Gunnar Lambason in Appalachia
I am thinking about Justified now the season's over, and some of my predictions came surprisingly true. Mostly, though, I'm thinking about systems of honor and obligation, and who owes who how much weregild. I know, I know, wrong time wrong place, but it's an interesting exercise in analysis. So.
"You do what you must to protect them, even when you know it's wrong."
So, okay. The basic problem is that Mags Bennett made a deal with Boyd Crowder, and then her son Dickie repudiated it, and Boyd acted as if the deal were off entirely. In the finale, we see Boyd admit that this went against the obligation he'd made with Mags, and there's a certain logic to that approach.* But Mags is also trying to have it both ways with Dickie: she turns on him when it's convenient, and then takes him back in when she can. Is he (solely) responsible for his own actions, or isn't he? If she accepts him back into the fold, then she is assuming collective familial responsibility for his debts. Which includes the blood-debt of Helen's death.
(*Note that Boyd acknowledges a debt, and pays it at once, in cash. Mags admits no fault in the conversation.)
Which never does get paid, does it? Dickie survives; the blood-debt Mags pays is for McCready, and for breaking Loretta's heart. Doyle dies as a loyal member of the family, having committed crimes only at direction and in defense of the family unit; he was dangerous enough it was needful to put him down, but his debts are no acts of wilful chaos.
Another debt to consider: the breaking of parley. Obviously, the Crowders expected it; just as obviously, their moves were defensive rather than offense in kind. What was Mags thinking, in all that? She can't have imagined coming out on top in the long term: it's too far, it pushes her out alone. Who would ally with someone who would do that? Although Dickie's the actor, the assassination attempt on Ava is pure Mags: to attack the ancillary members to hurt the "head" of the family. Who would ally with someone who targets noncombatants, not just as unfortunate collateral casualties but with malice aforethought? How did Mags think she would continue in this county, shunned by all her neighbors? More to the point, how could she think that such an explosion of violence would not bring every cop a-running to scrutinize her actions or just put her down like a dangerous animal? Even before she knows that Loretta is on her way for a confrontation, she acts as if the rafters are already on fire above her head.
"I wanted to keep you away from this life."
I did not know when last I wrote about this show that Mags would so quickly give up her own claim on the middle class, and transfer it all to the unseen sons of Doyle. (Their mother, safely ensconced Elsewhere, inherits everything now, and if ever I wondered about an unseen character! The news of her freedom from a mother-in-law and her bereavement of a husband will come in the same awkward police visit.) I guess I shouldn't be surprised, for all that: by staying in Harlan County Mags remains a big fish in a small pond. But she does keep her grandsons away from that life.
I think it's a lie to say that to Loretta, though. Loretta was in the store, in charge of the store, while that life was going on all around her. If Mags wanted to keep her out, she wouldn't have murdered McCready, would she? Mags wanted Loretta pure and childlike, at the same time that she wanted to raise up a minature version of herself. Again, trying to have it both ways.
One thing I do like is the connection between Raylan and Loretta. He says "Because that's what I would have done when I was her age," and the differences of sex, while never entirely forgotten, are sometimes just irrelevant. I like that very much. I like that his primary concern is for how she'll feel after the fact, how she'll live with herself. He's one of the few actors in Harlan County who recognizes her as he own person.
"I gotta do this."
One of the things we see in the finale is that you don't got to do this: Loretta does not kill Mags; Raylan does not kill Dickie; even Boyd does not kill Dickie, although he's pretty obviously got a promise for it in a season yet to come. Doyle defends his family like the most loyal lieutenant, and it wins him absolutely nothing. Even his manner of death is an afterthought: like a snap of the fingers, and the camera turns to Dickie as he reacts from cover.
Mags seems to be magnanimous in defeat, as she shakes Raylan's hand over the poisoned glass. But with her suicide she does not pay her debts: she avoids them. She'll get to "see her sons again," not expiate the deaths she has caused. Even here, she is trying to have it both ways: to go out on top despite being for all purposes under arrest. She doesn't even give a dying order to her minions to stand down! For all we know the distaff Bennetts all over the county are holed up in cabins and shacks, waiting for combat. For all we know, her unseen grandsons will someday feel obligated to carry on the feud into yet another generation.
(Dickie and Raylan: from what we've been told, Dickie started it -- beanballing in a game. Raylan hit him with a bat while under direct attack, so in a judgement, he would come out blameless. It's not a surprise that the families would fall to feuding thereafter, though. The only surprising thing, what with how Dickie came after Raylan all over again in the finale, is that Dickie survives the episode. It might fairly be said that Doyle takes the punishment his brother earned.)
On the whole, it's not effective to use weregild as a measure of the characters' behavior, because they don't have an Althing and the power-differential between Mags and her neighbors is too great and because a winter break never seems to come to Harlan. But I watched the episode with Njal's Saga strongly in my mind. Who would not close ranks with family, even the family you can't stand, when the posse is gathered at the front gate? Then again, who would see the house afire and herd the children inside to die?
Really, just meaty, interesting character arcs, like for Boyd in the first season only not so mercurial. I do wonder what they can come up with for a third season topic.
This entry was originally posted at http://vehemently.dreamwidth.org/23704.html. Comment wherever you like.
"You do what you must to protect them, even when you know it's wrong."
So, okay. The basic problem is that Mags Bennett made a deal with Boyd Crowder, and then her son Dickie repudiated it, and Boyd acted as if the deal were off entirely. In the finale, we see Boyd admit that this went against the obligation he'd made with Mags, and there's a certain logic to that approach.* But Mags is also trying to have it both ways with Dickie: she turns on him when it's convenient, and then takes him back in when she can. Is he (solely) responsible for his own actions, or isn't he? If she accepts him back into the fold, then she is assuming collective familial responsibility for his debts. Which includes the blood-debt of Helen's death.
(*Note that Boyd acknowledges a debt, and pays it at once, in cash. Mags admits no fault in the conversation.)
Which never does get paid, does it? Dickie survives; the blood-debt Mags pays is for McCready, and for breaking Loretta's heart. Doyle dies as a loyal member of the family, having committed crimes only at direction and in defense of the family unit; he was dangerous enough it was needful to put him down, but his debts are no acts of wilful chaos.
Another debt to consider: the breaking of parley. Obviously, the Crowders expected it; just as obviously, their moves were defensive rather than offense in kind. What was Mags thinking, in all that? She can't have imagined coming out on top in the long term: it's too far, it pushes her out alone. Who would ally with someone who would do that? Although Dickie's the actor, the assassination attempt on Ava is pure Mags: to attack the ancillary members to hurt the "head" of the family. Who would ally with someone who targets noncombatants, not just as unfortunate collateral casualties but with malice aforethought? How did Mags think she would continue in this county, shunned by all her neighbors? More to the point, how could she think that such an explosion of violence would not bring every cop a-running to scrutinize her actions or just put her down like a dangerous animal? Even before she knows that Loretta is on her way for a confrontation, she acts as if the rafters are already on fire above her head.
"I wanted to keep you away from this life."
I did not know when last I wrote about this show that Mags would so quickly give up her own claim on the middle class, and transfer it all to the unseen sons of Doyle. (Their mother, safely ensconced Elsewhere, inherits everything now, and if ever I wondered about an unseen character! The news of her freedom from a mother-in-law and her bereavement of a husband will come in the same awkward police visit.) I guess I shouldn't be surprised, for all that: by staying in Harlan County Mags remains a big fish in a small pond. But she does keep her grandsons away from that life.
I think it's a lie to say that to Loretta, though. Loretta was in the store, in charge of the store, while that life was going on all around her. If Mags wanted to keep her out, she wouldn't have murdered McCready, would she? Mags wanted Loretta pure and childlike, at the same time that she wanted to raise up a minature version of herself. Again, trying to have it both ways.
One thing I do like is the connection between Raylan and Loretta. He says "Because that's what I would have done when I was her age," and the differences of sex, while never entirely forgotten, are sometimes just irrelevant. I like that very much. I like that his primary concern is for how she'll feel after the fact, how she'll live with herself. He's one of the few actors in Harlan County who recognizes her as he own person.
"I gotta do this."
One of the things we see in the finale is that you don't got to do this: Loretta does not kill Mags; Raylan does not kill Dickie; even Boyd does not kill Dickie, although he's pretty obviously got a promise for it in a season yet to come. Doyle defends his family like the most loyal lieutenant, and it wins him absolutely nothing. Even his manner of death is an afterthought: like a snap of the fingers, and the camera turns to Dickie as he reacts from cover.
Mags seems to be magnanimous in defeat, as she shakes Raylan's hand over the poisoned glass. But with her suicide she does not pay her debts: she avoids them. She'll get to "see her sons again," not expiate the deaths she has caused. Even here, she is trying to have it both ways: to go out on top despite being for all purposes under arrest. She doesn't even give a dying order to her minions to stand down! For all we know the distaff Bennetts all over the county are holed up in cabins and shacks, waiting for combat. For all we know, her unseen grandsons will someday feel obligated to carry on the feud into yet another generation.
(Dickie and Raylan: from what we've been told, Dickie started it -- beanballing in a game. Raylan hit him with a bat while under direct attack, so in a judgement, he would come out blameless. It's not a surprise that the families would fall to feuding thereafter, though. The only surprising thing, what with how Dickie came after Raylan all over again in the finale, is that Dickie survives the episode. It might fairly be said that Doyle takes the punishment his brother earned.)
On the whole, it's not effective to use weregild as a measure of the characters' behavior, because they don't have an Althing and the power-differential between Mags and her neighbors is too great and because a winter break never seems to come to Harlan. But I watched the episode with Njal's Saga strongly in my mind. Who would not close ranks with family, even the family you can't stand, when the posse is gathered at the front gate? Then again, who would see the house afire and herd the children inside to die?
Really, just meaty, interesting character arcs, like for Boyd in the first season only not so mercurial. I do wonder what they can come up with for a third season topic.
This entry was originally posted at http://vehemently.dreamwidth.org/23704.html. Comment wherever you like.