A few weeks ago at FX’s season 4 premiere of “Justified,” Timothy Olyphant was looking rather … peaked in comparison to his fabulous co-star, Walton Goggins (and his love of pubic hair). Then I realized perhaps why Olyphant looked different (greasier and shaggier) than his usual spritely self — it was almost as if he’s lost his (gasp!) swagger — but to reveal my hopeful theory about Olyphant’s disheveled appearance would mean unleashing a few mild spoilers from the first few episodes of this season. So be warned … SPOILERS.

This season of “Justified” features Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens’ downward spiral of sorts. He’s still living in a bar and waiting for his ex-wife, Winona, to give birth to their baby. Of course, we haven’t seen Winona yet for a few reasons: (1) Olyphant has stated that neither he nor the other producers of the show are in any mood to welcome a child on set; and (2) Actress Natalie Zea has a new gig appearing alongside Kevin Bacon in “The Following” (although she might be back at some point). Meanwhile, Raylan has moved slightly out of character by accepting work outside his position as a Marshal even though Marshals are prohibited from doing any other work for pay. In other words, Raylan is feathering his nest for one reason or another, and the fact that he was wearing a damn jean jacket instead of his usual attire is a subtle clue that he may be seeing a future for himself outside of his carefully constructed “lawman” persona. I can’t wait to see what happens.

To promote this season, Olyphant appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show, and he is up to his usual talk-show tricks. Remember how he joked about dumping his wife in an Emmy speech (if he had won the award)? Well now he’s giving out false spoilers for “Justified.” In fact, he lets slip that Winona gets shot in this week’s episode. Don’t worry, he’s only joking, and check out his own reaction to his “spoiler” at 3:40:

Oh, Olyphant. Everyone knows that Winona is a rather disliked character among a certain segment of “Justified” fans, so this is actually kind of funny even though her character is supposedly still pregnant. I also find it amusing that Olyphant admits his Call of Duty videogame voice work creates difficulties at home because “It’s tough to discipline your kid when you were just commending him on a great job killing the enemy.” Speaking of voice work, Olyphant will soon be making a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of “Archer” on Thursday as well. I also appreciated his turn as Spirit of the West in Rango a few years ago too even though Olyphant is usually better seen than heard.

Just for reference’s sake, here’s Olyphant at last year’s season premiere. God, he needs to get back to this level of hot, but I have little doubt that the swagger will return in due order. There was no jean jacket in this week’s “Justified” episode!

And here’s Olyphant in 2009 at the premiere of A Perfect Getaway. He was excellent in that movie, but he’s always good.

Photos courtesy of PR Photos and WENN