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"The Trash and the Snake"
Season 6, Episode 4
The Trash and the Snake
Air date February 10, 2015
Written by Chris Provenzano and Ingrid Escajeda
Directed by Adam Arkin
U.S. Viewers 1.65 million
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"The Trash and the Snake" is the fourth episode of the sixth season, and the 69th episode in the series overall. It was written by Chris Provenzano and Ingrid Escajeda and directed by Adam Arkin. It first aired on February 10, 2015.

Plot[]

Summary[]

Raylan declares war on the deadly men who are forcing Harlan's most valuable real estate to change hands, while Boyd and Duffy seek out a crackpot safecracker to help do their dirty work.

Recap[]

Boyd and Ava awaken in their hotel room after a night of, if not passion, then resumed intimacy. Boyd gets a text to meet Wynn "downstairs." When he leaves, she dresses and goes to meet Raylan in the hotel's stairwell. He tells her he's trying to help her to not go back to prison, and in that spirit, she reveals that Avery Markham paid her and Boyd a not-too-friendly visit the previous afternoon, and describes Markham's associate, whom Raylan recognizes as Ty Walker. Before they part, Ava subtly gets Raylan to acknowledge that the two of them have a "special relationship."

When she returns to her room, she is surprised to find a suspicious Katherine Hale awaiting her, inviting Ava to meet her for lunch in her suite. All the while, Katherine smiles sweetly, but Ava feels threatened... and with good cause. 

Raylan visits Art for breakfast and a discussion about Art's recollections of the historical dealings involving Avery Markham and Grady Hale, Katherine's late husband. He shares some scuttlebutt from that time that when Grady was busted and imprisoned, it was Avery who had ratted him out. Art warns his Deputy to be extra cautious.

Raylan and Tim pay a call on the real estate broker Calhoun Schreier and have him decode his ledger of Markham's land transactions. They learn that Betty and John-O Hutchins recently died in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning. Tim and Raylan take special interest since those names were in the ledger with a marking that indicated that they'd refused both offers from Markham's agents to buy their farm.

Ava and Katherine are having their girls' lunch in a hotel room where the widow Hale reveal she knows a lot about her guest's past, and asked the younger woman how it felt when she blew a hole in her husband's chest. She then lifts the lid off a silver salver and reveals four lines of a white powder and a short straw. Ava demurs saying even the pharmaceutical grade cocaine being offered "has never been my thing." Katherine, smiling with exaggerated sweetness, tells her "believe me you are going to need it for what I've got planned."

Wynn and Boyd are on their way to meet with one of Duffy's specialist retainers... Wynn explains that the man is an extremely annoying type and that Boyd is going to want to punch him, but to remember that "he is very, very good." The door is answered by a long-tressed dirty blonde, Bridget Mago, wearing Daisy Dukes and a halter top revealing a number of tattoos, and sporting a boa constrictor named "Rudy" as a neckwear fashion accessory. Boyd and Wynn's safe-cracking specialist, Lewis Mago, the propriety.

While the two women are shopping at a jewelry store and being chatty, using the ol' distract 'n' switch ruse, Katherine swaps out an expensive diamond tennis bracelet that Winston was showing her. The two women leave and drive off, having a hoot about what they'd just done. (Uh oh... Ava may be too wired to realize it but she is now a parole-breaking accomplice to a felony.) As they drive away from the jewelry store, hooting a bit about their escapade, Katherine discloses that she and Winston, for whom she has little regard, go way back to when she was married to Grady Hale.

Raylan and Tim visit the Hutchins place and feel something sticky on the window frames. Tim deduces how the couple were actually murdered, and how the Markham contingent would get the title to the property for cheap at auction.

Back at the foundry, Wynn and Boyd discuss in the abstract their plans for "after the big job" while Lewis finishes up his preparations to blow the safe. Just then a phone rings and an annoyed Lewis says "I told you two assholes to leave your cellphones in the car." Boyd and Wynn exchange sidewise questioning looks and as the phone sounds again, the safe-cracker has a sudden terrifying realization. A device hanging on his chest flashes red lights and he emulsifies in an explosion. Wynn and Boyd stand motionless next to one another, covered with blood spatter and bits of viscera.

In a secure prison room, an orange jump-suited Dickie Bennett  is wheeled in to face Raylan and Tim who offer to increase the remaining Bennett son's commissary account in return for cooperating with them "in a Federal Investigation." Dickie mocks them and acts the fool, but acknowledges that he sold the property for a tidy sum, and that the head of the purchasing entity, LM Consolidation, was a female who he had never met. Raylan figures it out and tells a stunned Dickie that he has sold his ancestral property to Loretta McCready. Dickie is incredulous. "Loretta?" he howls. "Loretta?!?"

A visiting Ty Walker is sitting across the kitchen table from young-but-wise-beyond-her-years Loretta, trying to negotiate a purchase agreement... she is disinterested, even when he doubles the initial offer. He presses with great charm, but she stalls him off, saying, "I like to drink when I think. Care to join?" He agrees, and while while making the drinks she adds conversationally, "I got this from a friend. She called it 'apple pie.'" "Not too sweet, I hope," he tells her. "Too sweet gives me a headache." She rejoins, "Not sweet... but it might still give you a headache." Walker sniffs the jelly jar and seems about to take a sip when there is a knock on the door.

Loretta answers to find the two Deputy U.S. Federal Marshals on her porch. "What is this shit?" she demands, displeased. "Good evening to you, too, Loretta," Raylan replies with a smile. "Can we talk?" Before she can reply, a hard-eyed Walker appears in the kitchen doorway and informs the newcomers, "She's right in the middle of something. "Well, that doesn't bother us," Tim fires back, "Actually, we're done," Loretta says without turning to look at Ty. "But that don't mean I feel like talking." A suddenly alarmed Walker says, "Done? No, we're not done. Don't be silly." Loretta turns and walks back to toward Markham's emissary. "O, we're done. I was about to show you out." "So you're rejecting our offer?" Walker says incredulously. The girl replies, "I am." Walker was clearly unprepared for this turn. "Bu... we didn't even negotiate." From the front door way, Raylan buts in: "No means no!" Now we've gone in a split second from conversation to confrontation. "Hey, I wasn't talking to you," Walker says. For his part, Raylan addresses their hostess. "Loretta," he says softly, "do me a favor and take a big ol' step to the right." As she does so, Raylan draws back his jacket a bit and directs Walker to get out. The man slowly draws back his own jacket to reveal a holstered pistol as he slips his hand into his trousers pocket and withdraws a cellphone. Flipping it open and hitting a speed dial button, he turns and walks back into the kitchen. "Mr. Markham...."

Shortly thereafter, Tim opens the door to Avery Markham, whom is escorted into the kitchen by Walker. All sides, meeting for the first time, know who everyone else is, and Markham sits down without invitation. "What have we here?" Avery says conversationally, and reaches for Ty's untouched drink on the table. He savors the bouquet pleasantly. "Mnn... that takes me back." He asks Walker if he minds, and when the henchman says no, Markham turns his attention to Loretta, extending the glass in her direction. "Go ahead, darlin', stick your little pinkie in there and have a lick." She does so, and Avery says, "Well now," and finishes the jar. Raylan smiles appreciatively: "I'll give you this, you've done your homework." Avery smacks his lips and rejoins: "Homework hell! I'm a corn cracker through and through," explaining that he knows his local history, knew Loretta's parents and the Bennett clan as well, finishing, "'S how I knew to check that glass, darlin'." Looking at Raylan, he continues, "I knew a Crowder or two, but no one by the name of Givens." When Loretta asks what's going on there, Raylan and Avery dance around each other, but it's very clear they know a great deal about one another, and when the Deputy U.S. Marshal finally orders Markham out, they lock eyes for a stare down, Avery smiling the entire time. He finally says, "I think I'll burn one on the way out... helps me think," and pulls out a joint, asking if Raylan is going to bust him. Raylan says "No, not for weed." Avery arises, toking on his joint, and with a huge smile says, "Okay, I'll be seeing ya." He and Walker decamp.

Ava and Katherine are unwinding back in the latter's hotel suite. Katherine tells an amusing apocryphal tale with a decidedly feminist theme about Hillary and Bill Clinton, and says that was very much like her and her late husband. "He was the face, and I got it done." She goes on to explain that she'd taken Avery as a lover as a way of balancing the scales, and that he was still the best lover she's ever had, even though she knows he was the one who ratted out Grady and got him killed. The big reason she's setting to rob Avery? "A man as much as kills your husband, you got to do something about it." Having let down her hair as much as she has with Ava, she sends the younger woman off because she has a massage appointment. Ava, still a bit unsteady on her feet, thanks her hostess for "an interesting day." Just as she reaches the door, Katherine stops her with a "Hey!" Ava turns and Katherine, any sarcasm heavily disguised with extra sweetness, notes how lucky it was that the jail guard who had falsely accused Ava of stabbing him, had a crisis of conscience and come clean. Katherine even knows his name, Albert Fekus. Ava is terrified, but manages to keep smiling as she exits.

Raylan is having a paternal talk with Loretta about not being in the weed business... Loretta is ignoring him... when he gets an urgent phone call. He answers to find a panicky Ava on the line. "She knows, Raylan, she knows!" Raylan tries to calm her down while Ava continues packing her bags in their hotel room. Raylan tries to talk her through her crisis and wants her to meet in a nearby diner, but she hears a key in the door and rings off.

It's Boyd, surprised to find her packing. Ava covers her panic as best she can, pleading that she's homesick and wants to return that night to Harlan. But Boyd is too jacked up with his latest grand scheme of pot growing and paints a rosy future for their rolling in the dough and bringing all of Harlan County out of poverty. She just barely controls her nascent hysteria and Boyd tells her if she wants to leave that night, he'll oblige. It's clear that Ava is at her outer limits.

- Created by Dean Speir for IMDb

Appearances[]

First Appearances[]

  1. Lewis Mago - See below.

Deaths[]

  1. Betty Hutchins - Died off-screen; Murdered by Seabass and Ty Walker and staged to look like she died from carbon monoxide poisoning in her sleep. 
  2. John-O Hutchins - Died off-screen; Murdered by Seabass and Ty Walker and staged to look like he died from carbon monoxide poisoning in his sleep. 
  3. Lewis Mago - Crackpot safecracker hired by Wynn Duffy and Boyd Crowder to help break inside of a vault similar to the one found at The Portal. Killed when he accidentally blows himself up after forgetting to remove his own cellphone while attempting to detonate the vault.

Production[]

Cast[]

Starring cast

Guest stars

Co-starring

Gallery[]

External Links[]

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