NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Justified: City Primeval episode 7 "The Smoking Gun."
Things open with a flashback to 1988. Sweetie (Vondie Curtis-Hall) plays guitar on stage in a packed club. There's a little girl sitting on a chair off to the side of the stage. After the show, Sweetie hangs out with some of the other musicians in the alley outside. One of them asks Sweetie about the little girl. It's a young Carolyn. Before her father died, Sweetie promised him that he would look out for Carolyn.
On their way home Sweetie makes a stop. He brings Carolyn and all his friends into an old building that he's renovating and tells them it's going to be his bar.
Finally, a break
The scene fades to fire trucks and sirens and what’s left of Sweetie's bar. Carolyn (Aunjaune Ellis) stands behind the coroner's van as Sweetie's body is loaded in.
Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) arrives at the scene. He is standing with a visibly upset Carolyn when they both see Trennell (Joseph Anthony Byrd) in the window of the apartment. They go up to see him. With some encouragement from Carolyn, Trennell gives them the gun he took from Sweetie's. It's the gun Mansell (Boyd Holdbrook) used to kill Judge Guy that Sandy (Adelaide Clemens) hid at Sweetie's bar. Trennell gives it to Raylan, hoping this will be what finally allows them to arrest Mansell.
Back at the police station, Raylan gives the gun to Maureen (Marin Ireland) to have it tested.
Sandy is in trouble
At the condo, Mansell is sitting on the couch brooding. When Sandy gets up he asks her menacingly to look around and tell him if anything is missing. She doesn't know what he's talking about. He asks her where the painting is. Sandy says she sold it because they need money to get out of Detroit. In a foul mood, Mansell leaves the condo.
There's a knock at the condo door and Sandy opens it. It's Raylan, who tells her they have the gun. He tries to strong-arm her into turning on Mansell, but Sandy won't testify against him. She's scared and she's not taking that risk, ever. Raylan tells her they can protect her but she doesn't believe him; she's more scared of Mansell than she is of prison.
Raylan points out that Sandy's life will be at risk if Mansell finds out the police have the gun because she didn't get rid of it. Sandy is even more terrified after finding out Mansell killed Sweetie.
Later on, desperate, Sandy goes to see Skender (Alexander Pobutsky) in the hospital to try and get him back and get under his protection. Skender isn't having it. He tells Sandy she's a dead woman. Now she's got to worry about the Albanian mob, Mansell and Raylan.
Mansell threatens Carolyn
Carolyn arrives home to find Mansell sitting in her kitchen. Before she says anything, Mansell tells her the story of his mother. He says he killed her, but then says maybe he's just kidding. He's not kidding and Carolyn knows it.
Carolyn tells him he took the only father she ever knew by killing Sweetie. She swears at him and says she will no longer represent him. Mansell grabs her and slams her against the wall, choking her. Mansell lets her go but tells her he's not going back to prison.
Betrayed by a friend
Raylan pulls up to the police department to find a swarm of press camped outside. He asks Robinson (Victor Williams) what's going on, who tells him Maureen arrested a homeless veteran who was in the park the night Judge Guy was murdered, Darryl Woods (Corey Hendrix), instead of Mansell.
Raylan and Robinson watch Maureen interrogate Woods. Maureen pulls out the gun Raylan gave her and tells Woods ballistics will find his prints on the gun. When Maureen leaves the interrogation room, Raylan confronts her, convinced she is in Judge Guy's book and Clement is blackmailing her. Maureen won't confirm or deny Raylan's suspicions, she just tells him he's free to go back to Florida.
However, Norbert (Norbert Leo Butz) tells Raylan he's not going to send Woods to prison when he knows he didn't do it. He hands Raylan a parcel and then leaves.
Sorry Del, we hardly knew you
Mansell wakes up to find Sandy and Judge Guy's book gone. Before he can process that Del (Andy Carey) arrives home and wants to know who Mansell is and why he's in the condo. Mansell handcuffs Del to his own chair, then uses his phone to call Sandy, who is at the airport about to get on a flight and run. Mansell tells her to come back now with the book or he will kill Del, find her and kill her too. She hangs up.
But Sandy calls Mansell back and says she'll come back if Mansell promises not to hurt Del. Raylan is standing next to her. Mansell tells her to meet him at the Radisson by the airport instead. He hangs up then kills Del.
The players move into position
Raylan isn't planning on arresting Mansell. Carolyn calls and Raylan tells her the plan. She is with Toma (Terry Kinney), recruiting the Albanian mob to take Mansell down. The players are in position to end this game once and for all.
New episodes of Justified: City Primeval air Tuesdays on FX, then are available to stream the next day on Hulu.
