Carla Gugino as Karen Goodall (née Sisco), the Assistant Director in the Marshals Service.[4] Reprising her role from the 2003 crime drama television series Karen Sisco, the character's surname was changed as FX did not own the rights to the Karen Sisco character or stories at the time at which the Justified episode in which she guest-starred initially aired.[5]
Richard Speight Jr. as Jed Berwind, an imprisoned Bennett henchman that Raylan seeks help from.
Steven Flynn as Emmitt Arnett, a Dixie Mafia higher-up who owes money to the Detroit Mob.
Linda Gehringer as Helen Givens, Raylan's deceased maternal aunt and stepmother that Arlo imagines talking to.
Boyd attacks Raylan when he refuses to give him Dickie Bennett for shootingAva, getting him arrested. Devil Lennox refuses Boyd's order to burn Dickie's rotten marijuana because it comes through Ava. Detroit Mob lieutenant Robert Quarles goes to Frankfort to demand Emmitt Arnett repay a loan, so Arnett sends his man Fletcher Nix to rob a local business. Raylan visits Arnett's office after learning Duffy installed the business' security system, where his secretary, on orders from Quarles, misleads Raylan with the location of a money handoff between Arnett and Nix. Raylan finds Nix waiting for him in his hotel room, though he outmaneuvers and shoots him. Quarles kills Arnett and his secretary so he can take over the former's business.
Knowing Boyd got himself arrested so he could kill Dickie in prison, Raylan changes his testimony to get Boyd released and has Dickie moved to solitary confinement. Boyd picks a fight to get placed next to him and bribes guard Ash Murphy to get into his cell, where he demands the location of Mags Bennett's remaining money. Dickie explains that it is being held by crime boss Ellstin Limehouse, who will only give it to him. Federal witness Walter Vondas tortures and kills the WITSEC agent who relocated him, planning to sell the locations of the other witnesses he moved. Art is assigned to protect Vondas, who realizes what happened when Vondas's car's GPS places him at the time and place of the murder. He arrests Vondas as hitmen arrive to kill the witness Rachel is guarding. Art arrives just in time to help her kill them.
Limehouse mocks Boyd about his backup of rotten marijuana. Boyd beats Devil for disobeying him and he begins to doubt Boyd's leadership. Boyd retakes a bar that was previously owned by Johnny Crowder. Murphy, having overheard Dickie talking to Boyd, agrees to help him escape for a portion of Mags's money. Raylan pursues Wade Messer after he steals for Glen Fogle, a sadistic drug supplier who works under Duffy. Messer's accomplice is arrested, so Fogle bails him out and kills him. Raylan suspects Fogle due to how easily he paid bail, so Duffy orders Fogle to kill him. He orders Messer to lure Raylan to his house, but he sees through the ruse and asks Messer to summon Fogle. He tries to make a deal when Raylan confronts him, enraging his henchman, and they shoot and kill each other. Raylan attacks Duffy for trying to have him killed and drops a bullet on him as a warning. An observing Quarles threatens Raylan, who takes a picture of him before leaving.
Quarles hires Devil to kill Boyd and take over his operation. Having befriended Dickie, Dewey Crowe jumps into the staged brawl that will get Dickie sent to the infirmary as part of the escape, forcing Murphy and prison doctor Lance to sneak them both out. Raylan hits Murphy with his car while confronting him. Dickie calls Limehouse and asks to pick the money up. With Lance pressing him to get the money, Lance's associates accompany him to the dropoff spot, where Limehouse and his lieutenant Errol Butler kill the men. Limehouse reveals to Dickie that Mags spent most of the money. As thanks to Limehouse for saving him, Dickie claims to have killed the men when Raylan arrives, being sent back to prison. Devil seemingly convinces Johnny to turn on Boyd, only for him to alert Boyd, who kills Devil when confronted.
Limehouse reveals to Errol that he lied to Dickie and kept Mags's money for himself. Winona tells Raylan she loves him but is tired of trying to change him. Desperate for money, Lance pretends to remove Dewey's kidneys and tells him he needs to buy them back. Dewey commits a series of meager robberies and shelters in the back room of a store after the owner pulls a gun. Local nurse Layla helps Raylan realize Dewey did not actually have his kidneys removed, and Dewey surrenders when Raylan explains this to him. A hospitalized Murphy dies of a stroke and Raylan realizes Layla was the only one monitoring him. Lance sedates him when he goes to her house and plans to harvest his organs, but Layla kills him for slowing them down. Raylan takes Lance's gun and kills her before she can finish him off. Boyd rejects Quarles's offer of partnership. Raylan returns home to find Winona gone, having left a goodbye note.
Quarles's man Tanner Dodd robs Boyd's drug stash house, which is witnessed by prostitute Ellen May. She identifies Tanner when Raylan questions her, but Tanner escapes after a struggle when Raylan confronts him. Limehouse deduces that Errol set up the robbery and warns him to ensure Tanner's silence. After learning Raylan sent his photo to the FBI, Quarles kills Brady Hughes, a kidnapped prostitute he has been beating for stress relief. Raylan learns that the money Winona returned is missing, and his state trooper friend Tom Bergen tracks her to her sister's house. She denies taking the money and tells Raylan she still loves him, but knows he will not change. Raylan realizes the courthouse's evidence clerk stole the money, who flees to Mexico with it.
Arlo, deteriorating mentally and believing Limehouse is hiding Raylan's deceased mother, tries to kill him and is beaten. Limehouse spares Tanner on the condition that he feeds him information about Quarles. Raylan moves into an apartment about the High Note bar, and Quarles fails to hire him, under the impression that he works for Boyd. Quarles bribes Harlan sheriff Tillman Napier to close Johnny's bar, so Boyd meets with Shelby Parlow and offers to back him for sheriff in the upcoming election. FBI agent Jerry Barkley comes to Lexington and warns Raylan to stop investigating above his jurisdiction, but he ignores him and tracks down Detroit boss Theo Tonin's son Sammy when he comes to Kentucky, discovering that he hates Quarles. Knowing Sammy will not oppose him, Raylan shuts down several of Quarles's profitable venues. Quarles orders Sammy to implicate Raylan as corrupt, then tracks Gary Hawkins to Tulsa.
Barkley overhears Sammy claiming Raylan works for Boyd. Quarles kills Gary on the lawn of his old house with the bullet Raylan threw at Duffy. Limehouse approaches him, but he turns his business down. Barkley and David Vasquez confront Raylan with corruption accusations, while Quarles and Duffy frame him as unstable when called in for questioning, marking him as a suspect in Gary's murder. Winona finds the gun that killed Gary in his house, which she uses to clear Raylan's name but asks him to not look for her again. Napier and Tanner frame Boyd for a bombing attempt on the former's life, getting him arrested. Theo cuts Quarles out of Detroit due to his repeated failures, so he starts using oxycodone to cope with his stress and agrees to talk to Limehouse.
Delroy Baker, Ellen May's pimp, forces his prostitutes to rob a bank, though one is killed and he kills another to ensure his safety. Ellen May escapes and runs to Ava, who kills Delroy when he comes to kill her. Errol and Tanner rob the man who sold the latter the bomb, and he tricks Tanner into stepping on an S-mine. Errol kills him before he can disarm it and leaves Tanner to die, so he calls the police for help. He accidentally drops his gun before Raylan can get information about Quarles from him, triggering the mine and killing him. Boyd attends a sheriff debate after being released, where he sways the crowd to Parlow's side. He allows Ava to take over Audrey's, Delroy's brothel. Raylan sees Errol deliver money to Tanner's mother and realizes he was under Limehouse's employ. He asks Limehouse about Quarles but is turned away.
Napier wins, but because Boyd convinced his sister to take a job with the county, the position is temporarily given to Parlow due to nepotism laws. Raylan learns that Dickie may be released from jail due to lack of evidence for his crimes and fails to get Jed Berwind to testify. At Dickie's hearing, Raylan falters in his testimony when recounting Helen Givens's murder, giving up and allowing him to be released. Brady's friend Donovan confronts Quarles. He terrifies Donovan into dropping his gun by telling him how his father would prostitute him as a boy, and how Theo saved him and helped him kill his father. He tries to duel Raylan at the High Note, but bartender Lindsey Salazar fends him off with a shotgun before she and Raylan have sex. Quarles later strips naked in his hotel room and approaches a restrained Donovan.
Theo sends a pair of hitmen to kill Quarles, who raid his hotel room with Duffy to find Donovan tied up in the bathroom. Raylan and Art find and arrest the hitmen. After his release, Dickie hires drug runner Rodney "Hot Rod" Dunham and his men to get Mags's money back, unaware that Tim and Rachel are pressing Hot Rod to inform on him. He gets the money's location from Ellen May, but Tim and Rachel intervene before they can make a move and confiscate Dickie's portion of Mags's money. Quarles robs and kills a pair of drug dealers in Boyd's employ, but does not get enough money to hide with Limehouse. He arranges a drop with Napier at Audrey's, who gives the location to Boyd when pressed, and Quarles is captured upon arrival. Dickie convinces Errol to help him get Mags's money, but he tells Dickie they will need Boyd's help.
Quarles tricks his guards and escapes. Boyd warily agrees to help Dickie after learning from Errol that Mags's money may be in a Harlan bank. Assuming Quarles will go to Duffy, Boyd instructs him to plant a bomb in Quarles's car. Aware of Boyd's plan, Limehouse tells Quarles to kill him after the robbery, secretly hoping they will kill each other. Arlo hallucinates Helen telling him to incapacitate Ava, which he does before fleeing, and she calls Boyd for help. Dickie incapacitates Johnny after Boyd leaves and forces Errol to reveal who has Mags's money: Loretta. Raylan is waiting for him at Loretta's, having been tipped by Limehouse, and he shoots Dickie. Quarles goes to Johnny's bar to kill Boyd, only for Duffy to detonate the bomb, which fails to kill Quarles and catches a nearby Bergen's attention. Raylan arrives shortly after to find Bergen dying and Quarles gone, with Johnny claiming Quarles shot Bergen.
Quarles kidnaps a pair of boys and calls Theo, who demands half a million dollars for him to return to Detroit safely but permanently cuts ties with him. Limehouse spares Errol despite his repeated betrayals but warns him to leave Kentucky. Holding the boys hostage, Quarles forces Raylan to go with him to Limehouse, where he tries to force him to give him money. Raylan mentions Bergen's death, and Quarles claims he did not kill him. Errol ambushes Quarles and they shoot each other, while Limehouse cuts the latter's arm off with a cleaver. As he dies, he reveals that Arlo killed Bergen. Parlow receives an anonymous tip about Devil's murder from Johnny, wanting revenge on Boyd for getting him crippled. Boyd and Arlo are arrested, and he tells Arlo he sees him as a father. Arlo confesses to both Bergen and Devil's murders and Boyd is released. Raylan discusses the situation with Winona. As he leaves, he mentions his belief that Arlo, in his delirium, thought Quarles was Boyd and Bergen was Raylan.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 96% with an average score of 9.6 out of 10 based on 28 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Justified continues to dispense its brand of spare dialogue and sudden violence, culminating in a very satisfying finale."[21] On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim.[22]
Robert Bianco of USA Today praised this season, writing: "As you'd hope from a show based on Elmore Leonard's work, the plots snap, the dialogue crackles and—to press on with the point—the characters pop."[23] Verne Gay of Newsday said of the third season, "Lean, laconic, precise and as carefully word-crafted as any series on TV, there's pretty much nothing here to suggest that the third season won't be as good as the second -- or better."[24] However, Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker was critical of the third season, writing: "Extended storytelling has its own conventions and clichés, all of which appeared in Season 3... it echoed every cable drama, in the worst way."[25]
The third season averaged 2.391 million viewers and a 0.9 rating in the 18–49 demographic.[28]
Home media release
The third season was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on December 31, 2012,[29] in region 2 on February 25, 2013,[30] and in region 4 on March 6, 2013.[31] Special features on the season three set include nine audio commentaries by cast and crew, deleted scenes, four behind-the-scenes featurettes, and outtakes.[32]
Jensen, Jeff (April 14, 2015). "'Justified' series finale: EW review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 13, 2023. The crackling neo-western pulp of Justified always wore its heft and depth as casually as Raylan Givens wore his Stetson.
Matthews, Liam (January 12, 2023). "Everything to Know About Justified: City Primeval". TV Guide. Retrieved January 13, 2023. Timothy Olyphant is getting his cowboy hat out of storage to play Raylan Givens, the witty, perpetually pissed U.S. Marshal he played for six seasons on FX's neo-Western crime drama Justified.
