When Ava makes a drastic decision, Raylan turns to an old friend for help. A suspicious Wynn Duffy looks into Ava's release from prison.
Harlan County is Ava's home. Her family - the Randolphs - and Boyd's - the Crowders - have lived here for generations. And now, she is so scared that the place she calls home will soon kill her. She has always been in the crosshairs of all of Boyd's criminal ventures. And now, the weight of it all is starting to get to her. She feels just as isolated as she was when she was in prison. She had to be tough in order to survive that environment. She surely would have died if Raylan didn't pull her out to be an informant on Boyd. Her new reality has her going through the motions of what her life was like before prison. She's sleeping in her own bed again. She's making breakfast for Boyd and wearing the engagement ring he gave her. However, none of it is real. She's so worried that Boyd's partners have caught onto her deal with Raylan that she doesn't believe anyone is looking out for her. Running is the only option that she feels she can do.However, Ava is not prepared to run. She had that day with Katherine Hall that ended with Katherine questioning her release from prison. She can't talk to Boyd or Raylan about the situation she is in because she doesn't believe either one of them can protect her. They would just get her killed just as quickly. She's risking her life in order to help Raylan and she doesn't believe he's doing anything to keep her safe. Now, the audience knows that's not true. We know he is very invested in building this case against Boyd. He will use various factions of law enforcement to check up on her to see how she is without blowing her cover. And yet, she feels powerless in this situation and the only way to get the power back is to leave. If she does this by herself, she can build the life she actually wants. She doesn't want to obey Boyd's plan which keeps on changing or Raylan's idea of going into witness protection. She just wants to be Ava Crowder and be happy in some part of the world where no one can hurt her.
But Ava doesn't have any money or a new identity in order to run from both Boyd and the government. She has no plan except for knowing that she needs to get out of Harlan. She turns to Limehouse for help but she doesn't have the leverage to work out a deal with him either. She's stalling to get her chance to steal a car from him. And yet, she's just scrambling to no avail - something that only makes her appear more guilty if the criminals were looking at her. Raylan really is trying to protect her. The safest place for her right now is her house. The marshals are doing there best to stay ahead of Wynn Duffy, Katherine and Boyd finding out the truth. Tim and Rachel were ready to spring into action and deal with Wynn if the former prison guard told the truth after being tortured. It didn't come to that, but they had a plan in place. Raylan may not be able to protect her all the time. But now, Ava knows that he is the only one looking out for her right now. That kiss may be misguided but it is a strong callback to what their relationship used to be way back in Season 1. It's comforting to her right now to see what he's doing for her. He has his own goals and ambitions but he's not letting that cloud his judgment of how to handle her in this situation. To Ava, that's more comforting and reassuring than anything that Boyd does. Boyd has his own goals and he hopes that Ava will come along for the ride. He wants her by his side and that doesn't exactly match up with what she wants right now.
Boyd is thinking about himself. He's so focused on figuring out a plan to steal Avery's money that he's not distracted by the thought that Ava could be working against him. That is heavy on the minds of his co-conspirators. But right now, Boyd is putting the details together for his grand heist. Katherine and Wynn are still actively investigating. Their concerns aren't completely satisfied. Wynn lets the former prison guard live. But does he actually believe he's telling the truth? He could have kept torturing him until he broke. He just chose not to. So, Ava is safe from them for now. However, her secret seems bound to be exposed sometime soon. Raylan can protect her now. But how much longer can he? She's just getting started informing on Boyd. She hasn't given the marshals anything substantial that could help with the case. And yet, her situation is already so dangerous. It's only bound to get much more worse moving forward.
Some more thoughts:
- "Sounding" was written by Dave Andron & Leonard Chang and directed by Jon Avnet.
- Wynn Duffy reactions are always great and this week he had to deal with seeing Katherine as a grandmother and his bodyguard using the word "aplex" in Scrabble. Also, between this and The Americans, Scrabble really is making a comeback, isn't it?
- Jeff Fahey debuts as Ava's uncle Zachariah Randolph, a man whose skills Boyd needs in order to break into Avery's bank vault. That later leads to the big explosion for the episode which was just a lot of fun.
- Constable Bob and Limehouse are both back this week. Limehouse continued to prove just how formidable he is even though his enterprises are kept away from all the main action. And then, Bob has balls like Death Stars.
- Seabass and Choo-Choo visit Calhoun in order to torture him and confirm who knows which properties they are targeting. Unfortunately, Choo-Choo kills him right away. That was blunt, but at least it shows just how much a physical threat Choo-Choo can pose.
