Deadwood Episode Guide: A Lie Agreed Upon, Part 1

Written by David Milch

Directed by Ed Bianchi

A lot has changed in the gap between Season 1 and 2. To start with the obvious, according to the calendar six months have passed between the final episode of Season 1 and right now. Telegraph lines – the first real tangible link between the camp and the country that it wants to join – are now being raised. The Governor of the Dakota Territory is trying is making plans to appoint commissioners, none of which are tied directly to Deadwood.  Mrs. Garret’s claim is now being thoroughly mined and the gold shipped out of town. Bullock has been sheriff and has been engaged in a full-blown affair with Alma ever since their first interlude. And most importantly, a stagecoach is coming in bearing new arrivals, the most important of whom are Martha Bullock and her son, William.

Changes are coming, and no one seems particularly happy about it.  Particularly upset in Swearengen. From the moment Silas comes in with his messages from Yankton, he seems absolutely determined to start a fight with anybody who has the nerve to speak up to him. There’s actually a direct link between his current mood and what’s going on that the episode hints and will go into greater detail in the second part, but the basic fact is Swearengen is a man of simple means who doesn’t like the idea of progress. He is very adaptable to it – to take the most obvious example, he will find a way to handle the telegraph to his advantage – but he doesn’t like it, unless it serves his interest. The big difference between how Al handled things throughout Season 1 and now, is that usually he seemed able to stay quiet about it. But now, he chooses to take aim at whoever is most unfortunate to fall under his gaze, and sadly that happens be Sheriff Bullock.  Indeed, when Sol learns from Trixie just what Bullock’s intent is, before leaving the hardware store, he tells her: “Your boss should learn to do like me and let things go.” Trixie responds: “Ain’t his line.”

Bullock is dealing with his own measure of residual guilt. When he goes to see Alma, the two of handle business before getting on to what they both intended – a sex so loud it disturb the patrons in Farnum’s restaurant. When he’s with Alma he seems at a level of peace that we rarely see him at any other time throughout the series. But it’s fragile, because he still knows he’s a married man.

Now Swearengen doesn’t mind that Bullock is dipping his wick because it offends his sensibilities -  he’s a monstrous man, but he’s no hypocrite. What bothers him is that he thinks its distracted Seth from being an asset to the camp at a time when he needs it. This clearly comes as a surprise to Johnny – when Dan tells him “Al’s calling Bullock to the fold”, Johnny accurately points out: “Bullock ain’t even in Al’s flock”. Unfortunately, Swearengen’s level of irritation is pretty high, and when he calls Bullock out on it, this unfortunate combination leads to a fight. Frankly, considering how hostile the two were towards each other throughout most of the first season, its rather remarkable they didn’t come to blows before. But when Swearengen finally tells him: “The world is full of cunt, Bullock. Even hers”, it crosses a level that Bullock can’t take.

 What follows is one of the largest explosions of violence the series will ever do. Bullock and Swearengen go over the balcony, and continue their brawl there. Dan tries to separate them, only to be held back by Adams, Sol is shot in the shoulder, and Charlie Utter (who by now has become Seth’s deputy) takes a shot near the ear. The fight ends with Bullock momentarily besting Swearengen, and since it took place in front of the entire camp, Al knows he can’t let it stand, and pulls a knife.. But a moment earlier, the coach arrives – and Martha, seeing what is about to happens, puts her hand over her sons eyes. Swearengen’s propensity for seeing all betrays him, and he responds: “Welcome to fucking Deadwood. Can be combative.” Bullock finds his feet, and all the combatants go back to their respective corners. Bullock manages to greet his wife and adopted son politely, tells Merrick to see to the Doc, and then finally collapses.

All of this is one of the most brutal fights in the history of the series. But that’s not nearly as painful as some of the scenes that follow. For reasons that not even she is completely sure of, Alma takes upon herself to bring a welcome basket over to Martha, though we all know the main reason is she wants to see how her lover is doing. Both Miss Isringhausen, Sofia’s new tutor, and Ellsworth as politely as possible try to dissuade her from going.  Nevertheless, she goes, and what follows is as emotionally wrenching as the fight. Alma has completely misjudged the scene, and everybody else in the room, including Sol, who is high on laudanum, can see that is almost worse for Seth then the beating he has just taken. As he tries incredibly awkwardly to explain to his wife Alma’s presence (“You remember I talked about Miss Garret in the letters I wrote you”) and Martha, the offended party who does everything in her power to try and stay polite, the scene just keeps deteriorating, until the wounded Charlie has to make a joke to try and cover the mess. Alma retreats, realizing how badly she’s overstepped. Things get far worse when Bullock walks Martha and William to the house he has built for them, and just as awkwardly tries to explain the scenario to his wife, only to have her tell him just how badly she has been humiliated within hours of coming to the camp. The guilt that Seth feels is even greater than he wants to admit, and he doesn’t walk into the house. His next step is to go right to Alma’s door.

The humiliation and frustration is not limited to the ones in the fight. Dan, who has prided himself on beings Al’s second in command, is rather irked that he can’t seem to accurately gauge his bosses moods anymore. He keeps trying to suggest killing everybody who would get in Al’s way, and can’t seem to understand why his boss is so resistant to it. Part of is because Dan is so loyal, he can’t quite seem to see the subtleties that his boss can. But most of it has to do with how jealous he is as to how close Silas Adams has become to Al. It is clear that Adams is astute to nuances in a way that Dan and Johnny just aren’t.  This is probably the reason that Silas intervenes when Dan is about to kill Bullock. When Silas tries to apologize after the carnage has ended, Dan gets even more pissed: “Anyone who did what you did me, nine out of ten times, they’d be dead.” And he makes it clear in a subtler way when he explains, as he understand it, how they’re going to have join America. It’s meant as explanation, but its just as clearly a dig at Adams.

Existing parallel to this are what is going on between Cy and Joanie. The other people on the coach that brings Bullock’s family are Maddie and three whores, brought in from New York. Simultaneously, its clear that Tolliver’s supposedly closer knit Bella Union group has begun to deteriorate.  Eddie has run off, after stealing enough money so that Joanie can buy her whorehouse, and Joanie, having the money has made it very clear that she intends to follow through with her own place, which she has christened the Chez Ami. When Maddie shows up, he throws an angry fit, which he says is part of what he believes to be an eighteen year relationship (Joanie clearly has a different read on it, as we now know she was sold to Tolliver at the age of fourteen). He has now taken up with a younger whore called Lila, and he barely goes through the motions of caring for her. And when the time comes to ‘celebrate’ Joanie leaving, he pours whiskey down his whores’ throats so aggressively, he might just as well be feeding them arsenic. Then he ‘gives’  her Doris, his best whore, and when Joanie tries to refuse, he basically tells her, if she doesn’t take her, he’ll gut her. Joanie goes through with this, even going so far as to saying that he’ll take sixty cents out of every dollar she makes, in order to get out of Tolliver’s reach. As they leave, he says something that perhaps best describes his feelings towards women.

“Don’t believe there’s a good woman unless there's maggots on her eyes.”

Tolliver is just as resistant to change as Swearengen in this episode, but his resistance destroys the people around him. He is very quickly becoming a man with no allies in the camp, which may explain the play he makes just a few episodes from now.

A Lie Agreed Upon is the sole episode in the Deadwood canon that has two parts. (Its rare for any episode in the new Golden Age to divide its action among two parts, considering how serialized everything is.) More to the point, it has a very strict dividing line. When Seth decided to attack Al, he removed his badge and gun. At the time, it was meant to symbolize that he was not carrying out his assault “under the law”.  And when Farnum, part acting as Al’s spy, part just as curious onlooker entered Bullock’s Hardware, he told him that he’d be coming back for them. Swearengen clearly viewed that as a threat. Bullock viewed as a promise But now, its becoming increasingly clear that he took them off because he was trying to take off his links to the camp. At the end of the episode, when William asks if he’s going to get his badge and gun back, unlike the first time when he told his son that, he doesn’t answer him. Despite the final words of the letter he reads in voiceover to Martha, he doesn’t know what he is anymore.