Deadwood "I Am Not the Fine Man You Take Me For" Review-3x02

“Change ain’t lookin’ for friends. Change calls the tune we dance to.”

I’m not sure Al fully gets George Hearst. Sure, it’s been demonstrated over and over again that he’s a shrewd political operator, a guy who knows exactly what people want, how they’ll act, and how he can wield influence over them. Hearst is different, though, and it seems like Al’s met his match with this new guy in town. If he so much as lays a finger on Mr. Hearst (haha I’m so funny, Al lost his finger get it), things are going to escalate quickly, and as the end of the episode demonstrates, things already are. The look on Al’s face says it all–I’m coming to get you, cocksucker–and there’s undoubtedly a part of him that is fist-pumping at the thought of having an excuse to get down in the mud with Hearst. In the premiere, he longed for the days when violence could serve as resolution, and nostalgia might now be turning into opportunity.

Nevertheless, this opportunity is not without its uncertainties, and there’s a nice parallel between the episode’s opening and closing scenes in this regard. At the beginning, the camera cuts between Al trying to sleep and a drunken hooplehead yelling about his problems from atop the thoroughfare, and at the end, that same spot formerly occupied by the hooplehead is now the spot for election speeches. One wonders whether that drunk dude is supposed to represent Al in some way, a part of him he tries to ignore, but a part of him that still bubbles with misgivings about the town moving forward (and about the elections he’s pushing). Alas, uncertainties come with the territory, and everyone in this town is just figuring shit out as they go along.

The Al-Hearst conflict seems to be the major thread of the season so far, but this episode has several lovely scenes surrounding that. For instance, Charlie talking to Joanie about Wild Bill is so beautiful my heart hurts. “Maybe, coming to verdict, credit others’ opinion of you like you do when you think of Bill,” Charlie tells her, and it’s such a nice way to tie history into a current character arc. Moments of connection like these are what really hammer home the show’s theme of community, and we get another one of those when Jane talks to Martha’s students about General Custer. It’s a fairly significant step for Jane, and it’s also a nice illustration of who Martha is and her capacity for connection. These characters are all dealing with change on personal and societal levels, and they’re figuring out how to live every day. Even if change calls the tune they dance to, though, they can still sometimes decide how they want to dance.

GRADE: A-

OTHER THOUGHTS:

-Cocksucker count: 4

Total cocksucker count: 241

– “If we was trailing water, we might get took for ducklings.”

– “Where is this strength coming from, that I feel flowing into me?” Powers Boothe is quite a delight in that scene.

-There are some nice feel-good moments in this episode, but one of the more difficult storylines to watch is what’s going on with Alma/Bullock/Ellsworth.

– “Count on me not to mince words. ‘Electors of the camp, as to who should serve as Mayor, reasonable men may differ, but as to who should be Sheriff, we all ought speak with one voice, and our words should be: turn out the maniac Bullock, who set upon the Mayor unprovoked, who beat him with merciless protraction. Bullock should be murdered! We should rise up and murder Bullock! Thank you very much.'”