That David’s grumpy Judge Alvin Guy asks Givens to co-lead the manhunt for the perpetrator is already slightly sketch. The rationale given is “Sometimes it takes an angry white guy to catch an angry white guy,” but what’s clear is that Guy wants this wrapped up quickly and cleanly — and it nearly is.
The culprit is an ex-con who wants revenge for Guy hitting him with a maximum sentence and then, rather boldly, sleeping with his mother. When one of Givens’ fellow marshals confronts Guy with this information, he meets her suggestion of potential legal sanctions with a vague threat of indiscretions committed by local law enforcement. This is all just bluster at first, since they quickly locate and apprehend the bomber.
The opportunity for a quick prosecution is bungled, however, when Guy winds up in a road rage incident with Clement Mansel, also known as “The Oklahoma Wildman” (Boyd Holbrook). The first episode is clearly setting up Clement as the central villain of the miniseries, but, as far as we know at the moment, he’s never explicitly crossed paths with Guy. It’s just a random dust-up between two hotheads.
This dispute ends with Guy and his assistant (Rae Gray) being brutally executed by Clement, who helps himself to the contents of the Judge’s jacket pockets. It’s here he comes across a brown leather notebook seemingly thick with high-dollar transactions. It’s been established that Guy possessed a busted moral compass. Was he perhaps engaged in serious criminal behavior from the bench?