Category: TV Dramas (Page 216 of 235)

Tonight’s episode was a tale of two halves. The first – exciting, compelling and intense. The second – slow, plodding and anticlimactic.

Poor Ellsworth. After a humorous scene where he seeks marital advice from a dog, one of Hearst’s henchmen sneaks up on him in his tent and shoots him in the head. Just like that, one of the show’s most admirable, upstanding characters is dead. The news of this shooting sends the camp into a flurry of activity as Swearengen and his men circle the wagons.

Trixie’s reaction when she saw his body was both surprising and courageous. I’ve said all along that for a man with so many enemies, Hearst doesn’t surround himself with enough protection. It was true earlier in the season when he didn’t have any henchmen around and now that he does, they don’t do a very good job of watching his back. Trixie opened up her blouse and walked past six guns in the downstairs of hotel while carrying her small pistol in her right hand.

She got a clear shot at Hearst, but she was only able to hit him in the shoulder. I’m more than a little surprised that she was able to get out of the hotel alive. After the shot was fired, I assumed she would be stopped and searched coming down the stairs. Certainly the guns had to consider her arrival and the shot to be more than idle coincidence, right? Maybe they were too busy staring at her rack to see the smoking gun in her hand.

Regardless, she wasn’t able to finish the job and she rushed to Sol for help. He took her to Swearengen’s, which says something about the man’s reputation of strength and cunning. At this point in the show, I thought all hell was going to break loose, but things became oddly calm.

Bullock was in Sturgis campaigning for Sheriff and had to ride back to camp once news of the shooting reached him by telegram. He rushed back to Alma and the child’s side and eventually escorted her back home. And that’s all he did.

I’m not sure why Hearst hasn’t yet dropped the hammer. It seems like his attack on Ellsworth was just the beginning of his assault on the entire camp, but he seems hesitant for some reason. At one point, he’s watching the camp’s activity and he says to one of his bodyguards, “I was not born to crush my own kind.” Is the magnate having second thoughts after his brush with death?

Meanwhile, Al has made a deal with Wu that would bring Chinese reinforcements to camp. He had to make this deal due to his lack of confidence in Hawkeye, who telegrammed Al too quickly after receiving instructions to hire guns in Cheyenne. Al is usually right, but this smells like a setup and I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if the infamous Hawkeye showed up.

The news has spread that this is the show’s final season, but the network is calling next week’s episode the “season finale,” when the term “series finale” is usually used in such cases. On last week’s blog, one of the readers commented that the cast and crew didn’t know about the show’s cancellation so that there’s a distinct possibility that the series could end unresolved. There are also rumors of a mini-series to allow creator David Milch to finish the series the way he originally envisioned. Obviously some sort of conclusion would be better than a cliffhanger for a finale. Here’s hoping that HBO shows the same intelligence in ending the series as it did in greenlighting it in the first place. It’s bad enough that “Deadwood” is going off the air, it would be a tragedy if it ended abruptly.

The conflict between Hearst and the rest of the camp continues to grow – this week he has the cojones to fire a few shots across Alma’s bow as she heads to bank. Of course, he didn’t take the shots himself – he wouldn’t get his hands that dirty. I was impressed by Al’s leap from his balcony when he rushed to the widow’s aid. Swearenegen’s method of comfort turned into one of the best lines of the episode: “It’s horrible being shot at. It never gets no better.” Bullock was in parts unknown, so it was up to Al to decipher the meaning of the shooting. Brilliantly, he had Dan knock out and tie up Ellsworth before telling him of the incident, so that he wouldn’t fly off the handle and rush Hearst.

It’s clear that Hearst wants to divide and conquer, and with Bullock out of town he saw an opportunity to knock Ellsworth out of the picture. Al, with help from Dan and Alma, managed to rein him in. Al is going to need all the help he can find if he hopes to hold onto the camp, so it’s in his best interests to keep Ellsworth alive.

After the Earp brothers arrived, I thought we might see the familiar story of Wyatt taking over as sheriff (presumably after Hearst takes out Bullock) when all he wants to do is be a private citizen. Their subsequent departure leads me to believe that Bullock will survive at least until the end of the season. Considering that the tension between he and Hearst has reached its boiling point, I don’t know how both of them get out of camp alive. Considering that, in real life, Hearst goes on to be a U.S. Senator, the odds aren’t in Bullock’s favor.

The show continues to spend far too much time with the theater troupe. Jack is an interesting character, but his dealings with a couple of starlets were confusing and disorientating. Clearly, he and this Mary woman have a history, but he chooses to allow another aspiring performer to stay in the theater, much to the dismay of one of his fellow performers (and, of course, to Mary). Jack has worked his way into Hearst’s favor with his ability to relieve back pain, so he should have the opportunity to take Hearst down if he so chooses. I don’t know where the troupe storyline is headed, but I hope creator David Milch has something good up his sleeve.

Joanie and Jane have been growing closer over the past few weeks, and their relationship is starting to head a sexual direction. Jane continues to struggle with her alcoholism, which is a direct result of the blame she puts on herself for Wild Bill’s death. Joanie is a nurturer as well as a tortured soul, and clearly she finds Jane to be a kindred spirit.

But it was Al who really shined in this episode, rushing to Alma’s aid, outwitting Hearst, and beating the snot out of Hearst’s messenger before slitting his throat. It’s been interesting to see Al and Bullock on the same side this season after being at odds for most of the series. Bullock’s return was somewhat uneventful. It was clear at dinner that he was fuming, but he didn’t go after Hearst so Charlie must have filled him in on Al’s take on the shooting.

The camp needs reinforcements, but Al can’t afford to send Dan to get them. Silas convinces him to use Hawkeye, someone Al doesn’t trust, to bring the guns. This adds an element of uncertainty to this storyline, so I wouldn’t be surprised if support arrived at a very opportune time.

There are only two episodes left – how will it end?