sad that as fondly as raylan remebers his aunt, when he turned his back on his father, he cut her out of his life as well.

Yeah, but it does seem like when she has to choose, she chooses Arlo.

I was a bit creeped out by the headstones in the front yard. Especially when you realize that the third one was Raylan's.

That reminded me of a couple old houses around where I grew up, that had the family plot right near the house. My grandparents and my mom had their plots picked out in the local cemetary, paid for and headstones in place, for many years before they died. My home used to have such a gravesite, but I was told that when my family bought the place, my mom's uncle tore up the headstones and discarded them. The two families did not get along. I always figured that explained why the place was haunted.

I mean, I have relatives from the country, and I've definitely seen plots on the family's land, but never in the front yard.

Oh yeah. Ours was on the left side of the house as you drove up, and so were a couple others that I recall. Funny, I never really thought about it being odd before, but I guess it is.

That's one of the things I'm enjoying so much about Justified. Every episode I hear myself saying, yep, that's right, or, is that my cousin?!

I imagine it just depends on where you might find some bit of land that is less steep: eastern Kentucky being pretty darned hilly.

Yeah, but it does seem like when she has to choose, she chooses Arlo.

No doubt, which just makes it extra harsh and sad. I wonder who turned whose back first? It would make sense if he ditched Harlan and everyone and everything in it, somewhere in there mom dies (what was the year on her tombstone?), and sometime in Raylan's absence, and therefore (I'm cringing as I type this) Arlo's outlet for his ugly side is gone, and Helen forgets any reason why she ever stood silently against him.

I suspect that he might feel a little odd about the fact that his mother's sister married his father.

what was the year on her tombstone?

2000, which is one reason why he prefers to regard his aunt as "Aunt [so and so]"

Okay, so she died ten years ago.

Now I want to know about Mom. When Raylan left and never looked back (I'm gonna assume shortly after digging coal with Boyd, so when he was 20), did he turn his back on his mother as well? Were there phonecalls? Was she the anti-Ava, who never said "enough, never again"?

The strangest thing to me is that Helen would marry him, knowing as she did what kind of man he was. Maybe she'd just become so emotionally involved with her sister's family, it seemed normal after a while. I wonder if Helen was ever married before Arlo. Maybe she was in love with Arlo herself all along.

(stuffs plot bunny back into tophat)

Or maybe there was the situation like with my grandmother, who I discovered had "known" my Uncle Henry before marrying my grandfather. There was some kind of drama, because I didn't meet Uncle Henry until I was an adult. I didn't ask, though.