For perspective, ISTR that $100,000 is also what Wolcott paid Mose and his dear, departed brother for their gold mine.
Yes, quite easily a millionaire, this page gives the inflation conversion factor from 1877 to 2005 as being 1676.1, so E.B. got approximately 1.7 million in today’s dollars, which even if you ignore the fact the Hearst with a doubt overpaid, it does probably gives a sense of the great value of a well established business like the Grand Central on the frontier. It may be a shithole, but it’s the best shithole in the camp, as it seems to be the only option for people of means who come to the camp.
Obviously having $100,000 in Deadwood wasn’t exactly like having $100,000 in New York or Chicago. For the time being, there’s precious little to spend that amount of money on in Deadwood other than buying up whatever claims are left to be had and to develop real estate on them. I have a feeling Hearst expects a sizable chunk of that money to eventually make its way back to him.
There’s an old saying that during the gold rush, the people who really got rich weren’t the miners, but the shopkeepers, hoteliers, laundrymen, and all the other services that sprung up. Mainly because with that much gold chasing limited services, prices were exhorbitant. That would have inflated the value of any business situated to take advantage of the boom.
Hey, that’s how Seth and Sol got started!
Al is just amazing to watch work. He’s like the chess grand master who can think several moves ahead.
Hearst also turns out to be a likable character, particularly confronting Wolcott (though he probably should have done it over the events in Mexico). He didn’t seem to mind buying the mine in the street that was played out, and seems to be a more “regular” guy – liking to be in the wild country. Guess I was figuring he’d be a Citizen Kane type. Guess that waits a generation!
Moreover, Al simply has higher quality lackeys to begin with. He’s got smart (Silas), tough (Dan) and if nothing else, loyal (Johnny). Aside from the hired guns, all Cy really has are Con and Leon. Even Johnny makes a better toady than those two.
It seems to me that the thing that most helped Al in winning over Hearst was the fact that he got to meet him before Cy. A coup, in large part due to E.B.'s ability to convince Hearst to come meet Al. Though E.B. is almost immediately recognizable as a foolish conniver by those who meet him, he was still able to deliver Hearst to Al’s door. Cy’s lack of a henchman of even this poor quality was ultimately his downfall.
It was a pretty good episode episode.
One thing struck me. Martha Bullock mentioned wearing the ‘mourning’ for William and how that may scare the kids she was going to teach at the beginning. It seems an interesting contrast with Alma Garett, who really didn’t wear mourning and went for the red dresses, standing out in the camp. From her inner monologue to Brom, it seemed to me that she didn’t particularly love him. Though it may also show how different someone like Alma was from Martha.
“I believe it’s to your right.”
This season, this really became Al’s show. Season 1 was really about Bullock, but he was barely even a side character by comparison this season. And this happened even with Al out of commission (due to that horse apple up his ass) for the first several episiodes.
Does anybody else wonder what it’s going to mean for the Alma and Ellsworth marriage if the preacher was only impersonating a preacher so he could shiv Tolliver? Would the fact that he was not really a man of the cloth be enough in the old West to invalidate a marriage?
That’s a good question, but in the old West, where there weren’t many preachers, I don’t think that’d be so much an issue. As long as they were seen as married and consummated the marriage, I think it’d be alright.
Though I didn’t think he was a fake preacher, just pissed off at Cy. Of course, I may be proven to be wrong next season.
Does season three seriously not start until MARCH??? Damn!
I guess I’ll just have to rewatch the first two seasons to catch everything I missed until then.
Short interview with David Milch is online at US News & World Report Online.
When he was asked how many more seasons,
Huzzah!!
Was it my imagination or did Alma wear black for the wedding? What was that about? Was it tradition for a widow to wear black for her re-marriage?
Let’s remember, a regular guy who appears to have agreed to let the Chinese kill each other to figure out who would serve the mines.
Although that entire session was confusing to me; I did not take from Hearst’s comments that they should have a gang war to determine who would lead the Chinese going forward, but apparently everyone else did.
I think it was code for if you can kill the other Chinese leaders, then control is yours… as long they can get the masses in the mines to find “the color” (I may start using that phrase for gold now ;)).
Hurst said he’d be happy to let Wu take over the camp’s Chinese services, if Wu could prove himself. Prove himself he did.
Did anyone get a body count for the finale? Counting the SFC and his guys, Wolcott and possibly Cy, it looks like Wu’s pigs are going to feast for a month.
HBO puts the “Dead Count” for that episode at 4.
Listed as
Lee’s Man
Wu’s Man
Wolcott
Lee
Tolliver isn’t among the dead … yet.
And the other people who got attacked during the murder of Lee must just be wounded.
Coming up next season on Deadwood…
Trouble is afoot as Wu attempts to bill George Hearst $5 for the disposal of Lee’s body.
It sure looked to me like she was wearing black, and I was surprised also, since she had been wearing nice reds and other colors for a while. The idea of white for a wedding only became popular in, I think, Queen Victoria’s time; before that, ladies just wore their best dress, whatever color it was.
Exactly. Alma’s recent widowhood would actually make her dress quite appropriate-- the first appropriate garment she’s worn practically all season. 
Laura Ingalls Wilder was married in a black dress in the 1870s. In the book, Ma says that there’s an old rhyme: Marry in black, wish yourself back but practicality wins in the end.
I’ve seen many wedding photos from the Victorian times in my line of work. White was actually somewhat of a rarity for average people until a bit later.
That can’t be right - what about all of Lee’s men that were killed by Al’s bunch? I make it:
Lee’s man killed by hatchet
Wu’s man shot in the back by Lee
Wolcott
Three of Lee’s men killed by Johnnie, Dan, and Silas
Lee killed by Wu.
Total count: seven.