Charlie Utter is my hero. That was one of the more satisfying beatdowns I’ve seen in a while.
I liked Al’s pep talk to Merrick.
Interesting tete-a-tete between Al and Alma. Al hates those Pinkerton cocksuckers even more than he loves money.
Amazing how quickly Al and Bullock both were able to put two and two together about what happened in the thoroughfare. Al especially sussed out everything about Tolliver’s motives. Including Lee, there’s a lot of people who know or suspect what Wolcott did.
The previews for next week showed an intriguing snippet of exchange between Martha and Alma. Martha is no dummy either.
Nothing about Hostetler or the General tonight. I kind of missed them. No follow up on Steve the horse fucker either. Oh well.
My wife and I were cheering.
If Bullock hadn’t intervened, Charlie would have beaten him to death. It was also very interesting that Tolliver didn’t do anything. I wonder if he thought that this was the “bringing down a peg” that Wollcott needed.
The head? Stink? Yeah, I wonder where Johnny was keeping it. If it was in the open somewhere, maybe the stink was gone. Maggots would have eaten it down to the bone by now. But if it was just in a box somewhere – I dunno. (And you should all be worried if I did.)
I loved every second of this episode, down to Con and Leon wondering if they weren’t missing out on a celestial experience.
Poor Jane. Poor Joanie. The scene at the end was beautifully shot.
Six days, 23 hours until the next ep. Much good stuff to come next week. I hope Martha and Alma come to some kind of understanding. Stupid, clueless Seth, what a jerk.
I seem to recall the very first episode of Deadwood had that head brought into camp. I think it was symbolic of the victory over the natives, and the start of the change of Deadwood from a mining camp in Indian territory into a full fledged participant in the U.S. government. The whole series is essentially about that transition.
If I read the exchange between Wolcott and Utter correctly, Wolcott found out what he needed to know - which is that Charlie and Joannie are not going to talk about what he did. Does that mean she’s off the hook, and Wolcott won’t try to have her killed?
I missed part of the soliloquy of Al’s there when he’s putting together the blank-labelled package. I take it that was just his excuse to go talk to Charlie. Was there a point to that visit I missed? It seemed to me that Al was just telling Charlie that he did good, but was there a strategic plan behind that?
With respect to the conversation between Trixie and Al, does anyone else get the feeling that Al is actually trying to ease her into the arms of Sol for her own good? He gave her a kind of loving look as she was leaving that made me think he was sending her back there not so much to spy, but because he thought she might yet develop her own life outside of whoring.
It sure is looking like the ‘alliance’ is pulling together. Tonight there were all kinds of scenes that showed the ‘good guys’ growing closer. Al and Merrick’s conversation at the start (which I thought was brilliant writing), Al’s comments about what a stand-up guy Seth was, Al engaging both Charlie and Alma. Come to think of it, Al was at the center of all that. Perhaps this is Al pulling his allies closer to him. Perhaps that’s one reason he no longer feels he needs to ‘muscle up’. He feels he’s got true allies on his side, and Cy’s been dealt a critical blow.
We also had Seth and Alma deciding to get along together, and Trixie’s somewhat reconciliation with Seth. Good vibes all around.
Which, in the Deadwood universe, probably means someone’s about to get their ass kicked.
Al put a bounty of $50 on each head–“No upper limit!”–after Sophia’s family was massacred. But that was after his speech about how he wouldn’t go out there until morning–he wanted the boys to keep spending their money on whiskey and pussy.
I hope you’re right–I read it as Wolcott receiving confirmation that Joanie HAD told Charlie so even though Wolcott doesn’t know exactly what Joanie said, he knows she talked. And since he doesn’t know what the relationship is between Charlie and Joanie, he’ll have to off Joanie AND Charlie.
Indeed.
Trixie had a great line in the hardware store–something along the lines of “Tread lightly, he who wants pussy.”
Dan was going to Cheyenne to get some more muscle for Al’s team, in response to Cy’s alliance with Hearst and Lee and the upcoming showdown with Lee and Wu. I think.
This show is great! I haven’t been commenting the last few weeks, but I’m definitely still watching.
Charlie’s grade A ass kicking on Wolcott was outstanding. I too got a vibe that Wolcott sort of took it because he may have felt he deserved it or “needed” it. I thought the conversation at the end between Wolcott and Charlie ended with both understanding that Charlie and Joanie wouldn’t be talking to anyone. What wasn’t clear is if that was good enough or not. I would almost think not. I also think Charlie made it clear that one of them wouldn’t walk away from another encounter, so if Wolcott moves on Joanie he needs to have a plan for Charlie too.
After having Al sidelined for the early weeks of the season, it’s great having him up and moving pieces. The conversation with Alma was excellent. I think it’s funny how everyone on the board is talking about Al as a good guy now. It looks like he really does care about Deadwood, maybe more than anyone. Like Trixie said, there are accounts on both sides of the ledger. I’m just positive that the side of Al capable of murder is still there. He is not a traditional good guy. What an outstanding character.
What happened to Jane? I didn’t understand all of what she said to Charlie. Like most weeks, I’m sure I’ll be watching this episode more than once.
Regarding Cy not helping Wolcott, I don’t know if there was much he could do at the time. Sending his men in to grab Charlie would have ended very badly with Cy on the opposite side of Seth. Seth has shown time after time that he will not flinch from extreme violence. Of course, maybe Cy did feel that Wolcott needed it. It’s also possible that he is counting on Wolcott to do something he can’t, get rid of Joanie.
I loved the speech Al gave to Merrick. I would love to have all the words. It was practically Shakespearean (except for all the F-words). I seem to recall that there was a place to get an actual transcript. Anybody know?
I also cheered for Jewel at the end when she made her comment about Al “draggin’ that leg around.”
When Charlie went to see Wolcott, I was sure Mr. W had a gun in the hand you couldn’t see, and was on tenterhooks until Charlie actually got around the corner.
Did anybody else chuckle when Al came to see Alma (interesting coincidence of names, eh?) and the little girl offered to go downstairs? “No, Mr. Swearingen has just come to talk.”
It was interesting to see Al strolling through the thoroughfare. IIRC, this is the only time we’ve seen Al outside the Gem, except for his visit to Cy when the Bella Union opened.
Was there any sign that Bullock really understood that three women had been murdered, or did that go over his head in the meeting? And if he got the allusion, why didn’t he do anything about it?
So Miss Stokes is gone? She heads out to the wilds of lawless Deadwood, and then is scared off before the end of her first day because someone smashed up, and took a shit in, the newspaper office? What a sissy! Good thing no one told her about the three dead women.
I still don’t get the business with the Indian’s head. Al has always kept it as though it were a trump car he would be able to play some time, but I just can’t see how.
Will Alma marry Ellsworth?
How did Joanie pay back the $1,400 so quickly?
I definitely got the impression that Walcott hoodwinked Charlie into tacitly admitting that Joanie had told him about the dead girls, and that this could be bad for Joanie.
Perhaps she knew where Maddie kept the stash of cash she got from Mr. W. Or had a secret stash herself somewhere. If Maddie had the money on her person when she was murdered, Cy would certainly have retrieved it, so it may have been hidden in the Chez Ami somewhere; Joanie could not get it the night of the murders, obviously, but could have gone back the next day.
