This town ain’t big enough for the two of us. By “town” I mean the broadcast TV landscape, and by “two of us,” I actually mean all the dense, demanding episodic dramas out there. One of the pleasures of “Justified” on FX is that it’s so much less taxing and complicated than must-see shows like “Lost,” “Battlestar Galactica” and pretty much any HBO drama. It’s a relief to watch the Western set in modern-day Kentucky without having to keep a web browser open to look up names and details on-line.

“The Gunslinger,” the first episode of “Justified’s” third season, began shortly after the events of the season finale, which saw Stetson-wearing, superstud U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) catch a bullet in a shoot-out at the Bennett family farm, shortly before backwoods crime-lord Mags Bennett (Emmy winner-Margo Martindale) killed herself with a poisoned shot of her apple-pie flavored moonshine. “The Gunslinger” starts with a state trooper pulling over Winona (Natalie Zea), Raylan’s ex-wife and off-again/on-again lover, and informing him of his bullet wound. At the hospital, Raylan’s boss Art (Nick Searcy) tells her that the bullet went clean through, missing vital organs. "He's a lucky son of a gun," Art says, starting off the episode's gun-related imagery.

Three weeks later, Raylan’s on the gun range but off his aim, which must be hard on his self-esteem, given his image as a quick-draw gunfighter. At the Marshall’s office, Art insists he spend another week on light duty, and they wonder over the whereabouts of Mags’ missing money and marijuana. Boyd Crowder (Georgia’s Walton Goggins) shows up with a bone to pick with Raylan. On the season finale, Boyd rescued Raylan from getting beaten “like a piñata” by Mags’ twitchy son Dickie (Jeremy Davies), then let Raylan bring Dickie to the shoot-out. Boyd claims that Raylan reneged on his word to return Dickie to him, and the next thing you know, Boyd and Raylan throw punches and come crashing through one of the office’s windows. Boyd gets himself arrested.

So what’s “Justified” to do in the absence of Martindale’s earthy menace? Neal McDonough shows up as a potential adversary Robert Quarles, a Detroit mobster visiting Lexington to bring the “Dixie Mafia” in line. He’s slick like an image consultant, and threatens local realtor/mobster Arnett to pay off the debts he owes the mob. After the fact, we learned that Arnett raised the money through larceny by hiring Fletcher Nix (Desmond Harrington, whose much more charismatic here than he tends to be a Quinn on “Dexter”), a psychotic gun thug with an ice pick. Nix robs an aging jeweler at his home, using a pizza guy as a ruse, and sets up a quick draw contest before killing them both.

With Boyd in the big house, Arlo Givens, Ava Crowder and Devil try to unload the Bennett pot foundation, sitting in a giant heap in the living room like we’re watching the pilot of a show called “Marijuana Horders.” Memphis dealer Hot Rod Dunham sniffs that the guys bagged the weed wet, so three weeks later, it’s moldy and useless. Ava (Joelle Carter) meets Boyd in a lightless, void-like prison, and he advises that they burn it. When Devil sneers at Ava’s attempt to carry out Boyd’s orders, Ava admits that she’s going to have to get “ornery,” and clouts him with an iron skillet. Previously Ava disapproved of Boyd’s criminal activities, but perhaps circumstance will turn her to a young, hot equivalent of Mags Bennett.

Raylan hangs out at his home at the fleabag motel with Winona. “Ready to get back in action?” she asks, and she’s not talking about law enforcement. It seems that the injury has left Raylan emasculated in more than one way, but he manages to get back in the saddle.

Raylan learns of the jeweler’s murder and they follow a lead to Jere Burns — the crooked guy with security business involved with Winona’s ex-husband — whom they track to Arnett. At Arnett’s building, Raylan chances to ride in an elevator with Fletcher Nix, who recognizes the oblivious lawman. There’s a little tension, but Nix doesn’t strike. At the office, Arnett’s gone but Raylan chats up his disgruntled secretary and has a drink with her at a bar. Maybe he needs to flirt with a woman to feel more manly. The secretary reveals the time and place of the Arnett-Nix meeting, but it’s a set-up, as she’s in cahoots with Quarles. The lawmen but the rendezvous, but neither Arnett nor Nix are present.

That Raylan and Winona drive home and chat about baby names — Felix? Jiffypop? Palm Olive? They open the motel door and — uh-oh — Nix is there with gun out. Raylan sits across the table from him, and they allude to the Miami rooftop shoot-out that provided the first scene of “Justified’s” first episode. At last, a Wild West-style confrontation for Raylan to get his mojo back. Winona counts down from 10, Nix puts the gun on the table, Nix grips his icepick and Raylan, suspecting something’s up…

… pulls the gun close with the table cloth and plugs Nix! “Sorry about the table cloth,” he tells Winona. Nix’s phallic symbols are no match for Raylan’s shooting prowess.

Quarles pays a final visit to Arnett and reveals that he’s not just a smooth talker. He whips out a handgun from up his sleeve, Travis Bickle-style, and shoots both Arnett and the secretary. He may not be as original a villain as Mags, but he could make a great nemesis for Raylan.

The final scene finds Dickie in prison with idiot Nazi Dewey Crowe, as Boyd walks past, released into GenPop. Boyd shoots Dickie and Dewey a glance reminiscent of Rorschach’s line from Watchmen: “I’m not locked in here with you. You’re locked in here with me.”

Notes
Boyd might be a career criminal who speaks with the strangely formal diction common in Hollywood depictions of Southerners, but he’s no dummy. I strongly suspect he picked the fight with Raylan to get thrown in jail and exact his revenge on Dickie.

I’m a little unclear as to whether the Dixie Mafia is based out of Lexington or Frankfurt.

Former drummer Mickey Jones plays Hot Rod Dunham, one of more than 100 roles he’s played as husky, hirsute good ol’ boys on television and film for decades.

Every time I see Arlo Givens, who plays Raylan’s father and was Dewey Cox’s dad in Walk Hard, I have to resist saying “The wrong boy died!”

Question: How much free space is there in the human abdomen? Raylan’s bullet wound passed through his torso without hitting any vital organs, which happens a lot on cop shows. So is there a lot of harmless filler amidst one’s innards?

Next week we meet Mykelti Williamson's Limehouse, who takes another big role in the new season.