Prviously on AMC's Hell On Wheels...
When the board arrives they may see that I have misled the government.
I simply need you to back me up.
Mr. Durant's in custody.
Mr. Bohannon, will you finish this road?
You and me made that.
You can't have no black baby.
You mean your baby.
No! Ahhh!
You made it so easy... to take her from you.
You're an evil son of a bitch.
Good day.
Whoa!
Cullen.
It's been a long winter, son.
Stretch out on your bunk.
Get some sleep.
Go away, doc.
You a... you ain't real.
You ain't real.
Your candle is burning low, Cullen.
Soon it's gonna go out.
That's just the wind.
What that was, that was just the wind.
Uhh!
Get on out of here!
Get out of here, you miserable son of a bitch!
Get off my damn railroad.
Off my damn railroad.
Sparky?
Hell On Wheels 03x01,2 Part 1 - Big Bad Wolf; Part 2 - Eminent Domain Originally Aired August 10, 2013
==sync, correction by dcdah== for www.addic7ed.com
You know where there's a nigger with a marked-up white woman?
He'she's down there behind the sawmill.
I'll be damned.
Yup.
Heard you froze up solid.
Thanks for looking in.
Shut the door!
Woman's suffering.
Baby near?
Mmhmm.
Baby's gonna come whether you're here or not.
What the hell that's supposed to mean?
I need you to come with me to New York.
Railroad business.
Right now I ain't got no stake in no railroad.
Well, I'm the railroad boss, and this here's a railroad town.
Come with me now or you don't be here when I come back through.
Take your talk outside, please.
What is it you want me to do?
Watch over me while I sleep.
Against who?
Some you can see, some you can't.
You lost your mind in that snow.
You crazy.
On the contrary, my negro friend...
I have never been thinking more clearly.
Say your piece, get your coat.
Train's waiting.
I heard.
Go.
- I can't leave you like this. - Well, he's right.
The baby's gonna come either way.
Yeah.
- I wanna be here for it. - I said go.
Birthing ain't a man's business.
Best thing you can do is get us a job.
Mm.
Hey, boy.
The negro car's two cars down.
This is where I aim to be.
Now, don't make me throw you off this train.
It's all right. He's mine.
How come you show up now?
Stopped snowing.
What the hell happened to your ear?
Some trespassers.
Come on.
Mr. Bohannon?
I'm Clement Beale, Secretary of Credit Mobilier.
Good, you got my telegram. Let's go.
Mr. Bohannon, I'm afraid you've made a trip for naught.
What do you mean "for naught"?
The board of Credit Mobilier
and the Undersecretary of Railroads
has already filled the position of Chief Engineer last month.
I tried answering your telegram.
- I knew this was snakebit. - Now hold on.
Senator Howard hisself offered me that job last fall.
Senator Howard lost his bid for reelection.
Frankly, Mr. Bohannon,
word came back to us that you didn't survive the winter.
- Word was wrong. - Yes, well, thankfully so,
but the decision has already been made.
I'm here to unmake it.
Is Durant back in? Is that it?
No. Mr. Durant is still in Hudson Prison.
Show me a train back to Omaha.
You hold your damn horses.
You take me to see Durant right now.
I won't if this is a vendetta.
Not all at once it ain't.
I'll have some hot water for tea.
A visitor, Mr. Durant.
Hmm?
Good God.
I thought you were dead.
Yet here I stand.
And what the hell are you doing here?
Oh, wait, don't tell me. No.
- You've come to gloat. - No, sir.
No.
No. Gloating is not in your character,
is it, Bohannon?
Too much integrity.
That was always your problem.
I came to ask for help.
Haven't you heard?
I'm ruined.
There's nothing I could possibly do for you.
Even if I wanted to.
Union Pacific offered me a job,
and they gave it to someone else.
I need you to tell 'em I'm their man.
I need you to vouch for me.
Vouch for you?
Those spineless, myopic weasels
are in no mood to listen to me.
You've lost your nerve.
Not so sure you actually can run the railroad.
And once upon a time,
I told you that you could.
That's why you're here. You're scared.
I came to see you behind bars for what you done.
There was a time you could have done it.
When I was your champion.
When I was your advocate.
Now look at you.
You're tragic.
Your hour has passed.
Your railroad will fail without me.
It's no longer my railroad.
For now.
The board won't accept you.
You wanna know why?
Because you are not one of us.
You will never be from Massachusetts or New York.
You will always be from Mississippi.
You suffer from a preposterous miscalculation
of possibilities.
Like all southerners, you're deluded.
And you smell.
What type of dressing are you requiring today?
Business.
What type of business might it be?
Railroad, but cut the top and the overcoat,
so I can wear this. Very good.
Maybe an open frock with a Fuller waist?
Sounds right. Inch or two of the cuff showing,
neat in the pants, and I dress to the left.
And the gentleman's gentleman?
How come I gotta be a gentleman's gentleman?
Why can't I be a gentleman plain?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, he's right.
War's given the negro the right to decide what he wants, so...
What type of suit will you have, sir?
Let's see.
That one there, I can afford.
Yeah, I like that one.
Make that one up for me.
The black man chooses, and the white man pays.
It's a new reckoning of the world, Mr. Collier.
That it is, Mr. Bohannon.
And you, sir?
What side do you dress on?
What you mean what side I dress on?
Psst. Hey.
Thank you, Mr. Bohannon.
And when you're hiring men for your railroad,
don't forget your Irish kinsmen.
When I land this job, I'll need two or three.
That's for sure. Hundred?
- Thousand. - Ah.
The man you'll need to see is Three-Piece Duffy
down at the Points.
He knows all the railroad men.
If you're with the Union Pacific, he'll find ya.
He ain't with nobody.
He barely with me.
Oh, Mr. Bohannon.
Burn it.
But shoot it first.
I think I dress to the right.
Cullen Bohannon. The board's expecting me.
Elam Ferguson.
This way, sir.
Mr. Bohannon.
We appreciate all you've done for the railroad.
Both Doc Durant and the late Mrs. Lily Bell
spoke highly of your achievements and abilities.
Let's go to it then.
The job of Chief Engineer and Senior Vice President
of Union Pacific has been awarded to someone else.
Yes, sir.
And I aim for it to be mine
before I walk out that door.
- What's it a question of? - Vision.
And temperament.
Someone whose pedigree speaks to getting things done
in Washington as well as out on the plains.
Have you ever been to Washington, Mr. Bohannon?
I am familiar.
Well, then you know
that even at the highest levels,
it's dog eat dog.
This man you hired, he's a real dog fighter then?
He comes with my personal recommendation.
He was the Chief Engineer
of the Westwood and Upclair Railway.
Yeah, that sounds like a Shortline Railroad to me.
16 miles, but he oversaw
the building of two major trestles.
Yes, your son-in-law comes well-appointed.
Especially with your new role
as Undersecretary of the Railroad.
And he's a veteran.
Fought with Black Dave Hunter on the winning side.
All due respect, I don't doubt your son-in-law's ability
to build pretty Bridges over stony brook streams,
but that's not what we're facing
out west at the moment.
Is this the best map you have?
- It's current. - It's not very accurate.
Here's where we are.
Plains extend here.
Here's the beginning of the red desert.
Now we'll be good along here.
Plenty of grazing for our feed cattle,
mild weather.
Here's where we start running out of water.
I've drawn up some designs... For water cars.
Here are some designs for dormitory cars.
Keep the men out of the elements, healthier,
more productive.
Who will build these?
We'll build 'em together,
just like we'll build this railroad.
Now here we start hitting real Indian country hard.
Shoshone, Crow, Kiowa... some friendly, some not.
Oh, um, your son-in-law,
has he ever been in Indian territory?
We've started stockpiling rail and ties here,
waiting for the Missouri to thaw.
Mmmm, river's already breaking up here South.
Saw it myself coming over.
Central Pacific was able to work
through most of the winter.
Collis Huntington
has put them ahead of schedule.
Then the race is on, gentlemen.
No time to waste.
Now this...
These are plans for organizing the rail-layers and tie crews.
Think we can get more steel laid.
Probably 30% more steel
if we follow these regimens.
Were we to take you on in some capacity,
you'd be paid in U.P. stock.
We feel that that would make your involvement
more of a personal investment.
Congressman Ames...
I'm already more invested than you'll ever know.
There's a lot of graves along this railroad,
marked and unmarked.
Some I laid to rest myself and some... time or two.
Point is...
I make no apologies for my temperament.
Mr. Bohannon, I believe you're bleeding.
Surely not from shaking hands with a shaving razor.
Wolves, actually.
The kind that bite.
Why don't you shake hands with the new Chief Engineer
of the Union Pacific railroad?
I'd rather shake hands with the devil.
You may well before this is over.
You made 'em think I was your Butler or something?
I did, and it worked.
Got the job.
Now we got men to hire. Let's go.
I don't like this at all.
Safer back home with them Indians.
Meet me back at the hotel if we get split up.
I'm on you like a tick.
Show these lads their place of employ.
Caught a musket ball at a bowery party the other night.
It's festering a bit.
"Either the ball comes out or the leg comes off,"
says the barber.
Pardon the smell.
I'm Cullen Bohannon,
- new Chief Engineer of the... - I know who you are...
And who you're pretending to be.
No pretense, Mr. Duffy.
- I'm in need of railroad workers. - I know, I know.
Who the hell do you think put the last two years
on to Durant's pay but was me?
I was hoping we could maintain it similar.
Pleased with the quality of men, were ya?
For the most part.
"For the most part."
Thems were the Creme de La Creme I sent Durant.
Not the, uh, consumptive or the weak-backed.
I winnowed 'em clean.
You know why?
Mr. Durant's a fine man.
He backs up his word with solid gold.
Locked away in prison now.
Because of Tatterducks.
They're jealous of his acumen.
The man's a genius.
Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Bohannon?
Well... reckon even a genius
can run afoul of the law, Mr. Duffy.
$1,000 in gold coins
for each lot of 500 men boarded at the station.
McFee counts 'em for me.
Maybe you can have your nigger there count 'em for you.
That is, of course, if he can count
beyond his fingers and toes.
The ones that fall off the train
or that arrive with rigor mortis are not my concern.
It's called attrition, according to Mr. Durant.
Something pretty you wanna say to me, boy?
The day it's just me and you
is the day your Irish luck run out.
You gonna let your nigger
speak to me that way, Mr. Bohannon?
He ain't my nigger.
So when do you think you'll be able
to send out the first shipment of men?
Let us see your gold.
I wouldn't show you how much money even if I had it on me.
So you come around here wasting my time,
not planning to commence business?
Mr. Durant would never do that.
How much coin do you have on you?
Not enough to trouble you, Mr. Duffy.
It's no trouble at all, sir.
Whatever you have on you will recompense me
for speaking with you today.
See, I'm a fine judge of character, Mr. Bohannon,
and I can tell you have no interest
in dealing with me or my enterprise.
Now that's the first truth you spoke since we met.
Now me and my friend here, we're gonna back out slow,
and this'll be done.
Boy, don't you ever step out of line like that again.
Don't go for my gun.
Like to got us killed.
Well, you should have let me have a gun.
My grandpappy was right about you people.
You mean when he owned us?
Tore a thousand-acre plantation out of nothing,
he did.
Well, you tell your grandpappy
we a free people now.
- You tell him that. - Free?
Well, shit.
Don't you go telling me about your freedom, son.
I know all about it.
I'm the one that paid full price for.
You may be free, but you sure as shit ain't my equal.
Take 'em off.
Oh, yeah?
All right.
Shh. Might be the landlady.
Come in.
Mr. Beale.
Mr. Bohannon.
Telegram.
Actually, it's for Mr. Ferguson.
Thank you, sir.
Yeah, he can read.
He's also a free man, in case you hadn't heard.
Eva had the baby.
Yeah.
What is it?
There you go talking that again.
I meant is it a boy or girl?
Don't say.
Boy's fine. Girl's sweet too.
- Just say it's healthy. He- y.
You remember this minute, all right?
Might only come once.
Yes, sir.
I got me a baby.
I'm sorry for the things I've done.
And... for the things I left undone.
Feeling like I bit off more than I can chew, you know?
Course you do.
Take off your gun!
We'll have no guns in the house of the Lord.
This is not a shooting gallery, sir.
Reverend Corner.
It's me, Cullen Bohannon.
You married me and Mary Elizabeth Tate here
back in '56.
Uh...
We... we don't recognize you.
You're welcome to stay and pray with us,
but...
You'll have to leave the guns outside.
Good day to y'all then.
I did what I was supposed to do.
I voted against Bohannon.
Your job was not to vote against Bohannon.
Your job was to get everyone else to vote against Bohannon!
He was very compelling.
Well, you tell that to your constituents
when the Union Pacific bankrupts your state coffers.
You promised that wouldn't happen.
No
No.
Not when I could run things
through that cloddish son-in-law of yours.
You have got to get me out of here.
Thomas, I don't think I can get you out of here.
We frankly have run out of friendly judges.
There's always some new appointee,
some... someone freshly elected,
a holder of a lien,
a witness with a faulty memory.
Perhaps a Peeping Tom or a chambermaid with a tail.
Now you listen to me, you pissant!
Your fall will be far greater than mine
if Bohannon is not stopped
and I am not returned the railroad.
I understand.
Good.
Looks a lot like Durant's old car.
It is Durant's old car, just refurbished.
Better sleeping quarters, heating throughout.
Can we get a cot in here or something for Mr. Ferguson
for the ride back to Omaha?
I loaned Mr. Ferguson money for passage on the negro car.
Mr. Huntington.
Collis Huntington, head of Central Pacific.
Whoa.
I'm glad I caught you, sir. Been wanting to meet you.
Especially when I heard you weren't dead.
Mr. Beale, may I have a moment with Mr. Bohannon, please?
The package on the desk contains your issued stock.
Thank you, Mr. Beale.
You're being paid in stock
because the Union Pacific's lenders
have closed their books.
Government's guaranteeing us.
Government's in chaos.
Senate wants to impeach the president for reconstruction.
The house is investigating him
for the assassination of Lincoln.
There'll be no new vote
on railroad funding until next session.
In short, Mr. Bohannon, you and your railroad are broke.
Got stockpiles in Missouri.
I'll be in Wyoming by fall.
No, you won't, Mr. Bohannon, regardless of your pace.
I was making 2 mile a day.
Sometimes 5 when the work was good.
You know what progress I'm making?
- Hmm? - 12 a day.
12 miles?
12 inches a day.
Through solid granite.
Now that may not sound like much,
but I'm almost through the sierras.
And I just received 5,000 pounds of Nitroglycerin
and 11,000 Chinamen who do not get sick
and are happy to work with half pay.
Now I am backed by the Bank of England,
funded by all the tons of glittering gold
found in the streams of California.
It's the Golden State, Mr. Bohannon.
Looking forward to meeting you there at the border then.
Oh, you haven't read the papers, sir.
My friends in congress have just voted
to lift my building restrictions.
Now, once I'm through the mountains, it's all downhill.
I intend to cross the California border
and be in your camp before you know it.
The stretch between Nebraska and California is mine.
No, sir, it belongs to whomever can cross it first.
Now, based on your reputation,
I'm offering you a chance to cross it with me,
but from the west, and you'll be paid in gold.
Not in some worthless paper.
Huh.
Well, I... Already gave my word
to the gentleman at Credit Mobilier,
and that's about all I got left, so...
Board.
All aboard.
Chicago, Omaha,
and all points west.
It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bohannon.
Board!
Hmm.
Omaha! The stop is Omaha.
Well... look at you.
How you feeling?
She came out kicking and tearing.
- She? - Mm-hmm.
Can I see her?
Yeah.
She's moving all right.
- You all right? - Yeah.
You can't tell much with newborns.
They're all wrinkled up
and splotchy-looking.
She's beautiful.
Thank you.
She like her daddy.
I'm glad you're back.
Ladies.
Aye, Mr. Bohannon.
You look great. How was New York?
It was an open sewer, Mr. McGinnes.
Mm.
My new hat don't fit me either.
Welcome back, sir.
We're all very excited about, um, our new prospects west,
aren't we, girls? Yes.
It'll be a few more days before we ship out.
We need to collect some crews.
Actually, um...
Once the word got back that you're the new Chief Engineer,
workers started coming in from all over,
began loading up the trains.
That's a nice vote of confidence, I would say.
Wouldn't you, Mr. Bohannon?
When do we roll out?
At your leisure and signal.
Sir.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Bohannon.
Freedmen ready to get to work?
Hmm, damn lowlife scrabble hereabouts
taking all our hard-saved railroad money.
- Mm? - Mm-hmm.
Treating us like it's backsliding times.
- Mm-mm. - Yes, sir.
Anywhere but here.
- Even Hell On Wheels? - Hmm.
Sound like heaven when you say it.
Don't forget your man Psalms here when you make
your, uh, Walking Boss list, huh?
There's a lady on the cowcatcher, Mr. Bohannon.
Alive or dead?
I'm not sure what's going on.
Say, Mr. Bohannon, is that, um...
Is that Sparky's pipe?
Was.
Ruth?
I'm so sorry, Mr. Bohannon.
I was gathering my thoughts for a prayer before we set off.
You can pray with me if you want.
I'll leave you in charge of that department.
Heavenly Father,
You have given us a vision of this railroad
which will bind our nation.
Lord Christ, when you came among us,
you proclaimed God's Kingdom
in towns and lonely places such as these.
Grant that your presence be known
as this railroad is built across this land.
Have mercy on those who labor on it.
Send us honest and able leaders.
May peace prevail with righteousness,
justice with order, and help us eliminate poverty,
oppression along the way.
And especially eliminate evil.
All this we ask
in God's Holy name.
Amen.
I see why they call this place "Hell On Wheels."
Rough men, loose women,
whiskey, sin, and guns.
It ain't a church social, ma'am.
I'm not sure your bosses at Credit Mobilier
would want me to put that in the newspaper.
What is it that holds you to this enterprise, Mr. Bohannon?
Every piece of steel we lay
puts us closer to somewheres else.
That's about all I can say.
So it's more personal than just laying rail.
You're the writer. Ho!
Mr. Bohannon, people of this country
believe the railroad is robbing the National Treasury.
My job is to dissuade my readers of that notion.
Unfortunately, our brief interview
was not enough to dissuade me.
And it ain't my job to fix what people think.
In fact, it is.
You are the face of the Transcontinental Railroad now.
And either this is a brave and noble endeavor,
or it's Sodom and Gomorrah.
Which is it?
The sooner you help me accurately report
what's going on out here, the sooner I can leave
and make both our lives less miserable.
And for the record, I covered the war '63 to '65.
I know the difference between hell and a church social.
What more you need to see?
Everything.
Come on then.
♪ That I ever did see ♪ that I ever did see
♪ she was born in Jackson, baby ♪
♪ raised in New Orleans
grading crews work ahead of the tie-layers.
100 miles west, surveyors lay out the route.
- How many men do you have? - Near 3,000.
Work six days a week, sunup, sundown.
$1.50 a day. Them's good wages.
How many miles do you make a day?
Two now, weather and Indians permittin'.
Rust eaters lay the rails.
Walking boss makes sure the gauge is right.
Spiker teams secure the rails to the ground.
Fish-plates tie them together.
3 swings of the hammer per spike,
10 spikes per rail, 400 rails to a mile,
1,500 miles to Sacramento.
Do you really believe you can win the race
against the Central Pacific to build this road?
Wouldn't be here otherwise.
You think you can do it
without Thomas Durant's political connections?
Without his money, his ego to drive it on?
Well, here I stand, and here he don't.
- Excuse me. - One more question.
Why you?
Each car sleeps 60 men.
Keeps them out of the weather and close to the work.
Lady coming through.
Who designed these cars?
Mostly me.
Yeah, I'm still working out the ventilation.
Mmhmm.
Two weeks ago, these men were starving, out of work,
straight off the boats in New York.
My newspaper has reported Irish labor bosses
conscripting them out here for a fee.
How is that any different from indentured servitude?
Union Pacific offers free rail passage
and a week's wages on arrival.
We got more applicants than we got work.
Really?
Your idea again?
Didn't much care for the labor bosses I met in New York.
New cemetery runs from the sawmill
up to the Ridge line.
Ain't a day goes by we don't put some one or two
in the ground up there, most from railroad mishaps.
And the others?
Spare time mishaps.
Is that where the fair-haired maiden of the west is buried?
No, she's buried in a wild flower field she liked.
- Did you know her? - A bit.
Well, you must've known her better than that
if you knew where she wanted to be buried.
Mrs. Bell should've left Hell On Wheels
when she had the chance.
This ain't no place for a lady,
less'n she's a whore.
I can assure you, Mr. Bohannon,
I am neither a lady nor a whore.
Figured you'd have to be a little bit of both
being a newspaper woman.
Get outta here.
Huh.
You figured wrong.
You Bohannon?
I am.
Keep your railroad off my property.
I won't tell you again.
Where'd they come from?
No idea.
Train for Omaha leaves in an hour.
I expect you won't wanna miss it.
Howdy.
Who are you?
You come pawin' around for turmoil,
you best think twice, friend.
This is my office.
Mr. Ferguson.
Dick Barlow. Just arrived from Omaha.
Didn't Mr. Bohannon tell you to expect me?
No.
What you want in here?
Well, I can tell by looking, you ain't short a hat size,
so I guess you know.
I'm new Chief of Railroad Police.
You work for me now.
Coffee?
My grandpap taught me how to make it.
The trick is not to over-boil.
And, of course, the sock.
Now, uh, I use a clean one.
But pap swore the riper the sock,
the richer the brew.
I like a dollop of fresh cream in mine,
but it ain't real regular I come across it.
And kicking don't get you nowhere less'n you're a mule.
So mostly, I just take mine black.
Mr. Bohannon ain't said nothing
about me working for nobody.
Well, it ain't no good cold now.
Go on.
That's it.
Mm.
That'll get your hair out of the butter every time.
Don't want no trouble.
- Came to talk. - What about?
Think you know.
Come ahead.
You survive the war?
- I did. - You a Johnny Reb?
Yes, sir. Yeah, I was.
So you know a little about what it's like,
somebody comes, takes your land.
Everything I had's been took.
Indians killed my father and my brother,
his wives and kids.
My wives and I, we buried 'em on the same hill
I pulled our surveyor stakes out of.
My family bled for this land, Mr. Bohannon,
carved this place out of a wilderness nobody wanted.
It is by Heavenly Father's decree
that we are here, and it shall be by His will,
not yours, that we leave.
Even God can't stop the railroad, Mr. Hatch.
It would destroy all we built,
take away our home.
Mm.
You have my word.
You'll get a square deal.
Now, now, that's the best I can do.
- Could go around. - Boy.
Ain't nothin' but wilderness and Lamonites out here, father.
I said that's enough.
You will excuse my son's manners.
He's got some growing still to do.
Tell you what. Um...
Let me see if my surveyors can't find a way around.
Now, that... that's not a promise.
Ift can't be done, you'll still have to move.
But it don't cost nothing to try.
Well, a journey through these lands
at this hour is a foolish one, Mr. Bohannon.
You are welcome to stay till morning.
Much obliged.
Seen me a Mormon man killed once.
Liberty, Missouri...
During the war.
As if them white folk didn't have enough to fight about,
county sheriff run him through with a sword
on account of him being a "Palgemist."
Yep, they didn't like them no "Palgemists"
in Liberty, Missouri.
Like they Mormons didn't like them no negroes.
Yeah. They a nasty bunch.
I think you mean "polygamist."
What'd I say?
"Palgemists."
Well, I knew it was something like that.
Why a man gotta get hisself killed
over being a polygamist?
It's the custom of having more than one wife
at the same time.
More than one wife, you say?
At the same time?
Well, damn. No wonder they nasty.
Sand, mud, lime.
Soil like that no good for the grade, boss.
Take a lot of lumber to build it.
Yeah, rock wall be better, but that take time
and rock, which we ain't got.
I've surveyed several routes through here, Mr. Bohannon.
Sand hills stretch at least a hundred miles to the north.
We'd have to go South to get around that farm.
- How far? - 40 mile, maybe more.
40 mile'll put us behind schedule by five weeks.
Yes, sir.
I met the new police chief.
You ain't happy, track runs both ways.
Where's the livestock? It's complicated.
Tell you what's complicated, son.
3,000 hungry men.
What I mean is
I've been on the job for two days.
And deciphering these books is quite the task.
Near as I can tell,
Mr. Durant formed several companies
to supply livestock to the railroad.
Now that he's departed,
the contracts have been canceled.
Then find some other damn place, Sean.
Council Bluffs, Denver, shit, Chicago...
I would, um, but it seems that Mr. Durant has,
in addition to canceling our contracts
with his companies,
cornered the market on livestock in Omaha as well.
Shit!
Should've killed that son of a bitch when I had the chance.
May I quote you on that, Mr. Bohannon?
You don't say nothing to her about railroad business.
- You hear me? - Yes, sir.
- Still here? - Missed my train.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Oh.
We missed you at services this morning, Mr. Bohannon.
Was there something I can help you with?
Thought I'd look in is all.
You gave us a good place...
High, dry ground upwind of the slaughterhouse.
- Thank you. - It's good.
It's good for the men, I mean.
And you?
Oh. Sorry.
Uh...
Railroad has to move a family of homesteaders off their land.
They're digging in. And, uh, they're Mormon.
I wonder if you've had any cause to know
what they might be like as people.
The Latter Day Saints are not
a legitimate Church of Christ.
They treat their women as slaves.
They take child brides.
They're a violent people.
They'll fight then, you think?
It has been their way. Yes.
They got children with 'em.
Then you'll find another way.
By God's Grace.
God's been slack with the Grace of late.
Then show them yours, Mr. Bohannon.
What I'm proposing is a major new commercial hub,
the most important railroad city in the United States.
And it will be right here in your backyard.
That is literally my backyard.
You see that pretty confluence of good sweet-water streams?
Well, it ain't much, but it's on my land.
My husband left me all of this when he passed in '62.
Well, it may be your land now, madam.
But the Union Pacific Railroad
will reach it before the year is out.
And, through eminent domain, they will claim it.
That's against the law.
It is the law.
And by law,
the Union Pacific is compelled to offer you
a fair market price for your land,
currently $1.50 an acre.
- I'd never sell for that. - And you won't have to.
Because as a representative
and major stockholder of Credit Mobilier,
I am prepared to offer you $100 per acre,
thus waiving eminent domain.
- What's the rub? - Ah, well...
In order to waive eminent domain,
we must build a railroad terminus
and a town on the property,
which we will.
Every pound of beef, every ton of ore,
every fruit, vegetable, every bale of hay
from either side of the Mississippi
must ship through our town.
You will become rich beyond your wildest dreams.
Weren't you in jail just a month ago?
- Yes. - And you're broke,
according to the newspapers.
Flat broke.
Well, how do you expect to pay us
for our property then?
From construction funds
advanced to me by the Union Pacific Railroad.
You were kicked off Union Pacific for stealing.
Union Pacific, Credit Mobilier,
different pockets to the same pair of pants.
When the judge understood that, I was released.
You're in Omaha now, New York.
Money won't buy you judges here.
Opportunity is a powerful elixir, Mrs. Palmer.
Right.
So you're borrowing money you don't have
from a company you don't work for
to buy property you can't afford
to build a city that doesn't exist.
Spearheading, as it were.
A new way of doing business in America.
If all difficulties were known
at the outset of a long journey, Mr. McGinnis,
few of us would ever embark at all.
A whiskey for my young friend.
Have you got the money?
I'm very uneasy about this.
If Mr. Bohannon finds out...
You are doing nothing wrong.
You are managing railroad funds,
and you are managing them well.
Have you got something else for me?
This is the, uh, telegraph routing code
for the Union Pacific.
You'll be able to eavesdrop
on all of Mr. Bohannon's business.
Excellent.
Will you be paying me today, Mr. Durant?
All in due time, Mr. McGinnis.
Oh, don't look so glum.
My current situation is but a temporary setback.
History always sides with a winner.
Where are you off to so fast?
Excuse me, I'm...
Um...
Uh, stop, no.
Ow, let me go.
Give us a kiss first.
What?
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Please, please.
Not like this. Let's go to my room, huh?
I got us a bottle we can share.
Touch me again, it'll be your throat!
Bloody whore.
My grandpap,
a dough puncher from way back,
taught me surest way to a woman's heart
by way of her stomach.
By God, if that wasn't certain with my Tess.
You married, Mr. Ferguson?
Some could call it that.
Kids?
Got me a new baby girl.
Nothing like a new baby to make a man count his blessings
and keep them close.
I got five youngsters, all girls,
if you want to know.
The oldest one's 12 going on 40.
That little girl of mine, she beautiful.
I look in her eyes, and she melt my heart.
But her mama afraid this job gonna get me killed.
She think that baby ain't gonna have no daddy to bring her up.
How's the coffee?
It's better the second day.
It's the sock.
Need you boys to ride out and tell them homesteaders
there's no way around the land.
This here's the writ of eminent domain.
Let them know the government pays $1.50 an acre.
Railroad will throw in another dollar.
Let 'em know that's more than fair, all right?
Yes, sir.
Oh, you do the talking.
Mormons ain't keen on negroes.
Finish your coffee, Mr. Ferguson.
I got to visit the necessary.
Then we'll be on our way.
They said he was a hell-raiser,
but my pap was a lazy son of a bitch by the time I knew him.
Fact, one time when I was, oh, nine...
Don't you ever stop talking?
No, sir, I do not.
Out here, a quiet man is twice as likely as a noisy one
to have his beard clung to by a bear.
I intend to keep my scalp.
Maybe they're gone.
No, they ain't gone.
Horses still in the barn.
Keep your gun close.
You see our cinch getting frayed,
start shooting.
Hello!
Anybody home?
Mr. Hatch?
State your business!
I'm Dick Barlow, Chief of Police,
Union Pacific Railroad.
Think you know why we're here.
I already told the other one, we ain't leaving.
You ain't got any choice.
That's what we come to tell you.
We ain't afraid to fight for what's ours.
You best leave on out of here now.
Threatening us ain't gonna get us no...
Barlow!
What
I need 75,000 ties
delivered 25 miles beyond the end of the rails
before the first of the month,
a hundred barrels of blasting powder.
Make sure we got enough wranglers to tend them cattle
when they get here...
from Denver.
Eva!
What happened?
The Mormons shot him.
Shit.
Careful, careful.
I got his legs.
Eva!
Eva, we need you!
Elam, the baby!
You're the closest thing we got to a doctor.
Go get me some onion broth.
You!
Go to the hotel restaurant,
get me some onion broth now. Go!
Was it the old man or the boy?
I don't know for certain.
- Certain you don't know. - Told you I don't know.
Well, I know for certain there's a man lying here
with a bullet in him.
I just told you I ain't seen him.
Will you two stop it?
Shut that baby up.
Excuse me. Excuse me.
Here.
Prop him up.
Get him up.
Drink the medicine.
Yeah, I can smell the onion broth through the wound.
He's gut-shot, Elam.
He ain't gonna make it.
Take that damn baby outside.
No, wait.
Bring her here.
Bring her over here. Please.
Let me see her.
Please let me see her.
Oh.
She's beautiful, Mr. Ferguson.
Just like you said.
You wanted it.
Not like this.
Well?
All right. Telegraph the fort.
Tell the major we need help evicting them homesteaders.
You want a railroad story?
Follow me.
Mr. Hatch!
This is Cullen Bohannon of the Union Pacific Railroad.
I have a writ of execution here
for the killing of my Chief of Police.
Come on out.
You don't, and these soldiers will burn you out.
I won't be able to stop them.
You got one minute, Mr. Hatch.
United States Cavalry was not built for waiting.
We didn't come here to kill women and children.
A disorganized brain is lacking in moral principles.
Are you aware of that, Bohannon?
Not something I ponder nights.
Moral principles are the first line of defense
against criminal behavior.
You learn something new every day.
Without moral principles,
these Mormons will inevitably turn to violence
to solve their problems, just like the heathens.
Am I right about that, chief?
What he talking about?
Y'all keep your barrels down.
You and your boys put your guns down.
I told you, stay off my property
or there'll be hell to pay.
And I told you if I couldn't find a way around,
the U.S. Government would rightfully claim its land.
You murdered my Chief of Police.
He was trespassing. He was warned.
You have to stand accountable.
I am the priesthood holder of my family, Mr. Bohannon.
Without me, they will not survive.
You should've thought about that
before you pulled that trigger.
They won't survive.
I'll see to it they get to
the Mormon settlement at Fort Smith.
How's that?
- He done it. - Father?
Did you kill that man, son?
Tell me the truth now.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Ferguson, this boy shoot Dick Barlow?
I ain't sure.
Good God, man, get on with it.
You'd have me hang him?
It's the law, Bohannon.
You said so yourself, and you are obliged to uphold it.
We do not make exceptions to the law out here.
You realize he'll hang.
He's just a boy.
You're gonna tell me the truth.
I told you the truth!
Son, you got a different story,
you best tell me right now.
He's just a boy.
Not today he ain't.
All right.
Father.
Come here.
- Father! - Come on, boy.
- Come on. - Easy.
Father!
Sorry, son.
"Life on the prairie is not worth the powder it takes
to blow it all to hell."
So say the denizens of Hell On Wheels,
the rollicking tent city
that moves with the transcontinental railroad
as it creeps across the country
at a pace of two miles per day.
It is no place for women or children,
as the men who labor here,
veterans of the recent conflict, immigrants,
and free negroes,
often take to drink and un-Christian pursuits
when not swinging a hammer or laying track.
Every man here carries a gun,
which can be had for as little as $3,
and a knife, and goes to church on Sunday.
Here you can buy a meal for 35¢
a beer for less than a quarter,
a suit of clothes for $5 that includes a hat.
The belongings of the dead are cheaper than that.
Any last words, son?
I came here to meet the man who replaced "Doc" Durant
as Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad.
I can tell you he is a man for whom honor is sacred
and virtue impermanent.
In the brave new wilderness he calls home,
integrity is important to Cullen Bohannon.
Whether a man of integrity is what's needed
to build the railroad, we don't yet know.
The railroad has always been the business
of the unscrupulous and corrupt.
You owe me a life
for the one you took from me today.
I suspect our new Chief Engineer to be neither.
And for that, dear reader,
we might all count our blessings...
and say a prayer.
==sync, correction by dcdah== for www.addic7ed.com