Deadwood Episode Guide: Requiem for a Gleet

Written by Ted Mann

Directed by Alan Taylor

This episode is one of the great triumphs in Deadwood’s history, mainly because it takes the central character of the series, puts him at the point of certain death, and then manages to unify the entire body together.

Though Ian McShane doesn’t speak a word of dialogue in the entire episode, we couldn’t get a clearer picture of Swearengen’s importance to the camp with his fate so dire. This is particularly clear in the surrounding characters attitudes. All of the performances in this episode are superb, but by far the most vital is W. Earl Brown’s work as Dority. Forced to take up the position of Al’s gatekeeper, pretending everything is fine when it clearly isn’t, as the episode progresses, he begins to break down. Nowhere is this clearer when Adams comes in with what is clearly a vital message for him. The two go through their usual snarling, but when Adams appeals to how vital the message, Dan breaks and reveals just how dire Al’s condition is. The two of them reach an accord – Adams’ says: “Sorry for breaking your balls”, and Dan promises to give him the message if he thinks he’s in a condition to hear it.

Trixie herself is reaching a similar breaking point. She tries to put up a bold face in front of Dolly, but when she goes to see Sol for lesson in sums, she bursts into tears. Perhaps the most vital conversation in the episode about loyalty comes when Dan tells Trixie that he would’ve been nothing had he not met Al, and the tacit agreement she and Dan make to burn the Gem down rather than let Tolliver have it.

Even Farnum, who has a lot on his mind, is in particular distress. He knows what the screaming he heard last night portends, and though he pretends to take Dan’s word for it when he enters the Gem, but when he goes back to his hotel, he is in utter despair. So much so that he confides (though he disguises it, as he always does when talking to him) to Richardson, the Biblical looking and apparently simple cook at his hotel:

“I don’t like being weak, and I know that I am. I yearn to rely on a stronger will. I fear what I’m capable of its absence. Where as you Richardson know nothing of yourself.  (starts to strike him) Are you shitting or going blind? Or on foot or horseback? You vile fucking lump!”

Farnum is just smart enough to know that darker forces are circling the camp, and that he alone is not capable of combating them. Never is this made more clear when, still trying to follow the directive of Wolcott to buy up claims, he goes after what he naturally presumes will be an easy target – Alma Garret. He doesn’t know that Garret has been made aware by Ellsworth of Wolcott’s presence, and that he has told her what this may portend. Alma cheerfully counters Farnum’s offer to buy her claim, by making a similar offer on his hotel, pushing him so far as to say: “Shit or get off the chamber pot”.  Farnum is so befuddled, he has no recourse, and she leaves him in a daze.

But the sinister menace that Wolcott – and by extension, Hearst – mean are becoming clearer. Ellsworth encounters Wolcott at Garret’s claim, and immediately knows what he’s up to. He refers to an earlier incident which led to a crash that lead to many dead, and makes short work of Wolcott’s transparent remarks that he doesn’t recall Ellsworth. But Wolcott’s arrogance is clear as he doesn’t even flinch at the blood that’s involved: “Do you hear that sound, Mr. Ellsworth? Sounds like fate.”

And there are other signs things are going to get worse for the camp. Arriving that day is Commissioner Jarry from Yankton. Adams knows him by sight, and also realizes the threat that this will pose to Swearengen. (That’s the message he tries to pass on to Dan). Jarry makes swiftly to the Bella Union, where Tolliver is doing a more efficient job than Farnum at getting a hold of claims on the cheap. Jarry than has a dialogue with him and Wolcott about the provisional titles of claims and how they will be awarded. The efficiency of the bureaucracy is clearly demonstrated to be in the pocket of Hearst, and it is a little frightening to see how swiftly things are moving. (Of course, the imminent threat Jarry – and by extension, America – holds over the camp is nearly negated when we see just how he likes to indulge his sexual proprieties at the Bella Union.)

But Wolcott is making intrusions in other ways. Trying to get a make further inroads into Swearengen’s business, Tolliver engages with Mr. Lee, a celestial in the employ of Hearst, who clearly has an understanding of English better than Wu, for Chinese whores, which he intends to employ, but literally use until they have been fucked to death. This leads to one of the few humorous moments in this grim episode where Wu comes to the Gem demanded to speak with “Swearengen!” and Dan, already at a breaking point, doesn’t even try to go through with the same patience Al has. Wu adds to his vocabulary “San Francisco!” and “American”, which negates the real problem that Al faces.

But at this juncture we reach the crux of the episode, and it is one of the more incredible pieces that Milch and company ever put together. Cochran has told Al that they need to perform an operation, cutting through his bladder to remove the stones, even though everybody – Doc especially – thinks this will kill him. Doc’s own desperation shows when he keeps trying to sterilize the tools he’ll need, and finally shouts: “Jesus Christ! I do not need to kill another man!” When the time comes to perform the operation, Al manages to blink his fear, and somehow Dan and Trixie manage to convey that he wants to try and pass the gleets naturally.  What follows is a true example of the unifying force of Swearengen, as Doc, Trixie, Dan and Johnny all work with Al to manually help him pass the gleets that have nearly killed him. An overhead shot shows the five of them working in concert – another example of the connectedness of the camp – and when the stones are pass, they all collapse on the bed, exhausted, Cochran speaking for all of them: “Thank you for saving me!”

But even though Swearengen is clearly recovering (and the last shot of the episodes demonstrates his return to awareness) other threats lie in store. One comes from what may be the least unexpected place.  After the tension of last night, Alma discharges Miss Isringhausen, who calmly accepts her severance. She then shows up outside Adams’ room, in an apparent state of distress. Adams, no doubt feeling vulnerable from the threats facing Al, invites her into his room, and feels at something of a loss when she bursts into dears after downing some whiskey. When he tries to make a joke about shooting himself, Miss Isringhausen tearfully mentions that she feels threatened. And then she says: “By Miss Garret.” At this point in the series, we should know better than to judge people by appearance, but this is a threat we didn’t see coming, and it is credit to Sarah Paulson (still several years out from launching her career in conjunction with Ryan Murphy) that we are so stunned by this.

The more critical point is the trouble brewing at the Chez Ami. Joanie and Maddie are on edge from the events of the previous night, Maddie because she doesn’t want anything to happen until she gets paid. She chastises Joanie over this in one of the more memorable lines: “They get led by their dicks; our cunts lead us, we lose our only edge.” In this moment, we see that Maddie, for all her trappings as a madam, is just as ruthless an operator as Cy is. Things do not get any better, when Carrie, the whore that Maddie was ‘keeping on ice’, arrives on the morning coach, even more pissed that she’s been dragged from New York to this camp.

But it is not until the final scenes where Wolcott arrives at the Chez Ami that we begin to sense just how dark the waters are becoming. He begins to pontificate about the days of the Greeks and their ways of sexuality while insisting every whore remain a fixed position. Joanie becomes increasingly unsettled, but when he begins talking about: “gods fornicating with mortals, the endless incest, fathers upon daughters upon sisters, she finally breaks and leaves. When Wolcott is alone with Carrie in the penultimate scene of the episode, their casual exchange:

 Wolcott: “I sense Miss Stubbs has fucked a relative”

 Carrie: “It’s a big club.”

-                that speaks volumes about them, and the nature of their upbringing. But perhaps the most frightening occurrence comes when Wolcott tells Carrie: “The rocks tell me stories.” The fact that Carrie is inclined to dismiss this as nonsense doesn’t deny the fact that there is something very disturbing about Wolcott’s disconnect which is becoming more apparent, if only in private.

-                One tries to focus on the positive moments. Al is recovered, and it is also becoming clear that Bullock may be becoming more accepting of his domestic situation. For the first time since they came to the camp, he and his wife address each other by their first names, and he prepares to help William acclimate himself to the camp. He also talks with Sol about trying to set up a bank in the camp, meaning that he is looking towards the future. However, there is still resistance. He doesn’t want to take money from Alma or Al for obvious reasons, but there are small signs he is becoming more flexible. His ability to bend will become more important as storms from all sides gather.