Justified: City Primeval's Bad Guy Is Perfect Minus One Annoying Score

Contains spoilers for "Justified: City Primeval" – Episode 6 – "Adios"

As "Justified: City Primeval" continues, Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) is holding his own as one of Raylan Givens' (Timothy Olyphant) toughest targets. It's hardly a surprise, given the actor playing him. Having already dabbled as a commendable bad guy in "Logan" and "The Sandman," Holbrook can certainly hold his own as a top-level threat and has done the same here, pushing the Marshal's buttons and being just out of reach of the law that's determined to bring him in. It's the kind of cat-and-mouse dynamic that the original show was so popular for, thanks to Walton Goggins' Boyd Crowder. However, whereas Raglan's previous rival had a charm and calculating nature about him, there's one recurring issue with Givens' latest goon, and it's an odd and somewhat unnecessary addition. So much so that this week may have impeded one of the show's most impactful moments.

Since the beginning, Mansell has been a man of a bygone era, bound to 8-track tapes and cars with decent stereo systems. That's a tolerable trait, but his lingering love of music goes one step too far with his wanting to become a singer. It's something that the show could really do without, and it was never made more apparent than in the final moments of this week's episode and the ending of a business partnership that went out on "The Seventh Nation Army." Sorry, Sweet (Vondie Curtis-Hall). You deserved so much better.

It's never a "Justified" story without crooks double-crossing each other, without even Rylan's influence. In the case of this week's episode, just such an altercation occurred between Clement and Sweet after the former revealed he'd put out a hit on his criminal colleague. The situation quickly turned sour, with the hired hitter getting immediately taken out and Clement turning on Sweet and shooting up his jukebox. Too far, Mansell. Too far.

Unfortunately, this also led to Clement pressing play on a cover of "The Seventh Nation Army" that, while clearly highlighting just how unhinged this tighty-whitey-wearing antagonist is, sucked all the tension out of the moment. Without question, both film and television have homed horrifying instances that have been all the more gripping when the villain at the center of it has a love for music. In Clement's case, though, it feels like an unbalanced element that makes moments like this jarring in the wrong ways. 

Hopefully, in the show's final two episodes, it manages to find a balance, or Mansell keeps his music interests at a low volume when he and Givens have the showdown "Justified: City Primeval" should go out on.