'Justified' stars, producer talk finale

Warning: This story contains spoilers from Justified's series finale on Tuesday.

In the end, Justified's top rivals ended up facing off against each other.

However, the last communication between deputy U.S. marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and his Harlan criminal foe, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), in Tuesday's series finale was not a shootout, but a conversation held in a prison visitors' room.

Despite the use of the song, You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive, all the main characters did, as future scenes that closed out the six-season FX drama detailed. Raylan, now a marshal in Florida, couldn't work out his relationship with Winona (Natalie Zea) but is in regular contact with his young daughter; Boyd is in prison; and Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter) is hiding in California with a surprise addition, a toddler son courtesy of her relationship with Boyd. Raylan found her but keeps her secret, telling Boyd she died to keep him from searching for her or the child.

Earlier in the final episode, titled The Promise, Raylan had the chance to kill Boyd, a Kentucky coal-mining cohort in their younger days, but the marshal known for being quick to draw held his powder when Boyd refused to take part in the duel.

"We did play with the idea of Boyd dying and Raylan killing him. It just felt like Raylan killing him would have ultimately been a failure on Raylan's part, even if it's justified," executive producer Graham Yost says. "That's the growth of Raylan over the years."

The scene reconnects to the start of Justified, which is based on characters created by best-selling novelist Elmore Leonard, an executive producer who died in 2013. In the series' first episode, Raylan, stationed in Miami, goaded a murderer to pull his gun so that he could shoot him, resulting in the marshal's transfer to the Lexington, Ky., office.

"The idea was we went back to Tommy Bucks on the rooftop. What if Boyd is the guy who says, 'I'm not going to do the dirty work for you.' What happens when someone says, 'What if I don't raise my gun?' " Olyphant says.

Boyd's survival also reflects the staying power of the character, who survived after producers decided against killing him off in the pilot episode. Goggins initially wanted Boyd to die at the end of the series, but he's happy with how Yost finished the story.

"I think (Graham) made the made the most satisfying ending he possibly could for these characters," Goggins says. "The one thing I asked for was for Boyd to be preaching in that prison," reflecting a past chapter in the character's life.

Raylan does get his high-noon duel, but it's with recent arrival, Boon (Jonathan Tucker), the talented but deranged gunslinger working with Season 6 bad guy Avery Markham (Sam Elliott). Raylan barely survives the Boon gunfight, but his signature hat doesn't and he gets a new one.

"Once we decided Raylan would not kill Boyd, we felt we wanted one big shootout. That's part of the reason we came up with the character of Boon. We liked the idea of a young gun who really is a true danger to Raylan," Yost says.

Another bad guy, Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns), survives, getting out of Harlan and helping Ava escape in the process. "Wynn Duffy is, above all else, a survivor. He's a cockroach," says Yost, who adds that Constable Bob Sweeney (Patton Oswalt) survived his gunshot wound.

Olyphant praises the actors who play Raylan's marshal's office colleagues, Nick Searcy, Jacob Pitts and Erica Tazel, along with his recent adversaries, Elliott, Tucker and Mary Steenburgen. Markham was killed in the finale, while Steenburgen's criminal character also died this season.

"Sam and I had a real cool thing going. I really liked the whole relationship. It was kind of reminiscent of Raylan and Mags Bennett (Season 2's Margo Martindale) a bit," he says. "You felt like those guys enjoyed each other, had a respect for each other and yet could kill each other at any moment. And Jonathan came in as Boon and knocked it out of the park."

In the series' final scene at the prison, Boyd coaxes Raylan to admit their deep connection, going back to the coal mines, despite the marshal's reluctance.

"Raylan was averse to public emotion or sentiment or being earnest, certainly to Boyd Crowder. In that moment, what (Raylan) is saying is 'I came back here to tell you, because I do care about you, whatever has happened, however perverted and strange our relation became. We always have this bond,' " Goggins says.

With the three sides of the show's main character triangle – Raylan, Boyd and Ava – still alive, Olyphant, Goggins and Yost say they are open to revisiting the characters if a future story beckons.

"In a heartbeat," Olyphant says. "Just tell me where and when."