Tonight’s “Justified” episode on FX, “The Man Behind the Curtain,” felt like an intermediate episode, as if the show’s creators were setting the stage for the final episodes of this season.

And that’s okay, because few shows can be this entertaining in setting up a season climax.

The players in this Kentucky-set cops-and-drug-dealers series spent most of the episode marshaling their forces. Pun intended.

As U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens circled around the edges of out-of-town mobster Quarles’ new world, Quarles began leaning on people: He threatened the just-visiting son of his old patron back in Detroit. He brought a briefcase full of money to the office of the sheriff in the guise of a “campaign contribution.” Before the end of the episode, he tracked Gary, the hapless doofus who used to be married to Raylan’s ex, Winona, to his new stomping grounds.

I’m not feeling good about Gary’s future. And that’s not just based on the preview for next week’s episode, which looks like Quarles is angling to frame Raylan for something dire.

Tonight’s episode featured some good action from Boyd Crowder, Raylan’s frenemy. Boyd rejected an overture from Quarles in a previous episode and now Quarles has the sheriff lean on Boyd. Before things were over tonight, Boyd began his own career as a political kingmaker.

Even while Raylan seemed — in slightly haphazard fashion — to be getting on with his life and career, events and his own habits seemed to be conspiring against him. Fellow marshal Tim was more than a little hostile to Raylan tonight and Raylan — in a plot point drawn from Elmore Leonard’s recent book, “Raylan” — is living above a noisy bar and working part-time as a bouncer.

And — Bing! — how much fun was it to see Stephen Tobolowsky as an FBI agent who disapproves of Raylan’s tactics? The actor, best known for playing Ned Ryerson in “Groundhog Day,” plays this role very differently than his recurring part in “Glee.”