I just got the pun in Episode 4’s title, “The Devil You Know,” which gives a significant subplot to Boyd’s rebellious lieutenant named Devil. (Note to would-be crime lords: don’t expect much loyalty out of guys named after demons.) Even more than last week’s installment, “The Devil You Know” continues the power plays and gambits of backwoods criminals, but “The Devil You Know” is fun without being as compelling. It’s like watching the point in the chess game in which the pawns get taken, but the important pieces stay in reserve.

“Hey, ‘Eye of the Tiger, settle down,” Quarles’ “talent scout” Tanner tells Devil, who’s visiting Quarles’ Oxy base to listen to his pitch. And Quarles is quite the salesman, apparently fully informed about the activities of Boyd’s gang, and even that Ava clobbered Devil with a skillet. Like the criminal equivalent of Moneyball, Quarles’s sermonizing recruits Devil to the Dixie Mafia’s Oxy operation, and Devil clearly has hostile intentions for Boyd.

Over at the prison, Dickie Bennett and Dewey Crowe are both at the bottom of a riot in the yard. Dewey apparently came to Dickie’s rescue during the fight, which was actually a ruse to get Dickie in the infirmary so Ash (Todd Stashwick), “the bent screw,” could break him out of the joint. The evil guard’s doctor sidekick Lance sticks Dewey with a syringe, and he staggers about, handcuffed to a gurney. When Ash and Lance sneak Dickie and Dewey out of prison in a coroner’s van, there’s a similarly slapstick scene with Dewey flopping around in a body bag. Ash wants Dickie to retrieve Mags’ fortune from Limehouse. Lance has a sinister plan for Dewey.

When Raylan and Rachel learn of the prison break and try to find Dickie, whom Raylan assumes is searching for Mags’ fortune. Raylan pays a visit to young Loretta, and while they have a nice, father-daughter dynamic going, they’re both cagey with the truth. Next they pay as visit to Nobles Holler, where Limehouse stonewalls the marshals about Dickie’s whereabouts and Mags’ fortune. Limehouse both flirts with Rachel and scolds her for expecting him to be disloyal.

Raylan finally visits Boyd at Johnny’s reclaimed bar. Boyd seems surprised at the knowledge of Dickie and Dewey’s escape, or maybe he’s faking: surely that news would’ve gotten out sooner. No doubt using Raylan to eliminate some potential competition, he suggests that Raylan investigates Ash, which conveniently leads Raylan to Ash & company’s motel hideout. Elsewhere at the roadhouse, the disgruntled Devil tempts wheelchair-bound Johnny to join him in turning against Boyd.

At the motel, Raylan sees Ash walking past with lunch, then Ash sees Raylan and goes for his gun. Rather than attempt his quick draw skills, Raylan goes for the immediate weapon and runs Ash down. Ash gets up and staggers around like a “Walking Dead” extra, so Raylan backs into him. Raylan finds the key, but Dickie and the rest make a getaway. Fortunately the injured Ash reveals the details about the planned rendezvous. Raylan realizes to his chagrin, “Goddamn if I don’t have to save Dickie Bennett.”

That night, Rachel mans a roadblock in front of Nobles Holler and turns back a suspicious truck full of pig shit. A couple of uncouth gentlemen direct Dickie at gunpoint to the money drop at his mother’s now-abandoned general store. The father-and-son team of bruisers clearly plan to kill Dickie whether he finds the money or not. Dickie pulls out a trunk — does it contain a gun? Is it booby-trapped? Dickie opens it and BLAMMO! Limehouse and his lieutenant were there the whole time, and they gun down Bruiser & Son.

Dickie discovers, however, that Mags’ $3 million fortune has dwindled to a tiny fraction, partly because Limehouse used the money to buy up the land, as per Mags’ instructions. Dickie refuses take the money back, and instead maintains his bond with Limehouse. Limehouse as an ally is worth more than the money that remains. Dickie borrows a shotgun and lets Raylan arrest him, claiming to have murdered the bruisers himself. Back at the safe house, Lance gives Dewey another injection and prepares him for some kind of medical procedure.

At the roadhouse, Devil confronts Boyd, but at the last minute Johnny pulls a gun on Devil. Boyd shoots Devil in the chest, much in the same way that Boyd had been shot in the first season. Boyd ministers to Devil as he lays dying and administers a fatal headshot as a mercy killing. Compared to the murders and executions of “Boardwalk Empire” and “Game of Thones,” it’s surprisingly tender.

Notes
This week I found myself less intrigued by the plot than by “Justified’s” settings of Harlan County and the African-American enclave of Nobles Holler, based on the real community of Cole Ridge, or Cole Holler. Early on Raylan remarks that it was, “Carved out for emancipated slaves after the Civil War. Good white folks of the county trying to dig them out going on 150 years now.” I hope the show introduces more of its residents than just Limehouse and his lieutenants.

Later Raylan describes Nobles Holler as a shelter for white women trying to escape abusive husbands, which at one point included Raylan’s mother. Raylan recalls being a boy and watching a young Ellstin Limehouse beat the crap out of his father, thwarting Arlo’s attempt to retrieve his runaway wife. Limehouse clearly alluded to the incident to Arlo on the bridge last week.

Incidentally, I’ve never seen the documentary Harlan County U.S.A., but apparently the strikers in the film refer to company strike-breakers as “gun thugs.” I’m not sure why that particular county is the nexus of marijuana and Oxycontin sales in the Southeast (apparently).

When Raylan in the car locks eyes with Ash carrying the lunch, it seems like an echo of the similar scene in Pulp Fiction with Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames.

Todd Stashwick reminds me of a young Powers Boothe. I can see him playing bad guys on one-hour TV dramas for years.

Dickie Bennett’s hair looks like a permanent case of bed-head. Jeremy Davies’ body language seems increasingly spastic, but at times he gives lines the careful enunciation of Walton Goggins as Boyd.

Raylan’s line that Ole Miss has the prettiest girls, or a close variation on it, appears in the novel Raylan. Having read the book, I’ve got a pretty good idea what’s going to happen to Dewey Crowe.