Raylan’s Law: “Sounding”

Ava Crowder is a woman stuck between a rock and a hard place. This has been the truth especially at the end of last season. Her only options at this point are to cooperate fully with the Marshalls (and against her beau Boyd) or go back to prison. Or get caught in the line of fire. There’s that too.

All season long it’s been pegged that Ava is a damsel in distress that Raylan is trying to save. Out of the kindness of his heart and to nail Boyd mostly, but there’s some lingering feelings between the two since their brief fling many seasons ago. Ava’s kiss towards the end of tonight’s episode confirmed those suspicions. But Raylan’s rejection may help prove he’s not in it for love.

The episode starts with Ava still freaking out over Katherine Hale’s not-so-casual name-dropping of Ava’s prison guard who helped spring her. She fears she knows her connection to the Marshalls and Feds. Raylan tries to talk her down and to meet, but she instead decides to flee to Noble’s Holler and ask none-other-than Limehouse for a way out.

Raylan gets his old compadre Constable Bob on the case, and it isn’t long before Bob tracks Ava and Limehouse’s henchman Errol on the run. This leads to a comical scene of Bob trying to distract Errol with a phony arrest report. Raylan gets a hold of Ava during the scrum and chides her in attempting to run. But he assures her that if she continues to help, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that no harm will come to her.

Boyd, in the meantime, is back on the hunt for Emulex, leading him to Ava’s uncle Zachariah’s place in a less-than-cordial affair. He’s still looking to blow that safe up and in turn blow up Avery Markham’s whole plot.

Markham himself is miffed that someone is hot on his trail, and enlists Walker and his goons to threaten Calhoun to give who he ratted out on. Of course, one hit from Choo-Choo and Calhoun won’t be telling anyone anything.

Markham won’t be happy when he finds out the Marshalls are on the other end. He seems to be the only person so far with an axe to grind against Boyd and Raylan. And we know that it’ll end up with a bullet. Who gets it remains to be seen.

• Bob Sweeney, Badass in Training: Constable Bob tells Raylan he’s got “balls like Death Stars” before his epic showdown with Errol.
• Scrabble-fied: No, Mike, Wynn is right — “aplexed” is certainly not a word.
• The Night of Sam Elliott: Between tonight’s ep, his appearance on an earlier “Parks and Recreation” and countless showings of Ram commercials, the legendary actor had himself an impressive Tuesday.