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"The Hatchet Tour"
Season 4, Episode 9
The Hatchet Tour
Air date March 5, 2013
Written by Taylor Elmore and Leonard Chang
Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter
U.S. Viewers 2.32 million
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"The Hatchet Tour" is the ninth episode of the fourth season, and the 48th episode in the series overall. It was written by Taylor Elmore and Leonard Chang and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter. It first aired on March 5, 2013.

Plot[]

Synopsis[]

Boyd discovers he still has an Ellen May problem, while Raylan goes off-book to do some dynamite-fishing with unexpected results.

Recap[]

At the drug dealer's apartment, scene of the double murder, Tim is not happy to find his junkie Army buddy Mark has also been shot dead. Lead detective Yorn urges Tim to provide any leads he can as to the killer since the last thing the dying Mark did was send Tim a single word text message, "Bagram." The deputy marshal doesn't have much to say, but the wheels are turning as he recalls the earlier meeting between Mark and Colton at the veterans center support group.

Hunter, meanwhile, is escorted out of prison by Deputy U.S. Marshal Nelson Dunlop... and into the custody of Raylan. "Aw hell no!" a startled Hunter mutters. "What is this bullshit?" Raylan just smiles.

Back at the marshals' office, Art is furious to learn that Nelson was stupid enough to let Arlo's son escort Arlo's killer off to the supermax in Leoville. "Where is he?" he demands of Tim who is tracking him via GPS. "Tell me he's in Leoville dropping off the prisoner like a good boy!" "His transponder's putting him in Harlan," Tim tells Art. When Nelson asks if Art wants him to go get Raylan, the Chief tells him to sit down and "get used to purging old case files until I figure out how to like you again!" Art instructs Tim to call the fugitive marshal and "articulate to him my extreme displeasure!" He adds. "Let him know that if anything happens to Sheriff Hunter while in his custody, he will no longer be a Marshal... and neither will I!" He continues to rant as others stay out of his way.

In transit to the Leoville supermax, Hunter wonders aloud if Raylan is going to shoot him down "while trying to escape." Raylan explains "I am a Deputy U.S. Marshal executing a prisoner escort! Do you think I'm stupid, and want to wind up in your old cell when this is over?"

Raylan's cell rings. It's Tim, calling to say that Nelson "is looking at a bright future in mall security, thanks to you." Raylan assures his colleague that he's going to drop Hunter off safe and sound at his new prison destination once he gets some information out of him, like who hired him to kill Arlo. Tim warns Raylan not to hurt Hunter or it will be Nelson's job, and that Art "has locals out looking for you." Tim offers to stall Art a bit, and come up to Harlan to help out, as he has something else he wants to look into.

Raylan stops at the Duffy Wynn-ebago and hauls his prisoner inside to see what happens when he puts Duffy in the same room with Hunter. What happens is that Duffy asks him if he's got any particular ideas about what to do with Hunter, while the former sheriff is standing within inches of them both. Raylan relates a story from his youth about Arlo starting a Hatfield-and-McCoy-type feud over a neighbor's dog crapping in his yard. But the older Hunter has a different perspective of that event, explaining that Arlo was defending his wife Frances' honor, and it was Frances who called a meeting of all the Harlan factions so they could hash out all their issues. Raylan, tellingly, for once doesn't have a snarky comeback. Instead, he tells the Dixie Mafia chieftain and his omnipresent gun thug Mike that Hunter "may be the only person alive who knows Drew Thompson." Wynn starts paying attention, and when Raylan tries to learn if Hunter killed Arlo on orders from the Dixie Mafia, Wynn is genuinely surprised to learn that Arlo has passed on. He offers Raylan condolences but denies having anything to do with the prison hit on Arlo. Raylan believes Wynn and pats him on the leg for offering his sympathies.

Elsewhere, Boyd and Ava are house hunting in Clover Hill. They walk through a beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood. "It's like a fairy tale," Ava gasps. She then realizes that her mother used to clean this very house. The snobby real estate agent suggests that the pair might be interested in something a little more ... within their means. Boyd flashes his suitcase full of cash, more than enough to buy the place outright. The happily engaged couple leave as Ava tells off the shocked real estate agent on the way out.

Raylan is back in the car with Hunter, and tells his prisoner that Wynn will send someone for him in Leoville. "You'll die in prison, Hunter, sooner than later." They talk more and Raylan tells him that the deal stands. "Give me Drew and write your own ticket to a better place." Hunter nods — then throws himself out of the car as Raylan jams on his brakes. But instead of trying to escape, Hunter, with a look of deliverance on his face, prepares for suicide-by-oncoming-long-haul-semi. Raylan pulls the ex-sheriff out of the way just before he is squashed to death. "What are you so afraid of that you'd rather die here than give me what I'm after?" the marshal demands as he administers a beating, with a kick or two, to Hunter by the side of the road. Hunter asks what Raylan's doing, and the marshal responds, quoting his late father, "I'm trying to knock some Goddamned sense into you."

Back at Audrey's, Ava leads Judge Executive Arnold blindfolded into a bedroom in the whore's trailer. When he's allowed to pull off the blindfold, there's Boyd who says "Surprise!" An unhappy Arnold, sensing new trouble, responds, "Goddamn it!"

Cassie St. Cyr arrives in the reception area of Audrey's looking for Ellen May and tells Ava that the troubled whore called a former parishioner seeking guidance... just yesterday.

Ava runs back to the trailer and interrupts Boyd's interrogation of Arnold about a lead to Drew, and tells him, "We got a problem!"

Out on the road, Shelby pulls Raylan over and asks about Hunter. "I'm supposed to take you in and convey you to the marshals' service," Shelby explains. There's much palaver, mostly between Raylan and Shelby. In the end, the sheriff decides to accompany Raylan and Hunter to help out where he can and "see what's what."

At Johnny's bar, Boyd and Ava confront Colton about Ellen May. Colton still insists Ellen May is dead and accuses Cassie of lying, so Boyd sends Colton out to bring Cassie in for further questioning while he looks in another direction.

Colton, from his truck, watches Boyd leaving for town while Tim, suspecting that Boyd's muscle had something to do with the death of his buddy Mark, watches Colton from across the road. Colton fixes, goes briefly on the nod, then drives off as Tim follows.

At Audrey's, Teri has called Johnny to tell him about the conversation between Ava and Cassie she'd overheard. Johnny presses for more exact details.

Raylan, Hunter, and Shelby ride along as the two lawmen and the prisoner in the rear seat discuss a variety of subjects, including the ancient Harlan dog poop confrontation. Shelby remembers it well, and confirms Hunter's recollection of that event, giving Raylan a new perspective of his late father's actions and sense of family honor, as he explains his father was reacting to the neighbor disrespecting Raylan's mother. Hunter talks about his long ago killing of Henry Crowder "for raping, torturing, and murdering my niece," adding one thing about feuds is that "they ain't done 'til they're done!" Raylan is reflecting on the new information about his father as Hunter reveals a bit of his own personal credo. "I'd put down Henry Crowder again, whatever it took, again and again, same way each time," he says with grim conviction. "Once you make a decision, set down a path, you follow it right to the end... least that's the way I always saw it." "Hunter, are you trying to tell us this is all about honor for you?" With even more conviction, Hunter declaims "I'm talking about who we are. That's why we do what we do."

Back at the bar, Boyd returns to tell Ava and Johnny he couldn't find Cassie. When Boyd and Ava start wondering what's taking Colton so long, Johnny says, "You can't trust Colt," dropping the news that Colton lied about killing Ellen May. Boyd senses that his cousin knows more than he's saying, and urges Johnny to please provide the missing pieces to this puzzle, pointedly telling him, "Why don't you start from the beginning?"

The two outlaws end up in Boyd's truck as Johnny continues, explaining, "I didn't want to accuse him without something solid." He defends his decision not to speak up earlier by saying that since Colton is Boyd's friend, he didn't know what to do.

Colton finds Cassie at what remains of the Last Chance Holiness Church. She looks at him closely and says, "I know you... you're hurtin', medicated, trying to numb the pain of your sins." He advances toward her. "You come seeking solace?" she asks. "I come looking for Ellen May," he explains. She reassures him that the woman isn't there, and tries to minister to the drug addict, but Colton starts to choke her, demanding to know where the missing whore is, asking Cassie if she was the one who sent him the blackmail text. Suddenly the command "Let her go!" is heard. Tim enters with pistol drawn. "Did you kill my friend?" the marshal asks. Colton releases Cassie, and stands silent before deliberately drawing his own pistol and letting it hang by his side. The stand-off continues before Boyd arrives to smooth over the tense situation, telling his henchman to put his gun away. Colton complies, and as he exits past the lawman, he sneers at Tim and insolently fakes a "Bagram cough" as he had when he, Mark and Tim had first met at the VA Center.

Outside, Boyd relieves Colton of his keys and tosses them to Johnny.

At the hunting cabin, Constable Bob Sweeney stands watch. Impatiently he knocks on the door and is met by a nervous, shotgun-wielding Lee Paxton. The funeral home owner dismisses him with extreme condescension. Alone out on the porch, an ego-bruised Bob storms back the front door with gun drawn and confronts Lee and Gerald, who's also holed up in the cabin. The situation quickly escalates and when Raylan rolls up on the house, Bob has retrieved a short-barreled automatic rifle from the "Go bag" in his vehicle and is exchanging gunfire with the two Clover Hillers. Raylan finds himself in the ironic position of breaking up a high-volume gunfight in which, fortunately for all concerned, no one is wounded. "They just kept pressing my buttons!" Bob screams. Raylan cools everyone down, has the participants disarm and ushers them inside the lodge.

Shelby, who was supposed to be covering the rear of the cabin, slips with drawn pistol into the backseat of the marshal's car. Hunter tells him, "Sorry about Arlo. Should have been clean and easy." Shelby smiles and says, "He was a tough old bird, that guy." The two old friends casually talk about secrets kept during the ride up to the hunting lodge. "What now, Drew?" Hunter asks Shelby. Suspicions confirmed! Shelby/Drew thanks Hunter for keeping his secret all these years and, most especially, his silence in the last few hours as they were driving with Raylan. Shelby/Drew gives the surprised marshal's prisoner his handcuff keys. "Now I pull the ripcord for real. I'm grateful for what you've done. I truly am." Telling Hunter, "You take care now," Shelby exits the marshal's vehicle.

Inside the hunting lodge, Raylan is trying to calm matters between Bob, Lee and Gerald and find out what they know about Drew Thompson. When Gerald makes a snide remark about the jailbird ex-sheriff, Bob jumps in with one of his TMI spiels and mentions that Shelby and Hunter had been so helpful to him in his youth and later as a law enforcement recruit. He also mentions how, years ago, Shelby had taken the fall for something Hunter had done. That gives Raylan pause as he realizes that Drew Thompson was in his car. But when he gets outside, his car has a flat tire and Bob's well-stocked "patrol cruiser" is nowhere on sight. Hunter, however, is still there, hands free and casually sprawled across the backseat with a foot on the open window. "Guess we about hashed through all the bullshit now, didn't we, Raylan?" Raylan looks about and directs Bob to keep an eye on Hunter. "Just keep an eye on him!"

In his office, Boyd quizzes a subdued Colton about the supposed killing of Ellen May. He has Colton hand him his .45 pistol. When he wants Colton to do a reenactment of his actions, the other man squirms uncomfortably as Johnny quietly slips in. Boyd presses his 9mm pistol into the middle of Colton's forehead. "Why are you lying to me, Colt?" he asks. "We know you didn't kill Ellen May. The lying stops right now!" As Johnny looks on, Colton finally apologizes and admits that he messed up. Boyd pulls the trigger. "Click." Colton also explains that he went to Shelby for help. Boyd is shocked to hear that Shelby knew about Ellen May the entire time. The sheriff he was instrumental in getting elected has been lying to him, too. Johnny takes Colton away.

In his own marshal's vehicle, Tim tells Cassie why he didn't shoot Colton. "When I take him down, his eyes will be clear." He gives Cassie his card as he gets a cell call.

Boyd knows what he has to do. Over Ava's objections, Boyd hands her some money and sends her on her way to parts unspecified, while he heads off to Shelby's house.

When he gets there and slowly enters, calling Shelby's name. He finds a crimson dot focused on his upper chest. "Hello, Boyd," Raylan says as he turns on the light. There's a large delegation of law enforcement in the room. Raylan tells the others, KSP, Tim and Nelson, "Not him." As he is being cuffed, Boyd figures it out. "Drew Goddamned Thompson!" he exclaims, shaking his head.

Out in the yard, Rylan removes a re-cuffed Hunter from the backseat of his repaired vehicle, and discusses why the prisoner didn't run. "In the car on the way up," Raylan belatedly deduces, "you were telling Shelby you'd never talk." "Like I said," Hunter replies, "That's who we are." Hunter apologizes for killing Arlo and Raylan says, "Aww, don't be. We had a nice visit before he passed... told me that he loved me and that he thought I was a good boy. Said he was sorry for all the times he was a dick and was going to miss seeing me grow up, but he'd be watching over me every day." Hunter plays along. "Sounds like Arlo, all right," he says. "What can I say?" Raylan continues. "The man never disappointed me." Hunter's Parthian words to Raylan: "You listen to what your mama taught you and not that old son of a bitch, you may turn out all right. But I wouldn't count on it 'cause I think we both know whose voice it is makes you do what you do."

Raylan nods at the man as Hunter is sent off to his new prison only a little worse for wear, then turns back to collect Tim, telling him, "Let's go find Drew Thompson."

Appearances[]

First Appearances[]

  • No first appearances in this episode.

Deaths[]

  • No deaths in this episode.

Production[]

Cast[]

Starring cast

Guest stars

Co-stars

Screenshot Gallery[]

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