During Al’s BJ philosophy, we found out a little about his past, and how he doesn’t like to be restrained. After being held down and losing a finger at Hearst’s hand, he’s having difficulty swallowing (no pun intended) the magnate’s offer to leave and let Al and Sy handle his affairs in Deadwood. As it stands, it looks like Hearst will leave peacefully – but what will he have Al do?
It was a big day in the camp as Alma opened up its first bank, with Trixie as its teller. Appropriately, this episode featured two real estate transactions. The first between Hostetler, who brought back the horse that killed Bullock’s child, and Steve, who had been tending to the stables in Hostetler’s absence. Steve is none too happy with Hostetler for abandoning the stock, and had a great rant in Tom’s saloon. Despite Steve’s attitude, Hostetler has agreed to sell him the stables as he was planning to move to Oregon anyway. Bullock has acted as a go-between in this arrangement, probably because he does not want any additional loss of life due to the accident involving his son. The deal is not complete yet, so it will be interesting to see if it can go off without a hitch. When we left them, Hostetler and Steve couldn’t agree on who would sign the title first, so I have my doubts.
Al’s friend, Jack, offered to buy Joanie’s building (currently the camp’s school) for use as a theater for his troupe. When she said it wasn’t for sale, he asked, “Perhaps you’d consider renting.” Her reply: “Perhaps you’d consider f*cking yourself.” You’ve gotta love that Joanie. She went to Charlie for advice, revealing that her biggest concern was that the schoolchildren have a place to learn. Charlie suggested that she ask Jack to build a new school as part of the transaction. Joanie trusts Charlie and I think this interaction is an indicator of how their relationship is going to grow over the final season.
