Wrong Roads

In February 2014, it was reported that the ninth episode of the fifth season would be titled "Wrong Roads", and was to be directed by executive producer Michael Dinner and written by executive producer Dave Andron and story editor Leonard Chang.[2]

The storyline about Jay and Roscoe was originally different. Series developer Graham Yost said, "so we were gonna separate them, and then the remaining brother was gonna be on a revenge mission and looking for Boyd. The Harris brothers didn't want to do that. They wanted to either play together or not play. So we had to reevaluate quickly, and Andron and Tim [Olyphant], actually, came up with this notion of the two brothers going on this adventure together. And it ended up being a much better episode. We adapted, and it turned into something really fun: It was just the basic setup of one brother's very verbal and the other one says nothing, and then we go for the big twist — Steve would suddenly start to speak, and speak well, and be very loquacious."[3]

Despite being credited, Jacob Pitts and Erica Tazel do not appear in the episode as their respective characters.

Eric Roberts's casting occurred thanks to his connection to executive producer Michael Dinner. Yost said, "so we'd been looking from early in the season for what would be a good thing to try to get him to do, and just the idea of him being the Ghost of Raylan Future to a degree was something that appealed to us. The fact that he was willing to do it really appealed to us."[3]

In its original American broadcast, "Wrong Roads" was seen by an estimated 2.24 million household viewers and gained a 0.8 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This means that 0.8 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.[4] This was a 4% decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 2.32 million viewers with a 0.9 in the 18-49 demographics.[5]

"Wrong Roads" received generally positive reviews from critics. Seth Amitin of IGN gave the episode a "good" 7.9 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "As we close in on the end of what's been a rough season for Justified, the elements of the story are coming together. Daryl and the Crowes are getting involved in something that's way above their ability and will likely find themselves in deep trouble in the next couple of weeks. Raylan talks of change. Boyd is at the end of his rope. Ava needs to do something quickly. As the heroin shipment arrives in Harlan in the next episode, we'll see exactly how the pieces will fall into place and hopefully we'll be interested enough to keep watching."[6]

Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A−" grade and wrote, "'Wrong Roads' isn't a perfect episode of Justified, though it does represent a substantial step up from its three immediate predecessors. It suffers from many of the same problems that the show has struggled with since 'Shot All To Hell', or perhaps since the beginning of this season. There's still not really a clear sense of where this season is headed, and the division of screen time between three separate stories makes for some glacial pacing."[7] Kevin Fitzpatrick of Screen Crush wrote, "It's hard to tell exactly where it all leads in only 4 episodes, though 'Wrong Roads' clearly provides the most cohesive story breaks we've had all season, with plenty of excitement promised in the coming weeks."[8]

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "It's not that I especially care about the heroin shipment, but that so much of the season has been about this one problem that I just want it resolved already so we can move onto something more interesting. Wendy and Kendal can't wait to get away from this mess, and I do not exactly blame them."[9] James Quealley of The Star-Ledger wrote, "'Wrong Turns' was a good, not great, episode of Justified and one that was sorely needed. I remain of the opinion that a down season of this series is still better than most anything else I watch, but when you've had as good of a run as Justified has, the audience has a hard time accepting anything less."[10]

Matt Zoller Seitz of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Figures. On the same night I went on Twitter and moaned about Justified's lack of oomph, the show delivered one of its better season-five episodes, 'Wrong Roads'. There still seems to be a lot of motion for motion's sake, but a sense of urgency has settled in. Are we finally getting somewhere?"[11] Holly Anderson of Grantland wrote, "The last 15 minutes of this hour could've easily been spun out into an entire episode, and the last five are particularly jam-packed with information."[12]

Dan Forcella of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.1 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Overall, this was a depressing hour and that's saying a lot for Justified. Raylan had a victory, but it came with even more disappointment and anger from Art. It was all about mayhem and death. Even Kendal and Wendy didn't get a moment of happiness. Their goal of getting out was shut down by Daryl and Kendal lost his money stash."[13] Jack McKinney of Paste gave the episode a 9.3 out of 10 and wrote, "They're probably right. I won't look forward to the middle section of this season when I watch it over again later this year, but the anticipation of this episode will smooth over a lot of edges."[14]