Bonus Episode: The Ambulators (A "Deadwood" Podcast)

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to The Ambulators, a Deadwood podcast. This is the first of many episodes on what I think at least is the greatest television show of all time. I'm saying this out of year

[00:00:12] a shot of my daughter who would kill me for saying that it's not Twin Peaks. Fortunately, she doesn't listen to this podcast at all so I should be okay. Anyway, David and I are huge,

[00:00:21] huge fans of this show. So we're devoting a whole bonus episode to every episode of Deadwood for our beloved Patreon supporters starting today. We wanted to dive into this show much like we dive

[00:00:33] into a movie or a work of literature that we love and Deadwood is literature, it's art, it's philosophy, it's psychology, it's dirty and funny and impossibly well written and well performed. So we're very excited about this. We'll be releasing these episodes on our Patreon feed every off Tuesday,

[00:00:52] the ones we don't have main episodes. This first bonus episode is free for everyone. We think it's a good one and that the others that we've recorded already are even better. We're loving this so far,

[00:01:04] we think you'll like them too. So if you've never seen Deadwood or you want to do a rewatch, join us over at Patreon.com slash Very Bad Wizards. Subscribe at the $2 tier and you'll get all of our Deadwood episodes. Okay, let's get to the episodes. Hope you enjoy

[00:01:20] and fuck us all anyway for the Limber Dick cocksuckers we are. Welcome. This is going to be a series of episodes that we are going to do on, I think, unquestionably one of the greatest television shows and in my view, it is the best show Deadwood. And

[00:02:12] I don't know, we should have maybe talked about this before recording, but is there anything we want to call this series? Yeah, I was thinking that as you started talking as well. I don't

[00:02:22] want to do this one, but something like Very Bad Hooplehead. I will say The Ambulators. The Ambulators. That's such a good, it's done. The Ambulators. Awesome. I love it. Yeah, so you already said it's your top show of all time. It belongs on any top list and I

[00:02:51] genuinely think that if you have watched all three seasons and it's not on your top 10 list, then we would have a problem. I don't think I would. You're an ignorant cocksucker.

[00:03:06] I forgive people if they haven't watched it and it is not my number one show. I think it's my number two and I think the Sopranos is still up there and the only reason, well maybe two

[00:03:18] reasons. One is that I like the individual dive into psychology of the Sopranos. I think that's great in a way that scratches an itch that I have, but I think maybe more. It's a completed

[00:03:33] series from beginning to end in a way that Ed would never got to be, but that does mean that there are shitty Sopranos episodes in a way that there aren't Deadwood shit yet. There just

[00:03:43] aren't shitty episodes of Deadwood. Episode to episode in terms of the quality and the quality of the writing, but also the performances. It is like, I don't think anything can top it. I obviously have this thing for Twin Peaks. I almost put that in a separate category. It's

[00:04:00] apples to apples if you're comparing Deadwood and the Sopranos or the wire or Breaking Bad or something. In any case, I think episode to episode just the quality of each individual scene, you can't get that. There's no Anthony Jr. in Deadwood. There's no annoying little

[00:04:20] subplots that you wish you could fast forward through. The other thing I'll say is that while obviously, I think that the Sopranos was written well in character development as well, when it comes to writing the actual words that are coming out of

[00:04:34] somebody's mouth, not like the storyline and the beats of the plot, but the words. This is, I feel like people will study this in higher education for years. This is not an exact... I don't think this is hyperbole. David Milch in this series is our

[00:04:57] Shakespeare. This is poetry even though it's filthy and funny and body. I guess Shakespeare is all those things too for his time. But he really is just an updated version of that. The

[00:05:13] artistry of how he just crafts lines and he would famously do it. He had a bad back and he would lie on the floor and dictate the scripts to people right up till the last minute before

[00:05:27] they were shooting. Everybody loves it. It's funny. He was like, was hursed with a bad back like about Milch. That's so interesting. I didn't know about the back issues. If you're listening to this, hopefully it's because you've either seen it and love it or

[00:05:45] you're deciding to watch it as we go. But we should say we had a brief talk about how this is going to go. While we will not try to spoil things, we're not going to be Nazis about

[00:05:59] spoilers. If something is relevant to whatever scene we're discussing and it comes out, it will come out. But we really both didn't think that there... It gets hard to be spoiled with this show.

[00:06:11] There are events that happen but some of them are historical and you could know about them already. Weirdly, it's hard to spoil this. I think it's philosophically also just such an interesting show and it really is just about the complexity. There's no show that

[00:06:30] portrays the messiness and complexity of ethical life like this show does. Unlike the Sopranos where ultimately these are bad people and they're doing bad things, here it's never that simple. It's never even like, oh, this is an anti-hero that

[00:06:50] it's weird that you're rooting, find yourself rooting for or something like that. It's like, no, these are really tough both from the level of the act and the level of character that... My dog is the villain right now. The anti-hero. I think my daughter's coming home.

[00:07:08] I think you and I see that a little differently and which will maybe emerge as we talk about the show. Not that I don't agree with you about the moral complexity of it, but from the perspective

[00:07:22] of the city or the town, there is this huge political aspect to this show that if you had fed it to me as a politically... As an overtly political, I wouldn't have watched it.

[00:07:35] But I get tricked somehow into thinking about the way that this small city and the group of people had to fight for having the right to be a city and to whatever own land and all this stuff

[00:07:53] and the moral complexities that come with being really a policymaker when you think about it. Somebody who is having to decide what the best strategy is for the survival of the city. They're in this liminal base of between total chaos, state of nature and being a legal part

[00:08:18] of the United States. We should say they're illegally on Indian land. The reason that anybody, that white people are there at all is because of the gold in the hills in Deadwood, South Dakota. But it was obviously going to eventually become part of the United States.

[00:08:37] Man of his destiny, baby. Exactly. Spoiler becomes part of the United States. I think that's what's so... People say this is about communities growing from chaos. That's... And we start close to chaos, but not quite there. I think it's in this transitional

[00:08:59] period, this kind of purgatory between being just the wilderness beyond the frontier and just another fucking US city in the 19th century. That's what's so interesting and that's what's so charged about all of the plot and drama in the show.

[00:09:19] Because there's gold and people who have started working the land for gold, like the tendrils of the cities on the east start to get felt and how to navigate it so that they

[00:09:29] will be able to hold on to their land is tricky. It takes a lot of negotiation, a lot of nuance. And this is what I mean about the messiness and complexity of it. It's like... In Al, even in

[00:09:43] these early episodes, I was really trying to play the long game and will sacrifice quite a bit for his long-term interest more at first. But then I think over the course of the series, he starts to not just be thinking of his own interests.

[00:09:59] And there's so many interesting dynamics between the stakeholders in the show. Like that. I'm excited. I'm super excited to start talking. And we should say that we were going to do the first two episodes at a time.

[00:10:13] And then when confronted with just the greatness and the density of each individual episode, we just decided to go episode by episode. And we're going to try to record a lot of these motherfuckers. Yeah. Especially over the summer when we have some time.

[00:10:31] But our goal is to get through season one. So I hope you're watching along, even if you've seen it. The last thing I'll say before we jump into the plot is I have

[00:10:38] my bourbon in front of me. Do you? There we go. I have four roses, small batch. I rarely drink during episodes, but I'm going to sit. Yeah. The New York dude. Like the New York dude. Like Brom Garrett. Great character. Not maybe long for the show.

[00:10:57] Okay. So let's jump... Please watch the show. Like if we have done anything to earn your trust over these 10 years, like I really think people will like this show. Yeah. And I think... I don't know how you feel about subtitles, but subtitles helped me on the show

[00:11:13] to see the language, but if not rewind. I do feel strongly about subtitles, but the other way. Yeah. I was never been more proud of my daughter when she told her friends,

[00:11:25] if I make a movie and you watch it like closed captioning, I'll never speak to you again. Well, I mean that's very ableist of both of you. So let's go do what you want. I have tried my best to raise an ableist daughter.

[00:11:40] Let's start with scene one, like the opening scene, which is stuck in my memory. What is one of the most powerful opening scenes of any series? Definitely. And what we see is Seth Bullock, who is the sheriff in Montana, he's a sheriff,

[00:12:00] has arrested a man for a horse thievery, a crime that in the West was often punished by death. And he's incarcerated, he's in this little jail, and he's gonna be hanged apparently,

[00:12:15] but he's gonna be hanged legally, except for that there is a crowd of drunk people who are apparently the victims of the thievery who want to pull him out and lynch him right then and

[00:12:28] this is our introduction to Seth Bullock, who realizes that there's a lot of people, there's very few of them, and so he's gonna execute the man right then and there to do it. He's gonna hang him under the color of the law. Yeah, holy shit man.

[00:12:45] It's such a great scene because I think it sets up so many of the themes of the show. It's like again, the moral complexity of this is really interesting. Like he stole a horse,

[00:12:55] and that is a capital offense in these times, that this is like honor culture stuff, like people need their horses. So that's like if you take a man's horse and their livelihood is

[00:13:08] completely threat. So it starts with them just talking to each other, and you can see that Seth Bullock is kind of, he's a nice guy, he's giving him some water, he's like the guy is

[00:13:20] being contrite and he's like, oh if I could only get these last three days back, God I wish I could do that. And he says, you know, I can imagine, he's kind of consoling him.

[00:13:30] Yeah, I love that actor by the way. He does a great job of, I don't know, being sincere, like really regretting what he's done, and he starts trying to- But also, yeah, like playing, trying to play him a little bit too.

[00:13:45] He starts trying to propose a deal whereby Seth Bullock would let him leave. In the course of this, we learn that Seth is, this is like his last night in town,

[00:13:57] like he's leaving to go to Deadwood to find his horses. He doesn't want to be a cop anymore. It's going to be his last act as a sheriff. So you know, they're doing this kind of small

[00:14:07] talk about, and you can see that the prisoner is kind of, he's trying to shore up the courage and also the strategy of like proposing a deal. Because he knows that Sheriff Bullock is going

[00:14:20] to Deadwood, and that Deadwood is this town with no laws, which he's like, God I would love that. And he's, you know, but they're doing this small talk, and then he says to him,

[00:14:32] I'd like to suggest an idea to you, sir, that I pray as a Christian man that you will entertain on its own fucking merits. That's just like, okay, this is going to be the language of the show.

[00:14:44] You know what I mean? Like going to be like both just almost impossibly eloquent, but also just people are going to be saying fucking and cocksucker and cunt and all of that constantly. And they're not insulting words, right? No. That's just how they talk,

[00:14:59] and there's something so beautiful and poetic about it. Yeah, what a, yeah, you're right. The language of that trying to make a deal with Bullock is great. And also we get that Bullock

[00:15:11] is a man of few words. He's like, I'm clearly a man of action. In a show with so much flowery language, Seth Bullock really is the sort of like Marlboro man here. Can you tell that he's

[00:15:25] full of anger from that first scene? Because he is, I think. I don't, I get a more kind like kindly sense, like a very determined and almost conty and kind of this is my duty and I'm going to

[00:15:37] follow through with it. But I did, I didn't get the temper because it's really Saul his friend who A Jew on a wagon. A Jew on a wagon. Yeah. Saul Star played by, why am I blinking on his name? John Hawks. John Hawks, who's a great actor.

[00:15:57] Timothy Aliphante, Seth Bullock. Yeah, he's bounded down. He's in Winter's Bone. He's great in Winter's Bone. And then of course, Timothy Aliphante from Justified, your favorite show. In a different tier. Right. But it's high on that tier, right? Anyway, so go back to what you were

[00:16:16] saying. So the mob is out there. I like what he says, you called the law, you don't get to call it off because you're liquored up in popular own payday. That's what Seth says to them. Yeah.

[00:16:26] Yeah. He's so great and you learn that he's smart. Like in his, the way that he, what he's saying is very intelligent and what he's doing is very intelligent. Like he's not just like a dumb, like a dumb man of action, like a dumb Wild West guy.

[00:16:39] Right. Right. No, he's, and again, it's like the complexity of it is like he's supposed to hang in the morning. That's clear. Like, and he's supposed to leave with Saul this night, this that night to go to Deadwood and become like hardware salesman. So what do you do?

[00:16:54] Like I, if we leave now, then he'll just get lynched by this mob, this drunken mob. And he doesn't, he thinks that's not right, but he's, there's no way he's staying till

[00:17:04] the morning. So he decides to do an execution early. Yeah. And then he, you know, he asks him for his last words, basically. He's like, what would you have your sister? Like what would you tell your sister? And so he has, he writes it down, right?

[00:17:22] And his, he has this, I think, and this is why I thought I caught anger is he looks really hatefully at the, Samson is the guy who's trying to like lead the mob to lynch him.

[00:17:35] He really looks angrily at them. Yeah. But then his eyes are teared up. Like just a little bit glassy from what he's having to do. And so he writes down the man's last words, which are just heart heartbreaking. Yeah. Just up till the last bit. Yeah.

[00:17:54] Yeah. What does he say at the very, well, no, for, he says, get to give his son his boots. Yeah. And then I think like he gets teary when he says step forward, which means

[00:18:05] like step forward so you can get hanged. And then he goes, fuck you to the mob. To the mob. That's right. And, and he, he's worried, the guy is worried that the fall isn't far enough, you know, because obviously if you're hanging,

[00:18:23] you need a good hanging is one in which the next snaps and you die instantly. Bad hanging is one of strangulation. And he doesn't want to die that way. So he says I'll help you with the fall. And I don't think the first time I saw it,

[00:18:34] I understood what that entails. It's basically like he hangs and Seth Bullock just puts the weight of his entire body and pulls down until the neck breaks. Yeah, it just snaps his neck.

[00:18:46] Yeah. Yeah. And again, like that's a brutal thing to do, but also the right thing to do, I think in this situation. Of the options. Yeah. Of the options. Yeah. Yeah. And so like you said, we've learned in their conversation already the key point,

[00:19:01] which is that Deadwood is without law because it's on Indian land and there's gold, gold there, which is, you know, sets the stage for the entire. We then see the line of wagons on the way to

[00:19:14] Deadwood. And we first see Jane and Wild Bill, Wild Bill Hickok who is in the show, real, you know, Seth Bullock was a historical, most people in the show are actual historical figures. And then there's some great figures. I think Alma Garrett isn't,

[00:19:31] Brom Garrett also isn't, but almost everybody else is based on the real figure. And Wild Bill Hickok is famous, but like I'd never heard of Al Sware and Jen or Seth Bullock before. Yeah, me either. And Calamity Jane who's never called Calamity Jane in the series,

[00:19:48] I don't think, but yeah. But we meet her because she's with Wild Bill and we immediately get the dynamic that's going on. In fact, the dynamic between Jane, Wild Bill and then Charlie Utter who we meet later on is Jane is just kind of starstruck

[00:20:03] and kind of in love with Bill or kind of just devoted like her heart is devoted to him. So it's just slow and you know there's mud and yeah, there's a wagon that's broken down

[00:20:16] so the whole line has stopped. And so Jane who is always so gentle and sweet with Bill but immediately removed Bill from the picture and she's just the most ornery foul mouth

[00:20:27] with her ever. So she after going to see Bill who's lying down in the wagon, you get the sense he's hung over, she goes out and then she just yells not really to anybody, but she just yells,

[00:20:38] it's only Wild Bill Hickok you got stalled here in the muck, you ignorant fucking cunts. Yeah. And then there's also this really cool shot of the caravan going through the hill,

[00:20:49] which you don't really see this kind of shot past the pilot that much. Like this real kind of long shot and this episode was directed by Walter Hill who's like a very well-known film director,

[00:21:03] he did The Warriors, he did 48 hours and after this show he's no longer there and it's kind of more the HBO directors that take over. I didn't know that. Yeah, it does have a different

[00:21:16] feel to it. And yeah, so Bullock and Saul roll into town and we see them talking to, this is the first time we meet Dan Dordi who's going to play a huge role in the show,

[00:21:30] he's Al Swarington's right-hand man and they're talking to him about renting a tent on the land and I take it, I think Deadwood was really brand new. It didn't last long as a city,

[00:21:42] I mean the land got annexed, but it really was one of these boom towns and so a lot of people are in just these temporary tents and I think they learn quickly that there are some

[00:21:54] people who are in charge of the land of the city and so they want to rent a tent so they can set up what they came there to do which is to sell hardware. Good old-fashioned business, none of this sheriffing, they've brought supplies so they're selling like mining

[00:22:10] supplies like boots and latrines and all that kind of stuff. And Saul Starr as the Jew seems like he's kind of built for this kind of merchant trading, you know? Exactly, he digs it, yeah.

[00:22:23] But Seth Bullock is not and yeah. Yeah, we get some great like bit of awkwardness when Bullock has to be the one sort of selling the wares. Yeah, that goes, yeah. Is it now that you have the great scene between Al and Ellsworth?

[00:22:44] Yep, exactly. Oh my god. And it's also great so Ian McShane as Alice Waring-Jane is hands down, I think one of the best performances I've ever seen. I put it right up there as the Tony

[00:22:59] Soprano, he's amazing. I love how they set the stage, you know, so Ian McShane is British. They set the stage early on by calling him a limey cocksucker, Ellsworth. He says, with that limey accent of yours is the rumor true that you're descendant of British

[00:23:17] nobility? And he says, I'm descended from all them cocksuckers. Such a great line. So like, if you're not all Ian on this show by then. And then there's also another great Ellsworth line that follows. Yeah, Ellsworth says he's beholden to no cocksucker.

[00:23:33] He's like, well here's to you your majesty. I'll tell you what, I may have fucked up my life flatter than hammered shit but I stand here before you beholden to no human cocksucker. No human cocksucker. That's awesome. And Ellsworth is just a great character too. He's

[00:23:50] just like a good hearted guy. Yeah, and you get the sense here for Al also. Like, Al likes Ellsworth. He's respectful. Yeah, he's pouring him whiskey. Yeah. So that's our introduction to Al. He has this weird to say, but in this scene, he has just striking appearance.

[00:24:08] Like he has these piercing dark eyes that really you feel like if you were there, he'd be seeing right into your soul. Like it's an amazing performance. Do you know Ian McShane? I think I watched him in American Gods and he was very good, at least in the

[00:24:31] first season of that. I didn't know him before this. He was in Sexy Beast. He played a kind of supporting role but he was like the kind of ringleader of the, he was like the mob boss

[00:24:43] of that was planning the heist. But that's all I really knew him from before I saw this. Yeah. So when Ellsworth says that wonderful thing, that he's working a paying gold claim,

[00:24:57] that not the US government saying I'm trespassing or the savage fucking red man himself or any of these limber dick cocksuckers passing themselves off as prospectors had better try and stop me.

[00:25:04] And Al says they better not try it in here. And I love this line where Ellsworth says, God damn it, Swear Engine. I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, but I enjoy the way you lie.

[00:25:16] And it's funny because like is I don't get the sense that Al is lying there, you know? No, but I think it's an important thing that we that it sets the stage for so he calls them

[00:25:26] you conniving heavy thumbed motherfucker because what he just did was he gave Al the gold that he had prospected. And so Al weighs it and gives him money and credit in the bar. So it's kind of like Ellsworth knows that he should be wary as a...

[00:25:45] What's a heavy thumbed thing meaning? Do you like he put the thumb on the scale a little bit? Thumb on the scale. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I never actually connected that, but that's right.

[00:25:54] You're right. And so this is where we get like our first major plot point. We hear gunshot and it turns out that so Al is the owner of a saloon, the gem saloon. And there they have gambling

[00:26:08] and they have women. And one of the prostitutes that works at the gem saloon turns out she shot one of the tricks that she was servicing. So we run up there, we hear the gunshot

[00:26:20] beating he was beating on her and she shot him in the head. And so we get this scene of him shot in the head still talking though. Like giving an address, I think,

[00:26:31] of who to tell if he doesn't make it. And it's kind of creepy to see the big hole in his head while he's still talking. The whole scene is like very creepy in that way. Like even after he dies

[00:26:45] when the doc comes there and yeah this is obviously like a really bad thing for business if the guys have to worry that if they get a little rough with the women that they'll be shot.

[00:26:56] Yeah, what are they paying for? If not that. You also get a sense that Trixie is like she's not to be fucked with. Not like that. Yeah. So we meet doc here because doc comes in.

[00:27:12] Doc, I think there's the obvious great performances in this, but I think doc might be my favorite character in the whole show. Yeah. Doc is fascinated that the guy got shot through the front of his brain and he's like more he's more fascinating. He sits there until

[00:27:28] the guy dies, but he really is curious about about how he survived the shot to the head. One thing I wanted to say about doc in this scene is he's a little different,

[00:27:38] I feel like, in this scene than he is in the rest of the series. Like he has these lines about like you know first he's talking about the brain and how that's interesting and that's

[00:27:47] what he would say, but then at the end he goes won't matter to Woo's pigs and he kind of stares at the camera. It's just like not a line that I associate with doc in the rest of the show,

[00:27:59] doc Cochran. Yeah, I didn't think about that. Maybe you're right. Yeah, it wasn't well developed yet, like how he was going to be. I think that's right. And then they realized, all right, he's little less. There was something startling and creepy about that.

[00:28:17] That's kind of cruel. And he's not cruel like his ethics, his code is strong and he's one of the only people who can tell anybody in town whatever he wants to tell them. Because he has leverage,

[00:28:30] you know, there's nobody else that does what he does and they need him. Yeah, exactly. And so okay, this is when we see Bill and Charlie roll into the hotel. Wait, wait, wait. There's a scene that I think you missed here, which is they're on the road

[00:28:48] and you see the Minnesota people. Yeah, right. And then you get this like Jane and Charlie antagonism like she's yelling at Charlie and then Bill's like, I think she likes you more. I think she likes me more than you. Yes, yes. Absolutely. That's right.

[00:29:06] And then they see this family from Minnesota and Jane asks if there's a backway into Deadwood because they're all stuck. And the woman goes, we don't go to the camp, we go home back

[00:29:18] to Minnesota. And then there's Jane Winks at this blonde girl, Chekhov's Jane's wink to a blonde girl. And so this is when they roll into the hotel and we meet E.B. for the first time?

[00:29:32] Or is this the scene where Seth and Saul are... Oh, they're unloading their wagon. Do you have anything to say about the unloading the wagon? Yeah, because this guy is like an asshole in front

[00:29:43] of like, you know, they're unloading their wagon and it takes time to do that. And so a guy comes up and he tells them to like move along and you see that immediately Bullock is like

[00:29:55] wants to like fight the guy and just like that straight ahead energy that you were talking about earlier. And Saul on the other hand just gives him like a pot. Yeah, they come on to put

[00:30:09] shit in and the guy's like, I don't you know, like, but then he's like, oh, this would be a pretty good yeah. He's like, I'm not gonna pay for that. And he's like, no, no, that's free from Star and

[00:30:17] Bullock hardware open in Deadwood soon as we locate. Exactly. And so like it promotes the shop and you really it's a perfect encapsulation of their characters which like, you know,

[00:30:28] like that's Seth is always going to be quick to rile up and and Saul is going to try to figure out some kind of nice compromise that makes everybody happy. And that but without being a pussy,

[00:30:42] like you know, we already saw him pull a shotgun in the opening on the mob, you know, so he's not but he's just not like he'd rather work it out than fight. Yep. And throughout the series,

[00:30:56] we see that he's definitely not a pussy. He just he knows that he's not like finding is not in him. That's not his personality. That's not a bad role. He's not a badass. He doesn't try to be

[00:31:07] but when it comes when you know, shit hits the fan and it comes to like standing up for your friends like Saul is always is always there. Yeah. And they see and they see Wild Bill

[00:31:17] and Charlie writing past and this is where Saul says, see that that's Wild Bill. I seen him in photographs. So Wild Bill was already larger than life and I'll say here, the actor who

[00:31:27] plays Wild Bill, his name I don't have in front of me. Keith Carradine. Yeah, carry. He's a does an amazing job. He just has this presence that it's hard to understand why something like it.

[00:31:39] It's he's tall. He has this amazing posture and yeah, where's cool clothes has this flowing long hair. But also like a kind of heaviness and a depression like that kind of weighted down by life. Exactly. Like he's lived a lot in his years on earth. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:31:59] So they go and we're going to meet E.B. at least in my notes I have the Al's Trixie scene in the middle where yeah, this is where it happens. This is where he beats Trixie right

[00:32:11] after this. So he beats Trixie. This is a hard scene to watch. Hard thing because he's almost being like a it's creepy because he's being like a parent who has to punish their child

[00:32:23] like I don't want to do this, but you know it has to happen. And so she says, do what you got to do to me. And he says, don't tell me what to do. Yeah. And throws her against the wall

[00:32:35] and then he's like, but he has his boot on her throat. And this is of course our introduction to Al right after he was charming with Ellsworth. Yeah. And this is I think this

[00:32:46] sets the stage for me thinking, you know, this is the bad guy. Yeah. Like this is just the bad guy. And it's amazing because you're going to come to love Al. You know. Yeah. It's really true.

[00:32:57] In part because they're going to introduce people who are who make Al look like a saint. In part. Yeah. I mean and in part I think his he becomes a better person as like I heard

[00:33:09] this interview with Milch. I think you saw it too, the Keith Carradine interviewing Milch. Yeah. And he has a line where it's like you don't think better to act better. You act. It's I'm butchering

[00:33:24] the line, but it's something like you don't like improve your thinking to act better. You prove you're acting to think better. And I think that is Al. Like that captures Al. It's

[00:33:36] he's not like he doesn't reason his way to being a better person. He just starts in his own interest. He starts doing things for other people more and then it becomes like this intrinsic

[00:33:49] virtue for him. Like he that he enjoys for its own sake rather than even though it started as for a larger purpose. You know what I mean? Absolutely. I think that's a great way of

[00:33:59] saying it because it's there are times where Al seems to find himself doing the good thing or the right thing. And it's almost like he's surprising himself. Yeah. But but he is growing.

[00:34:16] And I think as I don't know, it's kind of like being a parent. Your responsibilities grow as your family grows. Yeah. And the exact part was in him. You know? Yeah. Like you just said,

[00:34:27] it's not that you've convinced yourself that being selfish was wrong. It's that you just start acting for the interests of the people who you care about and that does change you. There's a real lesson in that. I think this show is on to. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:34:44] Like a cent central to this show is that arc. And so like I hadn't really thought of it that way. So here we get Charlie and Bill checking into the hotel. And I can't,

[00:34:56] there is something about E.B. that I love so much, but he's but like he's just the character like no other. And when he says, when he shakes Charlie's hand and Charlie, who

[00:35:10] is just like absolute mench, he says you got some mighty clammy hands there partner. And he goes, palms run in my family. That to me encapsulates E.B. like he of course he has clammy hands.

[00:35:25] Yeah. That is the perfect physical quality that in every way expresses who he is at the depth of his soul. And he's such a great character. I mean, like I think he must have made both of

[00:35:39] our lists in the top five. Oh, sure. Like he the performance he gives. So Charlie wants to get two different rooms. E.B. says, sure, except for I can't do it tonight unless you kill

[00:35:52] one of the guests, which is just the wrong joke to be making to Bill. Because Bill I think already has a reputation and he has he has numbers, you know, he has notches on his belt. Yeah. So everybody warrants out for him in Cheyenne. Oh, yeah, that's right.

[00:36:07] So so yeah, so they have to share a room. For now. For now. Yeah. So then I think we go and we see Al, E.B. and Johnny are in Al's office, which is where where Al does all his machinations.

[00:36:24] And Al is worried that maybe Wild Bill is here to be a sheriff, right? There's no sheriff in the town. So you so you have asked him, does he have lawman ambitions? And he says, I don't think so.

[00:36:38] Right. He didn't say anything about it. But of course, Al is worried because a sheriff coming into town would fuck up his flow. Yeah. And then what does he say? He says something like

[00:36:48] I would have asked further, but he would have killed me. Like I got the sense he was just not true. Yeah, weirdly, like it doesn't matter. Like he's sort of trying to save face. Yeah. Because because he saw that Al was disappointed that he didn't have more

[00:37:02] information about Bill. Right. So so he says, as far as he could, if I had pushed him any harder, I was afraid he'd shoot me. Yeah. Like he'd shut the fuck up.

[00:37:12] It never works like he is like he has this like dignity, this kind of wounded pride that he sometimes tries to assert himself, but it never works. It just makes like, I don't think it

[00:37:23] worsens their opinion of him, but it definitely doesn't improve me either. And they barely even like acknowledged that he says the things when he said something like that, you know?

[00:37:32] This is a culture and a time period where, and this is what I loved hearing Milch talk about this, where your words really mattered a lot because it could be that what you said would get you killed.

[00:37:46] So it's not as if what E.B. is saying is out of the question. It's just, you know, it's not unrealistic like it would be nowadays, but he's obviously like exaggerating what happened. And he's already said stuff that makes it so that nobody will take him seriously.

[00:38:03] And that's the thing that, you know, he always wants to try to get people to take him seriously. And they never do because security. He reeks of insecurity. Yeah. About this thing about like language, that is such a central theme in the show and people

[00:38:19] will do all sorts of things to be able to just express themselves in language, you know? Like they will figure out ways to talk to themselves or talk to some artifact as we'll see later.

[00:38:34] And the goal of it is to be able to express yourself. It's like, that's how you find out what you think and what the right play is. And it is through the process of speaking

[00:38:47] and language. It's such an interesting aspect. Yeah. He's, Milch is doing something like that's, he's pointing to this deep human universal about the importance of language, but he's also using this historical time place as a way to, is a time and a place where, as he said,

[00:39:04] the way it was your currency if you could use your words, right? Like it's not like people went around shooting everybody. And he said a lot of the people in that time period, if they were educated, they would have been educated by reading these like Victorian novels and

[00:39:19] stuff. So they would have used flowery language and whoever could speak most persuasively would acquire power through that. So the language just mattered deeply. And as you say, we get all

[00:39:33] of these amazing scenes. And I have a theory that I will wait to reveal about what's going on, what Milch is trying to tell us by having all these people talk to essentially no one.

[00:39:44] Or no one, you know, they're talking to themselves even when others are present in some cases, like when Al's getting head. When there's a literal head. Or when he's just getting his dick sucked.

[00:39:58] Yeah. Like that scene, which comes much later in the series, but like he is literally doing it so that he can express himself without seeming, I don't know, like it's not that he wants her

[00:40:11] opinion or anything like that. No, not at all. Right. It's just he needs a situation that allows him to speak. Like that's exactly right. Like he's using her as an audience. But she can't fuck

[00:40:25] up the rhythm or else I'll get mad. They can't talk. Yeah. I mean this is one of the like, you know, again, like that's an ugly thing in one sense. And so, so Alice tells E.B. to go get

[00:40:37] Driscoll. We'll find out who that is in a bit. And this is, I think, where Saul and Seth start selling their wares out for another tent. And we get another, so they start, you know, saying like

[00:40:49] whatever, boots five bucks, like come get it. This is where Saul has, he's trying to convince Seth like Seth just doesn't feel comfortable being a salesperson. Like he's, and he's like,

[00:41:02] why do you think just because it's like, it makes it seems like these other people are beneath him having to like pander to them or something like that? That's a good question. I didn't think of

[00:41:14] it that way. I thought that he just didn't feel comfortable because he's not a man of words. And it's like a weirdly vulnerable kind of thing to do. Right. But I do think

[00:41:27] like if you've ever been like had a job where you have to sell something like that's you're in a vulnerable position and I don't think he likes that. I think that's right. Like when we do ads. Right. And so he tries to convince them like, look, these are,

[00:41:45] we're selling good stuff at a fair price with just some markup because like we took the risk to bring him here. And so like this is everybody wins. He's trying to convince him. So they go out and he does, he starts off speaking very quietly.

[00:41:59] And then he picks it up though. He picks it up. But I do think there's something to what you just said that it's beneath him. This guy was a sheriff. Right. Like it's, there is some dignity that you

[00:42:09] lose not because sales is inherently like a bad thing to do. It does feel like, like you said, it does feel like when you're selling. They have the power. You know, like you,

[00:42:21] they know that you need to sell the things for your money. Like I've had jobs where I get it's just the job is to sell stuff and your pay is commissioned off the sales.

[00:42:30] And so like that's a really tough situation. And you're like, why the fuck am I like having to like put myself like this person has is now in charge of my destiny. Like that's fucking bullshit. Right. Yeah. It's not, it's not what, from coming from being a sheriff

[00:42:48] where you dictate to everybody what they're supposed to do. Yeah. It's a, yeah. But he actually like has some good lines in the scene. Like, you know, if you get this.

[00:42:57] And I think what's going on in his mind is like, no, I am, I chose to leave the profession of being a sheriff because I didn't, I don't think that's good in my life. And so I want to do

[00:43:09] this. So he's having to psych himself up in order to do this. He's putting himself out there. And you do get this sense that he's put him, put himself out there with this new,

[00:43:18] new endeavor. And the same thing he says to that mob guy, right? Like you don't get to call the law in and then just decide to like, you don't want it anymore because you're all liquored up and popular

[00:43:28] on payday. Like he doesn't get to now say that he's above being like a Jew merchant, you know, like, because he committed to this. He's in the trenches with the Jews now. One thing that's really interesting about this scene, you get, you get this sense that

[00:43:44] Saul and Seth are friends. And this, like it becomes explicit. I, the Reverend will say that later. But I also think like you could divide the show up into people who have friends and people who

[00:43:57] don't. And that's a very different dynamic, you know, and sometimes you start out not having a friend and then you have a friend and then that's such a big thing. But like the people

[00:44:06] who have friends, it's just such a buffer against all the things that Deadwood can throw at you. And so it's, it sucks being isolated in that way. Yeah, you're right. I, that's a deep theme. I hadn't thought of it. It's a really deep

[00:44:23] theme because the friendships that are created throughout the show, some unexpected, really bring, bring people, they get people from being miserable to like being able to handle like life. It is, and it's something that the Reverend says in that scene. Having friends is wonderful.

[00:44:45] Yeah, it's wonderful. I love the Reverend too. That guy does an extraordinary performance as well. Like these people are just acting the shit out of everything. Yeah. Like I think top to bottom the performances on this show. I mean, I guess

[00:44:59] like Sopranos on the wire also had had like iconic performances from like, you know, like up to 10 cast members or something. But these are just so down the line of such high quality with like no weak links. It's just like I don't understand it.

[00:45:15] Yeah. It's hard. There is no, as you said, there's no junior. There's no AJ in Deadwood. There's no bad performance. Let's talk about what's going on with the whole Garrett, Driscoll and Al thing because rather than go through each scene, like this is something

[00:45:35] that confused me maybe the first few times I watched it. Because you really have to, there's a deal that's going down. And Al is playing a role, but it's unclear what role he's playing. Yeah. You get the sense right away. There's a scam.

[00:45:50] There is this guy from New York, Brom Garrett, who is a Rube. He is out of his element. He is the mark. He's the mark and he plays the part of the mark perfectly. Like they've clearly

[00:46:04] before this scene, they have planted some gold on this plot of land where they knew he would go and find it. They didn't tell him explicitly to go look and check out the plot. But it's

[00:46:23] clear that they hinted that there might be something there and that Dan Doherty, who's been shepherding all of this is a part of. And so he comes there with this big block of gold thinking,

[00:46:38] okay, I got to buy this land because this is just going to be like hammering money. Yeah, it's like you could just scooping it from the river literally. Then there's this guy, Tim Driscoll, who, and I'm not even sure about the answer to this

[00:46:51] question, does he own the land? Yeah. So I think what's going on is Driscoll owns the claim. It's unclear how people even got the claims. I think if you just worked it, maybe it was like

[00:47:04] Squatter because Al is the power who's controlling. Al can pretty much say who owns the land, I think. But Al is using him to try to make the Rube, the New York dude, pay a lot of money to buy that land.

[00:47:24] Right, which they think at this point is worthless. It'll turn out not to be worthless, but they think it's worthless. Yeah. So Tim Driscoll, the Irish guy who is drunk, has to go negotiate with a New York guy. So this is where it gets confusing.

[00:47:43] There's a line where right before he comes in and Al, who's playing this part, he's like, oh my God, there's Tim Driscoll. He is shitfaced and Brahms like, my God, he is shitfaced. He's like, oh, I'm getting in with the locals here. He's so awesome.

[00:48:02] So out of his element. Yeah, he is clearly an East Coast guy who's like, who is a rich, you know, he has a rich family. He's a fail son though. Yeah, that's right. He's using his daddy's money. My God, he is shitfaced.

[00:48:20] So he makes a deal to buy the plot from Driscoll at $14,000. And so they make a deal. He has to spit in his hand. He doesn't know what it even means to spit in

[00:48:37] your hand, but he goes through the motion of making a deal. They both spit in their hands, shake hands. Al says, witnessed, purchased, whatever. And this is where it gets unclear

[00:48:47] to me. Farnham is supposed to play a role. He comes in and I think he was supposed to drive the price up, right? So from what happens later in the episode, it doesn't seem like he was supposed

[00:49:02] to do that. But you're right, this is confusing. Why was he there? If he wasn't supposed to do that, why is, was he there at all? Yeah. So did he just his presence give Driscoll the idea

[00:49:15] of trying to get him up to 20? Well, he makes, he comes in and makes an offer and he says, you know, am I too late? And he says, yeah, I just sold it to this guy for 14.

[00:49:28] So maybe that's what it was. He wants them, he's supposed to make Garrett feel good about the purchase. Yeah. Or he got there, actually got there late and was supposed to make a higher

[00:49:40] offer so that New York would make, the New York dude would make a higher offer. But it seems like Al wanted it to be $14,000. From what happens later in the episode,

[00:49:52] that's the sense you get. So I thought that, I thought that Al wanted the price to go up. But EB was supposed to come in and make a different offer. I think, because they didn't

[00:50:07] get mad at EB for making it for $16,000. He got mad at Driscoll for trying to raise it at all. And when you watch the scene, like Al is like, no, we have a deal already. Now it's true that he's

[00:50:19] like, you idiot, like the first few times I saw this, I thought Al just wanted it to get up to 20 because why not? But then you get the sense in the later scenes that Al doesn't want that

[00:50:30] because he thinks it'll bring in the Pinkerton's from New York if they sell it for too high a price. And so... Yeah, so I think that what's happening is because from a later scene where he

[00:50:42] EB is trying to explain to him, he's trying to defend his actions for having not used the right number that I think Al had instructed him to use because I think the fear was that

[00:50:57] if it went over 20, then he would have to wire for money and that's when the Pinkerton's would get involved. But to get him just up to 20. I don't think so because he says,

[00:51:09] here's the line, I'll tell you Al, you could have knocked me over with a feather when he bit up. Did you see me staying on the path? Which isn't true but when he says when he bit up... But what was the path? Nobody ever bit up over $20,000.

[00:51:23] No, but what was the path that he was supposed to... What was he supposed to... I think he was like, I just thought of this because I've always been confused by this.

[00:51:29] But I think he was supposed to be there and be like, oh, is it too late to offer it? And then it was like too late, we already sealed the deal. And then now Braum Garrett feels like,

[00:51:39] oh, I just beat this guy. And so he can be happy about it. No need to contact anybody. No need to tell anybody because it's $14,000 of worthless land as far as they're concerned right now. And that's fine, but if you go too high, this shows Al's long-term thinking,

[00:52:00] then you're going to bring in a lot of shit, which turns out to be true. Yeah, so the role was just to make him feel good by coming in and offering more money though?

[00:52:12] That's right. Just make him satisfied so that he could go back to Alma and be like, Oh, like I narrowly... Yeah, exactly. Which he ends up doing anyway, but they went too high. That's why Driscoll gets killed is because he did that.

[00:52:27] Yeah, so what happens is he reopens negotiations because EV comes in and says another number that's higher and Driscoll is like drunk and he's like, oh cool, let's see how high I can actually

[00:52:36] get it. And that's what's playing with fire because Al knows that if it gets too high, then he's going to have to go to his daddy in New York and get more money. And that will raise the alarms. So Driscoll gets killed for this.

[00:52:49] Later in the episode. Yeah, later in the episode for doing that. Okay, it is confusing. It is. It's very confusing. It's also not clear to me still who owns... Does Al Swaranchin own the land? Does Jim Driscoll? Does nobody own the land? But like, I don't know. Yeah.

[00:53:04] But now Brom Garrett will be able to use his gold mining skills to... Yeah, he just came out for an adventure. He brought his wife out for an adventure and it's just like kind of pitiful the whole time. Oh, God.

[00:53:24] So it's funny, but you feel bad for him because I would probably be like that. You know, and it's sad because he's dragged his wife who already seems way... She's like a Lottiman addict, which is essentially heroin, right?

[00:53:37] It's opium, yeah. It's a tincture of opium like in alcohol. Yeah, but like when he goes back to her and it's like banish all headaches, spitting your hand all the time and then like is telling her about the stories like you should have been there

[00:53:51] and she has this line like, yes, I've already begun to imagine it. And you know that she already knows that he got conned. Like, you know, it's... Yeah, she's clearly more savvy than him, but she's like dulling herself. Right. But before that, there's a scene at Tom's Bar.

[00:54:09] Yeah, not all. Bill wants to play... He wants to get in a poker game. So he gets back to playing poker. You're already seeing Charlie being uncomfortable with Bill playing poker because

[00:54:20] the whole plan as we find out is for Bill to come and work a claim and make some money for this wife that he... his new wife and then bring her out. But day one, he's back to gambling,

[00:54:35] drinking and gambling. And not all has... You know, he's kind of a sweet guy. Totally. Yeah, he's not maybe not the sharpest guy, but he's... He has a good heart. He's straight. Yeah. And he's starstruck by Wild Bill being in his bar, but he's very respectful.

[00:54:54] He says, I'm not gonna say your name because I would respect, but I know who you are. And when Bill goes to play poker, he tries to make a deal with Charlie to get Bill to

[00:55:04] play exclusively at his bar. Right? Just his presence he knows will bring people in. And you get Charlie Utter's heart here too where Charlie's like trying to figure out whether or not this is a good thing to do because he doesn't want Bill to start gambling a lot.

[00:55:20] But on the other hand, he needs money. So maybe he can work out a deal, but he makes it very clear that the money wouldn't go... None of the money would go to him. It would only go to his family

[00:55:30] because he's in this predicament where he has to watch out for Bill's family. Yeah. And again, this is another case where you have friends, you know? And like they're clearly such good friends and what happens to Bill later is gonna like hollow,

[00:55:43] is gonna remove that. And that's like... Yeah, leaves a hole. Leaves a hole. Yeah. By the way, one of the things I wanted to say with one of my favorite lines too was when

[00:55:53] Bram goes and tells Alma, he's like, spit in your hand. And so she does it. And he's like, that's the way they make a deal. And she just very dryly says, does everyone dry their hands afterwards?

[00:56:05] And then he says, because he went up to 20,000, I'll have to write the bank to renew my credit. Of course, they'll contact father. Anybody who calls their dad father is a little bit... And then she's like, well, that's inevitable. She just knows,

[00:56:21] she's known how this was gonna play out before they left New York. You don't know what, you find out later why she's with this group. There is a scene, when that scene happens where he's getting up to work the gold claim

[00:56:39] and he's getting all dressed and he looks at her, she's sleeping in bed. Pretending to be asleep. She was fake sleeping, right? Yeah. She was pretending to be asleep and he's kind of sad that he wants her to see him ready to

[00:56:52] go work the claim. Prospecting like... Look at all me in my prospecting gear. And she's just like faking being asleep. But I think I see in him that he's sad, not just because she's not gonna see him and do like doing this great thing,

[00:57:08] but also that he knows that she's an addict and she's sleeping a lot because she's high. Yeah, which makes me think I should have taken some more credum before. All right, that's how you think of me. I'm sadly go out in your like psychologist

[00:57:27] outfit. Meanwhile, I'm just like chewing on like edibles and like snorting out the last of the credum and licking the last bit of bourbon. So one of the things I'm struck by is how many

[00:57:44] characters we meet in this episode, which is by the way shorter than how long we've been recording. That was inevitable. Yeah, we meet Wu very briefly because Doc takes the body to... So Wu is the owl of the Chinese section of town, right? He's like the boss.

[00:58:05] We don't know much about him yet, but we do know that he owns pigs and that if you want to get rid of a body in Deadwood, you feed them to Wu's pigs. And so the Doc... You're right, it's a little

[00:58:15] different. Like the Doc later on wouldn't be the one taking bodies to Wu. No, definitely not, right? Like exactly. There is this one thing in the bar that I don't think we noted, but speaking of meeting people is we meet Jack McCall. And like this isn't a spoiler.

[00:58:31] Jack McCall, like I think anybody who follows the West is someone who shot Wild Bill Hickok. No, and in fact, I think weirdly, this is a case where it helps you to know the historical facts because he's being very creepy knowing that that's the guy,

[00:58:52] that's the fucking guy who's going to take out Wild Bill. Like Jesus, like he's just a nothing and he's an insecure nothing. Yeah, what does he say? He has a line. This is the moment Bill walks

[00:59:05] into the bar and he says, let me say one thing before anybody opens their mouths. I'm going to say no more on the subject and I'll be through for the fucking evening. I'm not impressed.

[00:59:15] Yeah. And obviously, this is not the kind of guy who's going to say no more on the subject, no matter what the subject is. He's just this insecure. He's like the dark side of E.B. He's

[00:59:28] like if E.B was actually like instead of being harmless and kind of pathetic was actually somebody like that. Right. He had some violence in him. Right. Because he's also repulsive and he has that kind of just repulsive and palpable insecurity that vibrates off of him.

[00:59:49] Yeah. One of the things we didn't mention about E.B is E.B's outfits are hilarious. He's always trying to dress like some weird, he looks like a vampire but like some weird upper

[01:00:03] class but they're dirty and have holes in them like his clothes. It's so great. Yeah. Like every aspect of the show, the set designs, the costumes, like every aspect of the show is

[01:00:15] just so great. So this is where we get the scene with Driscoll and Al, where Al gets, where they're wrapping up the deal. Yeah. It's incredible. So he says, so Al is clearly,

[01:00:31] they had a deal that Driscoll would get 30%. I think you're right. I think this must have been Al's land and he was using Driscoll to sell it or something like that. So the deal was that

[01:00:46] Driscoll was going to get 30% of the money and Driscoll, I think this is the fatal flaw. Like he has the balls to ask for 30% of 20,000. Yeah. When their deal was to sell it for 14,000

[01:01:02] and drunk Driscoll had reopened the negotiations and gotten it up to 20 and he dares to ask for 30% of 20 and Al says, no, what's 30% of 14? He's like, what the fuck? He's like, who told you to take him to 20? And so he basically just gets intimidated by Al. He says,

[01:01:21] fuck, well I didn't know. You could have said something. He says, fine, okay, okay, 4200. Like just give me that. And then Al is just stone cold. And so Driscoll's like, well, fine. What do you suggest? Right? Like if you're not happy giving me the 30%

[01:01:35] of the original agreed upon. And sorry, Al says, what do you suggest? And he's like, fuck, I don't know. Like if I knew you were going to be in this kind of mood, I just wouldn't have come up here. He's like, let me just have like 500

[01:01:47] in cash and we'll talk about this whole fucking thing later. You know, they... And then Al says, fine, what do you want? Cash or credit at the tables? This guy is in, he's already into Al for whoever knows how much. So Al says, like, are we holding

[01:02:02] markers against this guy? And yep. So finally he's like, fine, okay, like just give me credit against the fucking markers. Just let me hold $20. I actually feel bad for him, you know, because he just gets... He goes down from like 8000... Yeah, and a piece of fucking pussy.

[01:02:23] $20 in a piece of fucking pussy. Then he says, like, I tell you how you could have knocked me over with the feather when he bit up, which is just so not true. And again,

[01:02:34] like Al just looks at him. Yeah. Al a couple of times just looks at people and they know, they already know. It's a great introduction to the power he has in this town. All right, here's where we meet the Reverend who's talking to Saul and to Seth.

[01:02:55] And they make a deal for the Reverend to watch their tent at night, which makes sense, right? Like you're in a tent, there's no locks or anything. So... And they have all of their merchandise so they need somebody to watch it. We don't even know he's a Reverend,

[01:03:08] but he agrees. He's just really meek sort of guy, sort of soft spoken. He's meek, but not... He also will stand up for... Like he's not scared of people. Yeah, he's not meek in the bad way. He's just sort of like a soft spoken.

[01:03:27] And... He's gentle. Yeah, he's gentle, that's right. And so we find out that yeah, he's working something during the day and then at night he watches merchandises and then on Sabbath he preaches Christ. He preaches Christ dead and resurrected. Yeah.

[01:03:41] And they're like, oh, that's sort of weird to them out. And he says like the Lord is our... When he sees that Seth and Saul are friends, he says the Lord is our final comfort, but it's a solace having friends. Oh God.

[01:03:55] And then he says like I know from previous experience or something like that. So he's sort of admitting there that he's alone here, but that he knows what. And he's so sweet and positive about everything. They tell... Like Saul tells him he's from Vienna and he's like, wow,

[01:04:13] it's wonderful where people come from. He wants friends. Like he exudes this desire to have a human connection, but nobody's really giving it to... Like all of these people in this town have come here. They're either coming to seek their own wealth like to...

[01:04:31] That gold is going to attract the scum of the earth or the people who are engaging in hospitality for the scum of the earth. So there's not a lot of people... They're now coming here for religion.

[01:04:42] No, there's not a lot of people who are going to like reach out in friendship to him. So yeah. But in the end, I think that he does have a community of people who care for him. Including him.

[01:04:56] One of the nice things that you even see, I love about Saul Starr and the actor's performance is when he talks to the Reverend, he has this kindness on his face too.

[01:05:08] And I think that the Reverend from that point on really believes that Saul and Seth are his friends. And Bola can get more impatient with him, but also can change. And this is, I think, a good part of Ola's performance. Like he can change to that kind.

[01:05:24] He gets mad at himself if he snaps at the Reverend. Yeah, patience is not a virtue that Seth Bola has. Yeah. So then they all see this is where the Mason, right? Ned Mason rides in.

[01:05:41] And announces to everybody that he saw a massacre of white people on the road. And that a whole family was killed. They were scalped and there were pieces of their body everywhere. Yeah, he's saying that the Sue, which is what land they're on. Yeah. Like their land.

[01:06:04] The Reverend happens to remember that the family that he's referring to, he's like where were they going? And he says the name of the road, which I forgot. And he says, I know that family, the Metz family.

[01:06:14] And he says, yeah, there was two, there's a family and the two kids were killed too. And he says, oh, they were three kids. And so this is how this is what causes the people of the camp, including Seth,

[01:06:28] and Saul to ride out, want to ride out that night because it's at nighttime. They want to ride out that night to see if this other little girl, the third kid is alive. The guy. He reacts to the news that there was a third kid.

[01:06:42] Once Ned Mason reacts to it, Bullock already knows just in that first interaction. And then he says you probably need a drink and he takes him to the bar where Wild Bill is because he wants Wild Bill to come out with him. Like he's already playing that game.

[01:06:59] He's already planning that? I think so, yeah. You do notice that Saul, when they take him to the bar, Saul is, he doesn't want to ride out that night. He's like, no, I'm going to stay tonight.

[01:07:11] And Saul uses the public forum as a way to like save very loudly. He said, you mean you saw a whole family massacre? There might be a little girl out there and you don't want to ride out tonight? Of course, that gets Bill agrees to ride out.

[01:07:26] And this is where we meet. I think this is where we meet Merrick. This is where like there's a scene before they get there where we meet Merrick. And this is also the next interaction between Jack McCall and Wild Bill. The out drew.

[01:07:40] This is the interaction where he says the out drew. So obviously we learned that Bill sucks at poker. And this is why Charlie is so sort of heartbroken. Like you said, Bill has this heaviness about him.

[01:07:51] He's even though he came out here to whatever to work the gold, he's he's drinking himself and gambling himself to a slow death. Like it's it's sad. And losing and having like being shit talked to by the scum of the earth like Jack McCall

[01:08:07] and like Jack McCall does his asshole thing where he pretends to lose the hand. But then it reveals that he wins it. And he's like, you know, I drew the greatest gunfighter in the world. And then that goes too far. Like that.

[01:08:23] Like he was willing to put up with a lot of shit from Jack McCall. But when he says that, he's like meaning the third eight. And then he makes him say it. And you can see right there that the seeds of violence are planted

[01:08:35] in Jack McCall right there because he just he just emasculates him by just making him articulate the words. I meant the third eight. Third eight is what I meant, you know. And it's just yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. And and I don't know why I'm mentioning this.

[01:08:54] There's something about his teeth that creep me out. McCall has terrible teeth. So you just know he's spewing bad breath while he's talking shit to while Bill of all people, you know, and he's drunk. But it's not even clear if he were sober,

[01:09:08] that he wouldn't be the ass slimy asshole shit talker that he is. And and Bill just fucking he might be drinking himself to death, but he is not to be trifled with like. There is a line that you can cross with him and Jack McCall crossed it.

[01:09:24] Yeah. And then eight. And then we meet Merrick and he's like speechifying. He may we may have seen him earlier, but he's he's talking about like how dead would one day be welcomed within the bosom of America or something. It doesn't bosom mean tit. Yeah. And yeah.

[01:09:41] And it's kind of it's kind of important background information where they're talking about the massacre at Little Big Horn. And you know that we have a treaty with the Sioux, we meaning the United States has a treaty with the Sioux,

[01:09:55] but they might rescind the treaty and annex the the land and yeah, and be taken into the bosom of America. So now they get what's his name? Ned Mason and Saul and Seth get there and you find out what happened.

[01:10:11] And he's still sticking to his story that it was the Sioux that did this and there might be another like girl who's missing. So everybody in Tom's bar is like, all right, let's let's go out there. And you know, Ned Mason doesn't want to.

[01:10:27] He's like, you know, like I'm going to put my scalp out there and then while Bill is like, I'll guarantee your scalp. Right. Yeah, they need him to show the place. Like they need him to write out to show the exact place. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:10:40] And then Merrick's like, I'd be honored to ride with you. Infirmity is permitting. Yeah. And it turns out that he was like the real Merrick was this sort of like hypochondriac character. Yeah, that's great. And he totally is.

[01:10:54] And then you see a kind of bromance or father son kind of surrogate thing developing between Bill and Bullock here. Yeah, it's really sweet. Two men who can't show emotion. Yeah. But they both know that not Macaulay Mason is full of shit. He's like, story don't hold water.

[01:11:13] And yeah, they both realize this. And then then word gets to Al that this massacre is in place at the jam. He has this dope fiend who he uses as sort of like a little rat to run around and give him information.

[01:11:31] And he tells him about the massacre and Al's worried because he doesn't want basically that taking away business that's going to kill the vibe of the night if people are worried about some little girl out there. And so he's like, who did you? Did you tell me first?

[01:11:45] And he's like, no, I told some other people. And he hits Johnny. Yeah, he hits Johnny. Poor Johnny. I love Johnny. I love Johnny. Johnny hadn't done shit. You also see how smart Al is in this scene because like Seth,

[01:12:00] first time he laid eyes on Ned Mason and heard his story, knew it was bullshit. Al didn't even need to hear it. He knew it was Persimmon Phil and the Mason and Ned Mason and Tom Mason right away.

[01:12:12] He might know because he kind of has a deal with the road agents. Not for this particular thing, but for other things. I think he's upset that they did this. But I think he uses those road agents. I don't even, what is a road agent?

[01:12:28] Yeah, I'm not sure. Maybe it's people who just rob people on the road. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, so Al has to basically like save, to save business for the night. He has to go out there and give his own speech.

[01:12:39] And he's like, he has this moral indignation about how like this is terrible and sure thing. Like what I say. The savage is killing the white man. Yeah. What I say is we take the night and ride out with a clear head tomorrow morning.

[01:12:53] And this is when he tells everybody, does he say drinks are on the house? He goes around on the house and half price pussy for 15 minutes. The timing of that. Like I'm pussy's half price, the next 15 minutes.

[01:13:09] And I love how he kind of then apologizes to Johnny without ever saying like, I'm sorry, he would never do that. But like he gives Johnny a look that's kind of like, I'm sorry. And Johnny's like, it's all right Al. I understand.

[01:13:22] They, the dynamic is so interesting between Al and his two Bane, Henschman, Dardi and Johnny. Where Johnny's kind of the buffoon, but we also see him throughout the series do some pretty intelligent things and also has a heart. Totally. Yeah. And Dan also, Dan has a heart too.

[01:13:42] He'll do some brutal things and we'll see him even in the pilot. Do some brutal things, but he is a really loyal Henschman. You know, and Concilie, I don't know if he's a Concilie area as much as he's like the number one enforcer.

[01:13:57] And he's the wee bay, I guess of the. Yeah. And it's funny because he is so loyal to Al that the emotions that we see from him really are in relation to his relationship with Al.

[01:14:11] He gets sad when he thinks Al later on in the series is favoring somebody else because he identifies so much as Al is number one. Yeah. All right. The only other real thing we see from him besides his relationship with Al is he

[01:14:26] gets horny for like 16 year old Kristen Bell. Horny fatherly something a little fuck up. Yeah, super creepy. Yeah. So everybody, so they actually get a bunch of people to write out including Merrick, infirmities aside and to find, to go find the Massacre family and and set.

[01:14:46] Jane goes with them even though she tried to get people at the gem to go and then they would. I think that she went to try to find Bill and she gives a great speech like nobody

[01:14:56] else at the gem wants to write out and she says like, well fine, which is something like I'll buy like I'll drink. I don't drink where I'm the only one with balls with on the only one with balls. So yeah.

[01:15:11] So she writes out they find set finds a little girl who is sure enough hold up and she appears to be unconscious, but she's alive. And wolves are like sniffing at it. Yeah.

[01:15:23] And so they come in with and they ride back into town and it's morning by now. And this is where we see Jane's first sort of motherly instincts toward the girl. It's very sweet. And it's the girl that she had winked at earlier in the episode.

[01:15:38] Who, by the way, is kind of creepy looking herself. Like she's a little poltergeist. Yeah. She could be in a horror movie. It's an interesting thing that they you know and she stays like that pretty much the whole time even when she starts talking and stuff.

[01:15:52] There's always something it's it's Minnesotans. You know, they're family barely talked English so she didn't learn English. This is when Garrett's waking up and he sees the town riding in and when Alma's fake sleeping and he goes down like with his little it's almost like

[01:16:10] little lunchbox in his little panning for gold. Like, yeah. It's so funny that like Dan gives them like the thumbs up. I rewatched that after you were talking about it. So funny. Yeah. Because Dan of course is going to go take him to the claim. We saw Trixie.

[01:16:31] Yeah. Got her gun. She got a gun from Jewel and we haven't talked about Jewel. She's the cripple. That I say that as she's called or the gimp as she's called alternate. Do you remember that she was the the woman from facts of life?

[01:16:49] I do and I only like I learn it and then I forget it and then I read something that reminds me of it then I forget it. Like, I think that I've gone through that cycle like three or four times.

[01:17:00] She's funny because she as the character Jewel but also I think as the actor has like this a very just straightforward way of talking about her disabilities. Like she's clearly comfortable with knowing that she's the gimp.

[01:17:16] And she's a pure soul, you know, like and I think like even though Al is mean to her you get the sense that like the whole like she wouldn't be working there if Al didn't feel something for her. And yeah.

[01:17:30] Al has a soft spot for the vulnerable that we'll learn later about his brother. Do you think even in that brutal scene with Trixie that like you got glimmers of Al like already kind of caring for Trixie?

[01:17:44] Yeah, I was looking for it this time and I do think so. I think you see that he cares but I wasn't sure whether my knowledge of the future events.

[01:17:57] Like made me see more into it but I think from the beginning we see that he cares about Trixie. And she's the bottom bitch, right? Like she is the bottom bitch. She's the head girl of the... I think you would have killed her if...

[01:18:11] Yeah, I think Dan says something along those lines because he tells Dan to kill Tim Driscoll and at first Dan's like why should we kill him? He's harmless like Trixie is like a lot more. There's a real danger like way more than Tim Driscoll.

[01:18:26] So that just signals that like Trixie would be dead if he didn't care for her. And then you know so Trixie's been through some shit where she got beaten by the guy, she shot him and then gets beaten by Al and she's sitting at the table with Ellsworth.

[01:18:42] This is great. And Ellsworth is being so sweet. Do you have the words up? Well I only have the... Like he's talking to her. He says he's willing to pay just a dollar to hear her just to listen to her like because she's all beaten up.

[01:18:59] And then she says I don't have anything to say to you Ellsworth because she's a little bit of a... She's got a sharp edge to her too. Even though I think she gets that he's being a nice guy and then he has

[01:19:09] one of the great lines of this episode. Fuck us all anyway for the Limberdick cocksuckers that we are. Yeah and right before that she says what I got on my chest don't concern you Ellsworth. And then he looks in her cleavage there's a gun.

[01:19:27] And I don't think I caught that maybe the first time around. And I think we're supposed to think... She's gonna kill Al. She's gonna kill Al. Which I didn't really get. I thought she was just rebelling by getting a gun even though he killed her.

[01:19:44] But when Jules says like for in case like men beat on you, I think that's like Al had just been the guy who was beating on her. Yeah right. And so as the camp has come, I mean as the riders come in in the morning from having

[01:20:06] saved a little girl we see what's the name Ned also riding up and he sees that they have the little girl. So he's like fucked because... All right I'll be going now glad you saved from somebody here. She'll be in my prayers.

[01:20:24] He's trying to talk his way out of it. First person to dismount and approach him is Seth. Bill sees exactly what's gonna go down and he asks Saul, is your friend any good with a gun? And Saul gives this answer that just is so good.

[01:20:42] He says I don't feel qualified to say. He's not a gunslinger, he doesn't in comparison to other people like how would he know? So Bill dismounts and they're both walking up to Ned and they both know and they tell him if

[01:20:58] that little girl wait you've got to stay here until that little girl wakes up and we're gonna hear what she has to say and so he knows he's fucked. He reaches, it's great scene. We don't see his hand but we clearly, if you pay attention he's

[01:21:12] clearly reaching and then both Bill and Seth pull and shoot. Bill bad ass as he is pulls two guns and shoots and kill Ned dead and Bill says was that me or you, Montana? And Seth replies so great says my money would be on you.

[01:21:39] That's such a, and then you get the sense they are now connected. That's right because they were the two to step up. They were both former lawmen. They know what's what. And he's already nicknamed him.

[01:21:52] For men giving somebody a nickname means you guys have a little crush on each other. You're practically fucking and like the most baton. I don't know if this matters to you or not but I always kind of was unsure whether

[01:22:09] he was just being humble by saying my money would be on you or whether that was the case. And actually this time I rewatched it slow like I watched slow frame by frame and they do make Bill draw faster. Yeah, good.

[01:22:26] Because I think there's no reason to think that Seth Bullock is that fast a draw. He's not like this Western icon. I don't think he was supposed to be a great shot in real life

[01:22:36] and I don't think it was just, yeah, he's just a bad ass in the show. But even in the show I don't think he's a bad ass in terms of like he's not like his quick draw. No, he's just a bad ass in that he,

[01:22:50] I mean we'll see later on he'll literally drag the most powerful man in their whole sphere by the ear. By the way Alma has woken up and she has her version of Wakenbake. Like she sees what happened and she sees what happens and she's clearly like mesmerized by

[01:23:08] the action of like Seth and Wild Bill like taking down this murderer. And then from her point of view it cuts to seeing her husband and this is actually when he shows her like the pan and Dan's like, yeah, well you're all grown up prospector now,

[01:23:26] you know, like really like a little kid like dressing up as like a fireman or something. And Alma, that's when Alma is like, oh fuck. Well like the thing is you know he is it's so pitiful because everybody's laughing at him

[01:23:42] but he doesn't see it. Alma sees it though and he also is in too deep. Like he is messing with powers that he has no control over and you know he'll pay the consequences for it. But he's oblivious to the fact that he's in with some bad people.

[01:24:00] Is he 100% oblivious? I think he really thinks you know the whole play was to make him feel like Dan Dordy was his boy. And I think that he really thinks his agent, he really thinks well with this guy watching my back you know I'm good.

[01:24:16] Wait till father like hears about this. He'll be so impressed. He'll love me. I don't think at this point we have any sense that he knows that he got for instance fooled. No, no. Yeah he's off prospecting. And Alma gets immediately high. She drops that tincture of Lodnam.

[01:24:38] This is my husband in this place where there's just people beating on each other and shooting each other just constantly and I have this guy to protect me. Fuck this. I'm hitting the Lodam in.

[01:24:51] God man it makes me wish that we still lived in a society where we could have like Lodnam to get through this shit. Should we do a super special so quick spot here? Thailand, Lodnam. So last scene we know that Trixie has a gun.

[01:25:13] We see she goes up to Al's room. Al is in bed because it's the morning. Knock on the door. We know it's Trixie but Al only suspects that it's Trixie. He grabs the gun from his dresser and puts it. Which I never noticed until this very last read.

[01:25:31] And he puts it under the bed and he says come in like who is it come in. She walks in and first thing she does is hand him the gun. He puts it on the dresser. So we see that Al was ready to be shot at by Trixie.

[01:25:52] But she saved her life by putting the gun on the dresser and then she crawls in bed next to him. So it's a kind of submissive gesture but you're right that it also saved her life presumably. I don't know like I wouldn't bet on Al 100% in.

[01:26:10] Trixie's got a lot of when she sets her mind to something she will do it. So there at the end we I think now have enough information to know what the nature of the relationship between Trixie and Al is and it's not healthy.

[01:26:25] It's definitely abusive and maybe codependent but there's real affection there. But they do get dangerous with each other. They clearly have the ability to push the other person in a way that no other person seems to have.

[01:26:44] And I think Al's like conflict is on the one hand he respects Trixie and like Al doesn't respect many people but he respects her opinion. So like as somebody to talk to it's not like

[01:26:59] the blowjob girl like he actually wants her to be there and has real affection for her but he is loath more than bullock to put himself in a vulnerable position. And that is inherently vulnerable like having this strong willed woman that you need.

[01:27:22] And that's this conflict that will play out for the rest of the series really. Yeah. And that's why when he was beating her like he really did have this I think he really

[01:27:31] thought that well he needs to do that like I have to do this but he didn't want to but he had to. Yeah so that's the end of the episode. There's one thing that I wanted to say about this episode

[01:27:44] that in about the series in general is we meet pretty much every main character until like there will be other people introduced but we've met like I don't know what 15 people. In in this one hour show I have met and care about what happens to these people.

[01:28:04] Yeah when you say they'll be studying yeah like Milch is writing and I also think it comes through in the performances too like you get their essence already in these opening episodes with the possible exception of doc you know and maybe because we don't really

[01:28:20] see much of Alma Garrett you know like so other than that she's a little savvier than her husband. Yeah but even that the ability to give us that yeah that she is the one who who knows more

[01:28:34] in this relationship this is sort of a fool's era and she's she's numbing herself to whatever is going on. A lot of what we see later will be more and more numbing of herself

[01:28:46] but you get like the Dan and Johnny are devoted to Al you know and that they're like this family yeah it's all it's amazing. Yeah and I don't know how it was done whether this

[01:29:00] was a pilot that needed to get picked up but it's just so much of what becomes the show is already there from episode one. Yeah I don't know two hours. We're gonna make these more concise. Yes we have to. All right well we'll try we'll try to do

[01:29:21] as good a job in a shorter amount of time next time but whatever like the show is so fucking good. It's our enthusiasm. You know what give us the thumbs up like like Dordy gave it

[01:29:34] to Bram for this first one. All right join us next time on The Ambulators. That will make no sense for people who are just watching it. I know. The Ambulators.