Another in my continuing series of “what were they talking about?” questions… the theater guy’s two female travelling companions… I pretty much missed any imoprtant data point in anything either of them said. Did either of them say anything important?
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool]
Another in my continuing series of “what were they talking about?” questions… the theater guy’s two female travelling companions… I pretty much missed any imoprtant data point in anything either of them said. Did either of them say anything important?
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I didn’t catch anything important in their dialogue. I think it was to just establish more of Jack’s character.
[QUOTE=Rube E. Tewesday]
Something that I’m seeing is that Al, Seth and Cy, all used to being powerful and frightening characters in the frontier towns, are at a loss when confronted with a genuinely powerful man from the wider world. Anybody else seeing it this way?
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That’s a very good point. However, I see Hearst as more than just powerful. He’s almost a force of nature.
[QUOTE=Push You Down]
I didn’t catch anything important in their dialogue. I think it was to just establish more of Jack’s character.
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One of them did remark about how she isn’t getting “any”. Paraphrased, she asked if she could go with Jack; Jack said no, that the people he was seeing would be beneath her; and she replied at least something would be (beneath her). Maybe a comment on Jack’s sexuality, maybe a comment on the lack of worthwile men outside ‘civilization’.
[QUOTE=FlightlessBird]
One thing confusing me, was the differing attitudes of Aunt Lou towards Hearst. When she’s pulling off his shoes, she’s kind of telling him off. But when he’s eating the cobbler, she looks like she’s scared of him. Then she’s at the Mah Jong game talking smack about him. I’m sure each of those was on purpose, but I’m still trying to make her relationship with him out. And that doesn’t speak well of the writing when you introduce a character.
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[QUOTE=Push You Down]
I thought Aunt Lou was written incredibly well.
This is a little over ten years since the Civil War. Aunt Lou was a Hearst family slave, that’s pretty clear, who stayed on as a domestic. She doesn’t seem old enough to have raised Hearst (they seem close in age) but she probably has run the particulars of his households where ever he goes. He probably looks at her with a bit more respect and affection (the nickname of “Aunt”) than say Fanum to Richardson but note he did still refer to her as his “nigger cook”.
I think the scene with the boots was a play on the “mammy” character. (See Gone with the Wind or oddly enough Its A Wonderful Life) and the scene in the kitchen, I didn’t get that she was afraid of him, but rather afraid of what people would say about Hearst eating dinner with the “nigger cook”. Look at the scene in season 2 with Nigger General Field and Jane. There are similar race issues at play there. Field is afraid of someone seeing him talking to Jane.
The scene in Chinamen’s Alley was to show that Aunt Lou is fullfilling her role as the sassy black matron taking care of her “massa/boss” but she really despises him.
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The issues between the Nigger General and Jane had the added unspoken sexual component of his being a black male and her being a white female; however despised Jane might be for her constant public drunkenness, some white man might get pissed with the General simply for socializing with her, and be well within his rights (by the prevailing sentiments of white supremacy) protecting her honor through violent means if he got it in his head the General was getting uppitty.
Aunt Lou was scared because Hearst was clearly in One Foul Mood when he came for his peach cobbler, bitching about the camp and growling through his meal. Hearst confessed as much to Tolliver when he shared that he so angry he wanted to murder the sherriff and rape Mrs. Ellsworth when they came to his rooms and pissed him off, and he was clearly still upset when he went to eat dinner. As shrewd as I suspect Aunt Lou is, and as practiced she is being around him, I’m pretty sure she’s seen that mood before and knows to be wary of him when he’s like that.
As for her shittalking in the alley, having played my share of dominoes over the years, I have talked as much shit if not more as Aunt Lou during her Mah Johng game – so I’ll take her talking shit about Hearst in that same vein and perhaps not entirely accurate reflective of her true feelings about him. She may indeed despise him (and his dealings), but it may well be her feelings for him are a mite more complicated than that.
[QUOTE=D_Odds]
One of them did remark about how she isn’t getting “any”. Paraphrased, she asked if she could go with Jack; Jack said no, that the people he was seeing would be beneath her; and she replied at least something would be (beneath her). Maybe a comment on Jack’s sexuality, maybe a comment on the lack of worthwile men outside ‘civilization’.
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Moreat a comment on Jack’s sexuality. He did smack Swearengen on the ass, remember? “Don’t misinterpret that.” Heh.
Re: Jack’s sexuality Every bit of literature I saw concerning Cox’s role on Deadwood has described him as homosexual.
ahhh cocksucker! Somebody fix that!
[QUOTE=Stinkum]
It’s like everyone who is dealing with Hearst comes on full-bore and meets with this brick wall of a man. It is his way or no way, and he is clearly more dangerous than everyone dreamed of. The comment about all he cares about is “the color” is obviously not true – he cares about the power the color brings. This episode showed that one way or another he WILL get what he wants. Al hasn’t figured out his weakness yet, which is probably why he’s retreated from more confrontation.
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Yes and yes. We’ve now seen “our” people each go up against Hearst one after the other with their usual weapons and get handily defeated. They’ve all pulled back now, and we’ll see them licking their wounds (literally, with Al) and regrouping. They’ve learned some respect and realized they’re going to have to be more clever in the future. Would it be too cheesy for them to all have to work together to defeat him, like some sort of Wild West Voltron? Yeah, probably.
My wholly unsupported prediction for a future plot twist: we’ll discover at the worst possible time that Wu made a deal with Hearst while in San Francisco, and he’s now switched sides.
[QUOTE=Smeghead]
My wholly unsupported prediction for a future plot twist: we’ll discover at the worst possible time that Wu made a deal with Hearst while in San Francisco, and he’s now switched sides.
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Well it was interesting that while in San Francisco Wu recruited workers to work for Hurst. Unless somehow that is going to unroll as part of Swingen’s revenge plan.
I really enjoyed Trixie’s response to Doc’s declaration of "“I’m concerned that her mood seems labile.” I have to admit that until I got into work today and looked it up, I was right there with Trixie.
And with this exchange : SWEARENGEN: “Tuesdays, he’ll often hold Amateur Nights. I been to several. Guy farted it seems near an hour.”
BURNS: “Don’t sound like no amateur.”
Could they have been talking about LePetomaine? The real one, , not Mel Brooks.
Did anyone else catch that part of Al’s plan depends on the fact that he is the only one that can communicate with Wu, but that now it appears that Aunt Lou is pretty fluent in Chinese?
Speaking of forces of Nature it seems to me Al may have hinted at what he will do to get rid of Hearst.
It seems he intends to burn down the town “rather having ash and cinder” than letting Hearst have it. Al figures he helped build it he’ll likely destroy it rather than have Hearst take it. There was a fire on September 26, 1879 that destoryed most of the town. now what is the date teh show is in right now?
[QUOTE=kingpengvin]
Speaking of forces of Nature it seems to me Al may have hinted at what he will do to get rid of Hearst.
It seems he intends to burn down the town “rather having ash and cinder” than letting Hearst have it. Al figures he helped build it he’ll likely destroy it rather than have Hearst take it. There was a fire on September 26, 1879 that destoryed most of the town. now what is the date teh show is in right now?
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Its the summer of 1877 in show time.
But yes I think Milch has seeded (speculation) Al’s setting fire to the camp since season 1. I could see Milch fudging time and moving it up a year or two. He might be saving it for either the end of this season or one of the movies.
Wu is effectively working for Hearst because he took total control of Chinatown from Mr. Lee. (the Chinese prostitutes are probably treated better now) I’m sure Al is encouraging that since it lets him know more about Hearst’s operations.
Interesting. Of course he fudged many facts so He may likely also bump up the date. It would make for a good closer.