City Primeval (Justified: City Primeval)

"City Primeval" is the first episode of the American television miniseries Justified: City Primeval, a continuation of the series Justified. The episode was written by series developers Dave Andron and Michael Dinner, and directed by Dinner. It originally aired on FX on July 18, 2023, airing back-to-back with the follow-up episode "The Oklahoma Wildman".

The series is set 15 years after the original series finale, and follows Raylan Givens, who now resides in Miami. He continues working as a U.S. Marshal while helping raise his daughter, Willa. However, he soon finds himself in Detroit when a criminal, Clement Mansell, starts wrecking havoc.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.493 million household viewers and gained a 0.05 ratings share among adults aged 18–49. The premiere received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the new storylines, characters and performances.

Plot
At the Everglades, Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) meets with his daughter, Willa (Vivian Olyphant), taking her to camp. On the way, their car is rammed by a pickup driven by two thugs. The thugs want to steal Raylan's car, but Raylan surprises them by flattening their tires with a shotgun and arresting them after showing his badge.

In Detroit, Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) steals a car from a gas station. Alvin Guy (Keith David), a judge for the Third Circuit Judicial Court of Wayne County, survives an assassination attempt when his car explodes. Despite the attempt, he still continues his job through the day with a new case. The case involves Raylan, who has been called after arresting one of the thugs, Tyrone (Jalen Gilbert), who was a fugitive in Michigan. During the trial, Tyrone's lawyer, Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis), questions Raylan over his perceived hostility and possible mistreatment of the criminals. Upset with Raylan's behavior, the Judge releases Tyrone on bail with the charges in Florida dropped.

Raylan's chief, Lou Whitman (Kenn E. Head), assigns him to work with Wendell Robinson (Victor Williams), a Detroit Police Department detective. The Judge asked for Raylan to cooperate with Detroit in finding the person responsible for the bombing. Raylan reluctantly accepts to work opposite Wendell and his partners, Norbert Bryl (Norbert Leo Butz) and Maureen Downey (Marin Ireland). Finding that the Judge slept with many women, they conduct a raid in Armada, finding one of the culprits in the bombing. The other culprit flees to his mother's house, but she calls on the authorities to arrest him as well.

Mansell meets with his girlfriend, Sandy Stanton (Adelaide Clemens), who works as a casino waitress. After retrieving a gun with the help of bartender Marcus "Sweety" Sweeton (Vondie Curtis-Hall), Mansell and Sandy start their new scheme. This involves Sandy flirting with an Albanian, Skender Lulgjuraj (Alexander Pobutsky), who will take her to his house while Mansell follows them. However, Mansell starts losing track due to a delay in a parking lot, unaware that a car is driven by the Judge. He gives chase to the Judge's car, ramming it into the street. Before the Judge can take his gun, Mansell kills him and takes his assistant, Rose (Rae Gray), hostage. Rose escapes from Mansell's car, prompting Mansell to kill her in Palmer Park. That night, Raylan is called to the scene, where Maureen laments Rose's death, as she had her act as an informant to the Judge. Raylan returns to the hotel, where he watches Willa sleep.

Development
In March 2023, FX announced that the first episode of the series would be titled "City Primeval", and was to be written by series developers Dave Andron and Michael Dinner and directed by Dinner.

Writing
Michael Dinner explained that it was pivotal to show character growth in Raylan, explaining "He's such an Elmore character. They don't make huge leaps; they move incrementally, and I think that's what happens in the new series. He gave up the ghost of his past in the first series. He's moving another couple inches forward now, and there's a third chapter."

Dave Andron described Clement Mansell as "He's one of the great bad guys that Elmore created. Crazy or unpredictable is a good description. And the great thing about Elmore's bad guys is that sometimes they're redeemable or embraceable, and sometimes they're just so interesting, and I find this guy interesting. I don't know what he's gonna do next. That's what makes him scary. The question for Raylan is, existentially, has he slowed down?"

Filming
For the scene where Raylan arrives at the crime scene, Dinner wanted to diffentiate it from the previous scenes by making an unbroken take. He explained, "As a director, you have to find a rhythm, and if you've been in a sequence that's coverage heavy with no shot lasting longer than a second, it gives you permission to do something different in the next scene. You don't want to get lulled into a pace that's the same from scene to scene."

Viewers
In its original American broadcast, "City Primeval" was seen by an estimated 0.493 million household viewers and gained a 0.05 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This means that 0.05 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode. This was a 78% decrease in viewership from the original series finale, which was watched by 2.24 million viewers with a 0.7 in the 18-49 demographics.

Critical reviews
"City Primeval" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote, "Justified: City Primeval wastes little time throwing Raylan back into the thick of things, which is about the same amount of time it spends pretending all that much has changed. Sure, he's based in Florida, which is where he was first based when Justified started. But even as it brings us up to speed on Raylan's life, the opening scene predominantly speaks to the lingering demons our favorite U.S. Marshal has yet to quell."

Roxana Hadadi of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Fifteen years after the pre-time-jump events of the Justified series finale 'The Promise,' Raylan still has that inquiring mind and that chip on his shoulder, and he still won't let himself be intimidated or pushed around... at least not by criminals. His 15-year-old daughter, Willa, though? Or lawyer Carolyn Wilder or judge Alvin Guy? They have Raylan's number either emotionally or legally, and by the end of premiere City Primeval, their prickly, contentious relationships with Raylan lay down some narrative avenues for where this series will go. Giddyup!"

Cameron Crain of TV Obsessive wrote, "The chaos of that setup makes Episode 1 of Justified: City Primeval feel more like Justified than anything else." Diana Keng of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 3.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Clement is a villain fashioned after Batman's Joker. A capable criminal who understands how to leverage information and has no qualms about utilizing extreme brutality to expedite his goals, he is a creature of mercurial moods and motivations. The issue with chaotic evil like that is the unpredictability of his actions gets tedious. The savagery is shocking and the sadism disturbing, but it's a one-note type of discord."