Justified — Season 1

After some bad publicity involving a shooting, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens' boss transfers Raylan from Miami to Lexington, Kentucky. Under Chief Deputy Art Mullen, an old friend from the academy, Raylan takes on the case of the murder of a young white supremacist who is linked to a church bombing. The chief suspect is Boyd Crowder, a childhood friend of Raylan's. In order to catch him, Raylan returns to his hometown of Harlan. Boyd gives Raylan an ultimatum: leave Harlan within twenty-four hours or be killed. After a tense confrontation at an old acquaintance's house, Raylan gets the drop on Boyd and shoots him in the chest, though he survives and is hospitalized.

Raylan visits Boyd in the prison hospital to check on him, and transport Crowe to prison. Meanwhile, during a 'prison band' performance, convict Douglas Cooper and a fellow inmate escape. After Art Mullen asks Raylan to return to investigate, Raylan makes a stop at a gas station. Unbeknownst to Raylan, the convicts have set a trap, and Cooper makes off with Raylan's guns, car and hat. After learning that Cooper only had three months left on his sentence, Raylan and marshal Gutterson make a trip to Cooper's ex-wife, Shirley. Cooper then visits after and makes a deal with Shirley and Dupree, Shirley's 'cousin'. They are looking for money Cooper hid in the flooring of development housing during construction. After Ava makes a house call to Raylan, he discovers a hunch as to the location of the money. Cooper, however, screwed up the location. After Dupree shoots Cooper, they find the right house, whose occupants have spent it all. A hostage situation ensues after Cooper helps Raylan find the right house, and Shirley helps Raylan by allowing Gutterson to snipe Dupree, citing that it 'wasn't right' to shoot Cooper. The episode ends with a nice conversation between Cooper and Raylan as they once again leave the prison.

Raylan starts to work with Arnold Pinter, a local informant who makes money ratting out people to the US Marshals and taking sports bets. Pinter's collector and a debtor decide to work together and kidnap Pinter to find out where the informant's "escape money" is. Raylan grows suspicious after he can't find the informant. The debtor kills the collector, and not long after Raylan shows up. A gunfight ensues, and Raylan kills the debtor and rescues Pinter despite getting shot in his bulletproof vest. Pinter gets his money, and Raylan gets a week's paid leave—a time that Art says will be restful—for Art.

Raylan and the Miami mob compete to capture a fugitive, Roland Pike. The Miami mob wants to kill Pike because Pike was their former accountant and he stole their money and disappeared. The authorities want Pike to act as an informant. Raylan once had a chance to nab Pike, but Pike lied to him and ran off. Pike comes out of hiding as a result of brutally attacking a client from Pike's dental office. The Miami mob spots Raylan looking for Pike, and decides to kill both Raylan and Pike when they have a chance. Raylan eventually kills two of the mob henchmen on his tail (marking the third episode in which Raylan kills someone), and then finds Pike. Pike decides to let a sniper shoot him.

Raylan's step-mother and aunt, Helen, calls him to tell him Arlo is in jail. Raylan reluctantly goes to Harlan, where Helen tells Raylan he needs to bail out his father. Raylan is wary about getting too involved with his father, who made Raylan live in fear growing up and who was constantly involved in some sort of scheme. Arlo in part blames his behavior on his own father, a religious man who mistreated him. Raylan eventually discovers that Arlo planned to use his own son as a shield from Oxycontin ("hillbilly heroin") runners, whom Arlo had stolen from. Arlo's plan works, as Raylan finds Oxy at the drug runners' house (planted by Helen) and threatens the Oxy runners with jail if he goes after Helen and Arlo again. Raylan doesn't even bother asking Arlo where the stolen Oxy or money is because he knows Arlo will not tell him.

A wealthy man seemingly commits suicide on a luxurious Kentucky horse ranch, and Raylan must hunt for his missing art collection while resisting the advances of his attractive widow.

After disrupting an apparent assassination attempt on Ava, Raylan is hellbent on tracking down the responsible parties. However, he soon discovers that Ava may not have been the real target. It is revealed that a hitman employed by the Miami mob wanted Raylan dead. Harlan county Sheriff Hunter Mosley (Brent Sexton) kills the hitman to protect himself and then exposes his true affiliations to Raylan. Ava helps Raylan turn the tables on Mosley and his partner, and Raylan and Ava escape. Boyd is almost killed in prison for talking to Raylan as other inmates view Boyd as a snitch, but Boyd's father Bo saves Boyd.

Raylan is turned hostage negotiator when a dangerous inmate holds a group of people hostage. Raylan's affair with Ava inadvertently grants Boyd an early release from prison.

Having been suspended from the Marshal's service, Raylan decides to use his free time to go head-to-head with the gangsters who are bothering Winona's new husband.

Raylan is assigned to guard an eccentric judge, but Raylan takes time off from the assignment to track down an old lead connected with the Crowders.

It's up to Raylan to keep Harlan safe when Boyd Crowder and his cadre of "followers" turn vigilantes.

Boyd Crowder's increasing influence has gotten out of control and Raylan is ordered to bring in his estranged father, Arlo, to help defuse the situation. Raylan has an intimate encounter with his ex-wife Winona that is witnessed by Ava. Ava finds some unfriendly visitors in her house and decides to pay a visit to Bo Crowder to prove her resolve. Boyd decides to up the ante against Bo's business by targeting his supply truck. Bo wants to take out Raylan Givens, so he reaches out to people who want him gone, including Miami gun runners and his own father Arlo.

In the first season finale, Harlan is turned into a battlefield when the tense situation between Raylan, Arlo, Boyd and Bo Crowder finally comes to a head. When Bo sadistically kills all of his son's followers, Boyd looks to Raylan for help. Arlo's plan to betray Raylan is found out, and he is shot by Raylan. Ava is kidnapped by Bo and Johnny Crowder, after which, Bo shoots Johnny for suspected collusion with Boyd. Boyd and Raylan go after Bo to rescue Ava. At the standoff, Bo is unexpectedly killed, in an ambush, by Miami gun runners who are after Raylan. Raylan and Boyd manage to save Ava and kill three of them, but one of them escapes. Raylan is forced to let Boyd (who calls Raylan his "only friend") chase after Bo's surviving killer.