Exactly, and I think your point gets at how she's being portrayed this season. Season 1 Elizabeth probably wouldn't have hesitated to take the guy out, but this year, that maternal instinct is shining through (I like how they incorporate the flashbacks here to remind us she didn't want kids). She's more protective…

Keri Russell, man. Wearing a wig, holding a crowbar, and implicitly threatening a guy's family while he picks up on every single signal? I love it.

I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to see it, given I haven't watched the series. I'm really interested, but there's no doubt that it'll have more of an impact with those 64 episodes under my belt.

Oh, Ava. :(

A bunch of shit's going to go down and bodies may pile up, but Rachel and Tim will ride in at the end, take care of everything, and scold everyone before they make out.

Yeah, agreed. If nothing else, it was just great seeing Wynn "This coffee tastes like my ass on Sunday" Duffy again, as well as Boyd and Raylan in the same room. Add onto that people like Roscoe and Jay—both very interesting, complex, and charismatic characters that were brilliantly portrayed—explaining Shakespeare,…

"Miller, would you call this a herd, a gaggle, or a flock of assholes?"
"I'd call this the United Nations of assholes."
"Well, that's funny, because we were just discussing ratifying some shit."

I like how this episode places an emphasis on who the characters are at heart. For example, Jess certainly deserves a promotion, but she's not going to take it at the expense of her friend; her loyalty, enthusiasm, and compassion are what made her good with the kids in the first place. Coach is back to doing what he…

Morris was amazing during those scenes. I also loved his squinting.

THEY CHANGED THESE!

But from what the episode gave us, it seemed as if it was just a psycho in the woods. Half the episode hinged upon the Childress story, and like Sandwich and Battlecar said, the portrayal was meh, even if that was the only way to go.

For a second at the end, when Rust said "…and then I woke up", I thought they were going to go No Country on us and cut to black.

McConaughey's awesome. Rust, at the end, could've said he realized how much he wanted to focus on being a stripper or something, now that the case was over—thus leading to Magic Mike—and McConaughey would've sold it.

That's fair. It might've been the only way to go, but it didn't really work for me. Worth it for the visuals, though.

Yeah, exactly! We've watched these guys dig themselves deeper all season, so it's nice to see them able to grasp onto something; whether they came out of the case dead or alive—they were thinking dead—there wasn't really anything left for them except the partnership. I like how it turned out.

Well, I do think by making the story "about" Marty and Rust coming to terms with their guilt, anger, etc., they're by extension making the story about the case, as the case eventually becomes that one thing they bond over and that one last thing they have to move past. The mystery served as a nice framing device for…

"In the end, we got a psycho in a cabin in the woods who ties people up and talks crazy delusional philosophy."

Yup, I thought they were going to die, and the characters seemed to think so as well.

Yes, that montage was perfectly shot. It really emphasized the importance of location to the story, as well as the setting reflecting our characters in various ways. It also brought us right back to the tree at the beginning, completing that whole flat circle theme before setting up that final shot of the night sky.

Blowing Breaking Bad out of the water is a huge stretch and is something I don't agree with, but yes, this is a great show. Also, if there's anything Pizzolatto wanted you to take away from this season, it was that this isn't supposed to be a crime drama.