“Justified,” Season 3, Episode 9

• Courtesy of FX
• ASK NOT WHAT HARLAN COUNTY CAN DO FOR YOU, ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR HARLAN COUNTY: Walton Goggins, with the finger

The ninth episode, “Loose Ends,” borrows its first big scene from Elmore Leonard’s Raylan novel, which features a subplot involving a gang of female bank robbers. The TV show give the idea it’s own spin, with Delray, the abusive pimp from a few episodes ago, serving as leader and wheelman to a trio of prostitutes, who put on wigs and storm into a bank. The heist goes wrong, however, and two of the women rush out with a gun-shot third. The wounded one dies in the back of the getaway van in a painfully tense scene of anger, anguish and eyes off the road.

“Crystal was a soldier!” Delray declares (I wonder if she was named after her drug of choice). “She knew the risks and would want us to… soldier on.” Yes, we saw what you did there. Delray and the other call girls dump Crystal’s count in a slurry pit — and given the body count on this show, I’m surprised they didn’t have to take a number. Afterwards, Delray decides to ensure silence by killing the prostitutes, but one of them gets away. It turns out she’s Ellen Mae, Ava’s friend from before.

Speaking of Ava, she shows up at the honky-tonk where Raylan spends his off-hours, and he plants a boozy kiss on her. (Hey, Winona just broke up with him — what’s he supposed to do, NOT have sex?) She’s not there for Raylan, but acting on behalf of Boyd, of course, and seems to have no illusions about Boyd’s criminal nature: “I’m not tryin’ to change ’im, I’m tryin’ to help ’im.” Raylan visits Boyd, in the lock-up on trumped up charges for bombing Sheriff Napier’s car, and Boyd fingers Tanner for various crimes, including, probably, the bombing.