From the conversation between NG Fields and Odell in the No. 10, we get that Odell was “sent away” by his momma.
This is interesting. Fields asks "What did you do to make her mad? and Odell answers “Called her momma.”
What do you make of that? A toss-away comment about how mommas are hard to please, or something deeper, like maybe Aunt Lou didn’t want anyone to know she had a son?
I’ll still be disappointed if it turns out Hearst is Odell’s father, but now I’m leaning that way.
While Al likely knows that this will be Heart’s plan, Merrick really should have gone to tell him about Hearst sending the telegram. Al will definitely want to lean on Blasanov for every possible detail.
Personally, I’m rooting for Steve to get his shit together and run the livery right. I’ve been thinking for a while now that his racist rants are too over the top and reflect something other that just a 19th century bigotry. His rants seem to me to be mostly about putting on a show for anyone who will listen…though no one seems to be. Now that we know there’s another Fields in camp, I think we’re going to learn a little more about Steve and that he’s going to come around and redeem himself.
The way I reconcile Al’s turnaround was that he sees himself and Bullock as two sides of the same coin and that one coin is responsible for the camp. Like Milch has said Swearengen ruled the bad side of the town, Bullock ruled the good side of the town (not meaning side as in location but in disposition). Al knows Bullock’s temper but also knows that temper is reserved for personal matters and as a sheriff Bullock is even handed, stern but fair (its the reason why Steve is voting for Harry Manning on election day). Al saw his forces taking on Hearst as the necessary risk because if he gets cut down, Bullock is still there to keep the camp together. But when Bullock comes in and says its time to muscle up and fight the fight now, Al sees that risking both of them does the camp no good.
OK… but I’d think that Al would want Dan there for Plan B, whatever that is, rather than going to Cheyenne to hire guns that he won’t need. The shit with Hearst is going down soon, and Al wants Dan there. Can’t blame him either.
Blazanov seems to be associating the dead Welshmen with his murdered parents and therefore really doesn’t like Hearst. Pretty sure his info about the telegram will wind up in Al’s ear very soon, maybe at the Peaches Meeting.
I don’t know that anyone is expecting violence soon. This is the old west, and things just didn’t happen that quickly. All the events in question have happened in the space of 24 hours or so, right? Captain Turner was killed yesterday in Deadwood time. It takes time to move people across the west. If Hearst sent out a telegram after he got out of jail, he might get someone sent out on horseback or stage, and that’d probably take at least a day or two, or maybe a lot more. There’s no train stopping in Deadwood, so everyone comes in by horse and wagon. Remember, Dan was going to go to get help, and was going to be riding the night. He wouldn’t be back with his own help for a full day, probably, and this is their neighborhood. If Hearst has to send for help back east or in some large community, it could take a week or more to get them out.
Mind you, there’s still the two Hearst men in camp, but I don’t think he’d send those two guys up against Al and his men, plus Bullock, Charlie Udder, Calamity, and however many of Deadwood’s citizens they could muster to their side.
Hearst has probably many more than the two gunmen we’ve seen. Remember he runs all the diggings in the camp except for Alma’s. That would require more than just the 5 men (of which only the two remain) we’ve seen him utilize this season. I think you can safely imply he has more men available in camp but still not the forces he wants or feels he can trust enough. (I keep saying Odell is going to be Hearst’s new man)
The show has often played with the travel times. Jarry last season could travel between Yankton and Deadwood within a day where there’s no way that woulbe be possible by coach.
I thought the whole point of the conversation about her timing the letters was that there was no way for O’Dell to have had time to receive her letter and then make it all the way to Deadwood if he was indeed in Liberia when she sent it.
That’s right.
My post was in response to Sam Stone’s suspicion that Odell might not have been to Liberia at all.
So yeah, Aunt Lou knew Odell didn’t come to Deadwood in response to her letter.
Do we know of a certainty that Blazinov actually sent the telegram? If he failed to send it I could see his depression as being related to his breach of faith as the agent of the Cheyanne and Black Hills Telegraph Company. He seems like a guy who would take that seriously.
By the way, my favorite moment from this (excellent) episode was when the LNG was telling Odell about his plan involving lining up all the white pussy, and you saw Steve’s reaction shot, which was something like “that’s not a half bad idea”, when of course you know he’d never want to react even remotely positively to anything a n***** said.
Huh? This is Deadwood, a TV show were violence happens damn near every episode. Hearst has been killing Welsh union organizers openly, and cut off Al’s finger. Dan and Turner fought to the death in the street. Wu’s pigs have a human aftertaste. Of course it’s going to come to violence, and soon. The season is more than half over. It’s going down very soon, not long enough for Dan to go to Cheyenne and back.
Mind you, Hearst has huge mine holdings full of his own guys not too far away. I think he believes he can crush Deadwood like a bug whenever he choses. What will save the town, if anything does, is coalitions meeting over peaches and working togather.
Makes sense. For sure Al doesn’t want a bloodbath. It’d draw too much attention, and probably bring the cavalry back in, or the Pinkertons.
I think Al was right to send Dan to hire guns, for defense, but when Seth started talking about shooting first, Al calmed right down.