Deadwood Episode Guide: Something Very Expensive

Written and Directed by Steve Shill

There’s been a lot of violence in Deadwood so far, and it’s pretty safe to say that there will be even more to come. But this episode features what is probably safe to say the most shocking instance of it so far in the series.

Ever since Wolcott arrived in the camp, its become increasingly clear how dangerous a man he is, that there is something truly dark bubbling beneath the surface. We will never know for certain whether it would’ve come out on it’s own, but there’s absolutely no doubt as to the trigger. Tolliver has been baiting Wolcott ever since he learned in the previous episode just how twisted a trick Wolcott is from Doris. For a man whose income depends on playing the percentages, it is therefore critical that his failure is characterized by Wolcott as ‘overplaying his hand’. Unlike Swearengen, he can never tell what has to be made explicit must also remain at least partially implicit.  Part of this is no doubt related to the level of the help he has working for him – we see in a later episode where he tries to convince Leon and Stapleton to make an attack on Merrick that he has to spell out every single detail in order to make his point crystal clear. But as we saw in the previous episode, he failed in his ability to quell the mob that nearly killed Commissioner Jarry as a result. Nevertheless, the fact that he still thinks holds the upper hand causes him to try and play Wolcott in order to find a way to weasel a bigger payday from him. His clear miscalculation of this sends Wolcott over the edge, and the only reason Tolliver doesn’t pay a bigger price is because the geologist chooses that moment to storm out.

In the minutes to come, we see Wolcott enter what might be considered a fugue state in which he seems determined to list the shortcomings of the world, perhaps in a way to demonstrate just what he is missing. He then comes to the Chez Ami, and demands to see Doris, not Carrie. Maddie, who can clearly tell what is about to transpire, but like Tolliver is only interested in using this flaw to her advantage, lets Doris go in, and then when Wolcott demands Carrie a few minutes later, sends her in. By now Joanie has arrived, and can sense the danger in a way that the others couldn’t, but when she goes to her gun finds that Maddie has taken it.

We bare witness to the horror – Wolcott has killed Doris, and a terrified Carrie follows a few minutes later. When he emerges, and a clearly frightened Maddie asks what he’s done, he only says: “Something very expensive.” This may be the one moment that Wolcott and Maddie agree on the value of life – it is something whose loss can be papered over with enough currency, especially if is a whore’s. But when Maddie tries to ‘negotiate’ the terms of her payday, Wolcott ignores the gun she’s holding, and slits her throat as well.

Joanie in the meantime goes to the only harbor she knows, and tells Cy what has happened. After he leaves in a hurry, she goes to the bartender and Lila in order to get money and a carriage in order to try and save the three prostitutes she has left.

For the first time in the series, we see Tolliver truly shaken – whether it is because of the carnage, or the probability that his actions led to it is never clear – but it takes him a moment before he manages to go to Wolcott who hasn’t moved from his chair since he killed Maddie. He assures him he can handle the cleanup, tells Wolcott to go back to his hotel, and tries in his hobbled to way to assure him he’s his friend.

It’s say something – nothing good, though – as to how Tolliver is able to multitask. While Wolcott is engaging his homicidal fancy, he sends Leon and Con to destroy and savage Merrick’s printing press for his actions in the previous episode. Merrick spends most of the episode, instructing the camp’s new schoolteacher around, and he is clearly love-struck by her. When he finds out what happens he confronts Tolliver, who has just returned from the Chez Ami, and he doesn’t even bother going through the motions of denying what has happened.

While all of this is going on, Al has been making a rather remarkable recovery, one that impresses Doc so that he clears him to hold his meetings.  Very quickly, he becomes appraised of what exactly is going on in his absence (its rather remarkable to consider that only a few days have gone by since he was struck down). The most critical meeting comes when Miss Isringhausen comes to meet him, and engage in a conversation. Al may be physically ailing, but his mental capacities haven’t diminished one iota. It takes him less than two minutes to ferret out that Miss Isringhausen is a Pinkerton, that she’s been hired by Miss Garret’s in-laws, and that they’re offering $50,000 if he’ll implicate Alma in the murder of her husband. Miss Isringhausen doesn’t shrink from any of this, but the one whose clearly thrown by all this is Adams. He knows “Swearengen’s… not going to promote me”, but that doesn’t stop him from following up Isringhausen’s invitation to “Come up and fuck me”. It’s true she promises that she’ll answer any question he has, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’d probably have done it anyway.

The second, equally critical meeting, involves Al and Wu. By now, Mr. Lee has arrived with the Chinese whores that were promised in the previous episode. In an episode filled with horrors, the prostitutes arrive in a cage. Wolcott refers sarcastically to “an epic battle… like between the Sioux and the whites”, and no doubt expects his man to be the latter. Swearengen reluctantly convinces Wu that he has to meet “San Francisco cocksucker!”, and very quickly realizes the nature of his adversary, when he refuses a $20,000 bribe. By now, Swearengen is appraised from an understandably sweaty E.B. Farnum that Hearst is behind much of the machinations that are going on, and is very clear about the battle that he is going to have to lead.

Something critical happens at the beginning of this episode. Alma comes to Star and says she wants to form a bank. While this is going on, she has another episode of morning sickness. Ellsworth, who is acting as Alma’s second, reports this to Trixie, who very quickly manages to convince Ellsworth that he needs to ‘do the right thing’ in order to protect Bullock and his family from the shame that might come.

While this is going on, Bullock shows up at the hardware store, and Sol fills him on his meeting. When Seth learns the purpose of the meeting, he gets pissed at Sol for what he considers going behind his back. Sol, in a rare display of temper, gets equally angry and tells his friend to get out before they actually fight. Bullock storms out, and walks into Nutall’s saloon where he runs into Steve, who is still getting liquored up, and nursing the wounds from yesterday. When Bullock angrily admonishes him for his actions,  Steve stews, and Rutherford who appears to be yet another shit-stirrer, baits Steve into an attack on Bullock. Only a man with as disordered a mind as Steve could decide to make his attack a determination to do something truly unspeakable to Bullock’s horse.

In one of the few hysterical moments in a very dark episode, Hostettler comes upon Steve right as he’s finishing his horrible action. In a remarkable reversal from last night, he holds Steve in chains, and seems on the verge of killing him. The last person you’d expect emerges as Steve’s savior – N. General Fields. In order to save Steve’s life, he convinces him to sign a blackboard that says four words that could only come up on Deadwood: “I fucked Bullock’s horse.” Determined to get out of there with his life, he does so. Hostettler and the General also make peace, considering the message that Jane has obviously passed on to him from last episode.

 While this is going on, Bullock returns to the store, and makes peace with Sol, saying that the bank is a good idea and that he’d be a good choice as general operator. Sol, however, tells him that he thinks Alma is with child, and in the last scene, we see him at a dinner with Martha and William, his dinner mostly untouched, unable to engage in conversation. Like Trixie, he knows what’s coming and the consequences involved.

The last scenes of this episode feature Swearengen at the end of the day with the Doc assessing his general health as improved. Clearly exhausted, he still knows he has to reassume his position as erstwhile head of the camp, and while he needs Dan and Johnny to carry him there, he has enough strength to go on to his balcony, and hold his position there.

By chance or design, the exact moment he shows up on the balcony, Joanie has gotten the whores in one of Utter’s carriage, gives them the money, and tells them “never to come back”. As they ride out, Al’s and Joanie’s eyes meet, possibly for the first time since their initial meeting in the Bella Union. Neither clearly understands the nature of the ordeals they have gone through this day, but there is something in their shared glance that speaks volumes. Joanie just knows something horrible has happened. Al knows that something worse may be coming.