But Raylan gets up –the bullet grazed his temple, the wound nothing more severe than what a bandage will take care of. Ava drives off in Raylan’s Town Car, but with Markham’s criminal empire defeated, and Boyd finally in prison, Raylan’s finished. There’s a version of this story where all these events had more time to transpire, and more effort was put into making us buy some of the finale’s more credulity-straining plot gymnastics. Maybe it would have been better than what we got. But I wouldn’t trade “The Promise” as it is.
“Something somehow feels incomplete,” Raylan tells Art back at the office, his dramatic about-face giving director Adam Arkin an excuse to have Raylan come as close to talking into the camera as possible. The remainder of the scene, and finale, is one big, final conversation between the show and the viewer, a meta-mirror for what ends up being the last scene of the series. “The Promise” is about two people, entities in our case, looking back on all they’ve been through over the years, and sifting through the good times and the bad to find the stories they’ll remember. In this regard, “The Promise” makes for not just a fitting and rewarding end to Justified, but a beautiful tribute to the people who made it, and the man who inspired it.
There are shows where a cyclical finale, or an overtly happy one can leave bitter or saccharine notes in your mouth. Justified embraces both, but does so in a manner befitting the show’s views on life moving in cycles, and the costly, but attainable prospect of redemption. In the end, Raylan, Ava, and Boyd get what they wanted all season: to get out of Harlan. When we flash forward four years, everyone’s had a fresh start, even if it feels like they’ve been here before – but at least they’re not in Harlan.
Raylan, having completed the Homeric task of getting Boyd Crowder (“took a little longer than expected” Art remarks), returns to his real home, Miami. When we catch up with him, he’s still working cases and raising his daughter, but not with Winona. It’s the best possible outcome, really, as there’s no way one could imagine, let alone buy the thought of Raylan walking away from the job, or keeping it and Winona. He can change his address, and his hat (a final gift from Boone), but a Raylan who doesn’t live to hunt fugitives is like a Raylan who doesn’t like ice cream.