So many great lines tonight. Ian McShane continues to knock it out of the park in every episode.
Dolly’s thumb. Heh heh.
Jane Returns as drunk and as foul mouthed as ever.
Sol finally tears Seth a new one.
I liked the way that Seth and Emma resolved things. They are ethical characters who made ethical choices.
I liked Al’s speech to Seth at the end. It was conciliatory, humbling, authoritative and, of course, completely filled with profanity. I think it was Al’s speech which finally swayed Seth to stay.
The ending when Martha tells Seth she removed the bundling bed…so subtle yet so meaningful. I hope the show goes in a direction that develops that relationship.
I always have to watch it more than once to take it all in, and even then . . .
Opinions on why Dan went after Silas’s partner? Was it “I can’t hurt you, so I’ll hurt your buddy”?
I didn’t care for Trixie’s actions this week. If she cared so much for Sol, she wouldn’t have gotten him in another fight. And who was she going to kill, or protect? She looks cute holding a rifle, but I can’t figure out why the writers had her doing that.
Instead of breaking this one into two eps, they should have just done a 2-hour premier. As much as I complained about the opener (befopre re-watching it), this one was superb top to bottom. The return of Ms. Jane was particularly welcome, especially watching her willingness to throw in behind Bullock and Charlie at the Gem, once she’d somewhat sobered up. Speaking of which, the showdown at the Gem was about as tense as you could ask for, and perfectly resolved. And contrary to AuntiePam, I found Trixie’s backing up of Sol quite gutsy. I mean, jeez, she’s still whoring for Swearingen (and on her own account, apparently) and she points a rifle at his head?
Well, the scene was intentionally ambiguous, but I think Trixie was aiming at Bullock, not Swearingen. She was cursing Bullock throughout the episode. I think she’s pissed off at him for putting Sol at risk with his feud with Swearingen.
It’s “Bundling Board”. Bundling was a strange custom back in the day, I suppose made necessary by the fact that when you went to court your girl, it could be a long, long trip, and therefore you often were required to stay overnight. And houses were poorly heated, and small. The result was that single people of marrying age would actually sleep together - fully clothed. They were expected to do nothing but chat and sleep.
'Course, parents being parents, they wouldn’t always trust that the kids would just ‘bundle’, so sometimes a board was installed between the two of them. It didn’t have to be very big - just high enough and intrusive enough to prevent surreptitious copulation. I assume Seth installed a bundling board as his way of being chivalrous, to let the lady know that even though he had taken on the obligations of his brother he would not force himself on her.
Did she point the gun at Bullock? I didn’t see that. I thought it was pretty clear that she had chosen sides, and was backing up Sol and Bullock. I think she was just aiming in the general direction of the altercation, waiting for Al to appear.
It will be interesting to see if she goes back to Al. She has no way of knowing if she was seen pointing a gun his way, and if she was, it’s bad news.
Anyway, it was a great episode. The writing on this show continues to amaze. There was no real action to speak of, and yet it kept me riveted the whole time. This show had better win a writing Emmy next year, or there is no justice.
Because she’s a whore, and maybe that’s the way she thinks she should reward someone that backed up Sol?
Because he’s a gentleman.
Adams’ partner showed up late, and Adams did not sufficiently rebuke him for that - a point that was made by Al in front of Dan. Dan is feeling that Adams is crowding him out and replacing him as Al’s right-hand man, so Dan took it upon himself to show up Adams by showing Al that he would take care of a problem that Adams lacked the balls to do (or that Adams loyalty was still split between Al and his partner, and Dan’s wasn’t).
Al was pissed off because he accepted Bullock as sheriff because he thought Bullock would bring an air of respectability to the camp and straighten out its rougher elements. This would make Al a respectable citizen and more likely to be treated as such by the cocksuckers in the state legislature. It’s also good for business. But instead, Bullock went off and started making a public spectacle of banging the widow, and while doing so forgetting his job (a point made by the lackadaisical way he went about resolving a murder in the last episode). So he became part of the problem. In addition, Al is pissed that the woman is mining the gold out of the hills and shipping it out of town, whereas if anyone else had mined it they’d be spending the wealth on whores and gambling and improving the town. So he called out Bullock in the street, in a temporary lapse of judgement. He forgot that Bullock is a man driven by honor, and was about to open a can of whup-ass on him. He even tried to talk Bullock down in his office, to no avail.
If you watch carefully and pay attention to the dialogue, you’ll find that everything makes sense. But I have to admit that I sometimes don’t pick up the details until a second or even a third viewing. I love this show.
I wonder if Trixe was pointing the rifle at Bullock to make it look to Al that she had his back while in reality she was backing up Seth. I’ll have to watch it again. Like Sam said, it often takes at least two viewings for me to catch all the nuances.
Thanks, I knew what it was for, but I was too lazy to look up the difference.
As for figuring out the details, the episode summaries posted on HBO’s website usually clear up any details.
It’s a lot easier to figure out who’s doing what and why than if you were watching “The Wire”. I finally figured out who was who in that one and then the series ended!
Maybe McNulty will walk through Deadwood one day.
I saw it the same way. After all, Trixie says “You selfish son of a bitch” before she aims. And the next scene is one of Seth in the middle of the road. Trixie had been complaining before to Sol how selfish Seth was being, dragging others into it to get killed.
Not that I’ve been able to discern. I was just responding to commasense’s suggestion to that effect, which makes no sense, due to its inconsistency with sending the wounded Sol off to the Gem to back up Bullock in the confrontation with Al. Like you, I thought it was pretty clear she had chosen to back Bullock/Sol against Swearingen, even if she was pissed off about Bullock having put her and Sol in that position.
I love the show and the dialog, but did anyone else think that the writers had a bet for how many times the characters could say fck in one episode? It actually was a bit distracting to me. Yeah, I know they swear but Trixie must have used three "fcks" per sentence when she was walking away from tending Sol.
But, I sure do enjoy me a hardy Jane “C*cksucker” yell.
Sam: Thanks for the clarifications. I’ve only watched the episode the once, and I completely missed Dan’s reasons for beating up Adams’ partner.
From my recollection of the show, though, I’m pretty certain the filmmakers were sowing doubt as to Trixie’s loyalties. Yes, she spends a lot of time with Sol, and backs him going in with Seth against Al, but the shot in which she aims her rifle does not make it clear that she is aiming at Swearingen. And she has been cursing Bullock all through the show.
Could it be she’s working undercover (heh) for Al? Or that she just feels that with Bullock out of the way, Sol wouldn’t be running around trying to do heroic things he’s clearly not suited for? In an all-out gunfight, she would be pretty safe shooting Bullock in the back. After all, they’re probably not going to do a forensic autopsy of the bullet-ridden body.
I’m not insisting on this, I’m just saying Trixie’s motives aren’t crystal clear.
