Episode 34: “A Constant Throb”
Click here to view all episode images
(Open in Tolliver’s room
as Doc is examining Cy’s wound)
Cy: (Grimacing) Ohh! Jesus Christ!
Doc: What’s wrong?
Cy: What’s wrong?! It fuckin’ hurts Doc! What do you
think’s wrong?
Doc: As the particular mix of stupidity and self-pity that
moved you is of no interest to me. I will not put to you the question of why you
would abrade a healing wound.
Cy: I was examining myself for fuckin’
pus.
Doc: Bullshit.
(coughing) I have a patient whose shattered foot is going
gangrenous. I’ll likely amputate. He’s a salesman. His livelihood depends on
walking. (packing his kit to leave) I’ll return tomorrow. If I see any
further evidence of self-mutilation, that will be the last day I treat you.
(coughing as he heads for the door)
(Cut to Shaunnessey’s office as Jack is addressing
him)
Jack: One wonders sir, if last evening installed in your
hostel a woman of exotic appearance, not perhaps gypsy by extraction.
Shaunnessey:
Hmm what would your business with
her be if she had?
Jack: To hear my fortune told.
Shaunnessey:
There’ll be none of that on these
premises.
Jack: Nor were those my true intentions, your query is
impertinent. (Places a coin on the counter) Is the lady
here?
Shaunnessey:
(picking up the coin)
2-C.
Jack: As your faith, (looking at the many bible passages
posted about), must proscribe receiving bribes, credit the five towards her
stay. (turns and leaves)
(Cut to the hotel dining
room as Lou is serving Hearst and Jarry their
breakfast)
Hearst: Thanks so much, Aunt Lou.
Lou: All right.
Hearst: You know I’ll notify you, first word from the freight
office about your boy’s remains.
Lou: All right.
(Cut to a hotel room as Jack is talking to the Dancer from amateur night)
Jack: There’s a stout woman, the Countess Berman, fires and
hires for the troupe. You will meet her at the theater should you appear and
apply. The devout Shaunessey has a week in advance to your account.
Dancer: Take it
back from him. I won’t take money from you.
Jack: Are you not being quite absurd, in the self-serving
way of your sex? You come here penniless, a supplicant.
Dancer: For learning
Jack: Well well well… and to learn must you not live? And
how will you do so amidst the thoroughfare’s depravities?
Dancer: Let me stay in the theater.
Jack: (laughs) At a minimum, for the career to which you aspire, you
show the requisite presumption. (He leaves)
(Cut to the dining room,
Hearst and Jarry again)
Jarry: No small part, the hotel’s amelioration under your
regime. The nigger cook, no small part.
Hearst: I heard you. (as they speak, we see Alma walking
down the street to the bank. Hearst and Jarry also see her through the window.)
Jarry: Hmm, a tenant when last I was resident, in the
previous regime.
(We see Al watching Alma from his balcony, they exchange silent greetings. Cut to the dining room again, as Jack enters to address the theater women)
Jack: I thought the evening went well.
Claudia: Wonderful.
Jack: Very much to our purposes, the idea of us in the
camp.
Claudia: And, what about that beautiful harem dance by that
darling little dark-haired prostitute?
(We see Alma again on the street, when there’s a gunshot and a bullet strikes the building behind her. Another strikes in front of her.)
Hearst: My god. (looking out the window, he seems to know
what’s happening without looking)
(on the street we see Charlie running towards Alma)
Charlie: Make yourself fuckin’ small, Mrs
Ellsworth!
(We see Al rush to the
railing of the balcony and jump over to the street. He also rushes to Alma. Back
to the dining room:)
Hearst: My god, I believe someone is shooting at the former
tenant.
(Alma has crouched down into a corner as Charlie and Al arrive at the same time and help her up, leading her towards the Gem)
Al: Keep your fuckin’ head down! (Silas is running
over, Al shouts to him) Get to the fuckin’ schoolhouse! Particular attention
to the foundling. And send fuckin’ Trixie over here!
(Hearst and Jarry exit the hotel and are watching Al-Alma-Charlie walk past.)
Al: (to Hearst) Oh, just some nonsense among the ordinaries, sir.
Getting’ Mrs Ellsworth under cover. Excess of fuckin’ caution, but you yourself
sir are absolutely safe.
E.B.: (coming up behind Hearst and putting his hand on
Hearst's shoulder) Absolutely safe,
sir.
(Cut to the Gem as Al and Alma arrive)
Al: (to Charlie) Wire Bullock in Sturgis. “Return’s urgently
required.” In fuckin’
generalities only. Otherwise that maniac’ll come back shootin’. (Charlie
starts for the front door) No! Not that way, don’t want that cocksucker
knowing nothing of our business. (pointing) Upstairs and fuckin’ around,
you’ll find the fuckin’ telegraph. Johnny! (motions to Johnny to show Charlie
the way)
(Cut to the hotel
lobby)
Hearst: Oughtn’t someone look out for who fired?
E.B.: Richardson, look into who
fired.
Countess:
(toJack) What was it?
Jack: The business of others.
(Cut to the Gem as the whores watch the events)
Al: Shall we review the bidding in my fuckin’ office?
Alma: (breathless) Oh, I need to take off my
corset.
Al: No one objects to that here. (Alma looks around,
they start upstairs)
(Cut to the schoolhouse.
Silas arrives and takes up his post outside. Martha sees him through the window
and looks puzzled. Silas peeks in and gives her a thumbs up. From Joanie’s room
across the way, she sees this activity at the school)
(Cut to Al’s office)
Al: Easily as it could have been some hooplehead, not
knowing who or what he was shooting at, it’s likely prudent to credit you as the
target. (Alma is seated as Al pours her a shot)
Alma: Yes.
Al: If I’d been aimed at, of course, dozens of authors
need be considered.
Alma: Yes.
Al: So I know someone’s in there, vary your replies. Such
as, “Yes, and I’d be one of them.”
Alma: That wouldn’t be very grateful of me. (she raises
her shot and downs it)
Al: It’s
horrible being shot at. Never gets no better. (knock on the door)
Yeah! (Trixie enters)
Trixie: What the fuck?
Al: (pointing to Trixie) Assuming she ain’t got the smell of gunpowder on her
fingers, I’m leaving you to her. (Trixie motions to Al to talk to her
outside)
Alma: Thank you, Mr Swearengen. (Al steps outside with
Trixie and shuts the door)
Trixie: Who the fuck shot at her?
Al: Who the fuck knows? Hearst? Her first husband’s family? They both work with the fuckin’
Pinkertons. Maybe they’re now allied. (We see Dan entering the saloon in his
traveling clothes, he heads upstairs)
Trixie: Someone should see to the child as her fuckin’
heir.
Al: Bein’ looked to. Just you fuckin’ look after that one
till matters clarify. Don’t think of tossing the place, every fuckin’ valuable’s
inventoried. (yells to Davey) Get Tom Nuttal! (to Dan) Cheyenne’s off.
Dan: God dammit!
Al: Second rate deployment, Dan. Sending you off for reinforcements -
to come back to a camp in ruins. (as they walk down the
stairs)
Dan: I’ll pack, unpack , repack…
Al: Whoever you intend to fuck, send monies to bring her
here.
Dan: Who I intended to fuck won’t ride a stagecoach. Makes
her puke.
(As they reach the bottom of the stairs, Jewell is waiting with a tray of food)
Jewel: Toast and eggs or toast and bacon…she can choose or
she can mix ‘em, whatever she wants.
Al: Why the fuck are you telling me? (Jewell starts up
the stairs, struggling to hold the tray. Al observes this) Every
step a fuckin’ adventure. (to Dan at the bar) Collect fuckin’
Ellsworth. Nothing of her bein’ shot at.
Dan: What am I to say I’m collecting him
for?
Al: Just knock him out and bring him in.
Dan: Do you want to close?
Al: No I don’t wanna close. Fuckin’ Hearst ‘s to see not
one single sign on any fuckin’ front that he’s had half a cunt hair’s effect on
any of the comings and goings in this camp. (Charlie
enters)
Charlie: Telegram’s sent to the sheriff. Blazanov’s helping
Merrick dress.
Al: Why the fuck would you say that to
me?
Charlie: Merrick, that was beat up yesterday, is bein’ helped
to dress by Blazanov. Now Blazanov sent the telegram to the sheriff … so’s
Merrick could come do his part.
Al: All right.
Charlie: Should I relieve Adams at the schoolhouse?
Al: Please.
Charlie:
(As he walks out the door)
Let Adams come back here, be
available for whatever nefarious fuckin’ carryin’s-on you assign him, ‘cause I
do not take orders from you.
(Cut to Al’s office as Jewell is presenting the tray of food to Alma. Jewell seems very pleased to be doing this, and stands happily waiting to watch Alma eat)
Trixie:
Before
she eats, she somersaults and don’t want no one to see.
Alma: In fact, I rarely eat before noon.
Jewel: Well, maybe you just ain’t found what you like to eat
yet.
Trixie: Get out, Jewel. (Jewel starts to leave, disappointed, then turns and waves to Alma with a big grin)
Jewel: Did you ever have bacon?
Alma: I very well might.
Trixie:
(pushing Jewel out the door) Goodby
Jewel.
Alma: (to
Jewel) Thank you. (Trixie closes the
door) That was so considerate of her.
Trixie:
Fascinated by you. (long
pause as Trixie lights a cig) If you saw who it
was and want to say, I wouldn’t have to tell Al.
Alma: I didn’t see. And I’m very grateful to be under Mr
Swearengen’s protection.
Trixie:
Yeah,
he’s a prince.
Alma: In the sheriff’s absence, I mean.
Trixie:
Good a place as any for you to be …
In the sheriff’s absence.
(after a pause, Trixie has an idea and gets up, heads to the door,
then out to the railing and yells at Jewel. ) She somersaulted, and et, and says her entire fuckin’
dietary outlook has changed.
Jewel: What plate did she et from?
Trixie: She et from the fuckin’ both! (Jewel grins)
(Cut to Hearst’s room, where he and Jarry are talking)
Jarry: What a world. A woman, in innocent transit. A wayward
shot from some watering hole do you suppose, prompted by a surfeit of spirits,
exuberant punctuations of some sort?
Hearst: Do
you believe anything you say?
Jarry: I am hypothesizing.
Hearst: And have you some private hypothesis as to my
possible role?
Jarry: In the shooting at Mrs
Ellsworth?
Hearst: In the rising of the sun.
Jarry: I would hypothesize, as to the latter possibility
sir, before imagining you involved with the first.
Hearst: Oh, come, Jarry, my holdings butt up against hers. I
value efficiencies and economies of consolidation. Haven’t I reason to nudge her
toward a sale?
Jarry: Men
of a certain caliber cannot allow fastidious morality to distract them from the
exigencies of commerce, can they Mr Hearst? And did you heave up your
responsibilities upon broad and reconciled shoulders?
Hearst: No.
Jarry: Perhaps then, rather, at this moment you
are Socrates to my Alcibaides,
taking it upon yourself to edify me.
Hearst: Are you saying you want to fuck me? (knock on
door)
Jarry: What?
Hearst: Well, you keep calling yourself Alcibiades to my
Socrates. Are you proposing some sort of a homosexual connection between us?
(Hearst goes to answer the door)
Jarry: I forgot that part of the story. (Hearst is
whispering to someone outside the door)
Hearst:
(to the person outside)
Wait. (he closes the door
again)
Jarry:
(kneels down) But if I were courting you, Mr Hearst, I claim no
allure of my own, suggesting only the mutuality of our interests concerning the
upcoming elections grants my suit some small virtue. As you gaze upon me, sir,
recall that some unions of convenience may outlast those conceived in passion.
Hearst: Get up off your knees.
Jarry: Of course. (he stands
up)
Hearst: Elections
cannot inconvenience me. They ratify my will or I neuter them.
Jarry: Compelling perspective.
Hearst: Time to go back to Yankton.
Jarry: For me?
Hearst: Yes. (Jarry turns and tries to leave by the wrong
door) Locked.
Jarry:
(Turning and walking to the
correct door) The troops in Sturgis
will await your instructions.
Hearst:
(cutting Jarry off)
Thank you very much. (he leaves
and in the hallway he passes the Pinkerton leader)
(Cut to the school as
Martha is reading to the kids)
Martha: “I like winter, when snow and ice cover the ground. “
(outside, we see Charlie arriving to relieve Silas. They exchange waves and
Silas leaves. Charlie takes up position outside the school window and waves to
Martha through the glass. She waves back, looking perplexed. Across the street,
we see Joanie watching from her window. She waves at Charlie, and he tips his
hat. Joanie turns around and goes to waken Jane, who’s again sleeping on the
floor.)
(Cut to the Gem, where
Richardson is standing, head bowed, at the bar, facing
Al)
Al: What are you doing here?
Richardson:
Too afraid. (still looking
down)
Al: If you were too afraid, you wouldn’t be here.
Richardson:
Too afraid to explain.
Johnny: He’s got a note pinned to him Al.
Al: Take it off him. Then stick him in the eye with the
fuckin’ pin. (Richardson grimaces and whimpers)
Johnny: He don’t mean it. (Al takes the note and reads
it)
Al: Tell him, “nothing”.
Richardson:
I’ll just keep quiet.
Al: No. Tell E.B., “Nothin’s going on” And then tell him,
“ If I wanted to tell you anything, I’d have told you. Don’t send the imbecile
over with no more notes.”
Richardson:
I can’t remember all that.
Al: Can you remember, “Nothin’s going
on”?
Richardson:
Yes.
Al: Tell him that then.
Richardson:
Thank you. (he leaves. We see Dan
carrying Ellsworth into the Gem, unconscious, and setting him down in a chair.
Tom has arrived also)
Tom: The Mrs Ellsworth was shot at?
Al: Got her upstairs. I figured we’d hunker down till
matters clarify.
Tom: Lovely.
Al: (to Davey, who arrived with Tom) What’d the geek say walking past
you?
Davey: “The girls in here are pretty”
(Cut to Hearst’s room, where is is now talking to the Pinkerton leader)
Hearst: The fool husband ought soon to appear. Some small
number to deal with his dudgeon, main force in reserve for Bullock.
Leader: OK.
(Cut back to the Gem, Silas has arrived)
Tom: How did sentiment incline in this joint when Bullock
and Harry spoke last?
Dan: Glad when they finished.
Tom: As to who had the upper hand?
Silas: Fuckin’ cross-legged pose your man struck, Tom, may
have swayed the diarrhea faction.
Johnny:
Creek was havin’ it’s way with
Harry.
Al: (to Dan)
What the fuck was the logic, when he sent that
giant captain to fight you?
Dan: Get me killed.
Al: It wasn’t to get you killed. His man kills you after
a more or less equal fight?
(We see Trixie exit Al’s office and lean over the railing)
Trixie:
I
gotta go reassure my jew.
Al: Out of boredom’s why he put that fight together. Same
with this too. Fuckin’ shots at her fore and aft.
Tom: Wants to see he’s made people afraid, so he knows
he’s a fuckin’ big shot.
Al: Exactly fuckin’ correct, Tom. If this was overture to
an onslaught, he’d have let them pistoleros loose by now, to start the actual
killing. (pointing to Tom) That’s the
keenest of fuckin’ assessments.
Dan: Mighten that argue for my trip to
Cheyenne?
Al: He ain’t waitin’ no fuckin’ week
Dan.
Trixie: (she
has slowly descended the stairs, listenng) I
leave here full of confidence knowing you’re all thinking in concert.
Al: But I’d as soon not die fightin’ 25 against four –
you bein’ my missing fifth, the equal of 10 of Hearst’s fuckin’ mercenaries, and
Bullock, who’s no fuckin’ slouch either, if he ever gets the fuck back, bringin’
the odds closer to even.
Johnny:
Well
her jew’s got sand, if you tell him where to point the gun.
Al: I’d trust a fuckin’ wire to Cheyenne if I knew
someone to send it to.
Silas: (after a hesitation) Far as that, there’s Hawkeye. (Al swings and slugs Silas in the jaw.)
Al: You were told never to say his name.
Silas:
(angry) Well, now I did. And I’d
trust him to hire the guns.
Al: And the hiring to take place where? Up that squaw’s
cunt he’s fucking?
Silas: Squaw’s in Lead, not Cheyenne.
Al: Did he take vows of abstinence in Cheyenne? Do they
let him have wires in his monastery?
Silas: I’d trust Hawkeye – once he learned the situation –
to hire the guns without stealing, to herd ‘em back here to help us out, not
stopping to get laid in Lead.
Johnny:
Can Hawkeye
read?
Silas: He can, and I can put my words such in the wire,
he’ll take my meaning and prying cocksuckers won’t.
Al: Go get the fuckin’ Russian, send the fuckin’ wire.
Silas: Out the front or by the stairs?
Al: By the stairs, by the fuckin’ stairs. We want his
piss pot’s play hours occupied by confusion and grievance. We want him sittin’,
sulking like a three year old who’s toys won’t do his bidding.
Johnny: I had a fuckin’ Jack-in-the-box. I’d turn and turn and turn that fuckin’ handle, and the Jack, he’d never jump. (everyone nods)
Al: If she’d complete her walk to the bank … she’d
confound this motherless cunt. (shouting) Tea for two, Jewel, on a fuckin’
tray!
(Cut to the school porch, where Jane and Joanie have joined Charlie on watch)
Jane: When did you start giving that cocksucker Swearengen
a “By your leave” and “If you fuckin’ say so”?
Joanie: Jane. (nods to the kids inside)
Charlie:
All’s I asked Jane, did he know you
was relieving me?
Jane: Maybe Swearengen’s coordinating strategy ‘cause the
sheriff being gone campaigning, his deputy didn’t jump to take charge.
Joanie:
We just thought we could release you
to other responsibilities, Mr Utter, and I could run and get you if they hetted
up.
Jane: Assuming the unlikely need.
Charlie: (pauses, then starts away) All right. (he turns and watches the two take up position as he leaves)
Jane: That’s how you have to fuckin’ deal with him.
(Cut to a room at the Gem, where Ellsworth is waking, up finding himself tied up on a sofa. Dan is watching over him)
Ellsworth: Cocksucker.
Dan: Um … how you doin’ Ellsworth?
Ellsworth:
What the fuck did you hit me for?
Dan: You realize that was me?
Ellsworth:
You think I’m asking out of general
suspicion?
Dan: All right, I’ll uh – I’ll tell you what happened,
fill you in on the full fuckin’ circumstance. (he helps Ellsworth sit
up.) Now, uh … Mrs Ellsworth is completely
safe. (Ellsworth starts to struggle to untie himself) Calm down or I will hit you over the fuckin’ head
again, maybe use some more of them spirits under your goddamn
nose.
Ellsworth:
What happened?
Dan: Well … there was some completely – no – fuckin’ –
damage – done gunfire taken at Mrs Ellsworth fore and aft. (Ellsworth is
enraged) But she – she couldn’t be no better.
Ellsworth:
I’ll kill that cocksucker. You get
out of my way, or I’ll kill you fuckin’ first.
Dan: Put up a struggle, Ellsworth – It’s stupid goddamn
thinkin’. Why would they take shots at Mrs Ellsworth fore and aft when they
could have just blowed her fuckin’ head off?
Ellsworth: Goddamn it! (struggling)
Dan: Calm down and think about it! They took shots at her
fore and aft so that you would come running, so they could do to you what they
could have done to her but they didn’t. And to Bullock too maybe, so do you see
how goddamn irresponsible it would have been of me to allow you full fuckin’
conscious movement? Do you see? (Ellsworth has calmed down) Now, I’m gonna cut loose them throttles, but you best
not make me regret it.
(Cut to Al’s office, he’s talking to Alma over tea)
Al: Them shots were meant for maybe rethinking your
tenure here, huh? Maybe too, in the aftermath, the shot’s author had designed Mr
Ellsworth would be moved to take steps, or Sheriff Bullock would, that’d justify
a violent answer.
Alma: The author being Mr Hearst.
Al: Him, or him having made cause with your first
husband’s family, Pinkertons presiding over the vows. We’ve wired Bullock to
counsel restraint. We’ve Ellsworth trussed up downstairs. Little in the past
commends me to your trust. I’d ask you, accepting the premise that you were
bait, not quarry – complete your walk to the bank. Get that fucking angler
fulminating, tangling his fuckin’ tackle and the fuckin’ like.
Alma: Mr Swearengen. (language)
Al: Sorry. (Alma pauses, sighs and takes a deep breath, then they exit the office. As she descends the stairs, Ellsworth is waiting for her in the bar.)
Alma: I’m quite alright.
Ellsworth:
I thank god for it. And I’d be glad
to keep you company for the rest of your day.
Alma: I’d be glad if you’d join me at the bank in a few
minute’s time, having made my way to the bank alone.
Ellsworth:
Why in heaven’s name would you want
to do that?
Alma: To demonstrate his tactic’s failure, and to bid
defiance to him who shot at me.
Ellsworth:
I got an idea who had you shot at.
Wouldn’t mind killing him, even if I’m wrong.
Alma: If the shots meant not to harm me but to provoke
certain others, wouldn’t attempting that be playing into our adversary’s
strategy?
Ellsworth:
If it
ends with one between Hearst’s eyes, let me play to his strategy and welcome.
Alma: I hope instead you’d have dinner tonight with Sophia
and me, all of us having passed the interval uneventfully. In any case, please
accede to my walking to the bank alone.
(Ellsworth appears a little stunned. As Alma walks to the door, several of the whores are watching her and they exchange looks. Ellsworth follows her at a distance. As she makes her way, Hearst steps out onto his roof to watch her. Ellsworth steps onto the Gem porch, followed by Al)
Al: I’d not have you step one more foot forward
Ellsworth.
Ellsworth:
As I fuckin’ understand.
(All eyes are on Alma, several of the Pinkertons are on the street. Silas is also standing watch with a shotgun, as is Johnny. Tom and Charlie also watch the street. A couple of the Pinkertons follow Alma at a distance, and Dan is following too. Finally she reaches the bank, where Louis the guard is waiting, and goes inside.)
(Cut to Hearst’s office, where the Pinkerton leader is with Hearst. Hearst is writing a letter)
Hearst: For Mr Swearengen. (hands over the letter)
Leader:
Last man took a note for you to
Swearengen, wound up dead.
Hearst:
The man you refer to knew the note
he bore might bring about that outcome. This note’s import’s more
innocuous. Will it make you less
afraid to read it?
Leader:
I ain’t afraid. I guess I made a
poor joke.
Hearst:
You do read.
Leader:
Sure, sure I do.
Hearst:
Read the note
then.
Leader:
(pauses, then begins reading) It’s
good.
Hearst:
Out loud, so I know you
can.
Leader:
I made a poor joke.
Hearst:
(shouting) Out loud, to prove you
are lettered, and not a liar unfit for my employ!
Leader:
“Thanks from all for your rescue of
Mrs Ellsworth. Who could have shot
at her? Do you wish her guarded at the bank with the sheriff away? I saw you let
her walk alone. Answer via bearer.”
Hearst:
You don’t read easily, do
you?
(Cut to the Gem, where Al is reading the letter that the leader has delivered)
Al: Why don’t you come to my office while I compose my reply? (They head up the stairs. We cut to a whore’s room , where several of the girls are gathered)
Jen: I’d have asked Jewel ask her, if I thought to ask, if
I’d foreseen in time.
Dolly: You’d have only put Jewel in a
position…
Jen: She talks to Trixie, the bank woman. Why wouldn’t she
talk to us?
Whore 3:
‘Cause she has something to say to
Trixie. We’d just be asking conversation that she wouldn’t know where to begin
with. Philadelphia’s where she’s from. It’s what we could’ve had as a subject.
Whore 4:
Got beautiful gracious manners
there.
Whore 3:
Philadelphia, its many gracious
attractions.
Dolly: Her dress, her comportment.
Jen: She’d have fuckin’ talked to us.
(Cut to the woman in red’s room – Mary, as Jack arrives at the door)
Jack: May we speak?
Mary: You stand in the hallway, addressing me in my room.
Jack: Yes. (She bids him enter, and closes the
door) The girl who danced last evening,
vagabond sort, hodgepodge costume…
Mary: I know who you mean.
Jack: She’ll be staying in the theater, possibly joining
the troupe. Knowing precious little at all events, of the course now charting I
know absolutely nothing at all.
Mary: You seem to know what it means for us.
Jack: Knowing you, I suppose I do, swearing I’ve laid no
carnal hand to her.
Mary: What does installing her accomplish, acknowledging me
could not?
Jack: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. That I’m old, that I’ve
lost my belly for sham.
Mary:
(Taking a sketchbook from a drawer) Every drawing I made in this sketchbook, every one
I’ve dreamed of painting from, near a home where we’d live.
Jack: Say at least, I never asked it of you.
Mary: You’d have me say that, on the day you ask it of
someone else?
Jack: Shall I have these?
Mary: No.
Jack: Paint every fucking one, Mary. (he leaves)
(Cut to Al’s office, where he’s talking to the leader)
Al: How well do you know the other guy?
Leader:
Who would that be?
Al: That my man Dority killed – the captain.
Leader:
We served in the 69th in
New York.
Al: Was that a mick regiment?
Leader:
Mm-hmm. What were you
doing?
Al: Cuttin’ throats.
Leader:
I was asking whose flag you were
under.
Al: The
famous cocksucker’s brigade.
Leader:
Is that so?
Al: Command of the all-whore detachment. Distress you? When my man downed your
friend?
Leader: Let me tell you something Mr Swearengen, you don’t scare me and you don’t fuckin’ know what happened with the 69th New York. I will tell you this, I didn’t like what happened to Joe Turner. Mr Hearst came to him and said: “Make it last, even if you gain the upper hand and can kill him.” And I think that was halfway selfish of Mr Hearst, whereas Joe could have killed your man and didn’t, and look how it wound up. But that’s as much as I feel like saying, and that’s neither here nor fuckin’ there. (Al nods thoughtfully, takes a drink)
Al: Fair enough. (stands up) All right then.
Leader: All right. But I’ll tell you this, you don’t seem
halfway like such a halfway bad fuckin’ person. (Al walks around behind him)
So should I tell Mr Hearst that there’s no message…(Al kicks him hard in
the crotch, dropping him to the floor, and starts kicking him, grabs his gun and
puts it aside)
Al: So you’d shoot at a fuckin’ woman? Beat that poor newspaper bastard?
(Leader is rolling on the floor, groaning) Scare that Chinese with your
fuckin’ horses? (Stomps on him and kicks some more) How many ribs you
think you broke?
Leader:
(sobbing) Aw, I feel like I broke two or three ribs.
Al: I’m talkin’ about that newspaperman’s ribs, you
fuckin’ cunt. (more kicks)
(We see Hearst out on his
roof, looking over at the Gem, wondering what’s happened to his man)
(Cut to Claudia’s hotel
room as Con is knocking on her door)
Con: I prayed it would pass! But it’s a constant fuckin’
sore spot and throb. (he pulls a paper from his pocket and starts to read
from it) “You
are a constant vision before me, you and your fabulous bosoms. I beg you,
release your man stallion from his he-stable for another gallop round the
ring.”
Claudia: Not today, Con.
Con: Tomorrow?
Claudia: Come back tomorrow.
Con: Any particular time?
Claudia: Late in the day.
Con: Perfect! We’ll be waiting.
(Cut to Al’s office, the leader is whining)
Leader: Listen to me. Listen to me and I’ll tell you one
fuckin’ thing. Do you hear me?
Al: I don’t hear nothin’.
Leader: I’m telling you that I’m gonna tell you one fuckin’
thing.
Al: Al right.
Leader: Do you hear me?
Al: What the fuck? I’m not fucking
deaf.
Leader:
(sobbing) I want …I want to know that I’m gonna be fuckin’
heard, what I have to fuckin’ say will matter, will have some result. ‘Couse if
not … then what’s the fucking point? (Al shrugs) All right, then I’m not
gonna say fuckin’ anything. What do you think of that? (Al kicks him hard,
three times in the balls) (groans) He sent for more guns. He wired for more
Pinkertons. They’re on their way, and I told you that. If he finds out I told
you…
Al: Don’t worry.
Leader: You won’t tell him? (sobbing)
(Cut to Cy’s room at the
Bella Union. Cy is visited by a new whore)
Cy: You might wanna close the fucking door. (she does,
he looks her over) Who the fuck are you?
Janine: Janine, that’s Sara’s friend from
Cincinnati.
Cy: Hmmm. That’s a stupid name for a whore. Makes the
tricks feel like they’re stammerers.
Ja-ni-ni-nine-nine, like they’re in the fuckin’ alps.
Janine: You can call me whatever you want.
Cy: Well, let’s call you stupid, until we can think of
something better. You miss Cincinnati, Janine-nine-nine-nine-nine? Are you
afraid of fuckin’ Deadwood? Do you miss your mom and dad, do you have one of
each? Are they above ground, do you know?
Oh … do I see the beginnings
of a tear in the corner of your left eye?
Janine: I’m alright.
Cy: For the purposes of our discussion. As much as anyone
cares, is my meaning. All right stupid, Con’ll advance you $5 against your first
evening’s fucking. Don’t do no dope with Leon. Welcome to the Bella Union. (She
turns and opens the door, then stansd there uncertain if she is supposed to
leave) Close the fucking door, stupid.
(Cut to Al’s office, Al is sitting on a chair with a bottle, watching the leader on the floor)
Leader:
(sobbing) He’s got 25 more guns coming, 25 Pinkertons. When
they get here, he’s gonna move on the camp.
Al: Before the elections?
Leader: 25 Pinkertons already. He had 25 on the way. And 100 at his operation.
Al: Before or after the elections?
Leader:
(sobbing) I don’t know. I don’t know. Please don’t hurt me.
It’s all I fuckin’ know.
Al: (Picks up the leader’s revolver in his hand and uses
it to roll him over on the floor) Come on, come on. Don’t give up hope. (Al stands,
lays the leader’s gun on the chair next to him, then walks out onto the balcony,
leaving the leader alone. Al sees Hearst standing on his roof across the
way)
Al: Passing a little wind. (inside, leader is just
reaching for the gun as Al walks back inside. Al kicks him away from the gun)
(Cut to the hotel, Hearst
is rapidly descending the stairs and goes to E.B.’s room, banging on the door.
We see E.B. sitting in his private room as Hearst is banging on the
door.)
E.B.:
Yes. (More banging) Yes,
come in. (The door is locked, E.B. gets up to open it) Mr Hearst.
Hearst:
(angry) Have you enjoyed yourself today, Farnum?
E.B.: For reasons I find ellusive, the day has quite
displeased me.
Hearst: What will help you find a name for your feelings?
Shall we cut open your belly for you to wrap your guts around a pole?
E.B.: You seen distraught.
Hearst:
(Screaming) I am not! I await an outcome! And the readying for it
wearies me.
E.B.: Oh, dear.
Hearst: Have you felt human flesh on the
spit?
E.B.: How would I have?
Hearst: I know the smell.
E.B.: You have been to and from in the world.
Hearst: It pleased me to find out.
E.B.: Well then, fine. (Hearst spits in E.B.’s
face)
Hearst: Don’t you want to wipe that off?
E.B.: ….No? (Hearst spits
again)
Hearst: You would regret my coming back and finding that you
had cleaned your face.
E.B.: I understand. (Hearst leaves E.B. standing and
wondering what to do.
(Cut back to Al’s office
as he shouts over the railing to the boys at the bar.)
Al: Dan, Johnny. (Al walks back into his office and
shuts the door.)
Dan: (To Silas) He doesn’t want you to dirty your hands.
(In Al’s office now, the Pinkerton is still on the floor)
Al: All that shouting – “You’re a cunt for hire to shoot
at women” and the like – just trying to frighten you a little, encouraging you
to chat. Who amongst us hasn’t wanted to shoot at women once or twice, hmmm?
Anything you want to say else before I let you rest, knowin’ I don’t sit upon
you in judgment? (no response, Al takes him by the hair and slits his throat.
Al then walks out onto the outer balcony, to see Hearst again on his
roof)
Al: Did he come to you by a different path, Mr Hearst?
Did he somehow circumnavigate
to bring my reply to you without me seeing?
Hearst: What are you talking about?
Al: Your man went out the back of my fucking place, and
I’ve been hoping against hope for reasons beyond my understanding that it was to
return to you unseen by me.
Hearst: He has not returned.
Al: Jesus christ, maybe he was telling the truth – that
he was lighting out for fuckin’ Bismarck. Juses Christ almighty! Did you and he
have some kind of misunderstanding sir, that he took for pretext the letter’s
delivery to make his fucking escape? Well then I say, Mr Hearst, you are well
the fuck rid of that cocksucker, that he’d show so little loyalty or sense of
responsibility to the delivery of communications. Jesus
Christ almighty, where do we find good help? Oh, and in reply to your
letter, sir, my opinion only, she don’t need no escort or guarding, but it’s the
kind of generous inquiry I’d expect you to make. (Hearst is looking upset,
and ducks back into his hole)
How’s your back, Mr Hearst?
(Hearst is gone) How’s the fuckin’ back there pal?
(As Al walks back inside, we see Dan and Johnny wrapping the body up in the rug.)
Al: Wu.
Johnny: Longest a rug’s lasted so far.
(Cut to Utter freight, where Charlie is outside inventorying some crates. We see Bullock ride up in a hurry, he stops and addresses Charlie)
Seth: What’s going on Charlie?
(Cut to Joanie’s room, where she and Jane are getting undressed)
Jane: Some fuckin’ day!
Joanie:
It was a good day.
Jane: I only wish some of Hearst’s pistoleros had come to
test our mettle.
Joanie:
Well, once my derringer was empty, you would have
been firing for the both of us.
Jane: And equal to the task, believe you fuckin’ me. Not
that I wouldn’t have regretted them children having to witness. Can I tell you
something?
Joanie:
OK
Jane: Uh, some stupid fuckin’ thing. Stupid fucking dream I
had.
Joanie: OK
Jane: I dreamed last night I was clamoring up a fuckin’
creek bank, which is often required of a drunk. It was dark, and I couldn’t tell
where I was till I cleared the bank and come face to face with Charlie Utter’s
ugly mug. Now Charlie’s, as usual, on the lookout for Bill, that’s as usual too,
losing at poker inside the joint we’re outside of. “Where are we, Charlie?” This
could be any fucking place the last number of years. And he said: “Jane, don’t
you know this is the No 10 saloon here in the camp where Bill’s gonna fuckin’
get killed soon?” “Jesus Christ – how do you know, Charlie?”, I asked him. He
said: “Don’t you know,” he says, “some point we know these fucking things? Don’t
you know the world says its fuckin’ name to us?” “What the fuck? What the fuck do I have
to dream about this for?” I say to
Charlie, “Wasn’t I miserable enough?” “Jane” fuckin’ Charlie says to me, “Don’t
you know this is the night you couldn’t look out for that little girl when you
was at Cochran’s, and Swearengen come in and scared you and you went down to the
creek to weep? That’s where the fuck you’re coming from. And don’t you know,” he
says, “this is the night you spirit that child from Cochrans, and to where our
stock was outside of camp, and we watched out on that little girl and sung to
her, and you, with the presence of mind to continue the fucking round when I was
too fucking stupid? And you said you would ‘row, row, row’ and I said ‘row, row,
row your boat’ and we had this …”
(Jane pauses for breath) “Now,” Charlie says to me, “don’t you understand
what I’m, trying to tell you? Any evenings in your life you made mistakes,
remember where even evenings you was as most ashamed as you ever thought you
could ever be are able to wind up, and don’t fuckin’ only remember the middle of
the fuckin’ dream!” If I wonder why
I dreamed that dream, yesterday you sent Mose to find me, and I was nearly
dead-drowned drunk, and Mose made me get up, and you and me walked them kids to
school, and before I went to sleep … you kissed me.
Joanie: After Tolliver come, and you found Mose to help me.
Jane: And Charlie to help me find that little girl the very
night I got scared and run, and the both of us sung a round to her, and then you
went ahead and kissed me.
(Joanie leans over and kissed Jane on the mouth)
(Cut to the hotel lobby
as Jack enters. He spots some luggage in the lobby, which he appears to
recognize. He then walks over to join the ladies at a table in the dining room.
He turns again to see Richardson adding to the stack of
luggage.)
Jack: To spare you surprise on our advent at the theater in
the morning, I tell you here and now that you will come upon a certain person… a
woman who will be joining us.
Claudia: Who is she? Where has she performed?
Jack: I believe her name is Joseanne.
Countess:
She is French?
Jack: I believe. I know she’s spent time in Paris.
Claudia:
(irritated) Where has she performed!
Jack: She has performed nowhere that we would have
knowledge of, to my knowledge.
Countess:
Joseanne?
Jack: Yes.
Claudia: Living at the theater?
Jack: Temporarily.
Claudia: To be installed thereafter where?
Jack: (hisses) Shut up! I won’t have it, this getting off on the
wrong foot.
Claudia: So you commit us to a long relation with Joseanne.
Jack: You will find her at the goddamn theater in the
morning is what I mean! And I won’t have this goddamn wrong-footedness. (He
turns to see Mary with Richardson and the luggage)
Mary: Thank you Richardson.
Jack: Mean spirited is what I mean. A lack of generosity.
Selfishness. Don’t you think it all has an effect …(he turns again, now to
see that Mary is gone)…on your performance?
Claudia:
(feigning a smile)
Does this performance seem
genuine?
(Cut to the Bullock house as Martha is serving Seth his dinner. Sol is there, nobody is speaking. Seth is gripping the table and clenching. He seems to be considering the news he’s heard and is furious. Martha and Sol are both watching him, then look at each other. Seth bangs the table and clenches some more.)
Sol: Situation being fluid and not likely to get less so
for a while, I went ahead and reordered hames. (Seth looks at him and has no
idea what he’s talking about) Steve, made imbecile by that horse’s hoof, he
couldn’t authorize it. But I went ahead and assumed whoever finally takes the
livery over might want a restock of hames. So I ordered ‘em. (Seth is
completely out of it, looking at Sol, then Martha trying to figure out what is
going on)
Martha: Let us give thanks. (She folds her hands, and Sol
and Seth follow. They bow their heads)
Click here for the music from the 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: Jennifer Lutheran
Morgan Earp: Austin Nichols
Mary, (woman in red): Angela Nicholas |
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
Gustave, the tailor: Gordon Clapp
Wyatt Earp: Gale Harold
The dancer: Nicole Ansari Cox |
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. |