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SUCK IT, HATERS. WINONA ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE.

I will be seriously upset if Winona isn’t in the next season of Justified. I thoroughly enjoy her, even if a lot of fans don’t. I think she’s one of the few females on TV that I admire. She’s feisty and intelligent and she doesn’t put up with anyone’s crap - not even Raylan’s. She makes her own choices and she stands by her convictions.

Even if she and Raylan aren’t together (and I don’t think they will be until he’s officially out of the field), I think the show benefits from having her around, even if it is in a limited capacity. She keeps Raylan grounded, she keeps him from completely falling into the insanity that envelopes Harlan county and its inhabitants. So come on writers, Natalie, let’s figure out a way to keep Winona part of the show.

Several weeks ago, when the third season of ‘Justified’ premiered on FX, I wrote a piece defending the actions of Winona Hawkins, the ex-wife of protagonist Raylan Givens. I was tired of seeing the fandom attack her character for whatever crackpot reason they had made up that week. None of the attackers’ arguments had any merit and I simply couldn’t take it anymore.

A few weeks ago it was revealed Winona left Raylan for the second time after realizing he was not going to change his lifestyle for her or their unborn child. He’d had plenty of chances to do it, and he still chose to go running off after fugitives and creepy blue-eyed men from Detroit, despite saying he’d leave active duty in the Marshal service. As a fan of Winona I was a little upset about this development, but the more I thought about it, it made complete sense given her character history. So here I am, yet again, to defend Winona’s actions.

(Note: Keep in mind I’m writing this midway through the third season, and that I have no clue as to what may happen in the coming weeks as the season unfolds and really sets itself up for the sure to be climactic and amazing season finale. At the time of this post Winona is still out of Raylan’s immediate vicinity.)

In my first post I compared Winona to her counterpart on the show, Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter), and to the character of Tara Knowles on ‘Sons of Anarchy’ (Maggie Siff). And despite the character’s recent actions, I think the comparisons still hold. Winona is still not Ava, that much is clear. She has no desire to be involved in the lives and happenings of the people of Harlan, because she’s obviously the sanest of all the show’s characters, and because she recognizes the danger there. But most importantly it’s because she has no ties to the county, aside from her relationship with Raylan, that she has no problem letting the Crowders and the Bennetts do whatever they want. And as for Winona being Tara’s equal, the two characters are still very similar in terms of personal strength, despite the separate approaches the two women have taken in terms of the men they love (but that subject deserves its own post, and is one I’m currently working on as well).

Winona’s actions are representative of a woman who knows what she wants, knows her limits, and sticks to her convictions. She told Raylan in the second season finale, “You go to Harlan, but I can’t promise you I’m gonna be here when you get back.” And Raylan took off without thinking twice about the consequences. Yes, we know how it played out, we know that he saved the day, but he almost died in the process. And although she ran directly to Art and begged him to help Raylan, the viewers were left wondering for seven long months whether or not Winona was going to stay true to her word and leave our favorite Marshal.

In the third season premiere, “The Gunfighter,” Winona is pulled over while driving to an unknown destination and told of Raylan’s condition. Savvy viewers would infer that she had stayed true to her word and was on her way out of Lexington, and out of Raylan’s life, when she was pulled over. But because she’s human, and because she’s in love with Raylan - and carrying his child - she immediately drives to the hospital to be by his side.

Flash forward three weeks and we see them together, seemingly happy. There are a few scenes in the premiere in which they discuss future baby names, discuss finding a home to live in, instead of Raylan’s sad excuse for a motel room, but that’s pretty much the last we really see of Winona so far this season. There’s the tense scene at the end of the premiere involving Ice Pick’s sadistic game, and the scene involving a Realtor showing the house Winona used to share with Gary, but was then sharing with Raylan while they searched for a home. There’s a short scene in another episode in which they briefly discuss some house they were going to look at, and we see her in the episode “Thick as Mud” offering Raylan a beer when he comes home in the middle of the night. But by episode’s end, Winona has packed up and moved out, leaving nothing but a Dear Raylan letter in the kitchen, her earlier declarations that everything was fine, obviously a lie that Raylan couldn’t - or maybe didn’t want to - see through.

Raylan spends an awful lot of time attempting to track Winona down in the following episode, “When the Guns Come Out,” eventually tracking her to Louisville where she is staying with her sister, who seemingly has a strong distaste for her former brother-in-law. After confronting Winona about why she left she told him, “If you wanted to change your life for me, Raylan, you would have done so by now.” And it’s true; Raylan has had time to make good on his earlier promises of leaving active duty in the Marshal service and going to Glynco to train future marshals. And while it’s true that he did put in the request to be transferred in the season premiere, that’s the last time we see Raylan actively try to keep his word to Winona. At the end of that episode, Art confirms what viewers already knew: that Winona had already left him weeks ago after he went to Harlan to save Loretta.

I don’t think anyone can fault Winona for her actions. In fact, I think most people with their heads on straight would likely do the same thing. She recognized the danger that Raylan constantly put her in, however indirect and unintended it may be, and she made an active decision to change that. Knowing Raylan could never really quit the world of Harlan, however much he might want to, Winona chose to remove herself, and her unborn child, from a poisonous situation.

Winona is a strong independent character in and of herself, and despite the fact that most people who spend their days posting on messages boards and commenting on reviews tend to think she’s a waste of human space and takes up the time that could be spent on Ava (who has also become a more peripheral character this season) and the other colorful people of Harlan, I think she’s a great character.

Winona is feisty and intelligent, and she has the ability to sense danger and run away from it. Raylan, the upstanding, by the law man that he is, deserves to have a woman like Winona in his life, a woman who is his equal, a woman who can think for herself, a woman who doesn’t need to rely on violence to be successful in the world. But therein lies the conflict - Winona is too good, too intelligent, and too independent to sit around wondering if her husband is going to come home or if he’s lying in a hospital bed with a bullet hole through his abdomen. Winona is funny, she is strong, and in theory she deserves every bit of man that Raylan is. Unfortunately, the two characters cannot exist in the same world together without one of them drastically changing who they are or altering their convictions. Both of them are too stubborn and set in their ways to adapt to the other’s wishes. And in a perfect world, neither one of them would have to, but in a perfect world this conflict would not exist in the first place. Until Raylan is out the field I don’t see a way for these two characters, no matter how passionate a love they share for each other, to be together in any sense of the word.

Do I think that Winona and Raylan will be apart at series end? Unless one of them dies (and I’m really hoping that isn’t the case, no matter what Natalie Zea’s casting in Kevin Williamson’s new pilot might suggest), I think they’ll end up together. They’ve got a strong chemistry and an intense love for one another, that much is clear. And with a child in the picture, I don’t think the two of them will ever be out of each other’s lives again. Winona said as much in “When the Guns Come Out,” and I don’t believe the writers would waste a character like Winona, or subject her to that fate. There has to be something that keeps Raylan from straying too far, something that keeps him grounded, and Winona and his child are just that - they are what keeps him from completely losing it, and himself, in the ongoing corruption in Harlan County.

(Source: kaitlinthomas.com)

I don’t understand how anyone could hate Winona Hawkins.  She’s a strong female character who had the common sense to do right by herself. Yes, she left Raylan, but as we’ve all seen, Raylan isn’t necessarily the best husband, or person for that matter. Yes, he is a US Marshal and lives by a code. Yes, he aims to do the right thing and tries to create a sense of justice in this far from perfect world. But his code seems to often veer off course from what I imagine the Marshal service decrees as the right course of action.

Raylan is an angry person. He is stubborn. He never listens to people, even when they’re trying to help him or have his best interest at heart. He doesn’t do anything by the book. And he will shoot someone if he thinks it’s justified. I can’t imagine being married to a man like Raylan was easy for Winona. Is he a bad person? Hell no. He’s a damn good man, doing good things, but in a less than admirable way sometimes. And you can see that everything he is and everything he does is in part a reflection of who his father is. Raylan is not Arlo. Raylan is a good man, but a man who makes a lot of mistakes. But for some reason, we let Raylan’s (and even Boyd’s) transgressions slide, but hold Winona accountable for the things she’s allegedly done wrong. 

I think Winona is an intelligent, independent woman who wants to be happy, and she recognized that she wasn’t happy with Raylan the first time. But that doesn’t mean she’s a bitch or a slut or a terrible waste of human flesh like some people make her out to be (and I think a lot of this hate is people projecting some misplaced hate for Natalie Zea on to her character - which again, is not right either). I’m sorry if you preferred Ava to Winona, or if Winona is getting in the way of your Boyd/Raylan slash preference, but she’s not going anywhere. She’s a strong woman who loves, and is loved in return, by Raylan.

I think a lot of people confuse the idea of personal strength with being physically strong. And that’s not what it means. You can be strong emotionally and mentally as well as physically. I think Winona is definitely strong mentally. She stands her ground with Raylan, and you better believe that I don’t for one second think she’s forgotten about his assurance that he would get out of the field. Especially with that baby growing inside her.

Being a strong woman doesn’t necessarily mean you have to also be a violent woman. Do the two sometimes coexist? Yes. Look at Ava. Look at Gemma Teller Morrow on Sons of Anarchy. These are two strong females who also tend to rely on violence to prove their strength in this world - but that character trait is also a reflection of their environment and their presense in very misogynistic societies. Yes, we look at them and call them badass when they take various objects to the faces of their foes, and we chant their praises for not taking shit lying down. But there is no denying that their strength comes from a very violent place. It is a defense mechanism born out of living in an unjust world in which women are treated as weak and unequal to their male counterparts.

But then there’s another side to that; there’s a side where strength is not a reflection of your environment, but comes from within. And that’s where we find Winona. And if Winona is Ava’s counterpart on Justified, Tara Knowles is Gemma’s counterpart on Sons of Anarchy. I don’t think many people could successfully argue that these are not strong women. They’re both independent women with respectable and steady careers who value and place importance on things like happiness, honesty and love. I think both of them had the strength to leave situations that were toxic to them, and even if they’ve both returned to the men and the situation, it’s clear they’re strong woman who speak their mind and refuse to be walked on. They both recognize that these situations are poisonous to their families, but have chosen to stay - for now - because of the love they have for these men who are trying to do right in their respective worlds, and because they have more at stake than just their own happiness now. They have families to think about. 

Winona isn’t Ava, nor is she Aunt Helen. Is she going to shoot her husband because he beat her? No. She’s going to leave him and have him arrested. Is she going to take a frying pan to someone’s face to prove a point? Not unless it’s Raylan’s face. Is she going to take on two intruders in her house alone in the middle of the night? Probably not, because that’s just not the type of woman she is. But she is going to stand her ground when it comes to Raylan, especially when she’s worried about his safety, and the safety of their unborn child. I think anyone who has the common sense to recognize their problems and actively try to fix them or rectify them in some way, is a smart, intelligent person worthy of admiration, both by the fictional characters they exist with, and by us, the viewers.