Deadwood
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You are changed, Seth tells Alma, sitting at a table in E.B.
You seem to be too, Alma replies.
But we see what they see in each other.
If Alma and Seth havent changed entirely, something in them has shifted.
Near-death experiences can do that.
Seth endured one inthe preceding chapter.
Seth knows it couldve just as easily been him laid to rest after the battle in the hills.
And I never once had the upper hand.
Sol agrees, but in a way that oversimplifies what happened.
Bullock left Deadwood aiming to find and kill Jack.
Jane is aghast that Charlie and Seth have turned Bills killer in.
Not killing McCall is major.
Under color of law was how he justified the extrajudicial killing that kicked offthe pilot.
He couldve made like a one-man lynch mob with Jack and nobody wouldve blamed him.
Seth and Charlie happen upon Broms burial mid-service.
Seths current mortality index is two killings, four funerals.
Its fascinating to see how those experiences affected them, or didnt.
Alma is sharper and more empathetic and emotionally open than she was when we met her.
Later, Alma catches herself after making a thoughtless joke to Trixie (Shall I reel and stagger?
Its only a matter of time before Alma figures out what Al and Dan and E.B.
already know: Theres gold on that thar hill.
Doc thinks she has a gift for it.
you could tell that he means it because he keeps asking Jane to help.
We can tell Andy has changed even though hes a new face that weve only just met.
Our certainty is due to the shows deft writing and Zach Greniers no-fuss performance.
When Andy first showed up inHere was a Man,he was a gland-handing, high-rolling, slick-as-birdshit operator.
You made it, Andy!
Cy dares Andy to tell him how hed have done different, were the positions reversed.
Better than to throw him in the woods to fuckin die?
The question mark at the end of that sentence is a fishhook in Cys throat.
He stuffs the money into Andys open shirt front and tells him to go join the circus.
Andy walks away because hes done with this clown.
to rethink the lickspittle life.
That scene in Deep Water probably didnt mark the first time Al has threatened his life.
Maybe the threat of extinction is the foundation of E.B.
In any case, E.B.
doesnt come off as a character about to enter a chrysalis and emerge a butterfly.
That scenario is tailor-made for a deep read.
Who isnt looking for daddy?
At the same time, various men find themselves consciously or unconsciously taking on the role of protector.
Al and Cy are malevolent father figures who simultaneously shelter and exploit vulnerable women.
We know somethings off the instant we meet these teens.
Such are characters that villains tie to railroad tracks in melodramas.
Notice how all of the male-female relationships have their own unique ratio of protection versus exploitation.
Al and Trixies relationship mirrors Cy and Joanies.
Both men are controlling, manipulative, looming presences, coded somewhere between lovers and fathers.
(Asnoted earlier, the camp is filled with sexual abuse victims.)
Both women are essentially prisoners in their own homes, which double as their workplaces.
Shes like a prisoner who gets a few days furlough but still has to wear an ankle bracelet.
Al is right across the thoroughfare.
Sometimes he stares at the widows window.
Trixie can probably feel Als eyes on her.
Trixie is unable to envision her life being anything other than what it is.
Almas condescension and inability to grasp the terrifying reality of Trixies situation fractures their relationship and drives Trixie away.
Alma plays matchmaker, admitting Sol to her room so he can spend more time around Trixie.
Flora does the same to Joanie, to a less flagrant extent, and with more complexity.
Joanie is depicted as a lesbian who for various reasons must also have sex with men.
Floras deployment of feminine wiles against Dan, Cy, and Joanie mirrors Alma vamping for E.B.
Trixie sees whats happening between Alma and Seth as clearly as Alma sees whats happening between Trixie and Sol.
(See also Joanie and Cy.)
Not for nothing does the Rev.
Smith segue at the graveside from The saviors return to Mr. Bullock is back among us!
Almas right to think hed be good for Trixie.
But Sol, too, is a product of his patriarchal time period.
Theres something about his delivery and expressions that suggests a yearning for a world that cant be.
