In 1983, a man falls from a plane to his death. In the present, Raylan arrests fugitive Jody Adair and puts him in the trunk of his car as a favor to bondswoman Sharon Edmunds. Teen criminal Roz finds a bag behind a wall of Arlo Givens's abandoned house, but she is chased away by Harlanconstable Bob Sweeney and steals Raylan's car. He and Bob track the car to a junkyard, where Roz and Jody attack them, though they disarm them and Raylan re-arrests Jody. Raylan finds an ID for "Waldo Truth" in the bag and asks an imprisoned Arlo about it, though he says nothing. A drug dealer working for Boyd finds religion through traveling Signs preacher Billy St. Cyr. Ex-military police officer and old friend of Boyd's Colton "Colt" Rhodes comes to Harlan and begins working as his enforcer. They press the dealer into giving them money, though Colt kills him when he misunderstands Boyd's orders. A prisoner mentions he plans to look into the bag, so Arlo kills him.
Ellen May joins Billy's congregation, and Boyd realizes his sister Cassie is running things when he confronts him. He catches one of Duffy's men dealing heroin on his territory and tries to leverage this for a partnership with the Dixie Mafia, but Duffy kills the man to avoid this. Raylan and Art meet Truth, only to realize he is a man paid by Truth's widow to pretend to be him so his family could cash his welfare checks. She explains that, the day the real Truth disappeared, he left with a fugitive named Drew Thompson, who authorities believed was the man who fell from the plane. Art realizes from a scar Truth's widow gave him being present on the plane man's body that Thompson used Truth to fake his death. Lindsey Salazar's ex-husband Randall Kusik comes to the High Note to see her.
Boyd sends Colt and his man Jimmy Tolan to attack the St. Cyrs, but the latter is bitten by snakes left out for them. When he does not die, Boyd realizes Cassie has been milking Billy's snakes of their venom and reveals this before his congregation. Humiliated, he takes Boyd's offer of an unsafe snake, being bitten and dying. Lindsey explains to Raylan that she and Randall used to run criminal scams together, which he went to jail for though she reformed. Raylan talks to Thompson's widow, but she is kidnapped by a Detroit man while he is distracted by a corrupt FBI agent. Raylan forces her location out of the agent, who commits suicide after giving it up. The marshals rescue her before she can be tortured for Thompson's location, and she explains that Thompson told her he was going to die the day before he vanished after seeing Theo Tonin kill a federal witness. Raylan returns to his apartment to find his money stolen and Lindsey gone.
Randall and Lindsey get set up to get into cockfighting. Lindsey calls Raylan after Randall beats a cashier who was flirting with her, and he intercepts them and fights Randall. Lindsey incapacitates them both and leaves, while Raylan learns that the couple already bought chickens with his money. Ellen May returns to Audrey's, but Ava wants to have her killed to prevent anyone else knowing about the murder of Delroy Baker, which Boyd is against until Ellen May mentions Delroy's murder in public. He instructs Colt to kill her, but when he stops at a gas station to do heroin, she vanishes.
Colt sees Ellen May being approached by a police car on security footage while telling Boyd that he killed her as ordered. Shelby Parlow denies knowing her when confronted, but is secretly harboring her. Jerry Barkley, secretly working for Detroit underboss Nick Augustine, is killed by him after the marshals take the Thompson case from the FBI. He orders Duffy to find Thompson, who asks Boyd to do it. Roz tells Raylan her stepfather Josiah Cairn sent her to find the bag, who tells him that Thompson injured himself jumping from the plane, so Arlo and Bo Crowder sent him to the "hill people." Raylan and Boyd are captured upon going to them separately, but Raylan saves them by explaining his mother's cousin is amongst them. She lets them go and claims Thompson no longer lives with them. Raylan goes to see Josiah, but only find his severed foot and his ankle monitor.
Raylan and Parlow track down Roz, who explains that men abducted Josiah and cut off his foot to neutralize his ankle monitor. Arlo turns out to be the one who had Josiah captured by telling his lawyer that he was Thompson. Raylan and Parlow rescue him, and he reveals that Hunter Mosley knows who Thompson is. Colt beats up Johnny Crowder's favorite prostitute Teri, believing she has Ellen May's location, and she blames it on one of her clients when Johnny questions her. He and Colt brutalize the man. Wanting to find information on Thompson, Ava pressures Ellen May's client Arnold into getting her and Boyd invited to Tillman Napier's elite swingers party. Boyd proposes to her and she accepts.
A flashback shows Jody escaping from Edmunds and killing her. Her body is found in the present, and Jody attacks his ex-wife's friend while trying to find her. Raylan rescues her, but Jody, having heard from Edmunds that Raylan lives at the High Note, confronts him there and Raylan kills him. Johnny realizes that Colt beat up Teri and that he failed to kill Ellen May. At Napier's party, Boyd meets the Clover Hillers, an elite society of Harlan businessmen who control the county's criminal economy, including Boyd's ventures. They order him to kill Black Pike Coal owner Frank Browning. Raylan decides to talk to Hunter when Arlo refuses to give up Thompson.
Raylan offers Hunter the deal, but he deduces Raylan also offered it to Arlo and stabs him. A dying Arlo refuses to reveal Thompson's identity to Raylan. Colt is contacted by Ellen May demanding money, so he robs and kills a drug dealer. Tim's addict friend witnesses the murder, so Colt kills him as well. He leaves the money at the drop-off spot, which Johnny, actually the one who contacted him, collects. When Browning refuses to pay Boyd for protection, he tells Theo that both Browning and a Clover Hiller could be Thompson. Theo sends a hitman that kills them both, but the hitman goes to kill Boyd when he learns of his deception. Raylan intercepts the hitman and kills him. Boyd calls Augustine and convinces him to work with him over Duffy. When the Clover Hillers confront Boyd, he reveals he had Detroit dismantle their organizations and blackmails them for money. Arlo dies and Raylan contemplates his corpse in a morgue.
Tim realizes that Colt killed his friend based on a text he sent before he died, following Colt and narrowly stopping him from hurting Cassie when she comes looking for Ellen May. Johnny tells Boyd about the situation with Colt, who he forces to admit the truth about Ellen May and that he went to Parlow. While taking Hunter to a supermax, Raylan presses him for Thompson's identity, only for Hunter to escape the car and try to commit suicide. Raylan recovers him and Parlow joins them, only for them to be waylaid by Bob getting into a gunfight with the Clover Hillers. As Raylan defuses it, Parlow thanks Hunter, who addresses him as "Drew". Bob mentions that Parlow once took responsibility for Hunter killing a Crowder, and Raylan runs outside to find that Thompson stole Bob's car. Boyd goes to Thompson's house to find the marshals searching it, realizing his identity.
With the only airfield out of Harlan being watched, Ellen May and Thompson go to Ellstin Limehouse, who decides to capture and sell them. Boyd agrees to buy them both, planning to upsell Thompson to Detroit, only for Limehouse to up his price when Boyd arrives. While he wants to take Ellen May to protect Ava, she convinces him to buy Thompson. Colt restrains Thompson in a field for Augustine to pick up, only for the marshals, alerted by Johnny, to arrive just in time and rescue him.
Boyd convinces a furious Augustine to let him help find Thompson. While Tim and Art distract Colt and Detroit men with a decoy convoy, Thompson, Raylan and Rachel hole up in Arlo's house. Thompson explains that he trusted Arlo to burn Truth's ID, but was unaware that he held onto it. They move him from Arlo's house, but Bob, having put motion detectors in the walls after Roz broke in, arrives after they leave. A Detroit henchman arrives and begins to beat him to try and get Thompson's location, but when he lets his guard down, Bob stabs him in the leg and kills him with his own gun before joining Raylan. Augustine reveals Johnny's deception to Ava. Detroit man Ethan Picker and his men go to kill Thompson, but Raylan reveals that he is already gone and the police are on their way. They leave, and Raylan reveals to Art that, at Bob's suggestion, Rachel and Thompson escaped Harlan by train.
Thompson refuses to enter WITSEC until Ellen May is safe, which a Detroit mole relays to Augustine. He offers to pay Boyd and give him Johnny if he gets Ellen May. Ava confronts Limehouse, who reveals he already let Ellen May go to avoid conflict. Ellen May goes to the St. Cyr church. Raylan overhears Boyd telling Jimmy her location, so he sends Tim to get her, while Boyd sends Colt to kill her. Tim arrives just in time and kills him. While Ellen May goes into WITSEC with Thompson, Boyd and Ava decide to move Delroy's body before Ellen May can testify. Picker poses as a deliveryman to scope out Winona's house.
Raylan visits Winona and finds Augustine's men demanding he take them to Thompson. He grabs a gun and kills them. Despite Art's warnings that he will be fired if he goes after Augustine, he forces Boyd to take him to him, where he tries to convince him to turn himself in. Augustine refuses and declares intent to kill Sammy Tonin and become Theo's successor. Raylan leaves and greets an arriving Sammy, having called him ahead of time, and allows Picker and his men to kill Augustine. The police find Delroy's body after receiving a tip, so Boyd waives the debt of Clover Hiller and funeral home director Lee Paxton so he can steal Delroy's body. Ava goes alone to dispose of it, only to be arrested by new sheriff Nick Mooney, the entire thing having been a setup by Paxton after the police were tipped by Cassie. Theo retires and Sammy takes over, who puts Duffy in charge of his area's operations. Duffy asks Boyd to distribute heroin in Harlan. Raylan repairs the hole in Arlo's wall as Art calls him to reveal Augustine's death, in which he does not admit any part.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 100% with an average score of 9.5 out of 10 based on 25 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bolstered by witty, efficient dialogue and confident storytelling, Justified makes a strong case for consideration among cable television's top dramas."[19] On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim.[20]
Tom Gliatto of People Weekly praised this season, writing: "What gives the show its kick is the gleefully childish lack of repentance shown by most of these rascals—countered by Olyphant's coolly amused control."[20] Verne Gay of Newsday praised this season also, writing: "Character—as the old saying goes—is a long-standing habit, and their habits remain very much intact. The same could be said of Justified.", and Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine praised this season, writing: "Justified is the strongest, liveliest, and most tonally accurate adaptation of the writer's work to date, and the latest season bracingly suggests that isn't likely to change anytime soon."[21]
Ratings
The fourth season averaged 2.434 million viewers and a 0.9 rating in the 18–49 demographic.[22]
Home media release
The fourth season was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on December 17, 2013,[23] in region 2 on August 12, 2013,[24] and in region 4 on August 8, 2013.[25] Special features on the season four set include ten audio commentaries by cast and crew, deleted scenes, five behind-the-scenes featurettes, and outtakes.[26]
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.
