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(Open where Ep-30 left off. Nighttime, Lou is
hurrying into the hotel.)
EB: He’s
gone up with your son. Wants notice
when you’re ready to serve.
(Out of breath, Lou
pauses then heads back to the kitchen)
(Cut to Hearst’s room where he meets with
Odell.)
Hearst: I
knocked holes in these walls.
Confinement gives me the fidgets.
Odell:
(chuckles) Set yourself up comfortable.
Hearst: Let me confide as well, Odell, that when people only
say to me with other words what I have just said to them, I quickly grow
impatient.
Odell: All right,
Sir.
Hearst:
Tell me about the gold.
Odell: I will, Sir,
what little I know to say, hoping you will learn me the rest. This is what they call an assay and
metallurgist report. (hands Hearst a
paper)
Hearst:
Yes, I’ve heard of those. Sit down,
boy. Sit down. (reading) “Third Baptist Congregation,
Monrovia Settlement.”
Odell: The
congregation has title to the find.
Hearst:
And how are you connected to the congregation?
Odell: I’m First
Deacon, Sir.
Hearst: I
see. Congratulations.
Odell: Being you were
known to me through my mama’s letters, when the proposals started to come to
us—
Hearst:
Proposals?
Odell: The different
English proposals.
Hearst:
From Great Britain, you mean?
Odell: To develop the
find, yes, Sir. I was sent to ask if you’d guide us.
Hearst:
Does your congregation conceive some sort of a partnership,
Odell?
Odell: However you
thought we should do.
Hearst: I
do take in partners with the understanding that in dealing with the color, mine
is the deciding voice.
Odell: Dealing with
the color, Sir?
Hearst:
The gold - securing and exploiting the gold.
Odell: Do you want to
see the gold now, Sir?
Hearst:
Do you want to show it to me?
Odell: They give it
to me to show you, Sir. (Odell
hands him a quartz nugget.)
Hearst:
Suppose we oughtn’t—let the congregation down. (He studies the quartz, then suddenly walks
to the door) I can’t imagine your mother’s not nearly prepared our
supper.
Odell: What do you
think of the gold?
Hearst:
It makes me hungry, Odell.
(Cut to No10, Johnny is there with the usual No10
group.)
Tom: Harry should be at the meeting.
Johnny: I
ain’t saying he shouldn’t. I wasn’t
told to invite him.
Rutherford: Candidate for public office.
Tom:
Please convey to Al that short of being forbidden, I intend to bring Harry with
me.
Johnny:
I’ll convey that word for word.
Steve:
And what would be my position?
Oughtn’t I attend as the livery’s new owner?
Tom:
Hostetler never attended.
Steve:
Prior to blowing off his fucking head, Hostetler was a nigger. Last I looked I’m
white!
Rutherford: True, as,
uh, far as it goes.
Harry: I
can abstain from attending if that closes the can of peas.
Tom: Oh,
uh uh, you are a candidate for public
office with a chance to put the fire wagon on the table.
Steve: If
it’s a question of room, shove two fucking tables
together!
Tom: Room
is not the issue, Steve., if you have to see my down card. (Johnny walks toward the back door) I do not vouch for you, nor presume to
bring you uninvited, as I do Harry, because you are not the same quality
person.
Steve:
Meaning I’m not fanatic for fucking fire wagons like Harry and all the other
five-year-olds.
Johnny:
Anyways I’ve still got the doc to invite.
Is this the quickest way to the cabin here - (indicates the back
door)
Tom: Tell
Al add an extra peach dish.
Rutherford: Can you certify the purity of your blood,
Steve? I only ask because your nose
is…broad. (Steve looks
surprised.)
Tom:
(To Harry) Take your apron off, and consider changing your shirt, which I
fucking suggested yesterday.
(Steve is feeling his nose to assess it’s
width)
(Cut to Bullock’s house as Seth enters. Martha is
sewing as she waits for him)
Seth: Will you mind very much if we have our dinner
quickly? (She takes a huge roast out of the oven,
ready to eat)
Martha:
Camp business, Dear?
(Seth smiles and gives her an affectionate
look)
(Cut to the Gem, Dan is opening cans of peaches with
his knife)
Dan: Come
to cases. I will get sent to hire guns, quick time, bouncing in the fucking
saddle and howling at every Goddamn hoof-fall, aches in every bone. (Jewel
enters)
Jewel: I
put out cinnamon.
Dan:
Where?
Jewel:
The meeting table.
Dan: On whose
instruction?
Jewel:
Cinnamon’s good with peaches.
Dan: Do
not put unauthorized cinnamon on the goddamn meetin’ table. That’s all the fuck we
need.
Jewel:
It’s available as a choice.
Dan:
Which is not your province to offer, Jewel.
Jewel:
Well, if food’s not my province, then you can make your own fucking
breakfast.
Dan: I
had best not come out of this Goddamn kitchen and find Goddamn cinnamon on the
fucking meeting table! (Jewel gives him a look and leaves) Leg
up to Cheyenne by now, I’d be
heading there in a civilized fucking gait.
(Cut to Doc’s cabin as Johnny knocks. Doc is laying
down and silently tries to wave Johnny away as he is calling to
Doc..)
Johnny: Doc!
Johnny Burns, Doc! You
remember you—you come to that—that meeting before to set the pest tent up and
the like? (Doc slowly gets up) And
E.B. was made Mayor? (Doc opens the door) Hey, Doc. (Doc points to his mouth) You can’t
talk? (Doc shakes his head) Anyway,
Al’s got another one of them meetings.
(Doc shakes his head and starts to
cough.) You can’t come? (Doc sinks to the floor, coughing)
Jesus, Doc. All right, all
right I’ll tell him—you can’t come.
Anyway, look, I hope—I hope you feel better. (Doc slams the door, then slumps back on the
floor next to the door)
(Cut to the hotel, Odell is sitting with Hearst at a
table. Several others in the dining room are looking over this situation. Lou
brings them their supper)
Hearst: My best efforts, Odell, do not yet persuade your
mother to be indifferent to the opinions of others. (indicating the others in
the room who are watching)
Lou: If
it’s all right with you, Mr. Hearst, it’s all all right with me.
Odell: This looks
wonderful, Mama.
Lou:
Thank you. (Odell pauses silently to say
a prayer before eating, Hearst looks impatient.)
Hearst: I
suppose you’ve told your mama about being First Deacon of your congregation in
Liberia.
Odell: I haven’t yet
had the chance to give her the news.
Hearst:
Does your congregation have no strictures, Odell, against its Deacon
drinking?
Odell: It does, yes,
Sir.
Hearst:
Yet the smell of liquor’s on your breath.
(Odell pauses) Do I
mistake?
Odell: No, Sir, Mr. Hearst, you don’t.
Hearst:
Did you have one drink of liquor, Odell, from nervousness about our
talk?
Odell: I
admit I did, Sir, yes. (We see E.B. eavesdropping with a metal horn
from the counter, trying to conceal this from a
passerby)
Hearst:
Did you drink on the ship from Liberia?
Odell: No,
Sir.
Hearst:
Or coming overland from New York?
Odell: No, Sir, Mr.
Hearst.
Hearst:
Would the liquor I smell then be the first you’ve ever
consumed?
Odell: I’ve had some
before, Sir.
Hearst:
Prior to becoming Deacon of the Third Baptist of Monrovia or
after?
Odell: I guess a
little of both. (We see Richardson intermittently,
watching)
Hearst:
Showing gold thousands of miles from its purported source to authenticate a
find, I would associate less with our savior’s qualities of character, than
Adam’s, or someone pretending to his innocence.
Odell: Before he me
the serpent.
Hearst:
(laughs) Hmm. The combative note in
that pleases me, Odell, as against what till now has seemed haphazard and sloven
and slipshod in your approach to fleecing me.
Odell:
My mistake was thinking that
you’d want your niggers praising Jesus. What the hell are we talking about this
for? Did the assay make sense or not?
Hearst:
Ten
dollars’ll buy a report that proves a find of pure ore in your ass,
Odell.
Odell: I guess that’s
why I didn’t figure till you’d had someone over there, we’d be drawing up any
papers. Figured this’d be a getting-to-know-each-other conversation, seeing if
we’d want to go any further. Far as I’m concerned, we don’t. (He stands abruptly– Hearst puts up a hand.
One of the other diners is alarmed)
Hearst:
Calm down. Now just calm down,
son. (E.B. has drawn a pistol and is at the
ready) If I have mistook you in some regard, you’ll find I’m man enough to
apologize. Now, just sit down,
we’ll finish our meal, and then maybe afterwards we’ll take in the camp and, if
you have any vices beyond your drinking, I might even offer you a cigar. (Odell sits, Richardson walks back to the
kitchen.)
Lou:
How’s he doing?
Richardson: Holding his
fucking own.
(Cut to Sol’s house, Trixie is
there.)
Sol: Then
I asked, what good am I to myself or the camp standing sentinel over a coffee
pot? Was why I came home.
(Trixie is lighting a cig) I wish you wouldn’t smoke in
here.
Trixie:
I
wish, when asleep, you wouldn’t snore and fucking
fart.
Sol: I
have no choice about either of those.
Trixie:
If
I extinguish this fucking cigarette, it’ll be in the middle of your fucking
forehead.
Sol:
Ah.
Trixie:
I’m glad she fucking fired me. I hate that fucking bank.
Sol: It’s
the context, I think, that disturbs you, that she’s back to using
dope.
Trixie:
Yes yes! That she’s back on the dope disturbs me. And why, even as we speak, your own life
hangs by a fucking thread. (She quiets
down ans sits next to Sol on the bed. After a pause she suddenly looks very sad)
What’s to become of that child? (Johnny knocks on the door, Trixie jumps up
and acts as though she wants to hide.)
Johnny:
Johnny Burns, Mr. Star!
Sol: What
is it?
Johnny:
Well, Al’s called a meeting like the ones you’ve come to
before.
Sol: Does
Sheriff Bullock know?
Johnny:
Well, seemed to me they halfway called it together.
Sol: All
right, I’m coming.
Johnny:
Uh, if you ain’t et dessert yet, don’t.
Sol: All
right.
Johnny:
Al’s broke out the canned peaches.
Sol: All
right. (Trixie sighs as she sits back
down) The Bullock’s could take her.
Or we could. (Trixie slowly beams
at this)
Trixie:
You’d have us care for a child? (He looks
at her and they hold hands)
(Cut to Alma’s house, as she is getting Sophia ready
for bed)
Alma:
Now more than previously,
Sofia, Mr. Ellsworth will spend time at the diggings.
Sofia: Did he not
come home last night?
Alma: I’m not sure,
Darling. Possibly he did not. And maybe that’s why you didn’t
waken.
Sofia: I didn’t feel
his beard.
Alma: Possibly
that’s why. But he will be seeing you.
(She turns Sofia around to brush
her hair) And everything will be all right.
(Cut to Al’s office, Cy is
there.)
Cy: I
gave him a foolproof fucking approach to wind up with that woman’s claim, and I
could have been shit drawing flies. Hearst is that fucking focused on
Bullock pulling his ear. (There’s a knock at the
door)
Al: Yeah?
(Johnny opens the door)
Johnny:
All collected but Doc.
Al: Where
the fuck is he?
Johnny:
He ain’t up to it, he says. (Al sighs)
Uh, cinnamon’s out for the peaches.
Al:
Huh?
Johnny:
That wasn’t my fucking doing.
Cy:
(As he and Al walk to the door) Giving Hearst Bullock is the only move
that don’t end with the camp in flames. And that one only gets us up to 50-50.
(Cy motions for Al to go through the door
first, Al does the same, and with a smile Cy leaves first.) It sounds as if
Cochran’s turned face to the wall.
Al: His
fucking lungs.
Cy:
There’s quite a falling off among the other sawbones in camp. We might put
notice in the eastern papers.
Al:
(Looking at Cy with some dismay) Once we’ve ceased our
weeping.
(Johnny and Dan are
clearing the drunks out of the Gem)
Johnny:
Got a meeting.
Al:
(On the balcony, to Cy) Had he known our might and guile, Hearst would
have never left the Comstock.
Dan:
Earnie, you got credit for a free tug tomorrow. Let’s go.
Ernie: I’ll spank it
myself. Just watch me. (Reaches
into his pants)
Dan:
You’ll spank it in front of a Goddamn mule team. (He escorts Ernie out as Gustave the tailor
enters and is stopped at the door)
Gustave:
Sirs, if I might explain. In my
vision, I leapt from the coach and straight come to see
him.
Johnny:
Al’s got a meeting tonight, Gustave.
Adams:
You can tell him your vision tomorrow (Al
and Cy come downstairs)
Gustave: Mr. Swearengen!
It’s just as I imagined! I
have something so important to give to you.
Al:
What?
Gustave:
You mustn’t ask me what. And you mustn’t ask me why.
Dan: You
must go fuck yourself.
Gustave:
And
don’t speak disgusting to me or answer for Mr. Swearengen what is a very
important answer.
Al: Let
me know when Bullock arrives.(He motions
for Gustave to come upstairs)
Gustave:
Ah.
Johnny:
Oh, Tom Nuttall’s coming and he’s bringing Harry Manning.
Al:
Bullock!
(Gustave sticks his tongue out at Dan as he follows Al up to his office.)
(Cut to the whore’s room, they are all collected and
are lounging with some peaches.)
Jen: Guess if you’ve got a pussy, even owning a bank don’t
get you to that table.
(Cut to Joanie’s room, where she is helping Jane with
a sponge bath.)
Jane: Jesus Christ, easy easy easy easy. There’ll be conversations left and right.
Don’t get too far up there on the fucking wrist.
Joanie:
Do you want to use the sponge?
Jane: That’s not the
fucking point. You just not be starting length and breadth conversations
throughout the fucking camp or territory or so on. Or do I suppose now I take
off my fucking undershirt or the like and show my tits and so
forth?
Joanie:
I’ll leave you to wash that part.
Jane: Who the fuck
am I fucking kidding or putting on airs in front of? (She starts to take off her shirt) I
been disrobed in front of every barnyard creature that hunts or pecks or rolls
in the fucking mud. Who the fuck
should I have shyness before or pride or the like, for Christ’s sake? What difference does it make? What the fuck do I have to be ashamed of
at this late fucking date? (She takes off her shirt) Who cares
anyway?! (Joanie sponges off Jane’s arms) Now go
ahead and sponge my fucking tits and get it over with if that’s what you fucking
do.
Joanie:
It’s nothing like that, Jane.
Jane: Well,
what’s it like then. I never had a sister.
Joanie: I
had two. And I slept with both of ‘em. I don’t know why God let me or…if he
forgives me when I pray, but, but I’d never hurt you, Jane, or touch you if you
didn’t want.
Jane: I
believe that. But I don’t want to
open my eyes. But you can go ahead
and kiss me if that’s what you fucking do.
(Joanie pauses then touches Jane’s face and kisses
her lips. Jane is trembling)
(Cut to Al’s office as Gustave is showing some
brightly colored swatches of cloth
Gustave: What possesses me to buy all of these swatches? Even though I have no reason why I
should! Because who back at that
camp would wear suits of such colors?
But I have learned sometimes if you have a thing, the reason for the
thing is that you have it! And when
I am in New York City, I have a letter from a friend. In the news from the camp, he says, “And
Mr. Swearengen has lost the top part of his middle finger to an accident some
kind.” And I say, “I will take
these swatches to Mr. Swearengen,”
And, “I like the look of his vest when he is out in the morning, out on
the balcony, drinking his coffee, and he is very much a handsome man at those
times, and maybe he would like one for his stump. Or maybe more—a different swatch for
every day, why not?” Give me your stump.
Don’t think about it. Just
give it to me. (Al puts his hand up Gustave puts one end of
a swatch in it.) Now this corner of the swatch we pretend is the lost child.
(He starts wrapping the swatch around
Al’s hand) The little boy goes up the mountain, around the bend, always
looking for mama. And where does he
finally find her?
Al:
Where?
Gustave:
Here she is! Here’s mama! Wrapping herself around you tight tight
tight. Mama’s got you little
Al Everything’s all right! (He steps back and Al stares at the wrapped
hand) I like that color very very much. Do you? (knock on door)
Al: Please, God, come in. (Johnny opens the door)
Johnny:
Bullock.
Al: Thank
you, Gustave. Please leave.
(Gustave leaves and Johnny looks at the swatch on
Al’s hand. Al removes the cloth,
staring at Johnny.)
(Cut to the street as Hearst and Odell are walking and talking)
Hearst: Before the color, no white man—no man of any hue
moved to civilize or improve a place like this had reason to make the
effort. The color brought commerce
here, and such order as has been attained.
Odell: Yes,
Sir.
Hearst:
Do you want to help Liberia, Odell?
Odell: I
want to help myself. (Hearst laughs)
If Liberia is where my chance is, it’s all right with me. (Hearst offers Odell a cigar)
Hearst:
Gold is your chance.
Odell: Thank you,
Sir.
Hearst:
Gold is every man’s opportunity.
Why do I make that argument?
Because every defect in a man and in others’ way of taking him, our
agreement that gold has value gives us power to rise above.
Odell: Fond as you
are of my mother, without that gold I showed you, I don’t expect we’d be out
here talking.
Hearst:
That is correct. And, for your
effrontery at our meal a moment ago…I’d have seen you shot or hanged without
second thought. The value I gave
the gold restrained me, you see…your utility in connection to it. And because of my gold, those at the
other tables deferred to my restraint.
Gold confers power. Power
comes to any man who has the color.
Odell: Even if he’s
black?
Hearst:
That is our species’ hope: That uniformly agreeing on its value, we organize to
seek the color. (exhales) Just before you and I met,
Odell, the camp’s Sheriff released me from a jail cell.
Odell: That’s hard
for me to feature.
Hearst: I
hate these places, Odell, because the truth that I know, the promise that I
bring, the necessities I’m prepared to accept make me outcast. (tears in his eyes.) Isn’t that
foolish? Isn’t that
foolishness? And old man disabused
long ago of certain yearnings and hopes as to how he would be held by his
fellows, and yet I weep.
Odell: Anyway, Sir,
you want to send someone back with me?
Hearst:
Yes, I do. Yes, I do, Son. I want to send you to help your
people…and
take this place down like Gomorrah.
(Cut to the Gem, where the meeting is
started)
Al: All
being affected, we might consider some facts as a group.
Seth: I
arrested Hearst, acting in the name of the camp.
Cy:
Without the camp’s previous fucking say-so.
Seth: Do
you propose that? Getting a say-so
before I do my duty? (Seth removes his badge and tosses it on the
table, Cy picks it up)
Cy: Might
be a good open—showing Hearst it’s off of him.
Al:
Bullock’s tin won’t placate Hearst.
Give it the fuck back to him.
(Cy drops the tin on the
table.)(to Seth) Add to your statement or shut the fuck
up.
Seth: I’m
done.
EB: Shall
I, as Mayor (standing), initiate
proceedings by giving my own opinions, however titular and insubstantial and
merely honorific the position?
Which argues against my doing so. (He sits back down as he realizes that
nobody is interested)
Al: How
is Hearst likely to answer? Ought
steps to be taken in preemption? My
instinct’s to act alone, chart the course for fucking carnage. That this would be general among ‘em
whose parents were so dim as to bring them—the fucking innocents is what give me
fucking pause. I invite the
suggestions of others against my instinct to send for the guns.
Charlie: (Standing)
As I’ve expressed to the Sheriff and
Mr. Star, and siding with your instincts, to protect the innocents, I’d send
them from the camp. Then fall on
Hearst and his in their lair before they fall on us in ours. (He pauses, then sits) As Wild Bill
would have done. (Everyone sits quietly. Seth pulls out a letter and slowly hands
it to Merrick. Jewel peeks out from
behind the stairs and sees Harry Manning eating the
peaches.)
Merrick:
(Studies the letter for a bit) This is a letter.
Cy: Who’s
the fucking letter to? What the
fuck is going on?
Seth:
Last of those Cornishmen murdered.
Charlie:
Pasco.
Seth: His
family.
Al: Read
the letter. (Dan gives Jewel a look, she
frowns and goes back in the kitchen.)
Merrick:
“It becomes my painful duty to
inform you that Pasco Carwen was killed earlier this week. His body was found in the
road….”
(In the kitchen
area)
Dan: Stop
poking your head out.
Jewel:
I’m seeing who’s using the cinnamon, and Harry Manning is using it
plenty.
(back to
Merrick)
Merrick:
It was not mutilated in any way.
His death seems to have been instantaneous as he was stabbed through the
heart. Pasco’s funeral occurred
today and was attended by coworkers and friends who all shared the same high
opinion of him. Everything was done
by kind hands that was possible under the circumstances, and a Christian burial
was given him. I was not personally
acquainted with Mr. Carwen, save for one encounter where he demonstrated grief
and deep compassion at the passing of a friend. I knew him by reputation as an earnest
worker and a diligent believer in right and wrong. His memory I am sure will always be with
those who knew and loved him, among whose number I imagine you as first. A letter from you which I found in his
tent causes me to convey this sad intelligence to you. Sincerely yours, Seth Bullock.” (Al looks at Seth.) What shall I do with
this, Mr. Bullock?
Al:
What’s your fucking paper for? You
fucking publish as witness, for Hearst and others to read. (Looks at Seth) That’s a very nice
fucking letter.
(Cut to the telegraph office as Merrick returns from
the meeting.)
Merrick: Mr. Blazanov, had you much traffic tonight on your
apparatus?
Blazanov:
Some traffic, yes. I hope your
important meeting had a good result.
Merrick:
As free men facing important challenges, we choose to be
optimistic.
Blazanov:
Sir, I ask you to take me to Mr. Swearengen’s place. (He holds a
telegram)
Merrick:
Well, I - I will, of course, Mr. Blazanov, though no activity you may
contemplate, for example the making of friends with is female employees,
requires Mr. Swearengen’s personal approval.
Blazanov:
I wish to see him for another purpose.
Merrick:
All right.
Blazanov:
Shall we go now?
Merrick:
Certainly. (Merrick starts up the stairs, Blasanov
grabs his hand) Come
on.
(Cut to the street, Tom and Harry are walking back to
No10. Harry appears uncomfortable)
Tom: Lovely letter, wasn’t it?
Harry: Didn’t you…come back sick from one of them
meetings?
Tom: Last
year, from the peaches. Which is
why I refrained this time around.
Far as the fire wagon, I gather you felt as I did, the
moment was wrong to broach it.
Harry: My—my
throat is all fucking tight. (He suddenly drops to the ground, having
trouble breathing)
Tom:
Where did you lay your hands on liquor, Harry? (Harry gasps) Harry? Help! Harry? Harry! Help!
(Cut to a hotel room, where Jack is visiting
Chesterton)
Chesterton:
Oh look, Jack. White lumps on my
tongue.
Jack: Reel it
in, for God’s sake.
Chesterton: I’m so
sorry. It’s close, Jack. It’s very close. I feel it’s - it’s icy breath. I hear it
whispering in my ear. “Forget your
name. We go to
black.”
Jack: The
downstairs buffet is quite passable.
(leaves abruptly)
(Cut to the hotel kitchen, where Lou is with
Odell)
Lou: As
like to kill you as take passage with you to Liberia, his man you meeting in New
York.
Odell: If Mr. Hearst
wanted me killed, Mama, he could see it done here.
Lou:
Don’t you ever believe you know what’d please that man, or salt him to come
after you. And you look a fool
holding that cigar!
Odell: I’ve played on
for smaller stakes. And the gold ain’t playing. I ain’t trying to steal
nothing. I’ll work my way up the
hog. And ain’t you sent me out there so I can turn out a
man?
Lou: I
sent you so the hell that was coming here for niggers wouldn’t burn you up.
Odell: There’s plenty
of fire in Liberia.
Lou: I
can’t undo what I done, Odell, any more than you can, searching out hurt.
Odell: I ain’t
searching no hurt out.
Lou: We
all get our portion. We don’t need
to draw it to us.
Odell: You hear me,
Mama? I ain’t searching no Goddamn
hurt out.
Lou: I
don’t told you to mind who you talking to.
Odell: All right, Mama. No bad language. If you’d kept me to raise me, maybe I’d
know. (Aunt Lou sobs)
Lou: He
got $742 for you, the little nigger at the livery. And this brooch here too, you
can take. I can’t find it. I can’t
find it. Lord Jesus, forgive me!
Odell: When I read
you had stayed in the Comstock, I tried to come here quick, be gone before he
sent for you to come. I ain’t come
here to hurt you.
Lou: I
never said you come to do me hurt.
Odell: So’s you wouldn’t have to see
me.
Lou: I
prayed to see you every day you was gone. My God, Odell, what’s wrong with
you? No joy to seeing my boy! I’m sorry, son.
Odell: Hush, Mama.
Hush. Hush. (He hugs
her)
Lou: Oh,
do what you think you got to. I couldn’t find the right.
Odell: Hush now,
Mama. Hush.
Lou: Oh!
(wails)
Odell: I
got you now.
(Cut to Al’s office, Blasanov and Merrick are there
while Al reads the telegram.)
Blazanov: “Bricks.”
You see there?
Al: Yes,
I see.
Blazanov:
“Bricks. 25 bricks. Stop. Addition to initial order. Stop. First means of delivery. Stop.”
Al: And,
Blazanov?
Blazanov:
Do you believe, Mr. Swearengen, Mr. Hearst orders more
bricks?
Al: No.
What do you believe?
Blazanov:
I believe he orders more humans.
Merrick:
Reinforcements.
Blazanov:
To do harm! As we saw on our walk.
Leave to die in a country strange to them, men apart from their families,
working to give them support. Fuck
confidentiality of communications.
Al: Why
not fuck a woman instead?
Blazanov:
I hope so, eventually. Now I
deliver under seal his message to Mr. Hearst.
Al: I’ll
dispose of this, Blazanov.
(Cut to the hotel, E.B. is returning to find
Richardson praying)
EB: How
are you occupying yourself, Richardson?
Richardson: I’m praying
the meeting went well.
EB: Very
touching. Now clear your mind of
the meeting and account for the negro with Hearst.
Richardson: They’re both
in her room.
EB:
Despite your best efforts, Richardson, an answer of some ambiguity. (He slaps Richardson with his gloves.)
Is she with them?
Richardson:
One.
EB: One
what?
Richardson: Of them. Is with her.
EB:
Who?
Richardson:
Aunt
Lou.
EB: Who
is with Aunt Lou?
Richardson: Her
son.
EB: (sighs) And where is
Hearst?
Richardson: His
room.
EB: (sighs) Then I will retire to mine.
Richardson: Well, how was
the meeting? (E.B. sighs and heads for
his room, pausing at the door and looking back at Richardson.) I imagine the
pool that spawned you. I am filling
it with rocks. I am holding shut
your gills. To prevent you from
taking in air. (Richardson reacts as
though being strangled.) I
suppose the meeting went quite well.
(Richardson grins as E.B. goes into his room).
(Cut to the Chez Amie as the theater group is there)
Claudia: I itch.
Bellegarde: Dust.
Dutchess:
No matter how much regularity of cleaning or consideration for the children, a
place like this is filled with dust. (Jack enters)
Bellegarde: He’s dead.
Jack:
Chesterton is with us still, though to bring him in the evening chill would be
imprudent. We’ll bring him
tomorrow. When this room is less cold.
Dutchess:
After the children have gone and before you bring him, I will give the place a
good dust.
Jack:
Then the carpentry will begin. You’ve engaged the
carpenters?
Bellegarde: Yes. He is close to the end, isn’t
he?
Jack: (yelling) Yes, Bellegarde! For Christ’s sake! (He sighs and leaves. Bellegarde sits.)
Claudia:
Haunted. (Bellegarde chuckles) Drafts
from all over. From the walls, from the side, swooping down from the
ceiling.
Dutchess:
I will dust anyway for Chesterton, even though after, the carpenters
come.
(She puts her hand on Bellegarde’s shoulder and they
all look around)
(Cut to the Gem, Johnny, Dan and Silas are discussing
the meeting.)
Johnny: Uh, the attitude on people leaving definitely stepped
forward from the attitude they were
coming in. I mean, no one’s trying
to quarrel about that.
Dan: Then
what’s your quarrel?
Johnny:
(sighs) I’m asking what was
decided.
Dan: They’re publishing the letter as witness.
Johnny:
Witness?
Dan: A
witness in the sense that—uh
Adams:
Witness the letter—its content.
Dan:
Yeah, the letter’s contents is witness that…Bullock wrote a nice fucking letter.
And it proves…that that’s the sort we are here, the caring sort that would write
a letter of that ilk. Furthermore,
we don’t give a fuck who knows it, George fucking Hearst
included.
Adams:
Fucking Hearst especially.
Johnny:
Is the witness?
Dan:
Better late than fucking never, Johnny.
(Jewel comes out) Hey! Little miss fucking cinnamon. (She gives him the finger)
(Cut to Alma’s house as she is checking on a sleeping
Sophia. Alma is crying)
Alma:
(whispering) I wanna be good. (She is walking downstairs) I
wanna be good. (Ellsworth knocks at the front door.)
Ellsworth: Good evening.
(She steps away and sits
down. Ellsworth steps inside.)
Alma: Good
evening.
Ellsworth: For being gone, I - I notice I’m frequently back.
(Alma smiles) I come to kiss her good
night.
Alma: I
tried to persuade her you’d done so last night.
Ellsworth: My beard always wakes her.
Alma: She
said so, refuting me. The thing I
did that made you leave last night, the thing I was coming home to do again…I
pray now to forego forever.
Ellsworth: Not having me in this house is gonna improve your
odds.
Alma: I
started using spirits at 17, Ellsworth, with no premonition we’d marry.
Ellsworth: Well, my feeling’s that being vessel of purposes not
your own, your eye was out for relief. But glimpsing since how being your own
vessel is preferable, let the pressure come off and you’re liable to do all
right.
Alma: You are no
pressure.
Ellsworth: My…friendly hands’ll always be out to both of
you. (He puts his hand out to her and she takes
it in hers) May I interrupt her sleep with this beard?
Alma: She’d be so
glad if you did.
(Cut to Hearst’s hotel room as a knock comes on the
door. He is laying on the floor and has some difficulty getting up.)
Hearst: Yes?
Blazanov: Cheyenne and Black Hills
Telegraph.
Hearst:
Yes, all right. (opens the door) Evening.
Blazanov:
Telegram for Mr. Hearst.
Hearst:
Ah, thank you. I wonder if you might remain just a moment while I read it, on
the chance I’ll want to answer.
Blazanov:
Of course.
Hearst:
“Additional shipment of bricks.”
Blazanov:
Yes, Sir.
Hearst:
Yeah, this is fine. This is fine. (He
pulls out a coin and hands it to Blazanov) There’ll be no answer.
Blazanov:
This is $20, Sir.
Hearst:
It’s all right, son. Thanks for
doing your job well.
Blazanov:
You’re most welcome.
(Cut to Al’s office, he sits alone as there’s a knock
on the door.)
Jack: John Langrishe, Al.
Al: Come
in, Jack.
Jack:
Early finish below?
Al: We’d
a meetin’, I ought to have asked you too.
Jack:
What topic commended my presence? Reprobates? The elderly?
Al:
Fuckin’ Hearst - that took an axe to my left middle digit, sends for 25 more
thugs to take the tool to the whole fucking camp. Why am I fucking
optimistic?
Jack: Did
your meeting find a strategy in counterpoise?
Al: We
heard the fucking reading of a letter.
Jack:
Ahh.
Al: Writ
by Bullock, to a miner’s family after Hearst had had him murdered.
Jack:
Exhorting they charge Hearst with the crime?
Al: Never
once mentioning Hearst. Expressing sympathy to the family, respect for the way
the man lived. We decided Merrick would publish in the
paper.
Jack:
Strategy some may call ingenuous, others merely -
off the point.
Al: I sit
mystified I was moved to endorse it.
Jack:
Mystified, Al, at proclaiming a law beyond law to a man who’s beyond law
himself? It’s publication invoking
a decency whose scrutiny applies to him as to all his fellows. I
call that strategy cunningly sophisticated, befitting and becoming the man who
sits before me. (Al stands up and walks out to the balcony
in the Gem)
Al: Open
the place back up! Tell
the whores if their legs ain’t in the air, they’d better be off their
asses! (He comes back in his office, slamming the
door behind him. He pauses by Jack) So what progress in your
affairs?
Jack: (chuckles) Our opening is delayed. And
old man is dying - one of my actors.
And…(sighs, tears in his eyes)
I’m sad. (Al walks over to his desk
and pulls out a bottle of whiskey and offers it) Oh - perhaps just the
one.
(Cut to No10 as Doc is examining Harry on the floor.
Doc is coaching Harry to breath in and out)
Doc: In?
Tom:
Folded up on the boardwalk beside me like a Goddamn
accordion.
Rutherford: So
you’ve remarked. (Doc coughing)
Steve: I
believe I’ll take my leave.
Harry: You’re
wheezing bad as me, Doc. Did you et
cinnamon too?
Steve:
Lest I distract from the business at hand by requesting a fucking
drink!
Rutherford: Have you adverse reactions to other food or
condiments, Harry? (Doc gives Rutherford a dirty
look)
Harry: Eggplant
shreds the roof of my mouth if it’s any of your fucking
business.
Rutherford: Irritability at the bowel, we know you suffer
from.
Doc:
You’re all right. Don’t eat cinnamon anymore.
Harry: Or
eggplant?
Doc: Not
if it shreds your mouth. (Tom grabs Doc’s case as Doc gets up to
leave.)
Tom: Hope
you don’t mind my absconding with you from your cabin, Doc.
Doc:
No.
Tom:
Campaigning any threat to Harry’s health?
Doc: How
was the meeting?
Tom: Oh,
it was all right. Um, needless to
say, we missed you.
(Doc takes his case from Tom and leaves).
(Cut to Al on the outside balcony, alone and
surveying the camp. We see Jack leaving, and we see a woman helping a drunkard
along the street.)
Woman: I
am so glad your mother isn’t alive to see you in this condition. (Doc passes them, Al sees
him.)
Al: Doc,
get up here.
Doc: (gasping)
Not tonight.
Al: Tonight. Now. (Doc stands there for a moment) Leave
your kit. I’ll have Johnny go get it.
Doc: I’m
not gonna leave my fucking kit.
(Al glares at Doc, who decides to go up to see
Al)
(Cut to the livery as Steve enters to find Fields
sleeping in the loft.)
Steve: I
wonder what you think you’re fucking doing.
Fields:
I’m laying down before I leave in
the morning.
Steve: I
will ask the questions here! This is my place. Do you think it’s yours? It is not. It
is mine, bought and paid for. And if I wanted to shit this instant in the middle
of this stable, no man, black or white, could gainsay me!
Fields: You’ve already fucked a horse.
Steve:
Nor will I stoop to explaining the mistake in that statement, to a nigger lemur
or some other small form of monkey. Where are you going in the
morning?
Fields:
West - San Francisco. I’m hoping
that chestnut’s owner might go with me.
Steve:
The demon nigger that appeared at the bar.
Fields:
The very same.
Steve: I
don’t suppose - knowing I’d be vigilant against theft and intolerant to
tardiness - you’d be inclined to stay on and work here.
Fields:
No.
Steve:
Nor would I want to fucking have you!
(He is walking to the back room) And do not come and try to murder
me as I sleep! And…I will not come
and try to murder you. (slams the door.) Black fucking
bastard.
(Cut back to Al’s office where Doc is sitting with
him)
Doc: What
did you want?
Al:
Fucking sick, I’m told.
Doc: I
have a chest cold.
Al:
You’re a lunger. (Doc has a coughing spell, Al picks up the
cloth swatches) Fucking samples, Doc. Notions from that tailor as to how we
cover my stump.
Doc: I’ve believed for the last dozen years,
that disease is airborne, and I won’t make others sick.
Al: No
one gets out alive, Doc. (More
coughing as Doc gets up and leaves. Al pauses, then grabs the cloth swatches and
rushes over to the inside balcony and yells at Doc as he is leaving) Jesus
Christ! The fucking gimp finds
something useful to do in the fucking brace you made her! Do you think you could
treat being Johnny - always struggling to fashion a thought?! Every fucking night I, that could cut a
throat but sleep the sleep of the just, spend six fucking wakings trying to find
a piss pot with my dribble, and wondering when I got to be so old. (He throws the swatches down onto Doc.)
Pick a fucking swatch for a spit rag, use the others for masks, and go about
your fucking business! I ain’t
learning a new Doc’s quirks!
(Al returns to his office and slams the door behind
him. Doc pauses, surprised, then picks up the swatches. He leaves, coughing. Close as the piano
starts playing)
Click here for the music from the closing credits
Directed
by: Mark Tinker
Al Swearengen: Ian McShane Dan Dority: W Earl Brown
Seth Bullock: Timothy Olyphant
Alma Garret: Molly Parker
Ellsworth: Jim Beaver
Doc Cochran: Brad Dourif
Sol Star: John Hawkes
Trixie: Paula Malcomson
Tom Nuttall: Leon Rippy
Cy Tolliver: Powers Boothe
Leon: Larry Cedar
Sophia: Bree Seanna Wall
Silas Adams: Titus Welliver
Martha Bullock: Anna Gunn
Hugo Jarry: Stephen Toblowsky
Claudia: Cynthia Ettinger
Richardson: Ralph Richeson
Jen (the whore): Jennifer Lutheran |
E.B. Farnum: William Sanderson
Calamity Jane: Robin Weigert
Charlie Utter: Dayton Callie Johnny Burns: Sean Bridgers
Andy Cramed: Zach Grenier
Jewel: Geri Jewell
A. W. Merrick: Jeffrey Jones
Mose Manual: Pruitt Taylor Vince
Mr. Wu: Keone Young
Joanie Stubbs: Kim Dickens
Con Stapleton: Peter Jason
Blazanov: Pavel Lychnikoff
Steve: Michael Harney
Jack Langrishe: Brian Cox
Aunt Lou Marchbanks: Cleo King
Harry Manning: Brent Sexton
Odell: Omar Gooding
Gustave, the tailor: Gordon Clapp |
Transcription last updated on 02/06/2007 | |
Deadwood transcription from www.CalamityDan.com These transcriptions are the property of CalamityDan.com, and are intended solely for entertainment purposes. No copying or public distribution is permitted. |