Deadwood Episode Guide: Recointerring The Rim

Written by Jody Worth

Directed by Davis Guggenheim

It’s only three episodes into Deadwood, and it’s already become very clear what a magnificent character Al Swearengen is. We’re already having a hard time imagining anybody other than Ian McShane as the lead, which is why it is remarkable to learn that not only was McShane not Milch’s first choice to play Swearengen, he wasn’t even the second choice.

The first man that Milch saw was Ed O’Neill, best known to the previous generation of viewers as the hapless Al Bundy in the 90s classic Married… With Children and to this generation as the patriarch on the five-time Emmy winner Modern Family.  I have great respect for O’Neill as an actor, but I can understand why HBO executives couldn’t have seen him in this role – there’s something just too relatable about him.

Milch’s second choice was the brilliant character actor Powers Boothe, and he might have been more than up to the task, but he took ill just before filming was to begin. So in order to encourage Boothe to get better, and to assure him he’d always have a role when he did, Milch created the fictional character of Cy Tolliver, who we meet in the early stages of this episode, as Tolliver and his crew open a third saloon, the Bella Union.

At this early stage, Tolliver appears to be a much better dressed version of what Swearengen is providing at the Gem. The games he offers are a different type than the one we see at the Gem (we see craps, which apparently was being introduced as a gambling venture at this time), the people are better dressed, and his prostitutes seem fancier and more ‘refined’. Tolliver seems whiskey-slick, and the people around him seem to be closer to equals than the ones we see at the Gem. Joanie Stubbs, the head girl seems more eloquent, and less abused than Trixie does, and Eddie Sawyer (played superbly by the late Ricky Jay) seems more comfortable as a second in command than any of Al’s seconds at this juncture. And its clear that Tolliver is at least Swearengen’s equal when it comes to scheming – Swearengen tries to recruit Leon, Tolliver’s faro dealer/opium addict, and it’s revealed very quickly that Tolliver knows exactly what is going on. (On a side note, as someone who grew up watching Square One TV, it’s kind of stunning to see Larry Cedar gone so to pot as Leon.) They seem a lot closer to a genuine family then whatever we see at the Gem. But we will soon see that there is a dark underbelly to the better polished level of the Bella Union. Maybe this is the reason that while Swearengen currently sees them as a real threat to an operation, he will never follow up on his early decision to destroy them. The two will uneasily coexist as rivals for the length of the series, but Tolliver never poses a real danger.

It sure as hell doesn’t seem that way at first, though. Swearengen is infuriated when the previous owner of the property Artie Simpson, announces he sold to Tolliver, and then decides to (literally) take the money and run. He is visibly distracted when Sol comes to him, still trying to buy the lot for Seth and his hardware store, and then makes a big production of not them not selling their goods to Bella Union people. (When Seth readily agrees to this, he meekly {for him, at least} relents) He then seized upon the possibility that Farnum clearly has something to do with, and with good reason – Farnum goes to Eddie, clearly terrified, and tells him that his acting as go-between may end up with him dying.  When he reports to Swearengen that he acted as go-between, E.B. clearly thinks that he’s about to die, and considering that we see  scenes of Swearengen circling him intercut with Dan sneaking up on the doomed Brom Garrett (we’ll get to that in a bit) we can hardly blame him. When Swearengen shows mercy him, we’re really stunned, as we see yet another example of Al’s long-term vision.

There are two other major interrelated stories going on. Wild Bill has clearly spent all of last night since killing Tom Mason (which tells us much about Hickok’s past and present right there) playing poker, and Jack McCall doesn’t seem to have learned anything from what happened last night, and is now openly taunting him. Even when Hickok clearly gets angrier at him, McCall doesn’t seem to care. Hickok leaves the table, and runs into Jane and Charlie, who have since brought the child back to camp in order to rest indoors. At that point, Brom Garrett, tries to hire Hickok to get his money back. Hickok and Utter make it very clear how dangerous the people are who swindled him, but Brom just brushes them off, even when they tell him that Tim Driscoll is dead.

Brom has demonstrated all the classic qualities of an Eastern dilettante, and then proceeds to go see Swearengen, determined to get his money back. It is here for the first time, we begin that Alma may be more than his wife and a dope fiend. She urges patience before going into see Swearengen, telling him to take his walk. Brom, who clearly has an overinflated opinion of himself, does but after encountering Hickok passed out outside his room, somehow takes this as a sign of his being right.

He then goes into see Swearengen, and then openly mentions his connections with the Pinkertons, clearly intending to use that as leverage to get Swearengen to give him his money back. Swearengen then goes to Dan, and tells him to ‘recoinnter the rim’ at an effort to find where the gold, which he couldn’t before might actually be there.  After Brom reluctantly departs, Swearengen simply says: “Make it look like an accident.”

When Brom gets ready to leave, Alma now sees the danger that her egotistical husband either can’t see or won’t let himself. When she urges her husband that they should leave the camp, and either go further west or return to New York, letting this stand “as an adventure”, Brom simply says that he’s not leaving without his money. In one of the many great ironies of Deadwood, we see that Brom’s lack of commitment as well as failure to listen, will not open cost him life but prevent him from becoming the millionaire he initially thought. Because after Dan kills Brom, he looks around where his body landed and finds out, as he’ll tell Swearengen, “that he went owning one hell of a fuckin’ gold strike.”

In the meantime, Wild Bill seems momentarily determined to try and revive himself into the land of the living. After lying passed out at the bottom of the stairs for half the episode, he gets up and agrees to help Bullock and Sol put up their hardware store. But while they begin their early work, two men approach, one to lavish a backhanded praise on him for his appearance at a Wild West show he once did. Hickok is able to at least for awhile push that off. But when another man sends that man away, and as if a term flattering to his idol that he send him off “gouging out his fucking eyes”, Hickok gets pissed. And in reaction, this man says: “You son of a bitch! I hope you get what’s coming to you at this fucking camp, and I hope I fucking see it!” The viewer knows that this is prophecy, and it seems very clear that Wild Bill views it the same. He gets up, and we next see him at the Bella Union, about to get drunk and play poker. It is becoming increasingly clear that while Hickok may be a legend, he is a walking dead man; waiting for the right man to kill him, despite everything Jane and Charlie are trying to do for him.

We are also beginning to see Bullock as something of a transitional figure. The episode begins with him helping to bury Mason’s brother, just as he buried Mason in the beginning of the previous episode. He is still trying to put all the specters of his past behind him, even though he doesn’t seem to mind Hickok’s referral to him as ‘Montana’. When he negotiates with Swearengen this time, he manages to hold his temper, but it’s a temporary stop when McCall shows up, trying to brag, and he throws him in the mud saying: “This tent’s shut to you.” He takes a lot more personally than Hickok the taunts that the men send Hickok while they’re trying to set up the store, and clearly understand when Wild Bill leaves.

And it’s becoming gradually clearer that Swearengen, despite his violent tendency, clearly has a level of decorum buried him. This becomes clear in his two scenes with Trixie. At the opening of the episode, he dresses in one of his finer suits with Trixie help, and talks to her in a gentler tone than he has in the two previous episodes. And the episode closes with Trixie shaving his foot, a gesture that reveals a certain level of trust, with him confiding. When Dan comes into to make his report, Trixie holds up a towel to cover what she’s done, then exits to the balcony. When Dan leaves, she calmly asks: “Should I do the other?” And Al says: “Yeah.” And almost as an afterthought: “Please.” We now realize there are levels to this relationship that are deeper than pimp and whore. And in one we almost consider a throwaway shot, when Trixie goes to the balcony, she meets Alma’s gaze for the first time. We don’t know if this means anything now (there’s a similar shot when Alma meets Jane’s gaze), but there are connections here that will soon be revealed.