S1, E6: The Plague

Great group shot of a lot of key characters. Ian McShane's Al Swearengen has the great line (as usual). "Hey Reverend," he says to the man who has just had an epileptic fit. "You could have just said, 'Amen.'"

This episode features a bunch of memorable moments. Bullock goes off in search of the coward Jack McCall, but instead of finding him, he finds a white-man-killing Sioux Warrior who shoots his horse and starts beating him up. Fortunately for him, the Sioux underestimates him and lets him back in the fight--Bullock bashes his head in with a rock, but then collapses himself. He is left for dead, essentially but then who should show up on the road on his way back from an apparently unsuccessful trip to Cheyenne but Charlie Utter. Utter gives water to Bullock who revives to apparently full health--he is healthy enough to insist on proper burial of the Sioux asshole that tried to kill him, which is pretty sweet.

Back at camp, another guy with plague comes into town. Doc tells Swearengen that the first outbreak was actually at Cy Tolliver's joint, but Al holds that piece of information and opts not to crucify his competitor with it. He holds a meeting with all the important folk around town (see picture above) where they decide how they're going to handle it. This includes an article in the Deadwood Pioneer, written by Merrick. Funny seeing Merrick write the article with the help of Al--classic back-and-forth between reporter and source.

Notably absent from the picture above are the women. They're all together, as it turns out, as well. Trixie is now staying with Alma, helping her get free of her addiction to dope. This is expressly against the orders of her boss, and I'm straining to remember how Trixie gets away with all this without getting herself killed. Meanwhile, Jane comes back to town and pays her respects to the little girl and the other women. Then she reports for duty with the Doc--who has asked for her help.

Also we see more of this behind-the-scenes look at Cy Tolliver; his ongoing sullen anger toward his two top employees: the afore-mentioned Joanie Stubbs but also his casino manager--a slightly overweight bearded old guy whose passive-aggressive remarks toward his boss seem pretty feminine. Whatever I mean by that.