Grading This Year's Series Finales, From 'Mad Men' to 'Two and a Half Men'

The key to ending Justified after six seasons was coming full circle: both in terms of placing Ava in the crosshairs between Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens and outlaw Boyd Crowder, and reminding us that Raylan could put a bullet in Boyd’s heart but feel sad about it (“We dug coal together”). Accepting the reader-voted Yahooie award for Most Satisfying Series Finale earlier this year, showrunner Graham Yost explained the gratifying resolution better than we could: “The big question then was which of them, if any, would get out of Harlan alive. There were various times in the writers’ room when they each had a day marked for death. In the end, we came back to the question that had guided us from the beginning: What would Elmore do? Would he kill Raylan? Nah. His heroes always end up among the living. Ava? Nope — his women are usually still breathing at the end, sometimes in the wind with the money, too. So, then Boyd. Would Elmore have had him bite it? Well, as his researcher and dear friend for 30 years Gregg Sutter put it, ‘Elmore already tried that, and it didn’t stick.’ Besides, if Raylan killed Boyd, what would that say about our hero of six years? So that was the call — they would all live. We like to think Elmore would’ve gotten a kick out of that. And we are all so very grateful that you fans got a kick out of it, too.” — Mandi Bierly