More cheerfully, Raylan really really likes a blonde who is good with a gun.

Mags was the only Big Bad that Raylan didn't kill, right? And she as the only one with a lot of grey area. I think that the show likes its villains one dimensional. They tried that with Boyd, but the actor gave too nuanced a performance, so they tried to redeem him slightly.

Thing is: after the guy had strapped a young man to his bed and was torturing/beating him, I didn't think there was a lot of nuance left. the bwahaha factor increased a bit in last night's ep, but he wasn't "good" really. They were trying to sketch out his motivation for killing and torturing. Nice to know, but he has always been creepy.

Yeah, he is, was and will be creepy.

I think Quarles is intended as counterpoint for Limehouse, who may be a stone killer, but pretty much for practical reasons. If he's out to scare someone, it's usually because it's in his best interests to keep people scared of him.

I also love the way he also plays off Wynn Duffy who seemed like such a sick puppy in his first set of appearences, but now is clearly in over his head.

God, Wynn is awesome with Quarles. It gives me a happy to see the perpetual WTF look on his face all the time.

Quarles scares the shit out of me- he is just fully untethered now and in a free fall and the flashes of crazy rage we got glimpses of at the start is at the surface. Though I do agree, it's a lot less interesting, character-wise, now.

But there's no feeling of a safety net for the viewer- I honestly believe he could kill in the blink of an eye any character at any time for any reason (PROBABLY not Raylan unless they just have the Art, Tim, and Rachel show which I would be ALL ABOUT.)

Limehouse has some serious crazy locked up in there as well.

Quarles never had good. But i think up until they added the back story I believed him. Now I still believe he will kill in the blink of an eye. But I don't see him as real the way I see Limehouse who has tons of crazy. Or Dickey who is totally lacking in redeeming qualities but still who I see as human. The lack of depth is not in the good/evil mixture. Quarles seems more plot-point evil and less human evil.

I agree with most of what was said re Quarles(Including that a less-talented actor would not be able to make that even slightly convincing...it's only thanks to NM that I bought that.) Is Raylan bad at testifying or is he "bad at testifying"? Was there a plan, or did his hormones get in the way? "Next time you say you're bad at something, I'm gonna believe you." Love Art's delivery, as always.

I got the sense that Raylan didn't want to be there and never did. I'm not sure how much more to read into it.

Yeah, it's not that I didn't get that.