We were supposed to be uncomfortable with it. The writers were reminding us that Al only cares about the people in his circle. He loves Trixie and he knows what she did was heroic and suicidal and he couldn’t let her die for it. I think he really wants her to have a better life, better than his even. So Jenny had to die. It was the lesser of the two evils for Al, and when it comes down to it, he does his own dirty work. This provides a contrast to Hearst, who, as Charlie said, hides under the bedcovers while other people do his murders.
I’m not sure how that makes Al better than Hearst though. You’re picking and chosing what makes a person “good”. Al does what he has to to protect the camp up to a point. He still doesn’t make a true sacrifice by killing Trixie. Instead, he takes the easy way out and kills an innocent.
Hearst having others do his dirty work for him doesn’t make him less of a man just a cleverer one. All in all, Hearst was seen as the greater bastard in a den of inequity.
Do we have to do this again? Lochdale, you think Al is just as bad as Hearst. We get it. Most of us don’t agree with you. Can’t we just leave at that? It’s kind of taking away from the enjoyment of these threads to have too keep hearing how evil Al is and how there can’t be relative nuance between darker characters.
I think you are referring to the bloodstain that Jewel had trouble cleaning up so he made a show about having to do it himself.
Except that wasn’t Al’s kill. It was Dan’s. It wasn’t even ordered. Al knew nothing about it until the blade had already found its mark.
What makes this show every bit as good as (and in many cases better than) The Sopranos is that the attention paid to character and dialog is world-class. It’s as if Shakespeare and Tarantino are wrestling with the pages of the screenplays and it is, surprisingly, a perfect fit. Tony Soprano is fighting with the adage that a leopard can’t change his spots. It is clear that Tony is happiest when he has his hands in the collecting and enforcing aspect of the mob, and he doesn’t like being sidelined and directing. He sees this about himself and he hates what that says about him. Modern society makes him secretly hate the monster inside of him. So, where tony is wondering if a leopard can truly change his spots, we have Al Swearengin looking incredulous at the question and asking, “What fucking spots, cocksucker?”
I would pay money to sit in on one session with Melfi and Swerengin. Big money.
I don’t think I ever suggested that you one cannot enjoy the various nuances of the characters. It’s what I enjoy about the show which is why I think it’s too simplistic to paint Hearst as being pure evil. At the end, Hearst was just the bigger fish and sometimes the bad guys with the money and power win…most times actually.
That said, I don’t want to ruin any thread so I won’t discuss it further though I do hope you see my point of view.
Were knives hard to come by.? Passing it around like a gem.
Utter made it all end. Scared Hurst and his men.Stood up right in their faces.
Cy is cracking up. Syphlis heading toward the brain.
HBO could easily make one of their edited commercials using these two, but a real interaction would be incredible… can you imagine Al responding (in his profane Shakespearean dialect) to a question about his mother?!?
Props to Euthanasiast for the post of the year on this topic!
And Melfi wouldn’t blink an eye. She’d use her stock answer from Tony Soprano.
“Alfred, have you stopped to consider your treatment of women and manipulation of others springs from your resentment of your mother not only physically abandoning you, but emotionally as well?”
I know, Tony’s mother didn’t abandon him, but there are parallels. Olivia Soprano was emotionally distant from Tony.
Nitpick: Al’s real first name was Ellis. And unlike Tony, I think Al would say, “Yeah, my mother left me to suck prick in Georgia. I am a whoremaster and the only principle I believe in is dollars and cents. So the fuck what?”
Al almost has the opposite problem of Tony; Tony likes to think he’s still a nice guy who’s going to Heaven. Al acts like a good guy in spite of himself and would probably be the first to assert that he was going to hell. Plus, Al already has a therapist-- whomever is sucking his cock gets to hear his internal monologue out loud. Too bad Dolly is probably not paying attention.
Dolly isn’t his real therapist, she’s just a stand-in. The Chief (or what is left of him) is his therapist.
Yeah, I know Al’s first name is Ellis. And he’d probably say, “the first cocksucker who calls me Ellis is going to find his fuckin’ guts spread out across the floor, I don’t care who the fuck it is.” IRL, Al wasn’t an orphan, and he didn’t come from England either, but we can enjoy Deadwood mindful that Milch and Co. are exercising artistic license in the name of good drama. I’m all for not letting facts get in the way of a good story.
I do accept your point about Al and Tony being opposites, I’m not taking your nitpick personally. a conversation between Jennifer and Al would be very interesting. You do have very valid points, but if we nitpick the show to death, it probably wouldn’t be as enjoyable.
Who’s nitpicking the show to death? I think it would be funnier if Melfi called Al “Ellis” and Al got all huffy about it. Overall, though, I think Al is more honest with himself about who he is than Tony is. Tony is so repressed and does a lot of rationalization and denying. Al is much freer with his feelings and acknowledges all the evil that he’s done. Which is why Al is not passing out from panic attacks in the thoroughfare. Maybe Tony would be happier if he lived in Deadwood and could just be his own thug self more of the time?
I watched the show again (3rd time) last night and it’s growning on me. I like it more than on first viewing.
But one thing I’ve forgotten – why was Al so mad/upset at Hawkeye this season?
Hawkeye’s unreliable. They needed him for something in season two but he was late, having been dawdling with a girlfriend. That reflected badly on Silas, which reflected badly on Al, because he was starting to rely on Silas.
It did set up one of the better fight scenes in the Gem, when Silas 12-pointed Slippery Dan.
I normally post to these threads after rewatching the episode. I haven’t brought myself to do that yet this week. I really didn’t like this episode much. It was good in places, but having Seth do or say nothing about Jen being sacrificed for Trixie was just too jarring. No way should that happen with the way Seth’s character has been developed. I doubt Sol would ever be able to sleep again. I also have to say that Al’s behavior in the episode supports Lochdale’s opinion from last week.
RogueGF and I have been rewatching episode one. I was surprised to see Jen in one of the episodes (the one where Silas first shows up). I thought she was new for this season. So, now that we have no more new episodes on the way, does anyone feel like going through the first two seasons and recapping and commenting armed with the knowledge of how things turn out? I’m finding a lot of interesting little things rewatching season one.
That should say season one.
I smell a volunteer. 
I think the third season (and the finale) makes sense and is true to Milch’s vision and that this would come clear if we look at it as a whole, rather than the sum of its parts.
A couple of interesting little things were the reappearances of Trixie’s brooch and Bill’s buffalo robe, in meaningful ways.
I think it’s interesting that the series essentially starts and ends with Trixie having shot somebody and Al taking care of the aftermath.
I’m cancelling HBO. Anyone else? There’s a thread on HBO’s site with people protesting and saying they’re going to cancel. I will miss Bill Maher, though.
I did. Although I’m going to cheat a little and renew when Big Love season 2 starts next spring.