Post by Pear on Mar 14, 2015 11:33:17 GMT -5
“I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
I wrote a few episodes back about the plague being representative of–albeit through a negative lens–a community forming. After all, contagious diseases have a penchant for infecting a wide range of people, as long as they come into contact with each other. In “Plague”, we not only see that happening, but we also see a community forming in response to the disease, a community forming in order to combat it and kick it out of town. “We should do something together…us and several others,” Al states early on, and that is exactly what occurs throughout the rest of the episode.
And who better to spearhead this effort than Al Swearengen? Yes, there are business disadvantages surrounding a plague, but he recognizes that he and the town are of the same body, that any self-serving interests are in line with what’s good for the town as a whole. He handles the plague much differently than Cy does, calling a meeting that brings together prominent members of the town, sending out a party to retrieve the vaccine, and organizing a plague tent for those suffering from the disease. In addition, he essentially writes Merrick’s story for him, and this once again brings up the idea of necessary lies; sometimes, the truth must be fudged in order to better the greater good, and even though that’s an idea that can easily be taken too far, it’s something we see often in Deadwood. In addition, Alma, Joanie, Cy, and Eddie all engage in some form of deception elsewhere in the episode, and we start to see certain relationships both form and break as a result; it remains to be seen where this will take us.
Back to Al, though, who continues to exhibit kindness that we wouldn’t have expected right off the bat. He still has to take care of some shady things, but there are a few moments during which we realize that he has a softer side to him: him telling one of his prostitutes that she can “stick to handjobs for a day or two”, as well as the peaches scene. “Prescribe this malingerer a can of peaches, and show him the fucking door.” Furthermore, the show continues to set up contrasts between him and Cy, doing so through the Al-Trixie and Cy-Joanie dynamics: both men threaten the women in some form, but it seems like Al’s words are laced with considerably less menace than Cy’s: “That’s the way I always want to touch you, just like that. Don’t make me do it different.”
While this is all happening, Seth Bullock is out on his own, and he’s attacked by a Sioux warrior who is eventually killed in a brawl. This scene is notable not only for the beautiful imagery of the surrounding landscape and the savagery–contrasted later with the more civilized behavior of burying the man–we see brought out in Seth, but also for the connections we can draw to what’s happening in the rest of the episode. After all, if we look at history, we’ll know that many Native Americans were killed off by the plague, and whaddya know? The plague is here in Deadwood, a town on Sioux land. Perhaps these characters, even while forging a new path for themselves, are going to have their long histories catch up to them at some point.
GRADE: B+
OTHER THOUGHTS:
-Cocksucker count: 7
Total cocksucker count: 56
-Great acting by Molly Parker in the scene in which her character has to act.
-Bringing Jane, Trixie, Alma, and Sophia together in the same room makes for some really beautiful moments. For example, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”.
–“Be brief.” “BE FUCKED!”
–“Will you keep a girl company?” “I will…but I’m expensive.”
-Merrick: “Thanks also to the aforementioned merchants, the vaccine will be distributed gratis.”
Al: “Free gratis.”
Merrick: “Free gratis” is a redundancy.
Farnum: Does that mean, ‘repeats itself’?
Al: Then leave “gratis” out.
Merrick: What luck for me, Al, that you have such a keen editorial sense. “Free. Distributed free.” Period.
-“Truth is, as a base of operations, you cannot beat a fucking saloon.”