Deadwood
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Be in my joint in two hours.
Were forming a fucking goverment.
So says Al Swearengen to his sock-puppet Farnum, and presto!
The camp is on its way to becoming a town.
So much has changed since this story started.
The recognition of commonality strengthens the larger organism that is the camp.
And theres Cy, who wants to reap the rewards of incorporation without participating in governance.
Merrick, who opens his mouth to declare for mayor just as Al bangs the gavel and certifies E.B.
And Seth Bullock, who accepts the job of health commissioner to avoid being steered to sheriff.
This is the third time in nine episodes that Al has hosted a milestone event in the camps development.
Al says at the end of Plague.
Course, truth is, as a base of operations, you cannot beat a fucking saloon.
Charlie and Joanies colloquy in the thoroughfare is also a mutual reassurance that the others dream has value.
As for the details of Deadwoods annexation: its complicated.
The episodes slyest satirical thread originates in Als meeting with Claggett.
Al urges Claggett to skip ahead to the part where he tells him how much to bribe the legislature.
Al wields that bribe sheet as if it were Excalibur.
Turns out Deadwood kinda, sorta has that already.
Note how briskly Al gathers the pillars of the fuckin camp and the order in which he contacts them.
First he visits the lickspittle E.B., future mayor.
Then comes the first of two attempts to speak withPioneerpublisher A.W.
(Did a fuckinggoodjob here!
Less warmly received (by Cy especially) is Eddie Sawyer, whos having an attack of conscience.
You fucked me up, Cy, with what you did to those kids, he said.
Theres no angle to it.
Joanies trauma and Eddies distress over it are but two notes of disquiet in an otherwise celebratory episode.
Seeing Floras mangled dress in a pigsty corner sends a shudder through Joanie.
A shot of Joanie muddying her white boots is a synecdoche for everything shes up against.
Do not fuckingworryabout me!
We feel what the hive-mind feels: affection, compassion, concern.
It was the Holy Spirit.
