Timothy Olyphant on That Big ‘Justified: City Primeval’ Finale Twist
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This post contains spoilers for “The Question,” the finale of Justified: City Primeval.
And so Justified says goodbye to one Boyd, and welcomes back another.
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In the concluding chapter of the revival miniseries Justified: City Primeval, Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan Givens finally had his long-awaited showdown with the Oklahoma Wildman himself, Boyd Holbrook’s Clement Mansell. But in a sign of how much Raylan had changed since the original series, it was a showdown he did not want, and had put off for many episodes. And when Raylan does shoot Mansell, it’s not at all the gunfight we might have expected. Mansell reaches for something, Raylan assumes it’s a gun and is quick on the trigger like always, only to discover his opponent holding the cassette tape featuring Mansell’s attempt at a singing career. Once upon a time, Raylan would have taken deep satisfaction in permanently safeguarding society from a monster like this. But he’s older, wiser, and far less inclined to pull his gun. The entire encounter — including Mansell’s lawyer (and Raylan’s new love interest) Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis) calling for the morgue rather than an ambulance, even though Mansell isn’t quite dead yet — leaves our hero so shaken that he decides he wants out of law-enforcement altogether.
Justified certainly didn’t need a new conclusion — the original series finale is one of the best of all time — but as the end of Raylan’s time as a man with a badge, “The Question” would have worked very well. He retires from the U.S. Marshals, even though he was about to get a promotion, takes pleasure in painting his house and hanging out with daughter Willa (Vivian Olyphant), and otherwise seems to have finally let go of the anger that his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea) was worried about for so long. Happily ever after, right?
Well, maybe. Because it’s here that “The Question” offers its big twist — and its big reward for fans of the series who wished City Primeval could have brought back more of the show’s familiar faces. As Raylan and Willa enjoy a day on a government-seized boat, we cut back to Kentucky, and to Walton Goggins as Raylan’s old frenemy Boyd Crowder. Boyd, unsurprisingly, has mastered the world of federal prison. A slippery man of many identities, he has gone back into preacher mode, and even had his swastika tattoo removed as a means of demonstrating what a changed man he is. He’s friendly with his Black cellmate, and seems to have the whole place wired. When a guard, Officer Ramirez(*), arrives to transport him to a hospital, Boyd seems perfectly compliant, not interested in causing any trouble.
(*) Ramirez is played by Luis Guzman, who co-starred in Out of Sight, aka the best of all movies adapted from the works of Raylan creator Elmore Leonard. More importantly for our purposes here, he also had a supporting role in Pronto, the 1997 TV-movie that was the first attempt to put Raylan (in the form of actor James LeGros) on screen.
But of course, this is Boyd Crowder we’re talking about, and of course Ramirez’s partner Officer Gerret (Ahna O’Reilly) has fallen in love with him and assists him in a prison break. And now we are back on the boat in Miami, Raylan ignoring his ringing phone to enjoy more time with his neglected daughter. He finally looks and sees that the call is coming from his old workplace in Lexington, and now there is just a hint of conflict on his face. Will he answer? Will he not?
The answer to “The Question” will depend on whether FX wants to make another sequel miniseries down the road. But Timothy Olyphant would definitely like to make it happen.
When Olyphant spoke with Rolling Stone shortly before the actors went on strike, we concluded with a discussion of how Goggins’ cameo came about, and why the experience of making City Primeval was positive enough for Olyphant to want to don Raylan’s Stetson again down the road.
“I heard that idea from [showrunners Dave Andron and Michael Dinner] before we started shooting,” he recalled. “In fact, that idea of the phone call at the very end, is he gonna pick up? None of this was my idea. The only thing I can pat myself on the back for was knowing it was a good idea when I heard it. ‘That’s a good ending. We can work toward that.'”
But he did have a big concern about bringing a beloved character from the old series into a show that otherwise focused largely on new additions to the Raylan Givens Cinematic Universe.
“I was also cautioning Dave and Michael, ‘Guys, if you bring Walt back at the very end of this story, you better fucking deliver on the first seven,” he said. “Because the worst thing that can happen is the audience feels, when they see Walt, Man, you guys put us through all this just to get to that?‘ So it was such a big swing, such a bold idea. I was super excited about it, and I knew Walt was interested. So I was thrilled by it. And it just made us dig deeper on every episode prior. I said, ‘You can’t end it like it feels like a layup, like we’re apologizing for something, right?’ Having now seen it all, I feel like if we were so lucky to come back in some way, I am just as excited to bring back characters from the original show as I am characters from this incarnation. I feel like the writers did an amazing job of making everybody feel like they’re part of the same world.”
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