Justified

After some bad publicity involving a shooting, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens' boss transfers Raylan from Miami to Lexington, Kentucky. Under Chief Deputy Art Mullen, an old friend from the academy, Raylan takes on the case of the murder of a young white supremacist who is linked to a church bombing. The chief suspect is Boyd Crowder, a childhood friend of Raylan's. In order to catch him, Raylan returns to his hometown of Harlan. Boyd gives Raylan an ultimatum: leave Harlan within twenty-four hours or be killed. After a tense confrontation at an old acquaintance's house, Raylan gets the drop on Boyd and shoots him in the chest, though he survives and is hospitalized.

Raylan visits Boyd in the prison hospital to check on him, and transport Crowe to prison. Meanwhile, during a 'prison band' performance, convict Douglas Cooper and a fellow inmate escape. After Art Mullen asks Raylan to return to investigate, Raylan makes a stop at a gas station. Unbeknownst to Raylan, the convicts have set a trap, and Cooper makes off with Raylan's guns, car and hat. After learning that Cooper only had three months left on his sentence, Raylan and marshal Gutterson make a trip to Cooper's ex-wife, Shirley. Cooper then visits after and makes a deal with Shirley and Dupree, Shirley's 'cousin'. They are looking for money Cooper hid in the flooring of development housing during construction. After Ava makes a house call to Raylan, he discovers a hunch as to the location of the money. Cooper, however, screwed up the location. After Dupree shoots Cooper, they find the right house, whose occupants have spent it all. A hostage situation ensues after Cooper helps Raylan find the right house, and Shirley helps Raylan by allowing Gutterson to snipe Dupree, citing that it 'wasn't right' to shoot Cooper. The episode ends with a nice conversation between Cooper and Raylan as they once again leave the prison.

Raylan starts to work with Arnold Pinter, a local informant who makes money ratting out people to the US Marshals and taking sports bets. Pinter's collector and a debtor decide to work together and kidnap Pinter to find out where the informant's "escape money" is. Raylan grows suspicious after he can't find the informant. The debtor kills the collector, and not long after Raylan shows up. A gunfight ensues, and Raylan kills the debtor and rescues Pinter despite getting shot in his bulletproof vest. Pinter gets his money, and Raylan gets a week's paid leave—a time that Art says will be restful—for Art.

Raylan and the Miami mob compete to capture a fugitive, Roland Pike. The Miami mob wants to kill Pike because Pike was their former accountant and he stole their money and disappeared. The authorities want Pike to act as an informant. Raylan once had a chance to nab Pike, but Pike lied to him and ran off. Pike comes out of hiding as a result of brutally attacking a client from Pike's dental office. The Miami mob spots Raylan looking for Pike, and decides to kill both Raylan and Pike when they have a chance. Raylan eventually kills two of the mob henchmen on his tail (marking the third episode in which Raylan kills someone), and then finds Pike. Pike decides to let a sniper shoot him.

Raylan's step-mother and aunt, Helen, calls him to tell him Arlo is in jail. Raylan reluctantly goes to Harlan, where Helen tells Raylan he needs to bail out his father. Raylan is wary about getting too involved with his father, who made Raylan live in fear growing up and who was constantly involved in some sort of scheme. Arlo in part blames his behavior on his own father, a religious man who mistreated him. Raylan eventually discovers that Arlo planned to use his own son as a shield from Oxycontin ("hillbilly heroin") runners, whom Arlo had stolen from. Arlo's plan works, as Raylan finds Oxy at the drug runners' house (planted by Helen) and threatens the Oxy runners with jail if he goes after Helen and Arlo again. Raylan doesn't even bother asking Arlo where the stolen Oxy or money is because he knows Arlo will not tell him.

A wealthy man seemingly commits suicide on a luxurious Kentucky horse ranch, and Raylan must hunt for his missing art collection while resisting the advances of his attractive widow.

After disrupting an apparent assassination attempt on Ava, Raylan is hellbent on tracking down the responsible parties. However, he soon discovers that Ava may not have been the real target. It is revealed that a hitman employed by the Miami mob wanted Raylan dead. Harlan county Sheriff Hunter Mosley (Brent Sexton) kills the hitman to protect himself and then exposes his true affiliations to Raylan. Ava helps Raylan turn the tables on Mosley and his partner, and Raylan and Ava escape. Boyd is almost killed in prison for talking to Raylan as other inmates view Boyd as a snitch, but Boyd's father Bo saves Boyd.

Raylan is turned hostage negotiator when a dangerous inmate holds a group of people hostage. Raylan's affair with Ava inadvertently grants Boyd an early release from prison.

Having been suspended from the Marshal's service, Raylan decides to use his free time to go head-to-head with the gangsters who are bothering Winona's new husband.

Raylan is assigned to guard an eccentric judge, but Raylan takes time off from the assignment to track down an old lead connected with the Crowders.

It's up to Raylan to keep Harlan safe when Boyd Crowder and his cadre of "followers" turn vigilantes.

Boyd Crowder's increasing influence has gotten out of control and Raylan is ordered to bring in his estranged father, Arlo, to help defuse the situation. Raylan has an intimate encounter with his ex-wife Winona that is witnessed by Ava. Ava finds some unfriendly visitors in her house and decides to pay a visit to Bo Crowder to prove her resolve. Boyd decides to up the ante against Bo's business by targeting his supply truck. Bo wants to take out Raylan Givens, so he reaches out to people who want him gone, including Miami gun runners and his own father Arlo.

In the first season finale, Harlan is turned into a battlefield when the tense situation between Raylan, Arlo, Boyd and Bo Crowder finally comes to a head. When Bo sadistically kills all of his son's followers, Boyd looks to Raylan for help. Arlo's plan to betray Raylan is found out, and he is shot by Raylan. Ava is kidnapped by Bo and Johnny Crowder, after which, Bo shoots Johnny for suspected collusion with Boyd. Boyd and Raylan go after Bo to rescue Ava. At the standoff, Bo is unexpectedly killed, in an ambush, by Miami gun runners who are after Raylan. Raylan and Boyd manage to save Ava and kill three of them, but one of them escapes. Raylan is forced to let Boyd (who calls Raylan his "only friend") chase after Bo's surviving killer.

Raylan tangles with a ruthless Harlan County crime family while hunting for a fugitive sex offender.

Raylan chases a pregnant fugitive who has fallen into the hands of human traffickers.

Dewey Crowe returns and tries to score on a drug shipment, but the bus carrying the drugs is hijacked, and he tries to impersonate Raylan Givens to get it back. Meanwhile Boyd gets a proposition from some fellow coal miners.

Raylan helps Rachel find her brother in law, who has left a halfway house without permission to see his son on his birthday. He also begins investigating the oxy bus shooting and makes contact with the Dixie Mafia.

Boyd reluctantly joins a payroll heist, but can he trust his new partners? Meanwhile, Raylan's investigation into a forged signature on a dead man's government check leads back to the Bennett clan.

Winona finds herself in hot water after she is a victim in a bank robbery, so Raylan does everything in his power to catch the culprits before anybody else does.

After Winona realizes that Raylan didn't recover her counterfeit $100 bill from the bank robbery, she drops another bombshell on him. Meanwhile, the coal mine offers Boyd a new job more suited to his skills.

Raylan is assigned to protect a local coal mine executive as she tries to buy up land for the company but faces opposition from the Bennett clan.

As the coal mine makes one final attempt to negotiate with the Bennett clan, Loretta begins to piece together what the Bennetts did with her father.

As Winona begins divorce proceedings, Raylan begins to contemplate his future as a marshal. Meanwhile, Dicky Bennett takes exception to his family's new business arrangement with Boyd Crowder.

Raylan tries to find out who tried to kill him, but the investigation leads to an unlikely source. Meanwhile, Dicky retaliates after Boyd stakes his claim on the Bennett clan's marijuana business.

Raylan tries to track down Dicky after Helen is killed, but he is forced to turn to Arlo to make a deal and get Mags' blessing.

The bad blood between the Bennetts and the Crowders reaches its boiling point and results in bloodshed, and Loretta returns from Lexington to avenge her father's death.

The arrival of a dangerous new player in Lexington puts Raylan on a collision course with a sadistic Dixie Mafia hitman.

The murder of a fellow Marshal throws Raylan together with a woman from his past. Boyd engineers a showdown with Dickie Bennett.

Raylan's face-off with a tyrannical Oxy dealer puts him on a collision course with the new head of the Dixie Mafia. Boyd fights to take back part of his family's empire, but his methods threaten to tear his crew apart.

A daring prison escape puts Raylan on the trail of two of his old adversaries. Boyd confronts a traitor in his inner circle.

Raylan races to save Dewey Crowe from a gang of vicious organ harvesters. Boyd faces off with a new adversary.

Boyd fights for control of the Harlan Oxy trade as Raylan works to keep the battle from becoming an all-out war.

As his feud with Quarles and the Detroit mob heats up, Raylan's tactics puts him at odds with the FBI.

A shocking murder forces Raylan to confront his past mistakes. Boyd grapples with Harlan's corrupt sheriff.

Raylan pursues a Dixie Mafia soldier who may be the key to taking down Quarles. Ava turns brutal in order to protect an imperiled prostitute.

Raylan struggles to keep Dickie Bennett in prison while contending with an increasingly violent and unpredictable Quarles. Boyd's Harlan election comes to a head.

Raylan squares off with a pair of merciless Detroit hit men. The battle between Boyd and Quarles comes to a head.

While Raylan closes in on an ever-more-unpredictable Quarles, Boyd enters into an unlikely alliance with Dickie Bennett in a last-ditch attempt to recover Mags's fortune.

After the murder of his friend, Raylan is a man on fire as he goes after any- and everyone he holds responsible on the way to a bloody final showdown.

While running down a vicious fugitive, Raylan finds evidence his family is at the center of a legendary unsolved mystery.

As Raylan tangles with a dangerous family keeping a dark secret, Boyd takes on a snake-handling preacher.

Drew Thompson's widow turns up and gets Raylan in hot water with the FBI, while Boyd's strike at the snake church is met with a surprising strike back.

Raylan's hunt for his stolen money leads to a confrontation with a bareknuckle brawler, while Boyd and Ava face a decision that threatens to destroy them.

The search for Drew Thompson leads Raylan into the remote wilds of Kentucky hill country with unexpected and dangerous results.

Raylan's discovery of a severed foot sets off a race against time, while Boyd and Ava work to break into Harlan high society.

Raylan finds himself caught between a foxy grifter and an old nemesis out for revenge, while Boyd and Ava come face-to-face with the decadence of Harlan's elite.

Bodies start dropping and no one is safe as the search for Drew Thompson enters its home stretch.

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

Drew Thompson slips through the fingers of Raylan, Boyd, and the Detroit mob, and sets off a breakneck race to find him.

Boyd and the Detroit Mob try every dirty trick there is to stop Raylan and Drew Thompson from leaving Harlan alive.

The Drew Thompson case becomes a fiasco that Raylan can only fix by besting Boyd in a hunt for the unwitting woman caught in the middle.

Raylan has a last, lethal showdown with the Detroit mob, while Boyd and Ava try to keep an incriminating secret dead and buried.

In the swamplands of Florida, Raylan tangles with a deadly branch of the Crowe Family Tree, while Boyd goes into the dark heart of the collapsing Detroit Mob.

Dewey's ruthless cousin Darryl descends upon Harlan, as Raylan tries to undo a young friend's unfortunate mess, and Boyd struggles to free Ava from jail.

Raylan is king for a day in the seized mansion of a notorious mob accountant, while Boyd tries to regain his stranglehold on the Harlan heroin market.

Raylan ventures into wild country on the hunt for a missing informant, while Boyd's last living relative threatens his life and livelihood.

Raylan's secrets are at stake when a mob revenge plot descends upon Kentucky, and Boyd's recent successes are tempered by a crushing defeat.

An attack on Alison sends Raylan to Harlan in search of payback, while Boyd scrambles to arrange protection for Ava.

Boyd and the Crowes fly South for a crucial drug score, while Raylan pursues a small time grifter with big time enemies.

Raylan chases a missing Crowe, while Boyd and his new partners fight their way back across the border.

Raylan partners with a maverick DEA agent whose bad behavior feels uncomfortably familiar, while Boyd makes a hard choice to protect Ava.

Raylan and Boyd collide on the hunt for Dewey Crowe, while bad blood simmering in the Crowe family finally boils over.

A shooting close to home forces Raylan and Boyd to decide which lines they're willing to cross.

Raylan puts pressure on every criminal in town as a ploy to arrest Darryl Crowe Jr., while Boyd and Duffy enlist an unlikely ally to fight off cartel killers.

Raylan has one last shot at taking down Art's would-be assassin, while cartel killers have Boyd's back against the wall.

Raylan guides Ava through the process of informing on Boyd and tries to turn Boyd's old ally Dewey Crowe against him as well, all while Boyd works to pull off a daring heist right under Raylan's nose.

Raylan's investigation brings him into conflict with a paramilitary outfit, while Boyd and his partners try to salvage a profit from their heist.

Raylan follows a trail of illegal explosives in an attempt to pin Boyd, who discovers he's run afoul of a dangerous new player in town.

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.

When Ava makes a drastic decision, Raylan turns to an old friend for help. A suspicious Duffy looks into Ava's release from prison.

Raylan investigates a murder that has sown discord in Markham's camp. Boyd's latest heist forces him to revisit his mining days.

A visit from his baby daughter threatens to pull Raylan away from the hunt for a dangerous fugitive. Boyd, having learned that Ava's been lying to him, takes her on a hunting trip that she may never come back from.

Raylan extends an unexpected offer to Markham. Boyd and Ava find themselves in Walker's dangerous company.

Raylan and Boyd each test Ava's loyalty, and Markham's plans to win over Harlan go awry.

As Raylan puts more pressure on his CIs, Boyd makes a move on Markham's money, and Ava finds herself caught in the crossfire again.

Raylan and the Marshals scramble to deal with a crisis that threatens all of their careers. Duffy, Mike, and Katherine question the meaning of loyalty.

Raylan and Boyd's paths cross as they search for Ava in the mountains. Markham recruits an unlikely ally to his cause.

In the series finale, one last battle between Raylan, Boyd and Ava will determine who—if anyone—gets out of Harlan alive.