(This review contains spoilers)

FX’s Justfified came to a close on Tuesday with a widely-acclaimed finale that defied expectations. Now that we have a complete work to draw from, it is time to look back on a show that was at times great, at times underwhelming, but almost always entertaining.

Like a lot of shows, Justified had some growing pains. Its pilot feels rushed and tonally awkward, as it begins in bright and sunny Miami and quickly transitions to Harlan County Kentucky, where it will stay for most of the series. Boyd and Raylan’s history as coal diggers is quickly set up, but Boyd (who at this point was not planned as a series regular, and in fact died in the original draft of the pilot) is thinly sketched as a white-supremacist. Ava and Winona, too, are just shadows of the characters they would become. The pilot bites off more than it can chew, and tries to introduce too many elements to do them justice.

In fact, the majority of the season feels uncharacteristic, but this is largely because of its format. Unlike future seasons of Justified, season one is predominately episodic up until its last few episodes. Many have pointed to this structure as a weak point of the first season, but I’m not sure that that’s the case. Even in the one-off episodes, the writers were doing phenomenal work with character and dialogue. In the world of Harlan County, there’s no such thing as a boring character. The season regulars often get the most to work with, but anybody with a line of dialogue gets a chance to come across as an individual. Having an episodic structure pushed the writers to cut their teeth on characters who would disappear after an episode, helping them craft extraordinarily interesting recurring characters in future seasons.

This skill was immediately apparent in Justified’s superb second season. Margo Martindale joined the cast in her career defining role as Mags Bennett, and her entire family consisted of interesting characters. In the case of Dickie Bennett, Jeremy Davies’ wholly unique creation, the writers would find any way possible to bring him back in future seasons, even after his character had exhausted any real function in the narrative. Meanwhile, Boyd Crowder had his most significant arc as a man who had tried to reform, but could never escape his past and his public perception. Meanwhile, Ava found more in common with Boyd than she ever expected. The plot was exciting and unpredictable, and not a single episode dipped in quality.

In fact, if there is a single problem with season two of Justified, it’s that the season is TOO good, and caused the series to peak too early. While season 3 certainly has some great moments, and a fun villain arc with Robert Quayles’ descent into madness, it simply never lived up to its previous season. The central cast was becoming a bit more settled into their roles, so a number of new characters were thrown into the mix, and it all got a bit messy by the end. Still very entertaining, but not as engaging as before.

Season four went an interesting route by focusing on a mystery: the identity of Drew Thompson, a highly-successful criminal who disappeared from Harlan after a major heist. I would describe the greatness that is Drew Thompson myself, but Art does a better job here than I ever could:

The central mystery gives season four a center that season three never really had, and makes for a more satisfying narrative. Watching Raylan and Boyd race against each other to track down Thompson before the other can is a lot of fun, and puts their personal conflict back at the forefront of the show.

Season five is ultimately the weakest season since the first. They doubled-down on Dewey Crowe, who is hilarious in his own right (his kidney-panic episode is an absolute classic), but not a great driver of plot. His family never quite justifies its own existence, either. Michael Rapaport did a fine job as Daryl Crowe, in my opinion, but his character ultimately comes and goes without any significant impact on the world of Harlan County. Aside from some moments in the final episodes, which set up the central plot of season six, season five is largely skipable.

With its final season, Justified got back to its central theme and finished its run in a way that was very true to its origins. Raylan’s status as a live-wire, violent and drawn to conflict, was front and center this time. From the very first episode episode he was seemingly on a collision course with Boyd Crowder. The advertising, too, pushed the Raylan-Boyd conflict as the central drive of the season.

However, what really sets the final season apart and elevates Justified beyond many other shows that are more “fun” than “great” is that the central conflict of the series was ideological, not physical. If anything, the Raylan and Boyd advertising played as a clever misdirect. In the final episode, there is a clear moment when, on a lesser show, there would have been an ultimate showdown. But instead, Boyd refuses to draw his gun, forcing Raylan to make a huge decision: kill Boyd in cold blood, or bring him in alive. For once in his life, Raylan needs to make a clear decision as to whether he’s a killer or a lawman, and he chooses the latter. It’s a choice that he likely would not have made at the beginning of the series, and it highlights his growth as a character before jumping into the future.

The final scene, too, is pitch-perfect for the show. Boyd is once again reformed, this time as a devout Christian preaching to his fellow inmates. The audience is left to decide for themselves whether this is for real or a put-on, a permanent change or yet another phase in Boyd’s cycle. We’re left with a conversation between two changed individuals. Both men have natures that go against their best interest, and both are trying their hardest to fight against those natures. They may have spent years as enemies, and are now finding themselves on opposite ends of a prison visitation window, but most importantly, they dug coal together, both literally and metaphorically.