Deadwood "Reconnoitering the Rim" Review (1x03)

“See, I’m the simple type cocksucker that when he sees lightning, readies for thunder. And takes the thunder if it comes from part of the same fuckin’ storm.”

Changes are coming to Deadwood. These changes ride into town in the form of the Bella Union crew, an established business right from the moment Cy, Joanie, and Eddie arrive. This is legitimate competition, capitalism, an influx of the structured civilization from outside the town of Deadwood, and when Cy and Al come into contact for the first time, we can see just how rocky this dynamic is going to be. “Cocksuckers,” Al angrily states about the new folk later on. “Where were they when Dan and me were chopping trees in this gulch?” He can be angry about it all he wants, but the simple fact is that he doesn’t have a stranglehold over the town anymore.

In that aforementioned first meeting, Cy brings the condescending tone throughout, and Al seems a bit flustered as he attempts to impress and to work out the details of the future. Cy looks down on him, Joanie responds with a simple “I speak French” to Al’s “Pardon my French”, and it’s established that the Bella Union crew caters to a different type of clientele. “As far as pussy, Al, we’ll want to let the market sort itself out.” Not what Al wants to hear at all, and an indication that lawlessness is moving closer and closer to some semblance of a modern civilization.

Through this idea, the episode also begins to shade in other sides to Al’s character. As commenter naturalcynic stated, the show “sets the foundation early on for making it hard to pin down an honest hero or villain”, and that’s exactly what we see with Al throughout “Reconnoitering the Rim”. “Short of burning it all down, you gotta trust someone,” E.B. advises, and Al begins to give it a try; the final scene–in which Al says “please” to Trixie–is a lovely encapsulation of this idea, and now that we’re able to hold Al up to someone like Tolliver, we start to wonder whether we can truly characterize anyone as “evil”. Based on “Deep Water”, one might say Al is the personification of evil, but here? No way.

Elsewhere in the episode, we get the end of Brom Garret by way of cliff-diving, and here, we see the end of a man who believes that danger will never catch up to him. He’s blind to the unofficial laws of Deadwood, unable to see that Al Swearengen is motherfuckin’ Al Swearengen, and if the Bella Union crew consists of people who know exactly what they must do to thrive in this town, then Brom Garret is the guy who waltzes into another country, snaps a few pictures, and then skips home. He’s the type of guy who stands by his wife’s bed, hoping she’ll wake up and take note of his impeccable appearance, but we see that Alma’s had enough of that shit. Garret deludes himself at every turn, and his idealized and romantic visions of the wild end up pushing him right off a cliff.

Speaking of idealized and romantic visions of someone else, “Reconnoitering the Rim” also brings us this era’s notions of celebrity. Wild Bill Hickok is still recognized quite a bit, but we see that he’s fading, that he spends quite a bit of time passed out on the stairs, that people are wishing death on him when they see him. There is not much room for Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, and as change arrives–as the Bella Union crew plants its flag and forces Al to scramble to keep control–it’s becoming clearer and clearer that he will simply fade away into the dust.

GRADE: B+

OTHER THOUGHTS:

– Cocksucker count: 11

Total cocksucker count: 30

– “Sure you wanna quit playin’, Jack? The game’s all that’s between you and gettin’ called a c**t. That drooped eye of yours looks like the hood of a c**t to me, Jack. When you talk, your mouth looks like a c**t moving.”

“I ain’t gonna get in no gunfight with you, Hickock.”

“But you will run your c**t mouth at me. And I will take it to play poker.”

-I want more of Ellsworth talking to his dog.

-I love the shot at the end of Trixie and Alma looking at each other from different balconies.