Justified
The Gunfighter
TV Flash files “The Gunfighter” as a desk essential hour — Justified (2010–2015) on FX, season 3, episode 1, aired 2012-01-17, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E01: listed hour 27 of 78 in the Justified guide, first listed hour of season 3. It aired 2012-01-17 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Bloody Harlan” (S02E13). Next is “Cut Ties” (S03E02).
Essential hour: “The Gunfighter”. The Gunfighter is a Western job title as the show's weekly poem — marshal craft still allergic to fat.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The arrival of a dangerous new player in Lexington puts Raylan on a collision course with a sadistic Dixie Mafia hitman.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Gunfighter sit in the Justified guide?
S03E01 is listed hour 27 of 78 — first listed hour of season 3, season 3 episode 1.
When did Justified S03E01 air?
The Gunfighter aired 2012-01-17 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I need Elmore Leonard first?
No. The series is developed from the Raylan Givens stories; Leonard cool is the dialect, not a reading list.
In the series
Why this series still plays
U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens returns to Harlan County, where grudges never cool. Graham Yost's Elmore Leonard FX western is Olyphant's hat and Walton Goggins's Boyd as a long flirtation with bullets. Six seasons of lean crime poetry, regional voice, and a finale people still cite as closing time done right. Talk as much as shootouts.
The group chat is still on Boyd. Graham Yost developed Elmore Leonard's Raylan stories for FX (March 16, 2010): U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens returns to Kentucky coal country where old flames and feuds never cool. Timothy Olyphant's hat, Walton Goggins's Boyd Crowder as a long flirtation with bullets, Joelle Carter, Nick Searcy, the Harlan bench. Drawls hide gunfire. Harlan County is the real co-lead. (Spoiler-free, mostly: the county does not cool.) Lana can photograph the hat. **The ship is Raylan/Boyd and the…
Filed against
- Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens
Timothy Olyphant’s jawline enforced Deadwood as Seth Bullock — neo-western cool with deadly timing on HBO’s mud-and-profanity masterpiece. Lawman restraint against camp chaos, Milch’s syntax as civic music, three seasons the network cut…
- Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder
Walton Goggins irradiated antihero cool as the Ghoul on Fallout and snaked through The White Lotus as Rick Hatchett — vault satire, wasteland Western, then HBO appointment tourism with a body count in the brochure. Character-actor…
- Nick Searcy as Art Mullen
Nick Searcy’s Art Mullen kept Justified’s Harlan County marshals from becoming only a hat and a Boyd Crowder flirtation — Graham Yost’s Elmore Leonard FX western, Olyphant’s Raylan, six seasons of lean crime poetry, regional voice, a…
- Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder
Joelle Carter’s Ava Crowder gave Justified its Harlan County heat — grudges that never cool, Graham Yost’s Elmore Leonard FX western, Olyphant’s hat and Walton Goggins’s Boyd as a long flirtation with bullets. Six seasons of lean crime…
- Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks
Erica Tazel held Harlan's other ledger as Rachel Brooks on Justified — U.S. Marshal gravity, Elmore Leonard drawl, and Graham Yost's FX western that treated a parole officer as the county's conscience with a badge-adjacent stare. TV Flash…
- Jacob Pitts as Tim Gutterson
Jacob Pitts’s Tim Gutterson put a sniper’s patience into Justified — Harlan County grudges, Elmore Leonard crime poetry, Raylan’s hat sharing the hour with Boyd’s long flirtation with bullets. FX western as lean regional voice. TV Flash…