Deadwood Episode Guide: Sold Under Sin

Written by Ted Man

Directed by Davis Guggenheim

The season finales of any series – at least in the new Golden Age – generally bring to a climax the overriding plots of the season, as well as bringing in new wrinkles for the future. In its inaugural season, Deadwood does so by bringing in history in a way in so many other series.

Early in the episode, General Crook (the distinguished character actor Peter Coyote) rides into town with his cavalry shortly after defeating Miniconjou Sioux at the Battle of Slim Buttes. (Fitting into the calendar, this means were in late September or early October of 1876. Swearengen seems to sense that they are coming, and while he’s more concerned with the return of Magistrate Clagget, who not only seems to have avoided Adams but now has the military’s protection, he knows enough of his duties to say: “Town’s gonna wanna parade.” The weary Crook arranges for this to happen, and when the cavalry marches into town, he gives a speech which, in true Deadwood tradition gives lie to history. As he gives the ‘historic’ version of events, a soldier mentions in sotto voice to Bullock what has actually happened:

Crook: The Sioux and Cheyenne, having burned the prairie to deny us fodder for our mounts. Our provisions limited to what we could carry. We turned to the Black Hills when the rains began

Soldier: Where my bay mare Sheridan she foundered and he had her shot.

Crook: That march through mud was a trial sent by God. And harsh necessity required of us much suffering and great sacrifice.

Soldier: Ate our fuckin’ horses.

Crook: Continuing south we proved our worth against the Indian. We came across upon a village at Slim Buttes and at once attacked from all four sides. Their resistance was overcome. There were no prisoners.

Soldier: Paid ‘em out. Man, woman and child for my havin’ eaten my mare.

The speech ends with the official confirmation that Custer’s Last Stand has been countered and that the Indian land of which this camp is part of, will soon become part of America. The truth of the nature of the genocide is euphemistically stated by the General and then put down officially by Merrick, who dutifully fact checks the speech. We see how history is rewritten, and we get a clear idea of this through all the blood and disarray in this episode.

Of critical importance is when the parade starts. Alma’s father has told her of new debts that he has acquired since her father, as we have learned, basically sold her into marriage with Brom before they came here. Now he wants his debts repaid, and continuing payments, in the same kind of blackmail that Clagget is holding over Swearengen. Horror-stricken, Alma flees the hotel, and for the first time since the series began, we see the society lady venturing through the muck and mire of the camp, ending up at Bullock’s hardware store pleading for help.

Bullock storms out over to Farnum’s hotel, where Russell pretty much diminish any efforts he might make to ‘defend Alma’s honor. He then walks into the Bella Union to shoot craps, and half of the series regulars follow him, knowing far better what’s coming. Russell then gambles, focusing all his attention on Bullock, bragging exactly what he will do if anything happens to him, and not paying any attention to the dice. After far longer than the man deserves, Bullock attacks him, and is only pulled away when Sol tells him: “That’s enough.” At that moment, we here the music of the parade.

As Bullock leaves the scene, we hear a gunshot. It comes not from the military, but from Chinatown. Leon has been baiting one of the celestials over his laundry, and the episode ends with the celestial dead, and Sheriff Stapleton backing Leon. After the speech, Bullock admonishes Stapleton, and pulls his badge off him. Nutall, who witnessed the event and who backed Stapleton for sheriff, just says: “Leave it there; you bought son-of-a-bitch.” Bullock then goes to the Gem, and stops just short of telling Dority what he has done to Alma’s father, where he is, and what will happen to Swearengen if he returns to New York. Dority’s reaction is bland; he looks at the badge Bullock is toying with, and says: “You should put that thing on yourself. You’re a hypocrite enough to wear it.”

The next few hours as the soldiers go on leave pretty much proof disastrous for the battalion. Farnum seems determined to overcharge the army for every dime he can, and the troops seem will to pawn their uniforms and their guns for whiskey and pussy. Tolliver then makes his own power play, and it proves once again that he is utterly inept at judging character of men above his station. He tries to put up the idea of a government, and then offers $50,000 in gold for a garrison, which he wants. Before Crook can respond, Bullock storms into the camp, announces his military background (including his brother’s own death at the hands of the Creek), says he wants the military’s protection for Alma’s father, and that the sheriff can be bought ‘for half a pound of bacon grease’. Crook’s remarks that Bullock should probably be sheriff probably solidifies his own thoughts in his mind. Tolliver doesn’t seem to know when he’s beaten though; when he repeats his offer, Crook looks at him with disgust and says: “If I were sheriff, I’d have you hanged.” Tolliver retreats, but unlike Swearengen, he will not learn from the experience.

Back in Farnum’s hotel Joanie, who witnessed Russell’s beating, presents Alma with her father’s teeth. Joanie then tells her story to Alma – when their family when west, her mother died of cholera, and her father persuaded her to service him, then began to whore her out. She then seduced her sister, and convinced them to do the same to her father, until eventually we sold to Cy. The message is very clear; Alma may be high society, and Joanie only a whore, but they are basically two sides of the same coin. Bullock then knocks at the door, and Joanie takes Sofia down for dinner, knowing as well as we do what is coming.

For a series with so much emphasis on sex as recreation, it’s rather surprising into retrospect how few actual sex scenes were in Deadwood as a whole.  Even though neither Seth nor Alma fully disrobe in the scene, it is telling how erotic is just because of the electricity and taboo that is in the air. But it is very telling that the chemistry does not necessarily equal love. Both Bullock and Alma know this going in, even though they will deny it like hell for quite a while.

Swearengen, in the meantime is trying to juggle a lot of problems, but the most important one bares almost no relation to what he is dealing with. Reverend Smith is in his final extremities at Doc’s place, and he is so upset by what he sees that he goes to the Gem, ostensibly to give Jewel the boot that she asked for in the last episode. His real purpose is to visit Swearengen, and tell him that the Reverend is dying, and that he wants him to ‘tend to him’. When Swearengen says: “I get stuck with a bag of shit”, the Doc finally explodes: “Fuck you, Al!”  It is clear that Al understands what it is costing the Doc to say this, because he tells Johnny to bring the sled over.

Brad Dourif has been quietly powerful throughout the entire first season of Deadwood, but its certain that he earned his Emmy nomination for the series in this episode, particularly in the scene where he gets on one knee, and practically hurls a diatribe at God, in which he relates not only his pain at the Reverend’s agonies, but at his own experiences on the battlefield during the Civil War: “WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF ALL THE SCREAMING?! DID YOU NEED IT AS PROOF OF YOUR OWN OMNIPOTENCE?!”

Equally telling is how Swearengen handles Smith’s death. He turns to Johnny, asks him to close the door, and gently instructs him on the most efficient to way to kill a man – and demonstrates on the Reverend. In the final moments, he says in what is as close to tenderness as we will see: “You can go now, brother.” When it’s over, he closes the Reverend’s eyes and folds his arms over his chest. In a larger sense, we know that we have witnessed the fact that man has destroyed God, but it’s done with a tenderness that we rarely see in this series – or in real life.

And we get the contrast almost immediately. Adams returns to the camp mere hours after Clagget, which leads Al to think that the man has betrayed him, his own early cotton to the contrary. After the Reverend passes, Al goes to his office with Clagget. The scene that follows is one of the most brilliant in series history. Al and Dan are on one side of the room, Clagget on the other, with Silas and his colleague on his left. Clagget continues to think he has the upper hand, up until the point he reveals that he has the warrant on him. The second he does, Al reveals his feeling. A split second later, Silas slits his throat, and finds the warrant. Without looking up, he tells Dan: “I’d be willing to hand over this piece of paper if you take that fucking gun off me.” When Dan pulls a pistol from under the table, Silas then adds: “Both of them.” Titus Welliver now demonstrates why he will become one of the great talents in already overcrowded series. Adams has finally and incontrovertibly proved his loyalty to Swearengen.

A few minutes later, Bullock and Swearengen have their first meeting since Al offered Bullock the job of sheriff. After some discussion about what happened to Alma’s father, Bullock says that if there are problems down the road. The ceremony that follows is with unusual brevity for Deadwood:

Bullock: I’ll be the fucking sheriff.

Swearengen: Starting when?

Bullock: Starting now.

Swearengen: You have the tin.

Bullock: I do.

Swearengen: Produce it. (After Bullock removes the badge) On the tit.

Bullock: I know where it goes.

Bullock began the season taking off a badge; he ends it putting one back on. However, as Swearengen makes clear when referring to the blood stain left by the magistrate that Seth pointedly ignores, what he have is not the establishment of Law, but of the camp as an entity under Swearengen’s purview. The episodes ends with the cavalry retreating, almost laid to ruin after one night in Deadwood, bearing Otis Russell died to the back of the horse, and Swearengen watching Doc dance with Jewel, his brace now proving perfected. It is a symbol of communion that banishes, for the moment, all which is hostile to its interests.  Fittingly, an anonymous soldier swears his loyalty to the camp by mooning the retreating army. The military and God can not conquer the camp. But by acknowledging greater interests, a far darker force is preparing to invade.