11 Years Later, The Greatest Quote In Western TV History Is Just As Powerful

The Western genre is among the most quotable out there, and FX’s small-screen neo-Western crime drama Justified epitomizes this trope better than any other TV show of its kind. There are plenty of superb lines of dialogue across the show’s six seasons, but one stands above the rest as the greatest quote in Western TV history.

This quote comes right at the end of Justified’s best episode, and manages to encapsulate what the entire series is about in four simple words. These words could have been spoken by any Harlan County miner, but they mean more coming from the lips of hardened criminal Boyd Crowder, as he addresses his nemesis Raylan GIvens.

It just so happens that Boyd’s greatest line is his last in the series, and serves to elevate one of the best final scenes in any TV show. It’s the perfect way for Justified to end, articulating the essence of Boyd and Raylan’s ambivalent relationship better than any lengthy exposition could, while getting to the heart of the show’s conclusion.

Justified’s Final Line Is The Greatest Quote In Western TV History

Just as Western movies trade in pithy one-liners better than almost any other cinematic genre, their TV counterparts have a longstanding tradition of eminently quotable protagonists. From Bret Maverick to Paladin in Have Gun – Will Travel, and Gunsmoke’s central hero Matt Dillon, classic Western shows frequently demonstrated a distinctive way with words.

In more recent times, Deadwood’s Al Swearengen made talking the talk his stock and trade. But none of these examples compare with Boyd Crowder’s last line in Justified, which is pretty much the final piece of dialogue spoken in the whole show.

When Boyd asks Raylan Givens why he came thousands of miles to speak to him in person, he answers his own question with a moving tribute to the mutual respect these longtime friends-turned-enemies have for each other, where they come from, and their respective paths in life. Looking Raylan dead in the eye, Boyd tells him simply, “We dug coal together.”

The Whole Of Justified Is Summed Up In This Single Line

Boyd Crowder actor Walton Goggins has explained the true significance of this line in the years since Justified’s finale episode first aired in 2015. Although Boyd and Raylan are bitter adversaries for most of the series, they’re ultimately united in their affection for the place they both grew up, and in the mutual respect they share as former Harlan County miners.

Their ties run deeper than the two sides of the law that divide them, right down to the rich seam of coal beneath the land of Georgia, which they once mined together in perilous underground conditions. It’s for this reason that Raylan feels he owes it to Boyd to give him closure in his relationship with his ex-wife, Ava.

While their rivalry for Ava’s love is another reason for the hostility between Raylan and Boyd, not even she comes before the deep-rooted respect they feel towards each other. Through everything that happens in Justified, including the deadly game of cat-and-mouse they play across six seasons, their shared background in the working-class community they call home still comes first.

This Quote Is Just As Powerful 11 Years Later

More than a decade after it first aired, Justified’s ending has aged like a fine wine. If anything, its stature has actually grown, in the wake of the disappointing conclusion to the show’s spinoff miniseries City Primeval, and poorly-executed conclusions to other high-profile TV neo-Westerns like Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone.

Boyd Crowder’s last line acts as a definitive punctuation mark at the end of its show’s extraordinary finale episode, which also comes at the end of Justified’s best season. Great TV finales are hard to pull off, but this one is a model example of how it’s done.

Its famous quote completes the perfect epilogue to the story of Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder, one which City Primeval unfortunately went some way to undoing. Justified’s original ending was best left alone, and looks even better now with the benefit of hindsight.