Deadwood 3/20

[Rubystreak]

@Sam Stone

And it’s also clear what Maddie is up to - she deliberately held back Mr. W’s favorite whore, hoping to goad him into severely beating or killing one of her prostitutes. Then she is going to use that to either blackmail Mr. W into giving her a whole bunch of Hearst’s money, or blackmailing Hearst directly - it would not look good for such a man to have his agent beating women to death.

Not to sound disingenuous, but would a guy like Hearst care much if his agent likes to beat up whores? How much of a pay off would Maddie and the Chez Amie be likely to get for such an offense? It doesn’t seem like anyone would be concerned about a prostitute in Deadwood being killed; I imagine beatins happen on a semi-regular basis.

[archmichael]

@AerynSun

Here’s my impression. Maddie said she deliberately held up the girl W contracted to be brought to Deadwood. When he arrived at Chez Ami, they went out of their way to antagonize him. I figured the idea was to get him riled up, causing him to beat the daylights out of a whore (but hopefully not kill her), and then to appeal to his employer for compensation. Joanie was unwilling to risk a girl’s life, so she volunteered, and planned on shooting him if it went too far.

Wow, great summation.

@Lissa

Don’t even get me started on Alma’s red dress in the last episode.

She is quite…striking in that crimson dress of hers. How can you not notice her, in a drab world of gray and browns.

Can someone explain to me why Hearst’s name would inspire such fear? Was he a robber baron’s robber baron? And is there any name today that would inspire such awe?

[BobT]

Hey, Warren Buffett sent me to see if your company was worth buying.

[Grits_and_Hard_Toast]

@AuntiePam

That was my take on it too. The HBO summary, however, says that Seth went to the hotel to try to convince Alma to leave Sophia and run off with him. WTF!?

After watching that scene again, it’s obvious that whatever Seth’s initial motive for the visit might have been, what he said to Miss Isringhausen concerned Sophia and William. “Being that there are so few children in the camp”, or something like that.

Miss I’s refusal to speak of it in front of Sophia leads us to think something else was going on. Where’s the harm, otherwise? Unless Miss I was going to lie to Alma and tell her that Seth wanted her to leave Sophia.

Miss I is not all that she appears to be, methinks.

My take on it was that Seth wanted to ask Miss I if she would be willing to take his son on as a pupil also. Miss I didn’t like that idea, didn’t want Sophia to even hear about it because Sophia would probably like it and beg her mom to yes. Miss I told Seth she would talk to Alma about it, but it would have to be Alma’s decision. Seth agreed that it should be, but figures Alma will approve of the idea.

I really enjoy coming in here and hearing other’s ideas about what happened.

[AuntiePam]

@Rubystreak

Not to sound disingenuous, but would a guy like Hearst care much if his agent likes to beat up whores? How much of a pay off would Maddie and the Chez Amie be likely to get for such an offense? It doesn’t seem like anyone would be concerned about a prostitute in Deadwood being killed; I imagine beatins happen on a semi-regular basis.

Yep. I think SamStone’s original take on this (and yours) makes much sense. Wolcott will pay for whatever happens with Carrie – not necessarily blackmail, but recompense to the brothel owner and insurance that word doesn’t get back to Hearst.

Even if Hearst doesn’t care about what happens to frontier whores, his business interests might suffer if word got out that his representative is a nutjob.

[RogueRacer]

I watched this episode again last night. (I love my DVR!) There were a lot of things that were open to interpretation.

The talk between Seth and Miss I could have went a lot of different ways. I originally thought that Seth just wanted to know if Miss I could tutor William. I thought Miss I understood that perfectly. After viewing it again, it’s also possible that she misunderstood or that maybe Seth was still trying to arrange a getaway with Alma. I still find the last unlikely in context with his prior conversations with Martha (apologizing) and Sol (about helping Deadwood with Yankton).

Trixie’s conversation with Sol was also enlightening. At first viewing, I thought Sol was just reprimanding her on her language and whoring herself to him. On review, I think it’s possible that he wanted her to give up whoring before he would teach her accounting. At least I’m pretty sure that’s how she took it.

I’m starting to like Garret Dillahunt (now Mr. W). I absolutely hated the character, Jack McCall. He was so annoying. Mr. W isn’t as annoying but is probably several magnitudes more sinister than McCall. In both cases Dillahunt gives the characters such quirkiness that they are very entertaining. I’m still seeing McCall in Mr. W, but I’m thinking that will fade as Mr. W becomes more established.

[BigDummy]

@RogueRacer

Trixie’s conversation with Sol was also enlightening. At first viewing, I thought Sol was just reprimanding her on her language and whoring herself to him. On review, I think it’s possible that he wanted her to give up whoring before he would teach her accounting. At least I’m pretty sure that’s how she took it.

I thought your first version was how he meant it (the whoring part more so than the language), but the second version was how she took it. I didn’t think he had that much of a problem with her whoring in general, but got a little annoyed at her using it as currency with him, figuring they were past that point.
But I could be wrong.

[Rubystreak]

Which gave rise to the best line of the night for me: “Fuck all fucking men. I wish I were a fucking tree.” Or something to that effect. Gotta love that Trixie, she really can nail a sentiment.