Deadwood Episode Guide: A Two-Headed Beast

Written by David Milch

Directed by Daniel Minahan

In a rare personal interjection to this guide, a short time past when I was engaged in compiling a list of the 50 greatest episodes of the 21^st century, and the time came to consider what entry from Deadwood would best suit the list’s needs, I ultimately came to a rest ‘A Two-Headed Beast’. There were many episodes that could have filled that void (in retrospect, ‘Boy-The-Earth-Talks-To’ might have been a better choice) but in many ways it is the best option, not because it best represents what makes the series great, but because it shows that it didn’t need the key element – Milch’s dialogue – to make it outstanding.

The major event of the episode deals with the tension between Dan and Hearst’s main representative, Captain Turner. Hearst uses the opportunity of meeting with Adams to have Turner call Dan in a coward and to carry the message to Dan. Dority is already pissed to no end, and this message sends him to a boil, to the point that when Al tells him to wait, Dan stops just short of calling him on his paralysis. Al then moves back to his quarters, and tries to figure things out, talking to the Chief:

Watching us advance on your stupid teepee, Chief, knowing that you had to make your move, did you not want first to fucking understand?

He then does he hasn’t done all season, and has a conversation with Farnum. By this point, E.B. has basically been put into exile by Al and his cohorts, who basically tell him when he shows up that the sale of his hotel has labeled him persona non grata, where he was barely tolerated before. (“We was never boon companions, E.B.”, Dan spits at him.) Al admits his utter inability to figure out what is going on in Hearst’s mind, and that he doesn’t know why he wants Turner and Dan to throw down. That said, he clearly doesn’t trust Farnum anymore, and basically sends him on his way.

Bullock is similarly angry at Hearst, albeit for a more direct reason. Another of the Cornish organizers is murdered, and if Hearst’s people were barely being subtle in their actions before, they’re now flaunting it by leaving the third man’s body in the thoroughfare with a knife in his chest. Bullock storms into the Gem saying that he plans to act against Hearst. Al persuades him to wait a bit (at this point, Adams is basically speaking for him). He doesn’t know that by doing so, he will be a practically impossible situation impossible to resolve.

Al then finally says that he can’t figure out what to do, so he tells Dan: “Go and fight.” In the preparations, Johnny offers to shoot Turner if things go wrong,  Dan basically tells him, he’ll kill Johnny if that happens. Turner and Hearst have a polite conversation (one of the few Hearst has with a man he clearly respects), with the understanding that they’ve done this before and will be over quick.

The fight that unfolds is the centerpiece of the episode, and unlike any that would unfold on the series, or for that matter, in television before or since.  It puts to shame all the choreographed ballets of so many of the battles such as The Matrix  and indeed, like so many of the ones we were seeing on 24 and Alias at the same time.  This isn’t Asian kung fu, this is a street brawl, and its fricking ugly. As Milch himself would put it about Dority and Turner: “They are champions who represent their masters and both men are stripped bare in their fighting.” All of the mud and filth that is the camp, Dan and Turner are literally rolling around it, and it is telling that even in a place where violence is second nature, no one even tries to interfere with what is happening. The resident may not know why this is going on, but they see Hearst in his veranda, and Al on his balcony, and they know that this is a clash of titans.

By the end of the fight, both men are throwing punches from their gut. Turner momentarily gains the advantage on Dan, but he looks to Hearst to give him a signal, and he doesn’t get it. Dan takes the advantage to gouge an eye out of its socket, and after Al gives the signal that Hearst failed to, Dan puts Turner out of his misery.

In the aftermath, Dan literally sits alone in his room. He refuses to let the Doc treat him, and when Johnny asks to bring him a bottle or a whore, he refuses them to. Johnny is so concerned that he visits Swearengen near the end of the episode:

JOHNNY: I wish you’d look in on Dan, boss, not for being poorly as down.

SWEARENGEN: Johnny. Some shit’s best walked through alone.

JOHNNY: Dan’s killed people before, and you have too, and neither been solitary after.

SWEARENGEN: Fair fight – something Dan and I both look to avoid – the light goes out their eyes, it’s just you and death.

Al is still contemplative, and does something rare and asks Johnny to sit with him: “to see what hell breaks loose.”

And to understand just what kind of hell breaks loose, we must go back to the Sheriff.  He has followed through with Sol’s idea, and has arranged for both Hostetler and Fields to sign their names to the loan simultaneously. Hostetler and Steve go to the bank, and follow through with the rest of the procedure. (Everyone is so on edge in the payout that none of them seem to notice that Alma is clearly not herself. She seems to know that a handshake would be a bad idea, and not only does she ask for it, she spent several seconds waiting. The only one who picks up on it is Trixie.) But even this fails when Steve demands the chalkboard where several months ago, he wrote ‘I fucked Bullock’s horse’.

What happens next is a clear symbol of just how implacable even the possibility of civilization is in the camp. Bullock, Steve, Fields and Hostetler spend hours searching the livery for the board, which Fields hid months ago. When they finally find it, the writing has been worn away by time. Steve refuses to accept as the actual board, and Hostetler driven to extremes tells Steve angrily: “I will not be called a fucking liar. I did not live my life for that.” Even given that, no one expects Hostetler to put a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger.

Bullock, seeing his efforts at reconciliation end so tragically, decides to act against Hearst. And in his typical way of acting, he has done so at the worst possible time. Hearst enters the Bella Union looking subdued for the only real time in the series. He goes to the bar, and asks for “Whiskey please, leave the bottle, I just saw to a friend’s remains.”  He then introduces himself to Jack the bartender, treating him with none of the arrogance we have come to associate with him. Tolliver comes in, hears to what has happened, and in a rare moment of subtlety for him, actually fulfills to duty of a bartender as sympathetic ear, with no hidden agenda. There is the briefest of moments when we actually think this mind end peacefully.

The Bullock storms in and provokes Hearst. All of Hearst’ placidity fades away in an instant:

HEARST: When I say to fuck yourself, Sheriff, will you lay that to drunkenness or a high estimate of your athleticism?

BULLOCK: Did you just tell me to fuck myself?

HEARST: I think I did, and to shut up or I’ll quiet you myself.

BULLOCK: You’re under arrest.

HEARST: Fuck you, and shut up or I’ll shut you up for good.

BULLOCK: Threatening a peace officer. I’m taking you into custody.

In a rare moment of lucidity, Tolliver tells Bullock not to be stupid. Bullock ignores him and drags him out of the Gem and down the thoroughfare. Swearengen, watching with Johnny, says: “The sheriff eliminates several of our options.” The two men at complete loggerheads for the length of the series know just how huge a mistake Bullock has made, but it’s unlikely either could have stopped him.

The last real domino in these events involves Alma. In an interview with Merrick discussing the bank, and in the scene the exchange of title involving Hostetler and Steve, only Trixie seems able to tells that Alma is clearly high.  She’s still stewing over it when she comes to see Sol later that night. She finally reaches the limits of it when we see her mixing opium that night, and then making a weak attempt to seduce Ellsworth. In a critical moment, she moves the mirror opposite her bed, so she doesn’t her performance with Ellsworth in it. Her husband, however, is to clear-headed to be fooled by this, and when it happens, not only does he reject her, he effectively ends their sham of a marriage.

Earlier in the episode, Tolliver confronts Leon and reads that he has been feeding his habit. He misreads the situation, and assumes that he has been copping for Lila, who is still on the needle. Threatened with pain, Leon confirms he’s been getting drugs for Alma.  Tolliver now has information that can be used to get Hearst what he wants, and given what happens at the end of the episode, there is every inclination that in doing so, he will lay the entire camp to ruin.