Deadwood: 5/1

Cafe Society
1

After much soul searching, I chose to watch Deadwood instead of the return of Family Guy. I’m just too much of a junkie to resist.

Well, how about that ending? Nothing like a completely unexpected tragedy to stir up the plot lines.

I liked Al’s scene with Miss Iz, and the way he was completely in control of the situation. That was Al with his full wit and faculty. It was good to see.

I also liked Miss Iz telling EB to fuck off and EB’s befuddlement about it when explaining it to Al.

What was with Merric saying “fuck” and drinking whiskey? Is he a tough guy now? I he taking Al’s advice a little too much to heart?

Intriguing development with Jane moving into the Chez Amie. I wonder if she’s going to become a madame. She’d do just fine as a bouncer, I guess.

Wolcott’s goading of Mose was so calculated and purposeful that it was almost impressive. Wolcott may be cold and psychotic but he’s also frighteningly intelligent and insightful.

I was irritated by Alma’s snippy treatment of Ellsworth. He’s just trying to be a stand up guy and do a decent thing. He doesn’t deserve to be treated like a pest.

Getting back to the ending, that’s going to complicate all kinds of things - for Seth and Martha, of course, but also for Seth and Alma, for Martha and Alma, for Seth and Hostetler and who knows what else. I want to see next week’s episode right now.

2

Looks like we had a simulpost. Here’s what I posted in the thread I started:

I’ll ask a mod to close mine.

3

And what about the guy complaining that the ball scores need to have bold print? Would people in Deadwood in the 1870’s have given a damn about baseball?

4

No biggie on the simulthread.

In answer to your question, I thought it was innocent but that’s just me.

5

I thought the ending was very well done. You could feel the tragedy coming; during the build-up, I kept thinking, “Not William.” I hate them for ending the episode right there and making us wait a week.

I was wondering when Trixie was going to get back involved with the Alma/Ellsworth situation. It also seems like Martha had a bit of a turnaround and started by break through the tension with Alma. Who knows what will happen now, though.

6

Yes, at least some people, but it wasn’t just innocent fandom. Baseball after the Civil War was a major subject for betting. It had a much seamier image at the time. Think of the interest in baseball scores as being something akin to an interest in the winners of horse races.

7

I thought so, too, though it’s interesting that it was the guy Seth had issues with before.

8

Dan mentioned being glad to get baseball scores in the first season, when Merrick started up the paper. I think he’s a Cubs fan. :slight_smile:

I need to watch again, to suss out why Steve was giving William money. I didn’t get a bad vibe from it. My parents used to take me to the bar when I was little and cute, and drunk old guys were always giving me something. (Sigh.) Steve was quite taken with William, wasn’t he? Seth’ll probably kill him.

Dio, Wolcott’s goading of Brother Manuel was indeed impressive. Cy didn’t catch on too quick, did he? :slight_smile:

Another great episode. I Tivo’d Family Guy, and set it to record the later showing of Deadwood.

I didn’t quite catch what had Charlie so upset that he’ll be leaving town. He said something last season about not being a town kind of guy, when he opened his business and got his new frock coat. I think that’s what’s happening – too much civilization and law and order for him. Big adjustment.

9

IMHO

Miss Iz is very close to visiting Woo’s pigs.

Young William is a goner.

Joanie’s whore house may allow Jane a chance to grab hold of something.

The Bella Union has a short future.

I’ll be the first to admit, I haven’t a clue about Alma’s future or her intent (other than to get Bullock back in the sack).

10

Didn’t the real-life Jane a work in whorehouse in Deadwood for a time?

11

Believe it or not, she worked at the Gem.

12

Does anybody have a workable summary of what the hell has transpired between Al and Ms. Izzy? Because I get the feeling I’m supposed to understand that some sort of table has turned, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out why. So far as I can tell"

  1. Al was going to sell out Alma to the Pinkertons for $50K by signing stuff that says she hired him to kill her husband.

  2. Except he was really on the side of Mrs. Garrett, because he hates the Pinkertons.

  3. Then Mrs. G got all mouthy with Ms. Izzy.

  4. Whereupon Ms. Izzy sent a telegram to her employers and told E.B. to fuck off.

  5. At which time Al summoned Ms. Izzy to tell her that he knew she knew he’d narced on her to Alma, and that she needed to take his money and sign some unspecified documents if she wanted to live.

  6. To which she agreed on the condition that Bullock witness the signatures and escort her from camp, only to have the witnessing and escorting get interrupted by a traffic accident.
    Subtle is one thing, muddled is quite another.

13

Minty,

Here is as near as I can figure it. Al was pretending to to go along with Izzy’s Pinkerton deal but was planning to give the signed Pinkerton confession to Alma instead of back to Izzy upon Dan’s successful “escape.” In so doing he was going to lose half of the agreed upon 50 thousand dollars but he didn’t care because he hates the Pinkertons more than he loves money. He also doesn’t want Alma’s inlaws selling out her mine to interests which might run contrary to Al’s own interests in the camp.

After the nasty exchange with Alma, Izzy figured out that she knew about everything and knew that Al had probably told her and that she was about to get double crossed. So she wired the Pinkertons to tell them what was going to happen and then went to see Al. Al pretty much spilled everything and told her that he knew she kad wired the Pinkertons and claimed to have a response from them urging her to sign the documents, take Al’s five grand and disappear. I got the impression that Al was lying about having intercepted the response and was just giving Izzy a subtle message that it would be best for her to take his money and leave or she might get to know Wu’s pigs up close and personal. Izzy agreed but wanted Bullock present at the signing to guarantee her safe passage out of town. Now the official signing and plans for escort have been complicated by Seth’s family crisis. And that’s where we stand. In the previews for next week, it appears that Miss Izzy is balking on signing the documents without Bullock present and Al is assuring her that it would be in her best interest to sign the papers even without Bullock present.

The only question left open is how the Pinkertons will really respond to Miss Izzy’s telegram. My guess is that as long as Al has those papers, they won’t be able to touch him directly and he’s hoping they’ll cut their losses and let it drop.

I need to watch it a second time, though. I’ve learned that I always have to watch each ep at least twice to really understand everything.

14

I didn’t see the man (a hooplehead?) giving William money as anything other than an effort to ingratiate himself in Bullock’s good graces.

Excellent episode though I am confused as to the very last words spoken. Next week might be a doozy.

15

The very last words were, I believe “I think my back is broke.”

16

The National League opened for business in 1876, during the first season of “Deadwood”. Dan expressed hope that the results of the team in Chicago would make it in the paper.

The results of baseball games at that time would have been fairly rudimentary. The general circulation papers didn’t have anything like a sports section yet. There would have been results listed, but probably not anything else all the way out in Deadwood.

17

If the poor kid is dead, then this throws the entire Bullock/Alma/Martha relationship back up into the air again. Relationships like Bullock’s were primarily to look after the interests of the children, I believe. With no child, Martha is free to leave camp if she so chooses. There’s going to be some serious soul-searching going on between the three of them.

I think so. Merrick’s gotten a little too full of himself, and thinks he’s a tough guy after Al’s speech last week. Al intentionally knocked him down a peg or two.

I can’t see her as a madam - that requires a certain amount of class and charm. I suspect she’d wind up more as local color/enforcer/general help as anything else. But is Joannie even going to open again? She has no whores, and her heart doesn’t seem in it.

As that scene was unfolding, I thought I was looking at an attempt at suicide-by-fat-guy. Sometimes suicidal people have themselves killed by charging a cop with a machete or something obviiously self-destructive like that. That’s what I thought Wolcott was doing.

After thinking about it, I’m not so sure. Perhaps he knew that the guy was much safer dead than alive, and saw the opportunity to legally have him killed.

Or maybe a bit of both. Without the self-loathing he might not have had the balls to take the risk.

I’m actually not liking Alma that much these days. She’s too formal, too snippy with people who just care about her, and she’s got that imperious manner. My wife loves the character, though.

[/quote]

Getting back to the ending, that’s going to complicate all kinds of things - for Seth and Martha, of course, but also for Seth and Alma, for Martha and Alma, for Seth and Hostetler and who knows what else. I want to see next week’s episode right now.
[/QUOTE]

Yep. At first, when the little boy was run down I thought, “That’s kind of a weak plot point”, but then I thought about how dangerous life was back then, and how often accidents like that happened to children. The world wasn’t particularly kid safe.

18

Great episode!

I usually comment on Deadwood episodes on SDMB, but this season got very busy on Sundays and just recently caught up with On Demand. Actually I watched an episode and searched out the relevent thread here to see what you all said. A good way to go through everything… I hope my contributions are worth my long time in posting some ;).

Anyway, we have our cliffhanger. The death (probably) of William will throw everything between Bullock, Martha, and Alma into chaos. And, funny enough, they were getting along so nicely right before the tragedy. Seems interesting that way… when things are getting good, you know something will come along that will totally mess things up. The interesting question is what will Martha do and with Ellsworth’s proposal up in the air, will Alma hold off?

Frankly, I was pissed at Alma. Aside from Doc Cochran, Ellsworth is the only genuinly good character in the show. He has always been decdent and kind to Alma and she treats him like a piece of meat in deciding what to do with the proposal. I was hoping he’d tell her to go fuck herself after the spoke about it in this episode.

Of course poor Ellsworth will be left waiting after this.

As for the hooplehead, who last crossed Seth. I wonder… he seemed fond of William when they were playing with the bike… may he find out that the Nigger General pushed for gelding that horse before his time and that caused the wild run and death of William? And if so, do we have another tarring attempt?

I think Ms. Isringhausen is going to be fed to the pigs if she doesn’t take Al’s offer by the end of the next show. Al will not wait. Then again, he doesn’t want to bring Pinkerton suspicion on him either… so he wants greatly that signature, so he has something to lord over them.

19

Somehow I don’t think William is going to die. I might be wrong, but I think he will recover, and his recovery will bring Seth and Martha closer together.

20

I just started watching this show (I love it). So now I’m jumping back and forth between renting last seasons episodes and watching this seasons new ones.

I have this idea that Jane moved in with Joany stubbs in the “i’m going to get it on with her” capacity. The “little girl” who tried to rob her last season referred to Joany as a dike. So who knows.

I like Al but I sometomes don’t understand why he enforces things with little outcomes and lets other things, like Mrs Garrets gold claim go so easily. I understand that he’s afraid of the Pinkertons but that’s a lot of gold.

Plus he was pretty willing to accept Sy’s presence in the camp and goes out of his way to make him an equal when you’d think he should’ve knocked him down a notch when he first came to camp.