05x01 - Chinatown

[bunniefuu]

(grunting)

Narrator: Previously, on AMC's Hell On Wheels.

You can't quit now, I won't allow it.

(bottle breaks)

You realize what I could accomplish among our workers on the Central Pacific?

They tell me you quit the U.P.

Is that true?

You'd have a record of where they went and that's all I'm askin' for.

There is a better way to find your family.

If you work for me all of my resources will be at your disposal.

Sherman Peak is behind me, stop.

I am coming for you, stop.

(SIGHS)

Naomi: Cullen!

There he is. Go get him, William.

Come on.

Come here. (GRUNTS)

Ah, you got me. (GROWLS)

Naomi: Cullen!

It's time to come in for supper.

Mama made us fried chicken and pie.

Fried chicken and pie? Oh! That sounds good!

I think I'm gonna have a piece of pie about that big.

You want one like that? Yeah?

Okay, I'll be up real soon.

Okay.

Go see Mama. All right.

(CHUCKLES)

(SIGHS)

(WIND HOWLING)

Dear God, what I'd give for a campfire, a bowl of stew, and a nice warm spot to put my...

Shut the hell up, Shorty.

(GRUNTS)

(PANTING)

Holy sh*t.

Is that what I think it is?

I believe it is.

(CHUCKLES)

You did it, you bastard.

Break out the whiskey, ya gypsies, Bohannon's found the mother whoring route to Utah.

(LAUGHS)

(TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING)

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

Bohannon, you ugly piece of work.

'Bout time you showed that mug back in Truckee.

I'm touched you missed me, Jim.

Saved you plenty of granite.

Not too much, I hope.

Couple of miles, give or take.

It's been a month.

Inches a day, Bohannon.

Works for the wife.

Come around tonight for supper with me and Mrs. Strobridge.

You'll like her.

(GROANS) Ah.

Mr. Bohannon!

You have the visage of a great explorer, sir, returned from this wild continent's dark places.

I hope to light the way for civilization.

Tell me you've found the route to Ogden.

Straight through the coal fields of Weber Canyon.

Straight down the throat of the Union Pacific.

Now, we go through the mountains here, and here, then we're into the Nevada desert and all the way to Utah.

Shaves 100 miles off our previous route.

If we don't wither in the desert.

We've got 15,000 workers, Bohannon, Irish and Chinamen combined, plus livestock.

Not to mention Mrs. Strobridge, our kids, their dogs.

Thirsty bastards, all.

No, the creeks are marked. (SIGHS)

We build dams here, and here for t*nk ponds.

Trout in them ponds?

We can stock them.

The rest we take from the Sierras.

Meltage from the snowpack this spring.

Build tanks, ship 'em out on the flatbeds.

The snowpack idea ain't bad.

I been known to come through on occasion.

Congratulations, gentlemen. We might just have a sh*t at winning this race.

Oh, uh, Chang has fresh Chinamen out by his rice hut.

Any of them telegrams for me?

It's only been a month.

No luck finding your wife and child?

Well, we have ongoing business with the Mormons, Mr. Bohannon.

I'm sure Brigham Young will answer our inquiry eventually.

Yeah. I'll see to Chang.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

Boss man.

Mr. Bohannon, an honor to finally serve you in my humble rice shop.

What can I get for you? Something to eat? Tea?

Just them workers right there.

Oh, in China, it's an offense to refuse a host's offer of food or drink.

But this isn't China, thank God.

I fought for the Taiping Kingdom.

Yeah, your leader thought he was a brother of Jesus Christ, something like that.

But then he had y'all hanging human meat in the marketplace.

Well, atrocities were committed on both sides.

As they were in America's Civil w*r.

Andersonville Prison comes to mind.

Tragic, but that's what happens in w*r, isn't it?

Yeah. That should be enough pay for about 50 workers.

As you know, I provide so much more than tunnel fodder for my friends.

Spirits, opium, women.

What's your pleasure?

Workers will be fine. Let's get these men to the work site, Mr. Tao.

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

Lot of new recruits.

These men got a railroad where they're from?

Guangdong province is very poor.

Many villages devastated by rebels.

Men like Chang.

Here we are all guests of Gold Mountain.

Chang bad man.

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

Please forgive my son, Mr. Bohannon.

He is young, his manners are bad, and his English is worse.

Maybe.

But I'm inclined to agree with him.

God damn it, John!

Get your rice-eating asses back down there and repack that powder!

Jesus, Bohannon.

Leave the Johns to that Hell's mouth and get back to your desk.

You're a stakeholder, for God's sake.

Never have learned how to sit behind a desk, Mr. Strobridge.

If I was you, I'd figure it out. It's tight as a Chinese trap down there and smells about as good as a syphilitic whore.

Least it ain't downwind of you.

You're liable to lose a limb.

Keep an eye out for me, Jim.

(GRUNTS)

(MEN SPEAKING CANTONESE INDISTINCTLY)

Y'all started the horizontal blasting?

Tao: Yes, boss man.

(SCREAMS)

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

(WHIMPERING)

You any good with that thing?

Come on.

(EXHALES)

(YELLING)

Ah, that should be good.

Black powder?

(SPEAKS CANTONESE)

(MAN SPEAKS CANTONESE)

Clear out!

Yes, sir.

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

You too. I got this. Go.

Boss man stay, I stay.

Easy! Easy!

(YELLING)

Go!

Get them out of there! Come on!

(GRUNTS)

(GROANING)

Hey. Keep it covered. Keep it cool, all right?

Thank you, boss man.

Name's Bohannon.

Fong.

Thank you, Fong.

Hey.

Chang. He steal.

Chang steal Chinese gold eagle.

(STUTTERS) Pay roll.

Chang take half. Chinese have family. Debt.

Need gold eagle.

I'll tend to my son.

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

(FONG SIGHS AND WHIMPERS)

(HORSE WHINNYING)

Welcome, what's your pleasure?

I need to have a word with your boss.

Mr. Bohannon, you've reconsidered my offer.

Uh, no.

I come to see you distribute the Chinese payroll square.

Payroll distribution has continued without incident.

You're skimming the wages. That stops now.

This is very unusual, a white man coming into my establishment to lecture me on how I conduct my business.

The railroad is my business, Mr. Chang, and all the workers on it.

Well, the Chinese workers are contracted through my company, Mr. Bohannon, for a negotiated price.

How we then compensate those workers is Chinese business.

You sell your dope, pimp your whores.

If you don't want me back in here regular, pay the workers what they're owed.

Give my regards to Mr. Tao.

He's a pirate, whelped aboard a British opium ship commandeered in South China sea.

Chang's father was a Manchurian prince who turned to piracy after a failed plot to m*rder his brother.

But it was his mother, a Polynesian beauty pillaged from her tribe of cannibals, that gave him his taste for human flesh.

Stop it, James! They'll never sleep!

(CHUCKLES)

That's not real.

Do you believe that's real?

Uh, it's nothing your daddy can't handle.

Chang is, uh, stealing from his own people, though.

That's between him and his Chinese.

Doesn't concern us.

Concerns the workers.

Chang provides our workforce, Mr. Bohannon.

And he takes a little from them off the top, that's his business.

Them Chinese struck last year over wages.

Now they got Chang taking a piece.

Only a matter of time till they strike again.

Chang keeps them in line.

Sooner or later, a b*at dog bites.

Phineas Young: Heavenly Father.

Thank you.

Thank you for...

I'm sorry, brothers, I know not what to say.

Heavenly Father, bless this loathsome gruel we have set before us.

Thank thee for this time with our beloved companions, Hunger, Want and Desolation.

Bless this frigid, lonesome desert, this emptiness which threatens to freeze our hearts.

For though we are alone and surrounded by wolves, we know we are not forsaken...

For our faith sustains us.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

And our prophet, my father, Brigham Young in Zion.

Amen.

All: Amen.

Yeah.

Thank you, brother Thor.

We must not lose faith, brother Phineas.

Sometimes I fear it is my father who has lost faith.

In me.

I believe in you, brother.

Hmm. Yeah.

(SLURPS) Mmm.

This is from my hen, Peep.

Hmm.

Make sure to thank her for me, all right?

I will.

My daddy says we're to be nice to you on account of you're real lonely.

From Brigham Young. (SIGHS)

I thought it should wait 'til after supper.

They've been cast out of all Mormon settlements.

They banished my family.

Hell of a thing.

They could be anywhere.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

(COCKS g*n)

Strobridge: Don't sh**t.

I just want to play cards.

My kids are in bed. Let's go tie one on.

You want me to go to the saloon with you?

That's the idea, yeah.

(SIGHS)

You don't have many friends, do you, Bohannon?

Hmm.

None living.

(STRAINING)

(MUTTERING)

Brother Phineas?

Hello?

(GROWLING)

Oh! Oh. (SPEAKS NORWEGIAN)

What have you got there? Huh?

A bone?

(GROWLS)

(SPEAKS NORWEGIAN)

Oh!

You was hungry!

I want to show you something.

(PANTS) You see, huh? Yeah?

(WHIMPERS)

Yeah, I know it's a little scary. (CHUCKLES)

Yeah.

You know, I have some bones to bury too, huh.

(EXCLAIMS)

(SNIFFLES)

(DOG BARKS)

Yeah, you like it, huh?

Yeah.

(SPEAKS NORWEGIAN)

(POLLY SPEAKING CANTONESE)

My wife gave me this tie. It's easy enough.

(SIGHS)

You don't like the color?

(SPEAKS CANTONESE)

(DOOR OPENS)

Oh, uh... Nevermind. Nevermind. I'll tie it myself.

Go on upstairs. Go.

(HUFFS)

You're dressed for the opera.

I'm taking my housekeeper.

Ah, Polly. I've missed Polly.

You won her on a very lucky hand.

Yeah, she is, uh, a woman of many talents.

Allow me.

Hmm?

Allow me.

Mr. Bohannon came to see me today.

One hell of a railroad man.

Yes, it seems he has great enthusiasm for his work.

As well as the work of others.

He came to me with demands.

Well, Mr. Bohannon is a stake-holder, Mr. Chang.

Hmm.

This railroad is constructed on the backs of Chinamen who work for less than a third of what you pay white men and get sick half as often.

These Chinamen are brought here from the sh*t-drenched rice fields of Guangdong under my authority.

It would be a pity for any stakeholder to forget that.

Cullen Bohannon is here to stay.

You two will to have to get used to each other.

Now come here and help me into my coat, John.

(CHUCKLES)

(SPEAKS CANTONESE)

Polly!

Tell me something, Bohannon.

Why the C.P. for Christ's sake?

My wife left me, Jim.

Son of a bitch.

I thought it was you that done the leaving.

(SCOFFS)

I don't blame her.

I was hoping if I could find her, she...

Guess it don't matter now. (SIGHS)

Trail's so cold it's frostbit.

You got one hell of a brood out here, huh?

Them kids ain't ours, natural.

Strays we picked up along the way.

Gentlemen.

Please, deal me in.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(INAUDIBLE)

You look surprised to see me, Mr. Bohannon.

(IN MOCK CHINESE ACCENT) Bossee man say Chief Mandarin can go where he prease.

No. I just thought you Chinese stayed to yourselves, is all.

Oh, many of my countrymen are afraid of whites.

Wild and fierce and wicked barbarians, intent on eating their children.

That's what I tell my kids about you.

There are superstitious fools among both our peoples.

They attribute our fates to Cai Shen riding his black tiger, Jesus Christ on his cross, Joseph Smith uncovering his tablets, or to a simple four-leaf clover.

I met a Injun once, prayed to a bottle of whiskey.

"This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, the stars, as if we were villains of necessity."

So. You're a villain.

"I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing."

You're pretty well-spoke for a heathen, ain't you, Chang?

Men like you and I make our own fates, don't we, Mr. Bohannon?

Our own luck.

It wasn't the stars that brought you into my rice shop this morning, or to my pleasure house this afternoon.

It was both railroad business, Mr. Chang.

(GRUNTING)

(YELLS)

(BOTH YELLING IN CANTONESE)

Did the fates give you those cards?

You threw that hand.

It's easy when you're losing other people's money, isn't it?

(GRUNTING)

(GRUNTING)

(GRUNTING)

Do you think it's by luck that I sit here now?

Leave it alone, Bohannon!

Back up!

(CHUCKLES) You know, the first time I saw a Chinaman was in a sideshow tent.

Mr. P.T. Barnum had a whole family of them.

Reading, writing, eating with their choppy sticks, dressed in the finest silk. I felt like Marco Polo.

They have an ancient civilization, Mr. Bohannon.

They're mysterious and wise, industrious.

Beautiful in their way.

Oh, you can hire them, admire them, eat their food, lay with their women.

It's easy to get distracted.

Hmm.

Chang's gonna be a problem for this railroad.

The Union Pacific is halfway across Wyoming.

Thomas Durant is gobbling up five miles per day.

With it, government bonds, mineral rights.

At the rate we're going, we'll have ceded the Weber Canyon coal fields team before year's end.

Durant is winning the race, Mr. Bohannon.

That is a problem for this railroad.

Durant's resourceful but reckless.

He'll bring the entire U.P. enterprise down on his head without somebody there to stop him.

Without you?

Do I have your loyalty?

Do I have your loyalty, sir?

I'm here, ain't I?

(SIGHS) Good.

Mr. Bohannon.

No more distractions.

Fong.

Tao?

Sick list.

(TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING)

(GRUNTS) Samuel.

Lock up if you leave.

Sir.

(SIGHS)

Damn turncoat.

(SIGHS) Never trust a rebel.

Your favorite brand.

Don't get you out of the fare.

(CHUCKLES)

Yah!

(SIGHS)

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

(SIGHS)

Ain't you get enough of my money last night, Jim?

I swear.

Mr. Bohannon.

It is a pleasure to see you again.

Yeah. Heard you slipped the noose.

Uh, I arrived in camp with the rest of the Mormon workers while you was surveying.

When Mr. Huntington told me you had joined the Central Pacific, (CHUCKLES) I prayed for your safe return.

(STUTTERS) I would like to thank you.

I'd like you to step back from my door.

Yeah, I have stepped back, yeah.

I would like to thank you for revealing the truth.

I am not Bishop Dutson.

I was never Bishop Dutson. (CHUCKLES)

Didn't bother Brigham Young none, I guess.

The blasphemer who sits in Salt Lake City is a false prophet.

Heavenly Father has shown me, through you, that I am the one true prophet.

Prophet?

You got any followers 'sides that tick-bit mongrel?

I will reveal you, Mr. Bohannon, as you have revealed me.

For if I was never Bishop Dutson, you have never been reformed husband and father.

No, you are the devil.

Sent by divine providence to test me, to forge me into the lion I must become.

Oh, I look forward to this next test, devil.

Now you think I'm the devil.

(SCOFFS) That's fine.

Probably take a devil to finish this road.

Mmm-hmm.

And you can call yourself whatever you like, long as you brought a shovel.

Because this ain't the Mormon fort, you Swedish son of a bitch.

You work for me.

I got a race to win.