03x09 - Fathers and Sins

[bunniefuu]

Previously on AMC's Hell On Wheels...

You owe me a life for the one you took from me today.

Every one and every thing that travels by railroad east, west, north, south, will pass through here.

And stay at my hotel.

You reach Cheyenne in 20 days on time and on budget and I will convince Congress to reinstate you permanently.

Aah!

John...

Ezra, stop. Listen.

I'm not gonna hurt you. Don't run away like that.

Ezra!

A Kn*fe doesn't scare me, young man.

Hold still.

[Chuckles]

Ain't nothin' wrong with that boy a good whuppin' won't fix.

Yeah.

Think we'll start with a haircut first.

Mm-hmm.

Let's get to it.

Yeah.

A woman like that good with scissors and a Bible?

You ought to marry her up, Mr. Bohannon, before Miss Ruth find her some other lowlife fancy belt-wearing huckster that come along.

You callin' me a fancy lowlife belt-wearing huckster, Psalms?

[Chuckles]

Uh, no sir, Mr. Bohannon.

All anybody needs to be concerned with today is making Cheyenne by tomorrow.

Yes, sir, Mr. Bohannon.

All right, y'all, listen up!

That there dot on the horizon is Cheyenne!

I promised General Grant hisself... that we'd make it there by tomorrow at sunset.

It gives us two days to lay 5 mile of track.

Mr. Bohannon, speaking for the Irish, all due respect, sir, but tomorrow's Sunday.

It's the lord's day, not a work day.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's right.

Even the lord makes exceptions, Mr. Quinn.

And sacrifices.

In fact, the only thing he don't make is the extra money I'm gonna put in your pockets you get us to Cheyenne on schedule.

Yeah, that's true.

This right here... is the rest of my stock.

I'm cashing it in.

Spreading it around. Who wants a piece?

All: Yeah.

I want a piece.

Well, I suppose it's no sin to work on the lord's day.

Long as we don't make a habit of it.

And my crew will take a piece of that.

Work be our ticket to heaven.

We'll ride this train and that stock all the way to Cheyenne.

We've been through hell and back.

Indians, rain, drought... cholera.

You men have done a hell of a job.

I'm proud of all of y'all.

Now... you get us to Cheyenne by tomorrow night, first two rounds is on me!

All: Yeah.

Whores are on Dutch.

All: Yeah!

Get to work!

[Indistinct chatter]

[Whistle blowing]

[Distant train whistle]

Good God, he's going to do it.

Who is?

Bohannon!

He's right there.

Tomorrow, he'll be right here, laying tracks in my town.

Pennies on my eyes.

Our town.

You keep leaving that rather important part out.

Hmm. How did you sleep last night, Mr. Durant?

Those goose down mattresses, they cost a fortune.

[Spyglass snaps shut]

What?

You sell cattle to Bohannon.

You lend me money to build our town.

You build a hotel on the best lot in Cheyenne and charge me full fare to rent a room.

Now, if I didn't know better, I might think you were playing both ends against the middle, Mrs. Palmer.

Hmm.

Thank you, Abigail.

[Clears throat]

Often, your interests align with mine.

Occasionally, they don't.

[Laughs] Your interests align with mine?

I think you got it backwards.

[Chuckling]

Mmm.

Quail?

Dove.

The French call it detente.

It's what you and Bohannon better reach before he reaches Cheyenne.

Make peace with Bohannon?

To what end?

You promised me Cheyenne would be the most important railroad city in America.

How are you going to accomplish that without the cooperation of the railroad?

You are an exasperating woman, Mrs. Palmer.

Why? Because I talk like a blunt-talkin' man?

Send Bohannon a telegram.

Invite him to lunch.

Today.

Work it out.

Nothing is that easy with Bohannon.

I am not sure he's the problem.

That's him.

Lot of g*ns down there.

All the g*ns in the world will not protect Cullen Bohannon.

Ruth.

Ruth.

Mr. Bohannon.

This just came for you.

She wrote this down right?

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Luke.

Ruth.

Where's Ruth at?

Hey, she gave you a haircut.

Looks good.

Ruth?

I've kept you out of your bed long enough, Mr. Bohannon.

I'll be on the noon train to Omaha.

There's an orphanage in Council Bluffs.

I can take Ezra--

Ruth... stop it.

I'm sorry, but if a tenant of Christ's teachings is selflessness, then I have been a poor disciple.

Sean McGinnis was a troubled soul.

His brother relieved him of his troubles.

Now, that weren't through no fault of yours.

Sean came to me to unburden himself.

He came seeking solace.

And... and I denied him.

Perhaps I would do well to spend some time away from this place.

The men need you here, Ruth.

I have made no difference in their lives.

Well, you've given me comfort.

And you've given me hell too.

[Chuckles]

In equal parts, according to what I deserve.

And I ain't the only one.

Do you want me to stay, Mr. Bohannon?

Hell on wheels just needs a good preacher, Ruth.

And you are.

You are a good preacher.

Tomorrow's Sunday.

The men expect to get preached to.

They expect you to do the preaching.

That's all there is to it.

Come on, boy. Get your hat.

We're going to Cheyenne.

You have a seat.

You stay right there too.

Mickey.

You're just in time.

Chief of police over there is full as a gypsy's bra, and I'm almost positive that Wallace is dealing off the bottom of the deck.

Thank you.

Take two.

Take your damn scalp and get the hell out of here.

Oh, you can leave that.

That's my money.

Not anymore, it ain't.

Um...

You best give me that. It cost me $1.

Agh!

Thanks for the warning.

Ugh!

[Sniffles]

You know what that is?

That's a telegram.

From Durant.

Asking me to come to Cheyenne.

What for?

If I didn't know better, I'd say he's surrendering.

He knows we're gonna be in Cheyenne tomorrow and wants to broker a deal.

Know what that means?

Hey.
[Knocks on table]

We won the damn w*r, damn it.

Ain't none of us out here never won nothin'.

And never will.

Otherwise, we wouldn't be here in the first place.

Quit your damn bitchin'.

You're comin' to Cheyenne. Let's go.

Well, what you need me for?

Victory needs an audience, and you is he.

Come on, my friend.

[Sighs]

[Coins clinking]

[Retches]

[Coughing]

Where my money at?

Put your hat on. You might find it.

Uh-uh. Come on.

I was wondering when you'd come.

Forgive me.

If you're praying, I can come back.

How will you tell it?

"Cain and Abel"?

"Fallen woman pastor brings m*rder into her church"?

Is that how you see yourself... a fallen woman pastor?

This doesn't have to be about the newspaper.

Do you ever wonder how we came to be in this forsaken place?

[Sighs]

Well... if I believed in God, which...I don't...

I would say it's for my sins.

I have just enough faith to condemn me for the sins I've committed since I arrived here.

What sins?

I've been praying for understanding.

I-it isn't... a sin to pray for understanding, is it?

Oh, we can't know God's will.

So... where does that leave you?

Will you...go back east?

Mr. Bohannon has... asked me to stay with the railroad.

So...perhaps he's the answer to your prayers.

[Chuckles]

[Both laugh]

A man with the mark of Cain.

[Chuckles]

That would be ironic.

You have feelings for him.

Don't you?

Why we going to Cheyenne?

I already told you.

No, you ain't.

When you tell me?

Would you just shut-- shut up.

You're makin' my head hurt.

Ho.

What we doing?

Men coming up behind us. Don't look back.

Who they?

Told you not to look back.

Who is it?

Damn it, Elam!

Come on. Get up.

Get back on.

Get the boy to Cheyenne, fast and straight.

Hyah!

[g*nsh*t]

[r*fle cocks]

[g*nsh*t]

Aah!

[Horse whinnies]

[g*nsh*t]
Hyah!

[g*nshots]

Get that chair!
[g*nshots]

[Glass breaks]
Come on!

[b*ll*ts ricocheting]

Don't move.

Bohannon! What in God's name is going on?

I'd keep my head down if I was you!

Ooh!

Go!
[g*nsh*t]

Ugh!

Hyah! Hyah!

Hyah!

Who the hell's out there?

No idea.

[g*nf*re]

What's that smell?

I'm drunk.

Christ!

Yep.

Get that boy upstairs!

You get him upstairs.

This is my hotel, and those windows cost a fortune!

Otis! Where's my yellow boy?

[g*nshots, glass shattering]

You a good sh*t?

I can take the ear off a rabbit at 200 yards-- left or right.

Otis, you got any coffee?

In the back.

Bring it! Here.

Anybody comes through that door or that door, you sh**t 'em. Come on.

You know how to use that thing?

All right, then.

[g*nf*re]

Stay right there.

[Grunts]

[g*nshots]

[Men shouting]

sh*t!

No matter what happens, no matter what you hear, you don't leave till I come back, you got me?

[g*nf*re continues]
All right.

I ain't leavin' you, son.

Now, you drink that.

Them men come at us on the way over here.

After your invite.

Not everything bad that happens to you is my fault, Bohannon.

Mostly it is.

I told you there was a range w*r coming.

Not all my neighbors are happy with my decision to sell livestock to the railroad.

Or build this town.

No, they come after me.

I don't think is a first for you, Bohannon.

Whoever they is, they got us outnumbered and outgunned.

We gonna need a plan.

[g*nsh*t, glass shatters]

Otis, you got any food, water?

Not much.

sh*t.

We got women and children in here.

All they got to do is wait us out.

This town got a telegraph office, don't it?

Yes. Up the street.

Major Bendix only a few hours from here.

You go out there, you'll be dead long before the cavalry gets here.

That is a distinct possibility.

You keep 'em off me till I get across the street, we might make it.

You got that boy upstairs.

I'll go.

What?

You want me to cover you?

Drunk or sober, you a better sh*t than me.

Gotta be me that go.

Bohannon!

You're surrounded!

Come out!

g*ns down!

You have my word, nobody'll be hurt.

All we want is Bohannon!

You ain't believin' him.

Ain't no sense in all of us getting k*lled.

You're right.

I'll go talk to them, see what they want with you, negotiate a settlement.

Oh!

What now?

Otis, how much whiskey you got?

Ah!

[g*nsh*t]

[Horses whinny]

[g*nshots]

Aah!

[g*nsh*t]
Aah!

Damn it.

Aah!

[Panting]

We too late.

[Glass shatters]
[Grunts]

Oww. Tell you what.

This railroad business is funner than sh*t.

[Grunts]

It b*at picking cotton from can see to can't see.

First year of the w*r I thought...

"Best damn thing that ever happened to me."

I hated farming.

Rather be anywhere than ass-deep in Mississippi mud... running behind a mule all day.

How long before you changed your mind?

[Grunts]

Just did.

That little boy waiting for you.

No matter what happen out there, you make it to that hotel, you hear?

I don't...

You finish that road.

And, Elam...
[Cocks g*n]

I never freed my slaves.

I always figured you was lying about that.

Ready?

Mm-hmm.

Elam.

I know.

Ah!

[Thud]

Psst.

[Muffled grunting]

Ah!

Ah! They stormed the place.

Where the boy at?

Wha--they took him.

They took that boy to get at you.

Hey.

You might need this.

I'm gonna take the back.

[r*fle clicks]

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nshots]

Let the boy go.

Soon as you drop your g*n belt.

Boy ain't got nothin' to do with this.

What you want?

You for the boy.

All right.

Let him go.

You drop your g*n belt and you come out where I can see you.

Mr. Ferguson's back along the way.

You go with him back to the hotel.

Go on.

Ezra.

You listen to Miss Ruth, you hear me?

Go on.

They say why they took him?

I think it's the Mormons for him taking the workers.

Huntington warned him about that.

I know you're not fool enough to go after him.

I'm gonna do what needs to be done.

Bohannon said keep building the railroad with or without him.

I aim it to be with him.

Mr. Ferguson.

Mr. Ferguson!

Going after him is su1c1de.

Look around you.

Do you want to face those men again, alone?

I'm gonna keep my word to Bohannon.

Then I'm busting him free. You can count on that.

[Bells ringing]

[Steam engine chugging]

[Train whistle blows]

Uh, Miss Ellison.

Yes?

Uh...

Mrs. Toole will be leaving us, I'm afraid.

What do you mean?

Well, the woman's a whore, Miss Ellison.

Mrs. Toole is not a whore.

And even if she were, I expect that to be as little concern to you as your previous misadventures are to me.

I run a respectable establishment.

Prior to becoming Mr. Mortimer Ramsey, proprietor of this hotel, you lived in Omaha?

Calling yourself... ah, Dr. Henry Whitford.

Until the deaths of three patients hastened a name change and a move west.

Clearly, you are mistaken.

The deaths were attributed to an overdose of "perpetual sunshine"... a miracle elixir you widely prescribed, claiming it would cure just about anything, which I guess, technically, death does, doesn't it?

I'm a newspaper woman, Mr. Ramsey.

People talk to me about this, that, and the other.

Now, as for my guest, she will be staying on until she finds other, more suitable, lodgings.

Are we clear on that?

Yes.

Lovely. Have a good day.

I don't want to cause no trouble.

No trouble at all, Eva.

Listen, and if that man gives you any more guff, you just talk to me, okay?

Let me know.

Why you doing this for me?

You're a good woman, Eva.

You've just had some tough luck.

Thank you.

Uh... it's what you want, ain't it?

Is that what you think?

Well, I seen the way you look at me.

Eva... that's not why I asked you to stay here.

Well, I thought...

What?

That--that you're not worthy of my friendship?

Eva, you are.

I don't accept no charity, so...

Eva...stay.

Please.

[Snorts]

[Groans softly]

[Grunts]

[Coughs]

Oh, sh*t.

I told you... you owe me a life for the one you took from me.

It was me that k*lled my brother, Ruth.

It was him that caused it.

And it will be me that has to answer for it when the time comes, not you.

What did that detective think Sean had done in Boston?

Strangle someone?

A woman?

You led him to believe Sean was about to do that to me.

On my mother's soul.

I thought he was.

We'll never know, will we?

The truth.

What he was.

The truth is, I saved your life.

I have faith.

One day you'll see that.

[Overlapping chatter]

Listen up, gentlemen.

Cullen Bohannon's gone.

[Indistinct chatter]

A g*ng of riders caught us up in Cheyenne and took him.

I don't know where, or if he'll be back.

I don't even know if he alive.

Raise a posse, Mr. Ferguson.

We'll find him! All: Yeah!

We can't afford to lose no men to no posse, not today.

Are you saying we leave him out there to die?

We get to Cheyenne first.

Then we look for him.

Bohannon hisself say this railroad come first.

And ain't not one of us be here except for him and what he done and how he done it.

We wouldn't be this far... if it wasn't for him.

No doubt about that.

I know that.

We don't get to Cheyenne by tomorrow night, Durant gonna come back and run this railroad.

[All murmur]

Whether Bohannon here or not.

Now, Bohannon worked me to the bone.

But he worked hisself right next to me.

He ain't never give none of us nothing that we ain't earned.

That's right!

And when he did, he stand by it.

[Murmurs of agreement]

Bohannon called me a n*gg*r... but he ain't never treat me like one.

Durant a man that cheated, lied, and stole and disrespected every last one of us!

[Murmurs of agreement]

Now, we gonna get this track to Cheyenne.

Yeah!

Yeah!

The way Bohannon do.

One rail at a time!

All: Yeah!

One rail at a time!

All: Yeah!

One rail at a time!
[All cheer]

All right, boys! Let's get to work!

Let's lay 'em out!

Y'all grab them spikes!

Let's all get ready to go! Come on!

Lift!
[Grunting]

♪ I'm building me a home

[clang]

Both: ♪ I'm building me a home ♪

[Clang]
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ I'm building me a home ♪
♪ this earthly house
♪ is gonna soon decay
♪ and my soul's gotta have
♪ somewhere to stay
♪ when you hear me moaning
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ when you hear me moaning
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ when you hear me prayin'
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ when you hear me prayin'
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ this earthly house
♪ is gonna soon decay
♪ and my soul's gotta have
♪ somewhere to stay Our father...

All: ♪ When you hear me shoutin' ♪
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ when you hear me shoutin'
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ this earthly house
♪ is gonna soon decay
♪ and my soul's gotta have
♪ somewhere to stay
♪ when you hear me prayin'
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ when you hear me moanin'
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ when you hear me shoutin'
♪ I'm building me a home
♪ this earthly house
♪ this earthly house
♪ this earthly house
♪ is gonna soon decay
♪ I'm building me a house

All: ♪ And my soul's gotta have ♪
♪ somewhere to stay

♪ I'm building me a home I brought you into my home.

You shared a meal with my family.

Then you hung my boy.

You will stand accountable.

♪ I'm building me a home

All: ♪ I'm building me a home

♪ when you hear me shoutin'
♪ when you hear me shoutin'
♪ when you hear me shoutin'
♪ hallelujah

All: ♪ When you hear me shoutin' ♪

♪ I'm building me a home
♪ build me a home

All: ♪ I'm building me a home