Deadwood Episode Guides: Complications (Formerly Difficulties)

Written by Victoria Morrow

Directed by Gregg Fineberg

Given the relative lack of major of events in this episode, one could easily misconstrue that Complications (Formerly Difficulties) is something of a bridge episode between the first and second half of Season 2, something of a pause as Swearengen recovers from the enormity of his medical crisis. But in actuality, there’s a fair amount going on, as well as a chance to learn about some new characters, as well as follow up on some of the new relationships.

Al is the midst of recovering from his attack, even though he seems to have suffered a small stroke in doing so. Even the Doc is impressed by his recovery, more so than he is. Naturally, he is less concerned about his own well-being then what is going on in his absence – when Dan tells him the story that Wu attempted to illustrate before the aborted surgery, more as a joke than anything serious, his first reaction is tell Johnny to check if there’s anything to it. It is clear that Swearengen considers being an invalid the literal fate worse than death, which is a ghastly irony considering how close that he came to dying. But true to form, he tries to stay on top of the bigger events that are going on, and there are some pretty big ones.

Commissioner Jarry finally gets around to visiting the Pioneer, and gives a notice of claims that when Merrick reads it; he manages to get a handle on just what might be going on. It is clear that even at this early stage, he has been taking lessons from Swearengen, because rather than put the message on the front page of the next paper; he posts the entire message outside the paper. Leon then reports that the masses have heard about it, and they are fucking riled.

Tolliver than goes out to try and calm the mob, and it is here we get the clearest demonstration as just how inferior he is to Swearengen, he is at crowd control. He spends several minutes trying to ease everybody with the spiel that he has been using in the past, but then he blunders as says that he’s talked to Jarry and he doesn’t seem like a bad sort.  The mob, led by Steve Fields, the resident shit-stirrer in the camp then quickly converges on the Bella Union, determined to take their rage out on Jarry.

Al, who even out of the action very quickly can make connections, demands that Bullock show up immediately. Bullock, who has been a little distracted with the last few days events, now reveals that he is behind what is going on: “Bedridden, I know more than you”, Al points out. Bullock doesn’t need much persuasion to head over to the Bella Union, just when things are approaching a crisis point. The mob has surrounded the cashier’s cage where Jarry is ‘protecting himself’; trying to admonish them that he just represents ‘the future’. In one of the most telling exchanges in the series history, Steve finishes a string of obscenities with: “Fuck the future!” Even in his terror, Jarry makes a clear point. “You do not fuck the future. The future fucks you.” Needless to say, this doesn’t assuage anybody, and it is only after the intervention of Bullock that the mob calms – long enough for Bullock to rescue Jarry, and take him into protective custody. Jarry is decidedly ungrateful, so Bullock argues: “A beating short of murder might’ve done you some good.” And it doesn’t quite calm the mob.

I must now make a delicate aside for the introduction of another small but critical character to Deadwood. Even given the level of profanity, I am loathe to use the moniker this character uses to describe himself, so for the purposes of this guide, I shall refer to him as N. General Fields. Another one of the historical personages, he seems capable of irritating everybody in the camp, including his fellow traveler Hostettler, the owner of the livery, who seems very disturbed with just how he handles his horses. The only character who seems to truly get along with him well is Jane who, even in her state of inebriation, seems to quickly take kindly to N. General and starts drinking with him. They have a friendly, fairly drunken conversation for awhile – the discourse about Custer is a highlight – but in the midst of their drinker, the mob is dissipating from Jarry, and Fields, who knows far better than most just how dangerous they can be, quickly flees. Steve tries to create a diversion, involving grabbing Fields and threatening him so that they can get to Jarry. When someone politely points out, they could just start shooting, Steve quickly says they’ll just kill Fields. Fields then hides in Hostettler’s livery, and he doesn’t wait ten seconds before giving him up to the mob. (He knows what’s coming, and is writing his will beforehand.)  The appearance of Charlie manages to save him, and Bullock rescued him before he is too badly hurt. Considering what has happened, Fields remarkably understands. In the last scene of the episode, as Jane is tending to his wounds, he says: “Tell Hostettler I’d have done what he did, only quicker.” The last shot of the episode is of Hostettler in obvious anguish as Fields screams in pain.

While these major problems are unfolding, two quieter problems are unfurling. Adams as we saw in the last episode surrendered his room to Miss Isringhausen for the night. As the two of them continue their discussion, Isringhausen begins to show her true colors, blatantly seducing Adams, and as pillow talk, begins to casually go on with her suggestion that Miss Garrett had her husband murdered, and that she believes she used Al Swearengen as the instrument. While Adams doesn’t know the full details of what happened, he surely knows enough that there is something suspicious, and the trout in the milk comes when she tells him that she wants to have a meeting with Swearengen. Silas recovers some of his rationale now (to paraphrase a later term by Milch, he is ‘cuntstruck’), and tells her: “Why do I think it’s lucky we never met across a poker table?”         Nevertheless, when she pulls back her nightgown, he returns like a fish to a worm.

The most significant event happens in the first minutes of the episode, when we see Alma vomiting into a basin. She is aware of what this portends, and then convinces Richardson to come with her across the thoroughfare to see Trixie. For understandable reasons, Trixie is short, and doesn’t seem particularly grateful to learn that Alma is expecting. Alma is afraid that because of how she was born that childbirth could kill her, and no doubt wants to see Trixie because of a way to handle it (the casual admission of Trixie that ‘I’ve killed seven’ is one of the more quietly frightening, if realistic, statement of the entire series). Trixie than goes directly to Doc, and decides to chew him out for being so callous to Alma when she was kicking the laudanum that she’s now afraid to see to her. Doc finds a pretext to see Alma, one she quickly sees through, but after some mutual crankiness, they then have a very civil conversation, in which Alma admits she does want a child, and Doc says that he can help her have one.

This actually leads to one of the more touching scenes in the series, when Alma returns to the Gem that night, and the two of them actually have a genuinely civil conversation. Alma tells her about her news, Trixie admits with a certain amount of pride that she’s now working at Bullock’s hardware store, practicing accounts, and “she’s fucking one of the owners.” Alma says she’s glad for that and the two chuckle and share a cigarette. The friendship between Alma and Trixie is quickly becoming one of the series deepest, and it’s nearly as moving as what follows next, when Trixie goes to the back, after Sol has revealed the sums she’s been working on, and they enjoy a roll in the sack. To see that Trixie is on the verge of finding happiness and independence is a remarkable statement for Deadwood to try and make.

But in the doubling of Deadwood, there are far worse signs afoot, mostly at the Chez Ami. Joanie goes to tend to Carrie, and find out what the hell she and Wolcott were up to last night. She manages to hide whatever concern she has. Doris, however, reveals what is happening to Tolliver, and when he gets a full report of what Wolcott is making the whores do, his reaction is not to consider the danger, but “Can I be that fucking lucky?” He then spends much of his interactions with Wolcott trying to subtly bait him, and it’s clear he’s trying to work things to some kind of advantage. The same kind of blindness that failed him at controlling the mob dulls his vision here; he doesn’t see the danger that we’ve seen in Wolcott at the Chez Ami, he thinks he’s already invaluable and wants to make sure he can secure his future position.

Swearengen and Bullock are both aware of the outside consequences of what may come, and in their final interaction, Al says that we gets better “I’ll pull my weight” It’s a measure of how much circumstances have changes in just a few short days that Bullock looks at him, and says: “Come to that, my money’d be on you.”

The episode also has one of the callbacks when Wolcott reads the letter he ‘bought’ from Farnum when he came to town for Carrie, even though neither gives a damn about Wild Bill Hickok. (It’s interesting that both of the characters Dilahunt plays utterly disrespect the legend; Wolcott admonishes the man’s spelling.) But when he reads the postscript  to his wife Agnes, there seems to be the briefest of moments when even a man who is clearly revealing himself to be disturbed seems momentarily moved by the poignancy of his love for her wife, as if its for something he can never – and will never – have. It will eventually reach him, but by then, as is inevitably the case in Deadwood, it will involve more blood.