03x06 - One Less Mule

[bunniefuu]

Previously on AMC's Hell on Wheels...

He r*ped and m*rder*d my wife.

This is a pardon.

Get this railroad under control.

And the race is on, gentlemen.

You m*rder*d my Chief of Police.

He done it.

You do not make exceptions to the law.

We must teach you the gospel principles.

Moving this town is more important than finding the baby?

Where's my baby?

Can't tell you if he's dead, now, can he?

Come back to Hell on Wheels, and I'll hang you both.

Cullen Bohannon is not the man you have painted him as.

What do you know about him that I don't?

[Soft music]

♪ ♪
♪ I like to look for rainbows ♪
♪ whenever there is rain ♪
♪ and ponder on the beauty ♪
♪ of an earth made clean again ♪
♪ I want my life to ♪
♪ be as clean as earth ♪
♪ right after rain ♪
♪ I want to be ♪
♪ the best I can ♪
♪ and live with God again ♪

Here, you comb your hair, and I'll hold this for you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.
[Chuckles]

Nice.

And this one right here, eh?

Get the--that's nice.

Then you can put it down like that, yeah?

Good boy.

[Laughs]
Yeah.

♪ I know when I am baptized ♪
♪ my wrongs are washed away ♪
♪ and I can be forgiven ♪
♪ and improve myself each day ♪
♪ I want my life ♪

Lord, pour out thy spirit on thy servant.

♪ To be as clean ♪

That he may do this work with holiness of heart.

♪ As earth right after rain ♪

I baptize thee...

♪ I want to be ♪

having authority from the almighty God...

♪ The best I can ♪

as a testimony that ye have entered into a covenant to serve him until you are dead.

Mm.

♪ And live with God again ♪

And he will grant unto you eternal life...

Ah!

Through the redemption of Christ.

[Laughs]

I baptize thee-- hold your nose.

Yeah.

Papa?

[Gasps]

Oh!

Joseph!

[cr*ck]

Ah! Help!

Mr. Anderson?

Help!

[Grunting]

[Both panting]

Oh!

Run, Ez--

[cr*ck]

Ezra!

I'll find you, Ezra!

Huh!

I always do.

[Western folk music]

♪ ♪

[Crowd shouting]
What in the hell is going on?

[Blows landing, men grunting]

Ah!

[Grunts]

Come on, get off him.

Hold on! Get off him!

What in the hell is going on?

Huh?

This cranky bastard won't budge his animal!

[Mule brays]
He's holding up me wagons!

He won't move, Mr. Bohannon! I tried.

[Mule brays]

[Grunts]
[Mule braying]

Ugh.

Son of a bitch!

What the hell?

Had a broke leg. See that swole up ankle?

That's why it wouldn't move.

That mule cost me $50.

[Laughter]
Well, I'm sorry for your loss.

Help me get this animal off the tracks.

Here. Unhitch this. Unhitch that.

All right, we're all gonna lift him.

And we're gonna swing him around this way, okay?

And...

Well...

One...

I see nothing has changed around here.

One less mule.

One more jackass.

Yes, well--

Is there something you want to tell me?

No.

Mr. Bohannon.

I told you not to come back here.

And I told you if I ever did, it would signal a reversal of fortune for you... and here I am.

You Bohannon?

Grant, Ulysses.

For God's sakes, this man is the next president of the United States!

If you come looking for my vote, you've come a long way for nothing.

And I was sure that I'd carry Mississippi.

[Laughs]

[Laughter]

Well, uh, by order of the court, this injunction.

It requires you to cease and desist all railroad operations immediately, pending the outcome of our investigation.

You're shutting down my railroad?

For starters, yes.

Can we at least move the mule first?

Yes. Yes. General.

All right.

Huh, yeah, it is.

Thank you.

Mr. Bohannon.

[Laughs]

The board of directors for Credit Mobilier is troubled by news coming out of Hell on Wheels.

What news is that?

Allegations.

Unseemly to our cause, and souring public opinion of the railroad.

As a publicly held company, dependent upon the government for our operating capital, it is incumbent upon this board to restore public trust.

Best way to restore public trust is to let me get on with the work.

And we will, just as soon as we determine your fitness to continue as chief engineer.

Mm-hmm.

And you bring Ulysses S. Grant here, to help you do that?

As you know, the general serves as secretary of w*r, and as such, is Washington's representative.

You mean to grandstand for them photographers outside?

I'll leave the grandstanding to the former head of the U.P., Mr. Bohannon.

[Chuckles]

Yeah, a criminal.

There's a good idea.

Five weeks ago, an appeals court in New York overturned the ruling against Mr. Durant for embezzling railroad funds, so not only is he not a criminal, he has rejoined the board of Credit Mobilier, and remains its chief stockholder.

Well...

I got me a town to move and a railroad to build.

Ain't got no time for a kangaroo court.

You should make time.

[Gavel bangs]

Mr. Durant, you have the floor.

Thank you.

This is a competency hearing, Mr. Bohannon, not a court of law, and as such, the board has instructed me not to dwell on the murders you committed, but I shall, for the record, enumerate them.

Uh...

November, 1865.

Four months after the end of hostilities, Captain Ebert Nelson, formerly of the 13th Ohio, gunned down in Dayton, Ohio.

Private Buckton Prescott was k*lled in a church in Washington, D.C.

Captain Daniel Johnson, Union Pacific foreman, m*rder*d in Hell on Wheels.

I think we get the point, doc.

Nearly done, general.

Lieutenant Wuster, Lieutenant Tanner, sergeant Frank Harper, all m*rder*d, and all attributed to Cullen Bohannon, as enumerated in Miss Ellison's article.

Told you when I took this job there's a lot of graves along this railroad, Mr. Ames.

Yes.

But you didn't tell us that you had m*rder*d these men.

Ain't nobody misses 'em.

[Chuckles]
Well, be that as it may, the board is here to ascertain your character, Mr. Bohannon.

Your impropriety, your penchant for v*olence, your innate lack of judgment is what's on trial here, as the secretary will attest.

For the record, it's his men done the murdering of my family.

General Grant is not the subject of this inquiry.

Maybe he ought to be.

[Slams desk]

You're out of order, sir!

Calm down, senator.

I suggest a ten-minute break before we call our first witness, Mr. Chairman.

Ten-minute break.
[Gavel bangs]

[Applause]

Mr. Bohannon.

What did you mean when you said General Grant's men m*rder*d your family?

Look, look, if I'm gonna write the truth, I'm gonna need your--

What truth?

Yours, mine, or theirs?

The truth.

There's no such thing.

Hand off that p*stol.

Nod if you understand me.

You promised that if I provided you with information, you'd protect me.

I came from nothing. Did you know that?

[Sighs]

There is nothing in my heritage, my people, where they came from, their place in the world, to give me even the slightest leg up on what is to be my destiny.

The school of hard knocks was my teacher.

And do you know what I learned?

If Mr. Bohannon finds out that I've been feeding you infor--

That a man who is encumbered by what's right and what's wrong will never achieve anything.

Are you listening to me?

I am not encumbered by what encumbers most men because I am not most men.

I thought I saw the same potential in you.

If I was mistaken... you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

I will remind you, Miss Ellison, that you are under a moral obligation to tell the truth, as you know it, for the benefit of these proceedings.

I understand.

You have written numerous articles about Mr. Bohannon for the New-York Tribune since your assignment in Hell on Wheels, haven't you?

Yes.

You know him well?

I-I don't think anybody knows him well.

Ah, well, keeps to himself, does he?

That's not what I meant.

What did you mean?

Well, he's not the chattiest person, and he's--

A bully.

No, I was going to say--

Didn't you write a story about Mr. Bohannon's decision to hang the hatch boy?

Yes.

You described Hell on Wheels as a Sodom and Gomorrah of the Nebraska plains, with Mr. Bohannon as its lot. Hmm.

Well, surely you don't condemn the chief engineer of the Union Pacific for performing his duty and punishing the m*rder*r of his chief of police?

You can, and you must, if you're not certain that the man he lynched committed the crimes for which he was hung.

Are you suggesting that Mr. Bohannon, in the name of the Union Pacific, hanged an innocent man?

The boy in question was suspected of the transgression, but no one was able to say, definitively, that he had done it.

I myself thoroughly examined his skull in the aftermath, and found nothing to suggest criminal tendencies.

And the boy was, what, 17?

And quite devout, I understand.

Mr. Bohannon asked me if I'd had occasion to know what the Mormons are like, as a people.

How they might react to being forced off their land.

He asked me if I thought they would fight.

Hmm, sounds like he wanted to fight.

Not a fight. It was a baby.

Along with Mr. Ferguson, sir.

And yet, it was Mr. Bohannon who gave those young people, your employee and her hapless suitor, a p*stol, and b*ll*ts, and left them to die in the wilderness.

He handed them a g*n, yeah.

Did you witness this inhumanity?

No, sir, um, but Mr. Bohannon told me about it, yeah.

Ah.

Bragging, no doubt.

Bullshit.

Again, sir, you're out of order.

Am I the only one who sees what's going on here?

What, Mr. Bohannon?

A total mis-retelling of events.

Decisions had to be made, it fell to me to make them, the railroad had to move forward.

You're two weeks behind, are you not?

Over the decision you made not to move camp while you searched for a whore's baby.

Or am I mis-retelling that?

These are complicated issues, Mr. Bohannon, with serious public and fiduciary ramifications.

And as stockholders of this company, we have every right to explore them, whether you like it or not.

Hmm.

So you was a soldier, huh?

Where'd you fight?

I marched with Sherman.

In Mississippi?

What the hell you doing out here?

Looking for railroad work.

[Gasps]

You ain't never did no railroad work.

Was you with them boys that k*lled Bohannon family?

You come here for revenge?

My brother was m*rder*d, in a church, in Washington, D.C.?

There needs to be a reckoning.

Ain't gonna be none!

'Cause you gonna be gone.

[Locomotive chugging]

[Train whistle blows]

Mr. Ferguson... is Mr. Bohannon, formerly a k*ller-- uh, pardoned, by law, for those sins-- still, in your opinion, capable of k*lling a man?

I suppose he would k*ll if another man tried to k*ll him.

That was not the question.

Have you seen him k*ll a man?

Yes, or no?

Yes.

How recently, Mr. Ferguson?

Recent.

Recent.

Eh, no more questions. Thank you, Mr. Ferguson.

I move we clear the room, go into executive session, and vote on whether to retain or relieve Mr. Bohannon of his position.

All in favor of the motion?

Both: Aye.

Aye.

Here.

What is that?

A contract, binding you to the railroad, whether I'm here or not.

Bohannon.

[Train whistle blows]

[Sighs]

We're always the first to go.

The saloon and the...whorehouse, the last.

Why do you suppose that is, Mr. Bohannon?

Sin takes longer to pack.

Anything else you need?

I'm sorry for my part in what happened today.

No, you spoke honest.

No, but I failed to tell--

I am who they say I am, Ruth.

I done every damn thing they say I done.

My father once told me... to put the past behind you, you must accept that you've moved beyond it.

I don't think you have, Mr. Bohannon.

The truth is, until you do...

I'm not sure the railroad can save you.

The point of this was to get Bohannon out and my son-in-law in.

You said Ames would go along once he heard the evidence.

He didn't. So how are you gonna fix this?

I am fixing it now!

If Delaney isn't running this road by the time Grant is elected, we'll both end up in Hudson prison.

I swear to God, if your family did not own half the Boston waterfront, you would be working in a fish shop!

Here!

What is this?

A backup plan.

And, if I may say, a brilliant one.

Your son-in-law will be chief engineer by the end of the day, because Bohannon will resign.

Are you sure Bohannon won't sign this?

[Chuckles]

So sure that I guarantee that by this time tomorrow afternoon, you and I will once again be suckling on the railroad's teat!

We'd better be.

[Sighs]

So, you want me to sign this piece of paper, denying the things I done, which you pardoned me of, so you can tell people I ain't done 'em.

And if I sign it, I get to keep my job?

k*lling ain't that easy to put behind.

I don't expect men like these, who bought themselves out of the draft, to understand what I'm talking about, general, but I reckon you do.

k*lling ain't something anyone is born to.

It's something we learn.

And you're the one who has to live with it when it's done.

Hmm.

I done a lot of k*lling, both during and after the w*r.

Mr. Durant and Senator Metcalf here, they'll call me a m*rder*r as it suits them.

But no matter what they call it, it won't bring back those men, or my family.

Damn sure won't change who I am.

You're refusing to sign the statement?

I won't sign it because it ain't true.

I'm a k*ller and a railroad man.

You can't pick one without choosing the other.

Like I said, I make no apologies for my temperament.

Mickey.

Everything okay, Mr. Bohannon?

I have never been better.

The good stuff.

No, from underneath the bar.

Yes, sir, boss man, sir.

Ain't nobody's boss no more, Mickey.

Durant is.

They fired you?

I quit.

What about the railroad?

Durant will finish it.

sh*t, he started it.

Did you know when you fed me the story about Mr. Bohannon's involvement in those killings that it would lead to this?

Justice?

You getting your railroad back.

History is never kind to men like Bohannon.

Though that has nothing to do with men like me.

So what's left for a man like you?

The only and only thing I ever truly wanted.

[Chuckles]

To be known as the man who built the Union Pacific Railroad.

[Chuckles]
That's all?

[Laughs] Well... that's quite enough, thank you.

Hmm.

Tell me something, Miss Ellison.

Why aren't you further ahead?

You are the most widely read journalist, male or female, in the country.

What are you doing out here?

I go where the story takes me, Mr. Durant.

No.

You did something to get yourself excommunicated.

What was it?

Involved with the wrong man?

[Scoffs]

I'm here, as you already seem to know, because of one small, unrequited indiscretion, the sort of thing that wouldn't have warranted an afterthought were I a man.

Hmm, well...

I believe that, my dear, is the crux of your problem.

I have met Miss Ida Greeley.

She's very fetching.

Were you a man, I am sure that Mr. Greeley would welcome whatever affection you felt toward his daughter.

I wrote a story, Mr. Durant.

As a result, you got what you wanted.

Perhaps you could tell a story for me now, that would hasten my return back to New York.

Take advantage of my relationship with Mr. Greeley, you mean?

Oh.

Would that I could, Miss Ellison.

Would that I could.

[Western folk music]

♪ ♪

Whiskey, please.

We're closed.

Closed?

Mm.

Whatever she wants, Mickey, on me.

No, no, no, no, no, that's fine.

No, no, no, no, you did your job.

She told the truth, Mickey. I admire that.

If more people did that, the world would be a better place.

Give us a second, will you?

[Laughs]

To the truth.

And consequences.

You know how to two-step?

Uh, yeah.

All right, let's do it.

♪ ♪

[Laughs]

♪ ♪

All right.

[Laughs]

Ah! [Laughs]

Whoa. [Laughs]

Oh--what was that?

I don't know, but I liked it.

[Laughs]

I ruin you, and you kiss me?

I'm drunk.

[Chuckles]

[Door opens]

Elam, I'm tired.

I got something I wanted to tell you.

What?

Lookie here.

What is it?

Durant kicked Bohannon off the railroad, but this piece of paper mean I still got a job, whether Bohannon here or not.

Elam, I--

Hey, hey.

I ain't never expect to have all this.

You, the baby, the chief of police job.

I got a future.

But I want more than that.

I want a house, with steps... and glass windows.
[Chuckles]

A little garden.

We got a girl.

I want a boy, too.

[Chuckles]

I want you to be mine, woman.

I want you to be my wife.

I want to marry you, Eva.

Proper like.

Elam.

You gonna marry me, then?

Elam... yes.

[Grunts, groans]

[g*n clicks]
Turn around.

Slow.

Who are you?

Jasper Prescott.

Prescott?

You k*lled my brother.

sh*t him dead in that church.

You come here to k*ll me?

Yes.

Anything I can say to talk you out of it?

No.

[g*nsh*t]

I am sorry for your loss.

Recent advances in cranioscopy have proved that the human brain is the seat of character, general.

Phineas Gage proved that.

You may remember that he was the--

Shouldn't you be getting back to the fort, major?

Let me quote just one item from the most recent American Phrenological Journal.

I believe you will see the value of craniometry in the building--

You may not. Barkeep!

This beer or horse piss?

Actually, sir, we ran out of our better dark lager sometime last week.

[Groans]

Mickey.

Huh?

After what you've been through today, you've earned this.

I'll meet you back at the train.

Mm.

[Exhales sharply]

Yeah?

Damn, I miss that.

You know the problem with being me?

Can't be no worse than being me.

Everyone knows I'm a drunk, and I've been told you can't make it to the white house on the back of a pink elephant.

You mean you can't drink in public?

sh*t.

Well, may be best you don't run for president.

[Sighs]

It's too late for that.

Well, general...

I think maybe you're in need of a good snipe hunt.

I've been known to enjoy a good snipe hunt now and again.

♪ I know when I am baptized ♪
♪ my wrongs are washed away ♪
♪ and I can be forgiven ♪
♪ and improve myself each day ♪
♪ I want my life to be as clean ♪
♪ as earth right after rain ♪
♪ I want to... ♪
♪ look for rainbows whenever there is rain ♪
♪ ponder on the beauty of a land made clean again ♪
♪ I want my life to be as clean ♪
♪ as earth after rain ♪
♪ I want to be the best I can ♪
♪ and live ♪
♪ with God again ♪

They call me, "The Butcher."
Did you know that, Bohannon?

Mm-hmm.

On account of the men who d*ed by my orders.

300,000 in all.

Men, fathers, sons, brothers. All dead.

Thanks to me.

Of course, those who gave me that moniker also thanked me, publicly and privately, for winning their ugly w*r, and keeping them out of it.

Yeah.

[Chuckles]

What?

[Laughs]

What I wouldn't give to be this close to you three years ago with a griswold in my hand.

[Laughs]

That p*stol was one damn unreliable piece.

Mm.

Always worked when I needed it.

I consider myself lucky, then, that your k*lling days are behind you.

Yeah.

I need you to finish this railroad, not that shifty sack of sh*t Durant.

I need a soldier to win this battle.

I will pull whatever strings I need to in Washington.

You reach Cheyenne in 20 days, on time, on budget, and I will convince congress to reinstate you permanently till you can join up with Huntington and the Central Pacific.

General, I--
[Sighs]

What about Durant?

You let me worry about Durant.

A northern general, southern soldier, working together to unify these United States.

It's what the country needs.

[Laughs]

Well, where the hell is Cheyenne?

I had the Bureau of Land Management rename the town of Durant to Cheyenne.

You renamed Durant's town?

Yes, sir, I did.

[Laughs]

Oh!

Does he know yet?

Nope.

Can I tell him?

Only if you agree to my terms.

You're damn good.

That's why I won, son.

And that is why I will be the next president of the United States.

I'm smarter than I look.

Are you?

I don't know.

[Train whistle blows]

This train is for railroad employees only.

You're fired.

[Locomotive chugging]