Deadwood Episode Guide: New Money

Written by Elizabeth Sarnoff

Directed by Steve Shill

Arguably the two most critical events in Deadwood’s run so far happen in this episode, and they are tied together in such a way that seems so natural, it’s rather astonishing to learn that Milch came up with one in order to plausibly allow the other to happen. Both are tied to the title reference – the ‘new money’, even though at this point, he is just an acolyte of that reference.

Francis Wolcott arrives at Farnum’s hotel in the episode’s opening minutes.  Farnum can instantly tell that that he is a ‘fish to rival the fabled Leviathan’, but even he doesn’t have a good idea as to what he’s involved until it’s too late. He is identified by Maddie who, while talking to Joanie tells him that while Farnum is trying to gauge the mettle of him, ‘Mr. W will toy with him until he no longer finds it amusing’.  We get the sense of this very quickly. Late last season, Farnum managed to get a hold from a lackey the last letter that Wild Bill Hickok ever wrote. He now tries to use it to con Farnum out of what he considers a sizable payday, intimating that it might lead to a mammoth gold claim. What he doesn’t know, but what Maddie is privy to, is that Wolcott represents the interests of George Hearst, who by this point is already one of the richest men in the country. The very mention of the name is enough to send shivers through the spine of Cy Tolliver, when Wolcott approaches him directly immediately after leaving Farnum’s hotel.

Wolcott talks Tolliver up as seeming to be an ambitious man with the foresight to represent Hearst’s interests. What he wants him to do is very simple: he wants to make it clear that titles to all existing claims might be questionable because of the coming interests of impending statehood. The idea being to throw panic into the camp, making it easy for the Hearst combine to buy them up at a fraction of the cost. In that sense, Wolcott has chosen the right men for the job, because where Swearengen would be more concerned with the camp’s interest, all Tolliver cares about is whatever payday he can get for himself. He has no problem putting on a show for the people at the Bella Union, and then another show for Leon and Stapleton (whose double act will quickly become one of the series highpoints). But as is Tolliver’s want, he has completely misjudged the nature of the man he is dealing with.

We get a clear picture of this when Wolcott purchases Hickok’s letter, then begins to toy with Farnum about being duped, allows Farnum to try to begin further machinations, and then casually mention who he works for. We’ve already seen how much of a toady Farnum is for Swearengen, but that is nothing compared to how he flagellates himself when he learns who he has just conned, his desperation to get back on that man’s good side, and just what he’ll have to do in order to get there.

However, we don’t get a true sense as just how dangerous Wolcott is until we hear Maddie discuss him with Joanie. She reveals that coming to the camp to partner with Joanie was a secondary reason. She heard that Mr. W was coming, and has arranged for a ‘certain girl’ that he likes to come to the camp. She’s ‘put her on ice’ in order to secure his interest, and agrees for a 50-50 split with Joanie. When Joanie asks what the trick’s end, she casually says: “I wouldn’t rule out a wooden box.” When Wolcott comes to the Chez Ami, he is even shorter than he’s been with Farnum or Tolliver, but when Joanie tries to engage him, he seems supremely disinterested. At one point, he asks her: “Who am I?” as if he is unsure if he has a real identity.

Garret Dilahunt, who played Jack McCall last season, now takes up the role of Francis Wolcott. Many observers of the series tried to come up with some deeper connection between McCall and Wolcott because of this. Were they alternate versions of the same basic character? Was there some message of deeper evil about? Actually, Milch liked the actor from his earlier appearance and wanted to work with him again. But Wolcott seems apart from the entire camp, and in the same way, from humanity in general. We won’t get an idea of how separated until a little further on.

Now if Wolcott – and by association, Hearst – wanted to get a hold on the camp, under any other circumstances, he’d have to reckon with Swearengen. In order to make this plausible, Milch decided that Al had to be temporarily taken out of the equation. He does so by beginning the episode by showing us the mighty Swearengen laid prone and convulsing by his pisspot, unable to speak. Johnny and Dan try to cover for him initially, mostly by lying to the whores – and by association to themselves. (Though it is telling that Johnny, never the sharpest tool in the sack, has suspicions early on that something is horribly wrong.)  When the Doc and Trixie try to communicate with him through the closed door to no success, Trixie practically orders Dan to break the door down if he doesn’t answer next time they come up. It says something as to Trixie’s authority that they listen to her the way they wouldn’t to Cochran.

When the door is finally broken down, Al is in far worse shape than they imagine: he is sweating and unable to speak. The problem in Swearengen’s bladder that Doc tried to get information on yesterday, and which the stubborn saloon absolutely refused to talk about has gone critical. He is suffering from some form of kidney stones – or ‘gleets’ as the Doc will call them – and the only way to get a measure of how bad it is for the Doc to raise a metal road into his bladder through his penis, and listen for a click – ‘assuming he can hear it over the screams’. This will set up the stage for an operation that, even by the standards of the time, is certain to kill the patient and even Trixie knows this.

Everyone in the Gem is going through some kind of trauma knowing the consequences, but none so more than Trixie, which is astounding considering he’s tried to kill her twice last season. But she clearly has affection for him that goes behind whore-pimp as we see in a scene where she is getting plastered with Jane. (The fact that this may be the first time in the entire lives of either that they have even talked speaks volume to the despair Trixie is feeling.) When Jane, even in her intoxicated way, makes it clear just how villainous Al is, Trixie makes a very potent argument about Jewel. We have wondered why Al keeps Jewel, who can’t bring any revenue in, and basically busts his balls on every possible occasion, and now Trixie reveals that she’s from the same orphanage in Chicago where he came from. Knowing from his few remarks just how painful that place was for him, it speaks volumes as to why he took her in and brought her out west -  not, as he would put it, ‘against having some hooplehead having only nine cents and wanting a piece of pussy’, but as Trixie says: “his sick fucking way of protecting her’. “There’s entries on both sides of the ledger is the fucking point,” Trixie argues, and Jane is, in her drunken way, persuaded as well.

The climax of the episode comes when the Doc performs the procedures, and the screams are so loud that they are heard by the entire camp. Johnny is so repulsed, he leaves in the midst of the blood, only to be ordered back in by Trixie to go back, and shove his arm in Al’s mouth. She knows of Swearengen’s importance to the camp, and doesn’t want to contemplate what will happen if they learn of his condition. (Johnny goes back in, but is so traumatized, he can only observe.) We know there are stones there, but despite Doc’s best effort, he can’t extract them, and we know from Trixie final glance the horrors this portends.

It is telling that the next to last image we see in the episode is that of Bullock sitting down to dinner with his family. Despite the beating that he bears the scars from, we see that he has taken the lessons to heart, and is trying to make peace with Martha, who is, as we will come to take measure of her character, unusually forgiving. Alma, however, is not. After observing her claim with Ellsworth, she tells him that she wants to buy Farnum’s hotel for the sole purpose of ‘putting him out in the thoroughfare’. Ellsworth doesn’t know the full nature of her ill-temper, but offers to have her punch him in the face. When she has a discussion with Miss Isringhausen, her attitude is completely the opposite of last night, and she ends the confrontation by firing her.  Alma has made the right decision, but for the wrong reasons, and the consequences will come clear very soon.

Bullock, at least, has been made aware of just what kind of consequences may be unfolded. He casually mentions to Sol about what Yankton may be planning for the camp, which Swearengen told him about “just before we went over the balcony”. Bullock’s eyes have been open to the consequence, which is good because Al will need him to go forward – assuming, of course, that Al is in a condition to go forward at all.