he is a mild case - looks like his job shakes him enough to drink after particularly tense standoffs, but it's not enough to make it a problem. |
| 313 | * ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Served as a sniper in the famed Army Rangers before becoming a Marshal. Subverted in that, while this experience made him a massive badass, it left him with a drinking problem, insomnia, and possibly more. |
| 314 | * FriendlySniper: To his friends. |
| 315 | * GoodIsNotNice: Tim is a good man with an incredibly sarcastic and inappropriate sense of humor. |
| 316 | * ImprobableAimingSkills: In a series of crack shots, Tim is ''the'' best bar none. |
| 317 | -->'''Raylan:''' [[TheSociopath Jess]], you ever hear of a spot snipers call The Apricot? It's where the brain stem meets the spine. Hit a fellow there, he ain't gonna pull no trigger. It's just lights out. |
| 318 | -->'''Jess:''' Oh, are you telling me you're that good? |
| 319 | -->'''Raylan:''' Me? ''(Raylan nods at Tim)'' |
| 320 | -->'''Jess:''' Really. This is how this is going to go down--''(Tim shoots Jess in the Apricot)'' |
| 321 | * TheInsomniac: As a side effect of his ranger training. |
| 322 | -->''"Ever since Ranger School I can't sleep past 6:30."'' |
| 323 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's crass and blunt, but a mostly good guy. |
| 324 | * SadClown: Tim is always joking around and making wisecracks, but it's implied to conceal a lot of trauma both from his service in the army and his abusive childhood. |
| 325 | * SeenItAll: His stoic demeanor, ShellShockedVeteran status, and love of deadpan remarks hint that it's ''very'' hard to surprise him. |
| 326 | * ShellShockedVeteran: Art privately suspects of him of having PTSD. Tim confirms this during "Decoy" in typical Tim-esque fashion. |
| 327 | -->'''Tim:''' For all I know I'm just having a full blown PTSD episode. |
| 328 | -->'''Art:''' You get those a lot? |
| 329 | -->'''Tim:''' Only when I'm handling firearms in public. |
| 330 | * ShootTheHostageTaker: When Jess Timmons takes his captive hostage at the climax of "The Life Inside" and threatens to shoot her, Tim steps in. |
| 331 | -->'''Raylan:''' Jess, you ever hear about a spot snipers call the apricot? It's where the brain stem meets the spine. Hit a fella there, he ain't gonna pull no trigger. It's just, lights out.\ |
| 332 | '''Jess:''' Oh, what, you're telling me you're that good?\ |
| 333 | '''Raylan:''' Me? ''[Shakes his head, gestures to Tim, beside him.]''\ |
| 334 | '''Jess:''' Really? Okay, this is how this is going to go [[KilledMidSentence down]] — ''[Tim takes the shot, perfectly.]'' |
| 335 | * TheStoic: His utterly blank facial expression contributes greatly to him being such an adept DeadpanSnarker. |
| 336 | * {{Troll}}: Sometimes he just likes to mess with people, especially Raylan. |
| 337 | * {{US Marshal}}: Along with Raylan and Rachel. |
| 338 | * VitriolicBestBuds: Somewhat with Raylan; whenever they're partnered, they shoot off barbs at each other and Tim truly enjoys messing with him, but there's a lot of respect there. |
| 339 | [[/folder]] |
| 340 | |
| 341 | [[folder:Rachel]] |
| 342 | !!Deputy U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks |
| 343 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ad69c2536aa242241b04bc05fc832a83.jpg]] |
| 344 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm ready to get dirty. Are you?"'']] |
| 345 | ->'''Played By:''' Creator/EricaTazel |
| 346 | |
| 347 | -->''"How do you think it'd go over if I came into work one day wearing a cowboy hat? You think I'd get away with that?"'' |
| 348 | |
| 349 | A Deputy U.S. Marshal, Rachel is coolly professional but has some initial disdain for Raylan's tactics. |
| 350 | ---- |
| 351 | * TheAce: Art thinks of her the best Marshal under his command, and is harsher on her because he doesn't want her to end up like Tim or Raylan. Where Tim is eccentric and unprofessional and Raylan is a CowboyCop, Rachel never bends the law and only pulls her gun out when its absolutely necessary. |
| 352 | * ActionGirl: Rachel is good enough to avoid shoot-outs if possible by defusing a situation, but she doesn't let people back her down and that gun isn't for show. |
| 353 | * BewareTheQuietOnes: Don't let the reserved demeanor fool you. She's a consummate lawwoman who keeps her cool and is not afraid to pull her gun. |
| 354 | * BlackBossLady: When she serves as Art's interim replacement while he recuperates from his injuries. He also intends for her to take over his post permanently when he retires. |
| 355 | * ByTheBookCop: Portrayed in a positive light. Rachel is much more willing to follow the rules than Raylan, Tim or even Art and as a result doesn't have to deal with investigations or blowback and is well-regarded within her profession. |
| 356 | * ConsummateProfessional: Rachel is always professional and by the book, and isn't as prone to rule-breaking as the rest of the office. As she points out, she's subject too much harsher standards as a black woman and will face much harsher consequences that the other, mostly white Marshals. |
| 357 | * CowboyCop: Art implies that she's been acting somewhat like one in Season 4, and accuses Raylan of rubbing off on her. On the whole, though, she's a consumate pro who doesn't pull off the kind of stunts that so often get Raylan in trouble. |
| 358 | -->'''Raylan:''' I hope he broke his cell phone in half before he let him go. |
| 359 | -->'''Rachel:''' I think you're the only one who does stuff like that. |
| 360 | * DaChief: In Season 5 and Season 6, when she takes over for Art while he recovers from his Daryl-inflicted wounds. |
| 361 | * ADayInTheLimelight: Rachel gets an episode to herself in "For Blood or Money" when the Marshals have to track her criminal brother-in-law. We learn a fair deal about Rachel's difficult childhood. |
| 362 | * DeadpanSnarker: Not to the same extent as Tim, but she more than holds her own. |
| 363 | * FairCop: She's very easy on the eyes, prompting Limehouse to try flirting with her. |
| 364 | * FishOutOfWater: She's a black woman not local to Harlan. She's frequently frustrated by the amount of casual racism in the area and by how much local law enforcement gets away with when she's castigated for the slightest mistake. |
| 365 | * GreenEyedMonster: It's implied she hates Raylan because she's jealous of just how much he's able to get away with. While he's able to repeatedly violate the rules and is accepted even by Harlan's criminal element, she's subject to intense scrutiny because of her race, and she's a perpetual outsider in the deeply racist Harlan township. |
| 366 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: Season 4 refers to her cases and romantic upheavals, all of which occur off-screen. |
| 367 | * JerkassToOne: She's generally professional, but she has a particular hatred for Raylan. She views his CowboyCop antics with contempt and often insults him for "playing cowboy". It's implied she's resentful that he's able to get away with his blatant rule-breaking while she's subject to intense scrutiny because of her race. |
| 368 | * MistakenForRacist: A hilarious subversion - she tries to play the racial card when interrogating a black witness when in Florida with Raylan and the man instead blasts her for "serving the white man" and accusing her of being sent to appease a fellow Black person. |
| 369 | * OnlySaneEmployee / TheHeart: She often has to play the peacekeeper between [[CowboyCop Raylan]], [[DaChief Art]], and [[{{Troll}} Tim]]. It's the likely reason why Art has, without her knowledge, made her his interim successor. |
| 370 | * PayEvilUntoEvil: She refuses to intervene when Duffy and Mikey torture Albert, the sexual predator who targeted Ava in prison. |
| 371 | * TheReliableOne: Her hat at the office and the reason why Art hangs back on her so much in Season 5 and 6 - especially since the other people on the horizon are Raylan and Tim. |
| 372 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: Rachel is the only prominent female cop in the show. |
| 373 | * TheStoic: It takes a lot to phase Rachel, which is partly why she's so good at her job. In the face of almost anything, she remains cool and collected. |
| 374 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: She hates Raylan thanks to being annoyed that he gets away with his CowboyCop antics purely through white privilege, where she as a black woman is subject to undue amounts of pressure. The times they are partnered up results in a lot of tension from her end. |
| 375 | * TwoferTokenMinority: She has to deal with being a woman AND black in Harlan (though she doesn't spend much time there, considering the office is in Lexington, about three hours from Harlan in real life). She notes that the town people treat her with a bit of reserve. |
| 376 | -->'''Rachel:''' But when the cuffs come out, then I'm a "black bitch". |
| 377 | * {{US Marshal}}: And a damn good one. Art even considers her his best Deputy due to her intelligence, professionalism and good judgment. Unlike Raylan, she doesn't get tangled up in cowboy antics or cause trouble. |
| 378 | * YouAreInCommandNow: She becomes Interim Chief Deputy Marshal after Art's shooting and remains so during his recovery. She suits it. When she's seen manning his office, it's hard to imagine her out of it. |
| 379 | [[/folder]] |
| 380 | |
| 381 | [[folder:Boyd]] |
| 382 | !!Boyd Crowder |
| 383 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/712f254d4e354ddc039e04a2678691a4.jpg]] |
| 384 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"I am the outlaw, and this is ''my'' world. And my world has a high cost of living."'']] |
| 385 | ->'''Played By:''' Creator/WaltonGoggins & Creator/DavidMichaelHolmes |
| 386 | |
| 387 | -->''"[[SophisticatedAsHell I been accused of bein' a lot of things. 'Inarticulate' ain't one of 'em.]]"'' |
| 388 | |
| 389 | A Gulf War veteran and old friend of Raylan who took a very different path, becoming a criminal like the rest of his family. Just as intelligent and charismatic as Raylan, he is constantly twisted up in the criminal life. |
| 390 | ---- |
| 391 | * AbusiveParents: Bo was never physically abusive to Boyd, but Boyd did witness Bo beating his mother when he was young. Even though Bo led his son into the violent family business, they seemed to have a pretty good relationship especially in comparison to Raylan and Arlo. However, Bo is still perfectly fine with ordering someone else to beat the hell out of Boyd. |
| 392 | * AffablyEvil: Boyd can be very charismatic and is certainly no sadist like other {{Big Bad}}s. It's a big part of how he can get others to come to his side. |
| 393 | * AmbiguouslyEvil: Season 1 leaves it ambiguous whether his turn to religion and apparent HeelFaithTurn are real or just another con to gain followers. It eventually turns out to be genuine, although it's left unclear if he was genuine the whole time of if he [[BecomingTheMask became the mask]]. |
| 394 | * AmbitionIsEvil: Deconstructed. Boyd aims to higher things after Raylan shoots him in the pilot - being a preacher, vigilante, miner, oxy kingpin, bounty hunter, heroin peddler, good husband and family man, but in the end he has only one true calling in life: blowing stuff up. Most evident when he decides not to go into hiding after Katherine Hale and Wynn Duffy propose he robs banks for them in the Season 5 finale. |
| 395 | -->'''Raylan:''' ''You like to get money and blow shit up.'' |
| 396 | * AntiHero: After his HeelFaithTurn, Boyd becomes an UnscrupulousHero. He genuinely wants to help stop Harlan's drug trade as atonement, but causes plenty of destruction and mayhem along the way. He slips into being a NominalHero as time goes on, more motivated by his own self-interest than heroism. |
| 397 | * AntiVillain: Boyd is a ruthless criminal, but [[NobleDemon he has his own sense of honor and plenty of standards]] which keeps him more sympathetic than most of the other antagonists. Although he slides into unambiguous villain status as the series progresses. |
| 398 | * {{Archenemy}}: To Raylan. No other criminal--not even the Bennetts--plays as big a role in Raylan's life, and the entire show slowly builds up to a showdown between them. |
| 399 | * AscendedExtra: For the first half of Season 1, Boyd is a minor character who only shows up briefly in the occasional episode. In the second half, he becomes one of the main focuses and in Season 2 a member of the main cast. |
| 400 | * TheAtoner: After surviving being shot by Raylan in the pilot, Boyd believes God has given him a second chance and tries to become a righteous man. He sets up a backwoods church to help drug addicts and ex-convicts find new purpose - and leads them in an attempt to destroy Harlan's drug trade. |
| 401 | * AvengingTheVillain: Subverted in the pilot. He admits he has no interest in avenging Bowman after Ava shot him, viewing it as a KarmicDeath since Bowman abused her. |
| 402 | * BadBoss: Zig-zags between this and a BenevolentBoss. He treats his men kindly and respectfully, but he'll quickly abandon or kill them if he deems them a liability. |
| 403 | * BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: After rescuing Raylan, he decides to murder Dickie and Raylan chooses not to stop him, viewing it as a fitting end for Dickie. Dickie points out Raylan needs him to get past Mags and Doyle's men, at which point he reluctantly stops Boyd, though he would have been fully willing otherwise. |
| 404 | * BadassBookworm: He's a bibliophile and one of the series's preeminent badasses. |
| 405 | * BadassInANiceSuit: Has ''significantly'' upgraded his wardrobe as the series has gone on, reflecting his growing sophistication as a person and a criminal. In the first season, he wore stained wifebeaters, and now he almost always wears at least a suit coat. |
| 406 | * BadassPreacher: During his born-again Christian phase. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, he's shown preaching to his fellow inmates in prison.]] |
| 407 | * BatmanGambit: Pulls off quite a few of these. |
| 408 | * BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: At first, Boyd desperately wants to avoid becoming like his father Bo, first by becoming a preacher and then a miner. After having enough heartbreak and generally being ReformedButRejected, Boyd decides to embrace his criminality and follow in his father's example while improving on his mistakes. |
| 409 | * BecauseImGoodAtIt: Primary reason for lapsing back to his criminal ways - when he tries to lead a more pious life, it backfires spectacularly, so he returns to mining and leads a pretty empty existence, until he realizes that he can't fight his nature. |
| 410 | * BelievingTheirOwnLies: [[WordOfGod Graham Yost]] describes him as such in [[https://www.thewrap.com/justified-creator-graham-yost-talks-season-3-killing-mags-bennett-and-going-moon-tom-han/ an interview]]. Boyd adopts belief systems and moral codes and drops them with astonishing frequency, but he believes in them all the way. |
| 411 | --> '''Graham Yost:''' His codes shift, but whatever it is he decides to believe in, he believes in 100 percent. When he became a born again preacher in the first season, man, he believed that. Then in the second season, even his dissolution, he believed in that. Then his rise to crime again, he believed in that. So there is that passionate intensity that comes with him. |
| 412 | * BeneathTheMask: The first two seasons follow Boyd trying to figure out who he is after a lifetime of shedding beliefs and identities. After becoming a born-again preacher and a law-abiding coal miner, Boyd realizes he's most at home being a criminal and decides to follow in his father's footsteps. |
| 413 | * BenevolentBoss: ZigZagged. Boyd can be a quite pleasant boss to work for and treats his men well for the most part, but he's downright ruthless about [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness killing off liabilities]]. |
| 414 | * BerserkButton: DO NOT question his love for Ava. Lee Paxton found this out the hard way. And if you happen to make the grievous error of harming her? Expect him knocking on your door with the Crowes to beat the living daylights out of you. Just ask Gunner Swift. |
| 415 | * BigBad: Could be seen as one for the whole series, serving as the default [[TheHeavy heavy]] whenever the seasonal villains aren't driving things. |
| 416 | * BigBadEnsemble: Battling it out with Avery Markham and Katherine Hale for Season 6's main villain. Markham is currently the biggest threat to Harlan, but Boyd and Hale both plan on taking him down and could easily eclipse him as the show continues. |
| 417 | * BlueAndOrangeMorality: Creator/WaltonGoggins described him as ascribing to this in [[https://collider.com/walton-goggins-interview-justified/ an interview]]. Boyd ''does'' have a moral code, it's just very different from that of a normal person's. |
| 418 | --> '''Walton Goggins:''' His moral compass does not always point north by a larger society’s standard, but there is a moral code there, and it is shifting. |
| 419 | * BreakTheBeliever: Boyd spends most of Season 1 as a born-again Christian convinced he's serving God's will. Bo killing all of his followers destroys Boyd's faith and puts an end to his conversion for a while. |
| 420 | * CatchPhrase: "Fire in the Hole!" which is usually followed up by him using his favorite weapon: a rocket launcher. |
| 421 | * CallingYourAttacks: He yells "Fire in the hole!" whenever he fires an RPG or throws a firebomb. It is a habit he picked up learning explosives handling while working in the coal mines. He does not actually want anyone to get hurt during those attacks and when he actually wants to kill someone he does it quickly and quietly. |
| 422 | * CallingTheOldManOut: Done in a veiled but clear way in Season 1, when he makes his feelings clear to his father while speaking at church. |
| 423 | -->''"Now - Now, Jesus entered a temple in Jerusalem. He found moneylenders buying and selling where they should have been a-praying. He called their church a den of thieves. And he turned over their tables. He cast out the robbers! He cast them out! He cast them out! Hallelujah! He cast them out! And like Jesus, like Jesus, like Jesus, we must never be afraid to strike out against those who practice evil! We must take the high road of righteousness, even if it means walking, walking and leaving our own flesh and blood behind. Because there is no greater piety, brothers and sisters, - than the love of God. Amen to that! He is my one true father. There is no other. There is no other, Preacher. There's no other."'' |
| 424 | * CharacterDevelopment: He goes through a lot of changes over the first two seasons alone, from a reckless Neo-Nazi to a backwoods preacher and vigilante, to a listless miner retired from the criminal life, and finally a [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] bent on following in his father's footsteps. |
| 425 | * TheCharmer: When he starts talking he can charm a crowd and it's easy to see how he gets people to follow him. |
| 426 | * TheChessmaster: Boyd becomes this after the events of season one. He stops being reckless and starts to carefully consider his actions and the resources at his disposal. Being one of the few criminals in the area with working brain cells kind of helps, but he can give a master of deceit like Mags Bennett a run for her money. If he feels that he cannot win, he changes the game to one where he has the advantage |
| 427 | * ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Double-crosses the mining company and the Bennetts in quick succession. Then, does the same thing with the Clover Hillers. The only people he won't double cross is Ava and Raylan |
| 428 | * ChurchMilitant: Briefly ran a church dedicated to meting out "justice" to those he thought deserved it. |
| 429 | * ClashingCousins: With Johnny. Their relationship is quite rocky and littered with conflict, and Johnny betrays Boyd several times. |
| 430 | * ConMan: Part of why Arlo takes such a shine to Boyd is that he adopts and sheds identities on the fly if it gets him what he wants, and weaponizes it to gain followers. |
| 431 | * ConsummateLiar: Boyd lies to everyone, with the general exception of Ava and Raylan, the two people he's closest to. He'll adopt new belief systems and identities on the fly if it gets him what he wants, and [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believes in them wholeheartedly]]. For the first two seasons, Boyd doesn't really know who he is BeneathTheMask, before eventually deciding he 'is a criminal through and through, and to embrace his lineage. |
| 432 | * CopKiller: Has Nick Mooney killed in Season 5. |
| 433 | * CrisisOfFaith: At the end of the first season - he never recovers. In Season 4, he admits to Augustine that he no longer believes in God. [[spoiler: He regains it in the final episode of the series.]] |
| 434 | * CulturedBadass: Played with. He quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson, Saul Bellows and Isaac Asimov during his criminal dealings and correctly identifies a quote from Thomas Jefferson used by Quarles. He attributes his literary knowledge to all the time he spent reading books in prison. |
| 435 | * DeadpanSnarker: A conversation between Boyd and Raylan is a ''glorious'' thing to behold. |
| 436 | * DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:In the finale, he attempts to goad Raylan into shooting him. Walton Goggins states that his threats to break out of prison and go after Ava and Raylan were merely bluffs.]] |
| 437 | * DespairEventHorizon: Bo's massacre of Boyd's congregation utterly destroys him, and he loses any hope at the chance for redemption and his faith is permanently shattered. |
| 438 | --> ''"Maybe I was just talking to myself…"'' |
| 439 | * TheDeterminator: When Boyd sets his mind at something, he'll stop at nothing to achieve it. |
| 440 | * {{Deuteragonist}}: After Raylan, Boyd is the character who is the most important to the series. |
| 441 | * DirtyBusiness: Boyd is ruthless in his criminal dealings, but he still struggles with guilt over his actions. For instance, Boyd clearly did not enjoy goading Billy St. Cyr into picking up the poisonous snake that killed him. |
| 442 | * DragonWithAnAgenda: |
| 443 | ** Carol Johnson hires him to serve as her Dragon, but he quickly betrays her to Mags when he sees an opportunity to make money. |
| 444 | ** He attempts to be this in Season 4 to the Clover Hillers and Detroit. It backfires spectacularly - he fails to secure Drew Thompson and barely gets off the hook from Augustine and the Clover Hillers thank him for his betrayal by putting Ava in jail. |
| 445 | * TheDreaded: By the criminal underground. Which also allows him to run his business much more efficiently than he realistically should. In reality, he has very little muscle and he survives purely on being GenreSavvy, but no one actually knows that nor wants to check that. |
| 446 | * DueToTheDead: After Boyd kills Devil in self-defense, he insists on giving Devil's body a decent burial. He even says a prayer after Devil has been buried, much to Arlo's annoyance. He also speaks of his father in quite fond terms after he dies, despite acknowledging Bo's many faults. |
| 447 | * EarAche: Takes a gunshot to the ear during "A Murder of Crowes". He seems more annoyed at everyone pointing it out than the actual injury. |
| 448 | * EmbarrassingTattoo: His Neo-Nazi tattoos are a reminder of a period of his life he is not proud of. Though it's heavily implied (Raylan says this, Boyd doesn't contradict him) he never believed in it to begin with (Raylan tells him he's too smart for such aggressive idiocy), and merely used Neo-Nazism, along with his considerable charisma and natural leadership skills, as a means to [[ManipulativeBastard manipulate]] rural Harlanites. Played extremely straight by Goggins in real life, in which he occasionally wears those (fake) tattoos openly, as part of his MethodActing, in order to get real reactions of disgust from the general public. |
| 449 | ** [[spoiler: In ''City Primeval, its shown he's had them removed]] |
| 450 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: |
| 451 | ** In the end, he reveals that he had still loved Ava all along. |
| 452 | ** He also sincerely loves his father Bo, although their relationship is a deeply toxic and screwed-up one. Even when he's trying to kill Bo to avenge his flock, he still loves him and after Bo dies speaks of him respectfully. |
| 453 | * EvenEvilCanBeLoved: Despite their strained and mutually toxic relationship, Boyd does love his father Bo, even while trying to kill him. |
| 454 | * EvilCounterpart: Boyd Crowder to Raylan Givens; both born in a coal mining town to criminal families, Raylan manages to leave and become a law man while Boyd fully succumbs to the criminal lifestyle. However, the "evil" part is less clear as Raylan is an AntiHero and Boyd is an AntiVillain, rather than a traditional hero/villain dichotomy. |
| 455 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: |
| 456 | ** After learning Ava killed Bowman, Boyd objects to taking revenge as he knew Bowman abused her and feels he had it coming. He later apologizes to Ava for having done nothing to stop Bowman despite knowing about his abuse. |
| 457 | ** He genuinely regrets his past as a white supremacist, and shows nothing but disgust when people bring it up. |
| 458 | ** In "Collateral", Boyd is clearly troubled by Raylan's determination to kill him, even if it means letting Constable Bob die. |
| 459 | * EvilFormerFriend: Although Raylan and he weren't exactly close, the two were good friends during their days working in the coal mines. In the present day, Raylan's become a lawman and Boyd a petty, violent criminal. |
| 460 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler:In "Collateral", Hagan reminds Boyd of his many murders and betrayals. His words fail to resonate with Boyd, who dismisses Hagan as a "slave" who never got anywhere by following the rules.]] |
| 461 | * EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily: His criminal enterprise in Seasons 3 and 4 resembles a family, with Boyd in the role of father. Given that most of his biological relatives are dead, the criminal team is the closest thing he has to a family. Subverted in Season 4. He undermines Arlo's plea deal so that he can find Drew Thompson himself, and arranges with Ava to have Colt kill Ellen May. To boot, his own cousin Johnny is plotting against him, though that's nothing new. Come Season 5, his 'family' is in a sorry state. Of Johnny, Ava, Devil, Arlo, Jimmy, Colt and Carl only Ava and Carl are still breathing, and Ava has turned on him. Two of his 'family' are dead by Boyd's own hands. |
| 462 | * EvilParentsWantGoodKids: His criminal activities are a means to give the family name a clean start. |
| 463 | * EvilWearsBlack: As Boyd starts heading down the road of a full fledged "Outlaw" in season 2, his wardrobe shifts to be primarily all black. This also has the effect of making him look akin to a preacher, a role he performed during parts of season 1 [[spoiler:and one he steps back into after he is incarcerated for life in the final episode.]] |
| 464 | * FaceHeelTurn: After the pilot, he spends most of the first two seasons genuinely trying to reform. After killing Kyle, he reverts back to his criminal ways and decides to embrace being a Crowder. |
| 465 | * FakeGuestStar: In the second half of Season 1, he appears in almost every episode in a major role despite Creator/WaltonGoggins only being credited as a recurring character. He was added to the main cast the following season. |
| 466 | * FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Boyd doesn't get the blaze of glory death he expected to receive, and is too afraid of dying to pull his weapon on Raylan during their final confrontation. As a result, he winds up in prison and is back to preaching having seemingly been born again, although this time it's to a minimal and not particularly interested flock. Boyd and Ava both believe he will eventually get out of prison, but barring a jailbreak it's extremely unlikely considering his crimes. Leaving aside all the crimes he probably managed to escape justice for, Boyd would ''definitely'' have been found guilty of the murders of Carl Lennon, Hagan, Officer Crosley and Avery Markham, not to mention grand larceny and multiple attempted murders of law enforcement officers like Tim. He probably just barely avoided Death Row and is serving multiple life sentences. That said, [[GracefulLoser he doesn't seem too beat up about it in the epilogue, and even seems to have made peace with himself]].]] |
| 467 | * FeedTheMole: He knows that Wade Messer is an informant, and thus Boyd feeds him flimsy information to deceive law enforcement. |
| 468 | * FormerBigot: He starts off the series as the leader of a Neo-Nazi gang, but after he's shot by Raylan he renounces his beliefs and becomes a born-again Christian. Even after he gives up on going straight, Boyd still regrets his time as a white supremacist. |
| 469 | * FriendlyEnemy: With Raylan initially, but Boyd loses his NobleDemon traits and their enmity becomes much more hateful and vicious. By the final scene of the entire series [[spoiler:Raylan and Boyd realize they're still friends.]] |
| 470 | * FromCamouflageToCriminal: Boyd served in Operation Desert Storm, but afterwards he was arrested for refusing to pay his taxes and fell into petty crime and white supremacy. |
| 471 | * GentlemanSnarker: He's an eloquent Southern gentleman and lexophile who frequently and politely snarks at his enemies and acquaintances alike. |
| 472 | * GracefulLoser: [[spoiler:By the series finale he seems to have accepted his life in prison and the fact Raylan won, able to have a civil conversation with his friend and even go back to his faith]]. |
| 473 | * HammyVillainSeriousHero: Raylan is a stoic man of few words, whereas Boyd is a lexophile known for his winning smile and his silver tongue, and will often give rousing speeches to win over the local populace convincing them that his increasingly violent crimes are in their best interest. Lawmen and criminals alike comment on how Boyd loves to use a ten-dollar word when a two-dollar word would do. Boyd attributes this to all the reading he did in the free time prison allotted him. |
| 474 | * HeelFaithTurn: He has one in Season 1, becoming a deeply religious VigilanteMan who leads his small community in combating Harlan's drug trade. Unfortunately, Bo ruins it by slaughtering Boyd's flock. [[spoiler:And seemingly for good, in the series finale.]] |
| 475 | * HeelRealization: After being shot by Raylan in the pilot, Boyd believes his survival is the work of God, sheds his Neo-Nazi beliefs, and becomes a born-again Christian. While most of the cast doubt that Boyd is genuinely trying to change, it eventually becomes clear he really does want to be a better person. Unfortunately, being ReformedButRejected eventually pushes him back to his criminal ways. |
| 476 | * HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Boyd has gone from criminal to honest man to honest man posing as a criminal to reluctant criminal to full-fledged criminal. |
| 477 | * HolierThanThou: He develops a profound sense of self-righteousness and judginess during his time as a backwoods preacher. It isn't too bad, but he still does things like [[DisproportionateRetribution run Dewey off with a shotgun just for masturbating]]. |
| 478 | * HumblePie: In the pilot, Boyd Crowder is an arrogant criminal who firmly grabs the VillainBall and decides to shoot it out with a group of US Marshals including his old friend Raylan Givens. His gang is easily captured by the marshals and Boyd himself barely survives getting shot by Raylan. This experience causes him to have a HeelFaithTurn, give up his criminal ways, and start his own church. However, his arrogance causes him to go against Bo who teaches Boyd a lesson by murdering all members of Boyd's church. |
| 479 | * IAmNotMyFather: At first, Boyd struggles with his father Bo's shadow and tries to become the opposite of him by turning to religion and becoming a backwoods preacher, and then by making an honest living as a coal miner. After being ReformedButRejected throughout the first two seasons, Boyd decides he's been wrong the whole time and decides to follow in Bo's example instead. |
| 480 | * IAmSpartacus: He jokingly does this in "Bulletville" when Gio's gunmen announce they've come to kill Raylan only. |
| 481 | --> ''Raylan:''' I'm Raylan Givens!\ |
| 482 | '''Boyd:''' No, ''I'm'' Raylan Givens!\ |
| 483 | '''Raylan:''' Are you tryin' to be funny?\ |
| 484 | '''Boyd:''' Little bit. |
| 485 | * IWillFightNoMoreForever: Boyd decides to give up the violent criminal life and goes to work in the coal mine. It's a TenMinuteRetirement. |
| 486 | * KnuckleTattoos: He's got "SKIN" across his right hand. |
| 487 | * ALighterShadeOfBlack: When Boyd becomes less of an anti-villain and more of a straight-up villain later in the series, he slides into this. While Boyd is deceitful and utterly ruthless, he still has sympathetic moments, in contrast to the more depraved and {{jerkass}} villains operating in the ''Justified'' universe. |
| 488 | * LonelyAtTheTop: At the end of Season 4. He strikes a cushy deal with Wynn Duffy, but Colt and Arlo are dead, Johnny betrayed him and he failed to protect Ava from getting arrested. |
| 489 | * LoopholeAbuse: Whenever he realizes that he cannot get what he wants through direct means he finds a loophole that allows him to get to his goal through indirect means. |
| 490 | * LoveMakesYouDumb: [[spoiler:He keeps Ava close even after learning that she's an informant for the marshals. To boot, he never expected her to shoot him and run off with the $10 million he stole from Markham.]] |
| 491 | * ManipulativeBastard: Boyd's greatest talent, by far, is his ability to convince criminals that working with him is in their best interest before betraying them. The most audacious example of his persuasion skills is [[spoiler: convincing Carl to work with him while being cuffed to a hospital bed ''after'' Markham threatens to kill his brother in jail unless he executes Boyd, and Earl's only there because Boyd gave up him and Carl to the police while he ran off with Markham's millions. After Carl sets him free and hands him a gun, he immediately kills Carl as a distraction to cover up his escape.]] Raylan's not wrong when he calls him "the world-conquering emperor of lies." |
| 492 | * ManOfWealthAndTaste: Compared to the general population of Harlan county, he's definitely this. |
| 493 | * MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: He exploits this. After making a deal with Mags to stay out of the weed business so that Dickie could have sole control of it, Dickie stupidly decides to call off the deal and threaten Boyd. Boyd seizes on the opportunity to demonstrate that he's back in the game and turns on the Bennetts by taking over Dickie's business. |
| 494 | * NeverMyFault: Although he was good at accepting blame during his religious phase and the brief aftermath, Boyd ultimate has a tendency to shift blame to others while downplaying his own. Raylan calls him out on it. |
| 495 | -->'''Boyd:''' Look, I am sorry your name got dragged into this, Raylan. |
| 496 | -->'''Raylan:''' I bet. |
| 497 | -->'''Boyd:''' But with everything that is going on in this county, I am not the problem. |
| 498 | -->'''Raylan:''' It's the Jews or the blacks. Maybe it's the Muslims. The Taliban got you down? I know it's anyone but you, Boyd, so, tell me, who is the problem this time? |
| 499 | * NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Boyd speaks of his late father Bo respectfully, even though Bo had most of his followers massacred, and Boyd beaten. Boyd also spoke kindly of the late Devil, even though he killed Devil in self-defense. He even delivered a short prayer when burying Devil, much to Arlo's annoyance. |
| 500 | * NoHonorAmongThieves: [[spoiler:Boyd has deceived and betrayed criminal associates on multiple occasions. This becomes a recurring theme in Season 6, when Boyd abandons any pretense of a moral code and murders his colleagues left and right.]] |
| 501 | * NobleDemon: He was TheAtoner in Season 1, and becomes a NobleDemon for a few seasons; he doesn't kill without need and has many humanizing moments, but as the show progresses he loses his more noble traits due to the increasing pressure placed on him by outside influences like Quarles, Augustine and the Mexican cartels. |
| 502 | * NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In the pilot, Boyd goes off on an impassioned MotiveRant about fighting back against the corrupt coal mining companies sucking Harlan County dry but it quickly devolves into a rant about [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain how the Jews and "mud people" are responsible for it]]. Raylan takes it further by accusing Boyd of faking his Nazism so he can pursue his twin passions of getting money and blowing stuff up. |
| 503 | * OhCrap: In "Moneytrap", Boyd's expression at the wealthy swingers party suggests this. Boyd realizes that he's in over his head when several wealthy crimelords order him to kill a man, or be destroyed himself. It's even more alarming when they tell Boyd that his late crimelord father recognized their power. |
| 504 | * OohMeAccentsSlipping: Walton Goggins briefly drops the Kentucky accent in "Trust", when Boyd shouts at Ava. |
| 505 | * AnOfferYouCantRefuse: He likes to give people those before he actually resorts to violence. You tend to do what he wants when he starts reminiscing about your mother never locking her back door. In season 4 a group of corrupt businessmen give him one of these offers and expect him to do as he is told. It's a ''very bad'' mistake. Boyd turns the situation around on them and gives them an offer of his own. |
| 506 | * OutlawCouple: With Ava. Even moreso after he proposes to her. [[spoiler:It comes to a violent end when she shoots him in Season 6.]] |
| 507 | * PetTheDog: Towards the end of Season 1, he sincerely apologizes to Ava for having never done anything to stop Bowman's abuse despite knowing about it, and sincerely offers to do anything to atone - even if it's to stay away from her for the rest of his life. |
| 508 | * PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He starts off as a Neo-Nazi and white supremacist who believes in various racist conspiracies about various minorities. He abandons these beliefs after becoming a born-again Christian, although Raylan accuses him of never having believed in it and simply having used it to gain followers. |
| 509 | * PromotionToOpeningTitles: Since Boyd had to be hastily written into the show, Creator/WaltonGoggins didn't appear for a few episodes in the first season until his storyline could pick up. He doesn't get his Main Title credit until the opening of season 2. |
| 510 | * ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Season 1 has Boyd genuinely trying to reform, and Season 2 focuses on him gradually getting fed up with his empty and meaningless life, alongside being ReformedButRejected by everyone, until he finally snaps and backslides back into his criminal ways. |
| 511 | * PyrrhicVictory: Things tend to work out this way for Boyd. Though he's always able to survive, he typically loses out in one way or another. In Season 1 he brings down his father, but loses his Church. In Season 2 he defeats the Bennetts, but Ava ends up in the hospital and Dickie evades him. In Season 3, Quarles is captured, but Arlo goes to jail and Boyd misses the chance to claim Mags' money. In Season 4 he outlasts Nicky Augustine and gets the chance to be Wynn Duffy's new partner, but at the cost of Ava going to jail. And in Season 5 he manages to kill Johnny and survive the Mexican cartel and Daryl both, but his fledgling empire is in tatters, Ava becomes a CI, and Rachel, Raylan, and Vasquez are coming for him. |
| 512 | * {{Pyromaniac}}: Downplayed. He's not as AxCrazy as most examples, but it's common knowledge that one of Boyd's biggest passions in life is blowing things up. |
| 513 | * RageAgainstTheHeavens: Averted. He holds no ill will against God for the massacre of his little community and admits that it was his own hubris that doomed his church. |
| 514 | * RageBreakingPoint: Boyd has two bouts of uncontrollable rage in Season 5. The first is when Lee Paxton insults Ava, which earns him a furious beating from Boyd. The second is when he learns that Ava was transferred to the state penitentiary instead of being released. Several guards have to restrain him as he bellows in rage. |
| 515 | * RealStitchesForFakeSnitches: In the pilot, he murders Jared on the suspicion that he's a mole for law enforcement a minute before Devil calls to inform him he wasn't. |
| 516 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He received a blistering one from Raylan in "Starvation". Raylan reminds him that his criminal file is full of dead and incarcerated people who got that way because they believed his lies. Gives a similar speech to Raylan in the same episode. He receives two scathing ones in "Collateral". [[spoiler:Hagan reminds him that he's a vile murderer, not some legendary outlaw, while Zachariah points out that he's no different from Bo or Bowman.]] |
| 517 | * RedemptionFailure: Boyd has tried to go on the straight and narrow or at the very least [[RetiredMonster stay out of crime]], particularly in the earlier seasons, but circumstances keep drawing him back in. |
| 518 | * ReformedButRejected: In the early seasons Boyd tries not to be a criminal, but no one takes him at all seriously on either side of the law. |
| 519 | * RefugeInAudacity: This is how Boyd established himself as a major crime boss in Harlan County without actually having the muscle to fully back it up. He makes bold moves and issues outrageous demands, and his targets are not willing to call his bluff. |
| 520 | * RousingSpeech: Boyd gives one against the sheriff in Quarles' employ during a town hall meeting and it's quite effective. People in Harlan have very long memories when it comes to their struggle against the coal mines and Boyd knows perfectly how to tap into that sentiment. |
| 521 | * SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Boyd has quite a vocabulary and shows it off. |
| 522 | -->'''Augustine:''' Man, I love the way you talk... using 40 words where 4 will do. |
| 523 | * StrangeMindsThinkAlike: In "Decoy", Boyd correctly anticipates the majority of Raylan's moves, [[spoiler:up to guessing that he would stage his final show-down in their old high school, due to remembering the time an astronaut flew a helicopter in to give a presentation.]] |
| 524 | * SophisticatedAsHell: A large part of his charisma comes from his intelligence and eloquence contrasted with his more crass mannerisms. |
| 525 | * SmallTownTyrant: Boyd is angling to be that guy, but has yet to actually secure his control over Harlan County. |
| 526 | * SmugSnake: He starts off as one, but he grows more competent throughout Season 1 and learns to stop being so reckless. [[spoiler:In "Collateral", he claims to be an "outlaw" who lives life on his own terms. In reality, Boyd is a petty criminal who leads a life of crime because it's all he knows, and who works for others instead of reaching kingpin status.]] |
| 527 | * SparedByTheAdaptation: In the original short story, Boyd was shot dead by Raylan. Here, he survives the gunshot wound and stays as part of the main cast and Raylan's ArchEnemy throughout the series. |
| 528 | * StoppedCaring: Towards the end of Season 5, after Ava breaks up with him, his longtime friend and loyal partner Jimmy gets killed and he barely survives the Mexican/Crowe/Detroit heroin deal. He just wants to be left alone, lay low and have a clean slate by the finale, and it gets so bad that only the prospect of robbing banks for Duffy and Hale brings him out of it. |
| 529 | * StuffBlowingUp: In Raylan's words, Boyd likes to "get money and blow shit up." He does not disagree with this assessment. |
| 530 | * SummonBiggerFish: When he realizes that he cannot deal with the Clover Hillers on his own, he asks the Detroit mob to neutralize the Hillers' political connections. He later explains to Ava that if he gets in trouble with Theo Tonin there are no bigger fish to summon to solve the problem for him. |
| 531 | * TakeOverTheCity: Take over the rural county, anyway. From Season 2 onwards, Boyd's ambition is to control Harlan County the way his father used to. |
| 532 | * ThenLetMeBeEvil: Boyd spends the first two seasons sincerely trying to reform, but no one on either side of the law believes he's really changed and he quickly finds his honest job as a coal miner brings him no satisfaction. Eventually, he snaps and decides to embrace being a criminal, deciding he should follow in his father's example. When Ava asks him why after the fact, he explains: |
| 533 | -->'''Boyd:''' Because it's what I do. It's who I am, Ava. As hard as I've been trying to pretend otherwise. Everybody else seems to know that but me. |
| 534 | * ToThePain: Boyd gets to deliver a pretty amazing version of this trope to Lee Paxton. |
| 535 | -->'''Boyd:''' People of Harlan County, rich and poor, will marvel at your debasement and venality. They will spit venom when they speak your name, and they will take your suicide as the last act of a coward. Now your reputation is ruined, your good word worthless, but death will not be the end of your suffering. For generations, your children and your childrens' children will have a mark against their name, and that will be your legacy. |
| 536 | * TookALevelInBadass: In the pilot, he starts off as a SmugSnake with a firm grasp on the VillainBall. After being shot by Raylan, he quickly develops into a much more cunning and intelligent opponent. |
| 537 | * TookALevelInKindness: In the pilot, Boyd is a vicious Neo-Nazi and a BadBoss who comes off as almost sociopathic. After being shot and becoming a born-again Christian, he grows much more affable and repentant. Even after he returns to being a criminal, he remains fairly AffablyEvil and never adopts his old racist attitudes. |
| 538 | * UndyingLoyalty: Deconstructed. Boyd is an immensely magnetic man who easily acquires allies, but his devotion to them is only skin deep, while they give him a second chance after a second chance - he abandons the White Supremacist ideas that kept Devil close, undermines Arlo's plea deal so he can go after Drew Thompson himself, cuts ties with Johnny, even though he had a good reason to turn on him and finally he abandons the notion of being with Ava again after she breaks up with him to protect him. |
| 539 | * UnholyMatrimony: He proposes to Ava in Season 4. We learn that he was squirreling away money without telling Ava because he was saving up for a new house once they're married. Subverted in Season 5 when she breaks up with him. |
| 540 | * UnscrupulousHero: After his HeelFaithTurn in Season 1, Boyd becomes a vigilante battling against Harlan's drug trade with his followers, involving copious amounts of [[StuffBlowingUp blowing things up]]. While he doesn't ''want'' to use lethal force and avoids killing people when he can at first, he still lets one of his followers take the fall for his AccidentalMurder of a drug dealer, and he later decides to resort to murder once Bo slaughters his flock. |
| 541 | * TookALevelInJerkass: In Season 6, due to the cumulative VillainousBreakdowns over the course of Season 5 and his increasing desperation. |
| 542 | * VigilanteMan: After becoming a born-again Christian, he begins leading his followers in blowing up various meth shipments. Not even his father winds up being safe from Boyd's vigilante crusade. |
| 543 | * VillainBall: In the pilot he really has no reason to attack Raylan and the other marshals. He does it primarily to prove a point to Raylan and to show that he is not afraid of the marshals. He suffers the consequences for this but learns from his mistake and becomes very GenreSavvy. |
| 544 | * VillainousBreakdown: He has these from time to time due to being constantly hit with PyrrhicVictory, but in Season 6 Boyd appears to be disintegrating before our very eyes. Many of the tropes that made him AffablyEvil in the first place fade away due to his increasing desperation; he grows increasingly violent, needlessly cruel, treats his minions as disposable, loses his temper more easily and forgoes any sense of HonourAmongThieves he may have once possessed. |
| 545 | * VillainHasAPoint: He rather accurately criticizes Raylan's anger issues and violent tendencies, although he does this primarily during his brief stint as a reformed man. |
| 546 | * VillainProtagonist: ''Justified'' is [[{{Deuteragonist}} just as much Boyd's story as it is Raylan's]], and given that he's on the other side of the law even in his least-villainous moments he fits as this. |
| 547 | * VillainTeamUp: With the Crowes. Who he enlists to knock the shit out of Gunner Swift. And then enlists to go after Cousin Johnny. He also briefly teams up with Mags, although it ends quickly when Dickie picks a fight with them and Boyd decides to make an example of him. |
| 548 | * VillainousFriendship: He and Jimmy were a Type I. He also really does view Raylan as his best friend despite their differences, and tends to be more forgiving of his faults than anyone else in his life. |
| 549 | * VillainousLineage: His reason for returning to crime is to follow in his father's footsteps as a powerful crime lord. He says it almost verbatim when convincing Johnny to join him. |
| 550 | * VillainousRescue: He saves Raylan's life in "Bloody Harlan" when Dickie tries to beat him to death with a baseball bat. |
| 551 | * VitriolicBestBuds: A FriendlyEnemy variant with Raylan. Despite being on opposite sides of the law and having tried to kill each other, they're both fairly friendly and frequently tease each other. |
| 552 | * WeaponSpecialization: Boyd loves his explosives, especially rocket launchers. As far as side-arms go, he carries the Beretta 92FS he was issued in Desert Storm. |
| 553 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: During his stint as a VigilanteMan, Boyd goes off on a crusade to rid Harlan County of drugs through copious amounts of StuffBlowingUp. |
| 554 | * WhatTheHellHero: After becoming a born-again Christian, Boyd politely but firmly tells Raylan on many occasions that he's a violent man by nature and calls him out on his poor behavior. His criticisms are very accurate and echoed even by more heroic characters. |
| 555 | * WickedCultured: Boyd is a lexophile and quite well-versed in philosophy and history, keeping with his AffablyEvil demeanor. |
| 556 | * WildCard: Boyd varies from enemy, ally, ally of convenience or even voice of reason. |
| 557 | * WorthyOpponent: According to Walton Goggins, he respects Mags a great deal despite ultimately coming into conflict with her. |
| 558 | * YouHaveFailedMe: In the pilot, Boyd shoots Jared Hale for being reluctant to blow up a church when witnesses could easily see his license plate, [[InsaneTrollLogic convinced it was evidence he was an undercover cop]]. Not even seconds later, Devil calls to let Boyd know he was the real deal. |
| 559 | --> '''Devil:''' So, how did Jared do?\ |
| 560 | '''Boyd:''' He... didn't work out. |
| 561 | [[/folder]] |
| 562 | |
| 563 | [[folder:Winona]] |
| 564 | !!Winona Hawkins |
| 565 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Winona_Hawkins_9029.jpg]] |
| 566 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm done trying to change who you are."'']] |
| 567 | ->'''Played By:''' Creator/NatalieZea |
| 568 | |
| 569 | -->''"Raylan, you do a good job of hiding it. And I s'pose most folks don't see it, but honestly, you're the angriest man I have ever known."'' |
| 570 | |
| 571 | Raylan's slightly more uptown ex-wife, Winona still harbors strong feelings for him despite having left him for realtor Gary Hawkins. Over time, her relationship with Raylan re-ignites as her relationship with Gary deteriorates. |
| 572 | ---- |
| 573 | * ActionGirl: Downplayed example, as she would definitely prefer not to be, but when push comes to shove she’s willing to pick up a gun and fight. |
| 574 | * AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: In Creator/ElmoreLeonard's novels, Winona cheated on Raylan with Gary prior to their divorce and by all accounts they had an AwfulWeddedLife. Here, they're very much AmicableExes and eventually get back together. |
| 575 | * AllGirlsWantBadBoys: In season 6, Winona finally admits that she has a case - she notes that the idea that she doesn't have to worry about Raylan (whether it's because he's retired or they aren't together) is actually more distressing than not being able to sleep due to him hunting bad guys. |
| 576 | * AmicableExes: She and Raylan eventually reach this point, where they are perfectly civil and even friendly to each other without being overtly romantic. |
| 577 | * CantGetAwayWithNuthin: She slips up just once in her life when she steals money from the Marshal evidence locker, and was just about to turn around in the bank and go put it back when the place is robbed and she's exposed. |
| 578 | * DeadpanSnarker: Can be just as relentlessly snarky as her ex-husband Raylan. |
| 579 | * DamselInDistress: When Augustine's men pay her a visit. She's visibly terrified, but of course, FearIsTheAppropriateResponse. It doesn't stop her from killing one of them with Raylan. |
| 580 | * GenreSavvy: As of Season 3, she's been much better at recognizing what to do in high stress situations. Particularly calling Raylan immediately when she finds the gun used to murder Gary. |
| 581 | * [[HelloAttorney Hello Court Stenographer]]: Mike Reardon especially thinks so. |
| 582 | -->'''Mike:''' I know fifty men in this building that'd pay good money to sniff your gym clothes. |
| 583 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: She decides to marry Gary due to believing he's a safer choice than Raylan, and someone who has goals beyond stewing in bitterness. Unfortunately, Gary turns out to be an inept moron who gets both of them in hot water with {{Loan Shark}}s, and later [[spoiler:becomes outright villainous]]. |
| 584 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She's cold and stone-faced, but she genuinely cares about Raylan and Gary. |
| 585 | * IdiotBall: Grabs it pretty hard by stealing from state evidence. |
| 586 | * LoveCannotOvercome: Falls back in love with Raylan as her marriage with Gary begins to fall apart; They proceed to conceive a child together and begin to genuinely consider moving in together and try again. Following Raylan’s gunshot wound at the end of Season 2 however, among a mess of other problems brought by his line of work, Winona decides she can’t deal with the stress or change who Raylan is at heart, and leaves once again. |
| 587 | * MamaBear: When the life of her unborn baby is threatened, she demonstrates that she can be just as dangerous as Raylan. |
| 588 | * PutOnABus: In Season 4, she leaves to take care of her child. This is likely due to Natalie Zea a major role on [[Series/TheFollowing another show.]] |
| 589 | * SnarkToSnarkCombat: Has this dynamic with Raylan, the two seamlessly trade deadpan barbs with each other in just about every conversation they have in the series. It’s easy to see why Raylan liked her so much, beyond just her good looks. |
| 590 | * TheStoic: Winona is generally composed and stone-faced at all times. Even being threatened by criminals ins't enough for her to lose her cool, despite leaving her visibly scared. |
| 591 | * TookALevelInJerkass: Went from being relatively cold to Raylan in Season 1 to cheating on her husband, stealing money locked away as evidence, and leaving Raylan in the dust despite the fact that she's carrying his baby. |
| 592 | * UglyGuyHotWife: When she was still with Gary. |
| 593 | * WorkingWithTheEx: Alternatively, with Raylan and Gary. |
| 594 | [[/folder]] |
| 595 | |
| 596 | [[folder:Duffy]] |
| 597 | !!Wynn Duffy |
| 598 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8de40a4ea6fc1be3d2bbace707091778.jpg]] |
| 599 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"The police are just a janitorial service used to clean up your blood after you've been murdered."'']] |
| 600 | ->'''Played By:''' Creator/JereBurns |
| 601 | |
| 602 | ->'''Quarles:''' ''"You can't have the "Duffy" without the [[IncrediblyLamePun ''Win'']]."'' |
| 603 | |
| 604 | A Dixie Mafia middleman well-known for his bloodthirsty approach. He first appears as a loan shark working for Emmitt Arnett, but gradually rises through the Dixie Mafia power structure. Intelligent and ruthless, he clashes frequently with Raylan with whom he has a grudging mutual respect. |
| 605 | ---- |
| 606 | * AffablyEvil: In a rather genuine way. Sure, he's a snarky psychopath who kills without remorse, but he does reach a point with Raylan where they do seem to like each other. Of course, they both want the other dead, but other than that they appreciate that the other can be reasoned with. Wynn even gives Raylan his sincere condolences for Arlo's death and Raylan thanks him for it. |
| 607 | * AmbiguouslyGay: His hired thug lives with him in the RV/office, though it's not clear if they're romantic partners or just roomates. It's become increasingly ambiguous, with Wynn putting his arm around Boyd in an unscripted moment that comes across as more than a little flirty. |
| 608 | * AxCrazy: More pronounced in his first appearances, and since then he's mellowed out a little. |
| 609 | * BadassBoast: He gives a terrifying one to Arnett when he thinks he's going to scam him out of his money. |
| 610 | -->''"Show me the cash, Emmitt, or I will take a machete and a blowtorch and make you as small as I possibly can!"'' |
| 611 | * BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: [[spoiler:In "Burned", Art and Raylan threaten to tell Markham and Katherine that Duffy was the informant who betrayed Grady, unless Duffy agrees to reveal information on Boyd's heist.]] |
| 612 | * BodyguardBetrayal: [[spoiler:In "Trust", Mikey grows so disgusted with Duffy's CI work that he stuns Duffy, handcuffs him to a table, and calls Katherine Hale.]] |
| 613 | * BreakTheHaughty: His experience with Raylan Givens and Robert Quarles mellows him out considerably, due to Raylan not being indimidated by his antics and Quarles being far more psychotic than even he could stomach. |
| 614 | * BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler:For Mikey, who feels deeply betrayed by the revelation that Duffy had been an informant for the Marshals at one time.]] |
| 615 | * BullyingADragon: Tried this with Raylan Givens. It didn't end well for him, as he learned the hard way that his AxCrazy antics may intimidate the average person or even other mobsters, it doesn't work on someone like Raylan who will give back even harder. It's notable that after season 3, Duffy is a ''lot'' nicer and polite to Raylan. |
| 616 | * CharacterizationMarchesOn: While certainly just as slimy as he is in later seasons, in his early appearances he's portrayed as a FauxAffablyEvil psycho with a HairTriggerTemper and without any of his amusing quirks. Characters speak of him in hushed tones and accuse him of sadistically torturing his victims, something later Duffy wouldn't get his own hands dirty with. |
| 617 | * CreepySouvenir: Subverted. He claims to Gary he kept a piece of his intestines that were blown off when he was shot, but he was joking and is sincerely surprised Gary took him seriously. |
| 618 | --> ''"[[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe Gary, I don't have 18 inches of intestine preserved in Lucite.]]"'' |
| 619 | * DeadpanSnarker: Like you would not ''believe''. Even in the world of Justified where everyone has a witty line here and there, Duffy stands out. |
| 620 | -->''"I would love to be of more help, but I gotta get back to watching women's tennis."'' |
| 621 | |
| 622 | -->''"The point is, Mr. Crowder, when he asks me, and he will, where Robert Quarles is, does Theo Tonin sound like the kind of man to whom you'd like to say, "I'm sorry, but he escaped from a disease-ridden whore factory up in inbred holler"?!"'' |
| 623 | |
| 624 | -->''"Hi, this is Wynn Duffy in 236. Could you send up another pot of coffee, please? Because this one tastes like my ass on Sunday. Thank you, dear."'' |
| 625 | |
| 626 | -->''"My suite is being cleaned. The microwave exploded."'' |
| 627 | * DeceptiveDisciple: Grady Hale was Duffy's mentor. [[spoiler:Duffy repaid him by serving as an informant to law enforcement, which got Grady arrested and imprisoned.]] |
| 628 | * DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler: When Katherine Hale comes to kill him, Duffy maintains his cool and snarky demeanor while calling her out for cheating on Grady with Markham, and calmly admits to ratting Grady out due to there being NoHonorAmongThieves.]] [[spoiler: It's ultimately subverted when Mikey ends up sacrificing his own life to kill Katherine and save Duffy.]] |
| 629 | * TheDragon: First to Emmett Arnett, then to Robert Quarles, and then, after the collapse of the Detroit Mob (who he worked for as a Kentucky pointman) Katherine Hale. |
| 630 | * DragonAscendant: In Season 4, he has risen in status in the Dixie Mafia following the fall of both Emmett Arnett and Quarles. |
| 631 | * DragonInChief: He was portrayed as much more dangerous than his boss Arnett. However, when Quarles takes over Duffy seems quite tame in comparison. |
| 632 | * DragonWithAnAgenda: He is ambitious enough to want to take over the Dixie Mafia operations in Kentucky from his bosses but is smart enough to realize that without Detroit's approval he will never succeed. |
| 633 | * TheDreaded: People are terrified of Duffy because of how AxeCrazy he is. |
| 634 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: He is rather shocked by some of Quarles' more viscerally disturbing shenanigans, though he keeps his mouth shut about it. However, in "Slaughterhouse," Duffy admits to Raylan that he was behind the anonymous tip on Brady's murder. |
| 635 | * EvilMakeover: In Season 4, he shaves off his moustache, coiffes his hair, and wears expensive business suits. He's back to the moustache in Season 6. |
| 636 | * {{Expy}}: Duffy bears a lot of resemblance to Alan Raimy, the villain of the Creator/ElmoreLeonard novel ''52 Pick-Up''. Both are slimy, amiable criminals prone to using generic business platitudes while threatening people. The scene where he breaks into Winona's house is lifted wholesale from the novel. |
| 637 | * FriendlyEnemy: He and Raylan get along relatively well when they're not at each other's throats. Raylan seems to regard him as the voice of reason in the Dixie Mafia, though perhaps only relative to Quarles' slide into desperation. Duffy, for his part, is properly wary of and seems to understand Raylan. This becomes very prominent in Season 4 when Duffy goes out of his way not to do anything that might anger Raylan. In Season 5, Raylan even goes out of his way to warn Wynn that a mob accountant was out to kill him. Granted, Raylan was (unintentionally) responsible for the mob accountant wanting to kill Wynn in the first place. |
| 638 | * GenreSavvy: Not quite dangerously so, but very aware of the tropes. Specifically, he scrupulously avoids all of the pitfalls that doom Quarles (much more on these in Quarles' own entry). Perhaps most tellingly, when Boyd offers to become his 'partner' in taking down Quarles, Duffy tells Boyd the full bounty on Quarles' head, rather than, and as Boyd assumes, giving him a much lower amount so as to get a larger share. In Season 4 he considers Boyd and Harlan County to be too much trouble despite the potential profits and hates that the Drew Thompson situation requires him to deal with Boyd. He then goes out of his way to maintain a FriendlyEnemy relationship with Raylan because the last thing he wants is for Raylan to be personally angry at him. |
| 639 | * GrewASpine: For much of Season 3, Duffy was Quarles' reluctant henchman. Toward the end of the season, Duffy grew tired of Quarles and agreed to have him killed so as to collect Theo Tonin's bounty. He also puts his foot down about Quarles' drug use in the motorcoach office, ordering Quarles to smoke his drugs in his own vehicle. Played with in season four. He recognizes the insanity of the Drew Thompson situation and when things reach their climax he ends up rebelling against Nicky Augustine by fleeing Kentucky, reaching out to Sammy Tonin and backing him against Nicky in the upcoming power struggle. |
| 640 | * ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: As Raylan and Winn Duffy are talking about Duffy's new boss: |
| 641 | -->'''Raylan:''' He's got the ice-cold, remorseless, bottle-blond, shit-bag killer doing scut work.\ |
| 642 | '''Duffy:''' Deputy, are you accusing me of being a fake blond? |
| 643 | * TheInformant: [[spoiler: He was the informant who helped law enforcement convict Grady Hale.]] |
| 644 | * KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:After helping Ava escape from the authorities in exchange for millions of dollars, Duffy vanishes. Raylan shares a rumor that Duffy is surfing in Fiji.]] |
| 645 | * LoanShark: How he was introduced, working for Arnett to intimidate his clients. Since then, he's been expanding. |
| 646 | * ManipulativeBastard: He plays Boyd and his gang against Quarles, not succeeding only due to bad luck and Quarles having more lives than a Time Lord cat. Showrunner Graham Yost agrees: ''"I will say this about Wynn Duffy: He is a survivor. He will play every angle. While we’re playing checkers, he’s playing three-dimensional chess."'' |
| 647 | * NoHonorAmongThieves: Duffy is less concerned about loyalty and more concerned about saving his own skin. [[spoiler:He served as an informant in his younger days, which resulted in Grady Hale's conviction and imprisonment. Duffy explains to Mikey that honor has no place among criminals, reminding him that Markham and Katherine wouldn't hesitate to betray them if it served their ends.]] |
| 648 | * NotSoAboveItAll: Despite being cool and reserved almost all the time, has spectacularly and terrifyingly blown his top once or twice. |
| 649 | -->'''Arnett:''' You're gonna get your portion. |
| 650 | -->'''Duffy:''' Of ''what?!'' The ''land?!'' What am I, ''A FARMER?!'' Show me the cash, Emmitt, or I swear to God I'm gonna get a machete and a blowtorch, and I'm gonna make your body as small as I possibly can! |
| 651 | |
| 652 | -->'''Duffy:''' The point is, Mr. Crowder, when he asks me, and he will, where Robert Quarles is, does Theo Tonin sound like the kind of man to whom you'd like to say, "I'm sorry, but he escaped from a DISEASE-RIDDEN WHORE FACTORY up in INBRED HOLLER"?! |
| 653 | * OnlySaneEmployee: Of the Detroit Mafia. He seems to be the only one who isn't greedy to the point of incompetence. |
| 654 | * PayEvilUntoEvil: Duffy repeatedly shoots Cyrus with his own air gun in "Good Intentions", the same air gun Cyrus used on a mentally disabled man in "The Kids Aren't All Right". In ''Sounding", he orders Mikey to torture Albert (a sexual predator) with a cattle prod for information. |
| 655 | * PetTheDog: Calling in the Brady Hughes tip might be one (unless he was just trying to get Quarles out of his hair). It's played a little straighter in Season 4, when Wynn offers his condolences to Raylan about Arlo's death. Raylan even thanks him and admits that he believes Wynn is being sincere. In "Starvation", he gently gives water to an injured Mikey and assures him that he fought well against Daryl. |
| 656 | * PsychoForHire: For the Detroit Mob, who know him as 'crazy'. As his CharacterDevelopment kicks in, however, he mellows out a ''lot'', to the point where Raylan and Boyd consider him the voice of reason in the Dixie Mafia. This is probably due to the fact that his psychopathic ways never really got him anywhere (he only began stepping up after he mellowed), and he saw what could happen to him if he didn't get some self-control with Quarles. |
| 657 | * RankUp: Duffy repeatedly rises in the underworld hierarchy as their ranks thin (sometimes due to his efforts as TheStarscream). |
| 658 | * RealMenWearPink: He's a fan of women's tennis, wears a sleep mask while resting, and tans himself in a tanning bed. |
| 659 | * RetiredMonster: At the end of the show. Duffy gets away clean, and is now surfing in Fiji, unrepentant, but out of the crime business. |
| 660 | * RunningGag: On several occasions, Duffy ends up splattered with blood when someone near him is killed. Duffy never bats an eyelash. |
| 661 | * {{Sadist}}: Particularly in his first appearances, but it never entirely goes away, as evidenced by his torture of Cyrus in Season 5. |
| 662 | * SayMyName: In "Fugitive Number One". '''Mikey!''' |
| 663 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When he finds out that the Marshals have Drew Thompson he immediately makes plans to flee Kentucky rather than wait for the inevitable YouHaveFailedMe from Nicky Augustine. However, he then reaches out to Sammy Tonin and backs him against Nicky in the coming power struggle. This allows him to return in the season finale and even gets a promotion. |
| 664 | * SeenItAll: He's become this by Season 4, it seems. He doesn't even bat an eye when Augustine shoots Barkley in the head right next to him, splattering him with a little bit of blood. He also shows no surprise that Raylan is able to thwart Augustine and Boyd in their search for Drew Thompson. He is in fact GenreSavvy enough to prepare for their inevitable failure. |
| 665 | * SilverFox: In the tanning bed scenes from "Nobless Oblige" and "Burned", he's shown to have a ''very'' fit physique for his age. |
| 666 | * SoftSpokenSadist: For a ruthless Dixie Mafia man, he has a very unassuming voice. But see NotSoAboveItAll. |
| 667 | * TheStarscream: He hates working for Quarles but is smart enough to wait and see how things turn out before making any move against him. When [[TheDon Theo Tonin]] offered Duffy an opportunity to move up in the Dixie mafia by bringing in Quarles (plus a cash incentive), he moved decisively against Quarles, even collaborating with Boyd Crowder. |
| 668 | * TotallyRadical: He sarcastically indulges in this in "Hatless". |
| 669 | --> '''Duffy:''' Come on, Emmett. Show me the benjamins the homies are always rapping about. |
| 670 | * TookALevelInKindness: Played with. In earlier seasons Wynn was a ruthless, AxCrazy psychopath, threatening and intimidating others into compliance. Then comes season 3 where he finds himself having to deal wih the even ''more'' violent and unpredictable Quarles, as well as facing down Raylan Given's wrath. After that, he takes a far more even handed approach and doesn't try to outwardly antagonize those he knows can be a significant threat to his life. |
| 671 | * VillainCred: The first mention of Duffy is about him cutting off a man's face and sewing it to a soccer ball. We later see him visibly disturbed by later events, such as the "ear story," Quarles' shenanigans, and the "chainsaw guy," suggesting that maybe [[AffablyEvil he isn't so crazy after all]]. |
| 672 | * VillainsOutShopping: "Sounding" shows Duffy and Mikey playing Scrabble to pass the time. |
| 673 | * VillainousFriendship: As of Season 5, he and Mikey appear to be a Type I, living together in the motorcoach, and expressing genuine concern for each other's safety. [[spoiler:Duffy even chooses to reveal to Mike that he's been an informant for the Marshals in the past. It looks like their friendship can't survive this revelation, as a furious Mikey ties Duffy down and calls Katherine. However, at the last second, Mikey sacrifices himself to kill Hale and save Duffy's life, culminating in an emotional Duffy holding Mikey as the latter dies]]. |
| 674 |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Characters / JustifiedMainCast
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
