Hell on Wheels Ep 2: Immortal Mathematics

Well, I don’t know about you, but I thought this episode took the threads from the first episode and really wove them into something compelling. And I don’t know what it is about me these days, but I felt like I was seeing Lost references all over the place. From Bohannon digging the nail out of the wood with his fingers (Richard Alpert doing it in the brig of the ship in “Ab Aeterno”) to Lily giving herself stitches (making Jack look like a complete wuss when Kate gave him the stitches in the pilot), I really felt like I was having a tough time “letting go.” ;)

But I’ll let you have the first go this time, Chris!

Chris: I must be losing it. During the scene where Bohannon pries the nail loose from the floorboards, I was thinking “now, what does this put me in mind of?” I completely missed the “Ab Aeterno” reference! Watching Lily stitch herself up reminded me immediately of Sylvester Stallone doing the same in the initial Rambo film, First Blood. That scene stays with me to this day. Speaking of Lily, whom I barely mentioned last week, Dominique McElligott is quietly creating a credible and engaging character — this week with little or no dialogue at all. Her fever dream sequence was absolutely beautiful to watch and I felt that her scenes by the river did more to invest us in Lily than the dialogue from brief exchanges with her late husband last week.

In fact, I feel that the second installment of Hell On Wheels does an excellent job overall in drawing us into this world. The opening sequence with the photographer at the massacre site is vivid and realistic. Colm Meaney’s darkly comedic pragmatism contrasted well with the mortification of the photographer. Of course Meaney’s opportunistic Doc Durant would view the grisly scene as an excellent way to garner more government support for his investment by proving the need for federal troops to protect settlers and laborers from Indian hordes. All this as he never loses sight of the most important element of this unfortunate incident — the missing surveyors’ maps. Human lives, even that of a missing and presumed kidnapped Lily, pale by comparison to the value of those maps to Durant’s entire mission.

As we see, Bohannon and Durant have more than a little in common; a cold-blooded pursuit of their objectives, consequences be damned. Bohannon, lured in for questioning about the murdered foreman Daniel Johnson, spends much of the episode showing us just how resourceful he can be when his survival is at stake. Under threat of hanging, he desperately plots his escape from imprisonment in the railroad boxcar. We feel that his honor, however tarnished, will keep him from turning Common’s freed slave Elam in to save his own skin. We’re not sure, however, and Bohannon is quick to point out to Elam that he’ll take his chances should the two be cast in opposition to one another. Once escaped, his brief scene with Tom Noonan’s Reverend Cole tells us what drives him relentlessly forward — a belief that he is beyond redemption. This makes him a dangerous man to reckon with, and more than a match for Durant’s ruthless tyrant.

But all is not grim in this installment! ”How do you put on your trousers, son?” Can I tell you how many times I’ve used this line in the last three days?? Meaney finds a wonderful balance in this episode between Durant’s villainous and humorous sides and rebounds well from the more two-dimensional presentation in the pilot. I’m warming quickly to these characters the more I see — and that’s to say nothing of the series’ newest addition, The Swede! I’ll let you have first crack at HIM, Nikki. What did you think of Christopher Hyerdahl’s introduction this week?

Nikki: The Swede might be my favourite character on any show this season. From the moment we’re introduced to him – “They call me the Swede. I’m Norwegian” – to his sneer as Bohannon smugly walks by him, the Swede is a character who is there as an absolute danger to everyone around him. In a land of lawlessness, he’s the one trying to invoke some iron-fisted order. We see in him the beginning of organized crime in America (the way he demands cash of the Irishmen in return for “protecting” them… against himself, of course). His tall body, gaunt face and jet black hair that encircles his face create the look of a menacing enemy, one who at once terrified me and thrilled me every time he was on screen. About three-quarters of the way through the episode, I found myself almost rooting for this guy. I certainly didn’t want him to die, but I figured if they were going to go to such lengths to create such a formidable foe, he was going to be sticking around. ;)

But he’s not a one-note character, either. We get his complete backstory as he sits and taunts Bohannon by eating in front of him (a big mistake, turns out) and tells him about his time in a prison camp and the monster it turned him into. He, too, was once held against his will, was someone who was just an accountant, but he adapted to his situation, and through Darwinian law, has found himself at the top by changing his ways and placing himself there. It’s a great story arc already, and we’ve only known the guy for a single episode.

The Swede is a reminder that America was a cultural melting pot right from the beginning. Aside from the Native Americans we’ve seen Irish, British, Scottish, Scandinavian, Mexican, and African. Some of these people were brought to America against their will, but they’re American now and that’s how they’ll stay.

I definitely echo your sentiments about how much better this episode was than last week. They took the threads that we discovered last week and wove them into a much richer story than we started with. I love Lily’s character – the woman STITCHED HER OWN CHEST for god’s sakes – and I think she will be the one forced to become a very strong, tough, independent woman in the face of what’s happened to her. I very much look forward to her arc. Bohannon has aligned himself with Elam by keeping his mouth shut when the Swede was looking for a scapegoat, and it’ll be interesting to see what develops between them.

What did you think of the minister? Last week he was portrayed as being more shallow – someone who Christianized a native-American without a second thought, who sets up camp in the “red light district” last week in order to save everyone, who just looked like an annoying preacher that could be used to show the evils of orthodox religion. But this week they made him far more sympathetic as he keeps the Swede at bay, helping Bohannon and even begging with him to repent. (Ah, there’s the other Lost reference! I knew there were three: he asks Bohannon what he’ll say to God on Judgment Day, and Bohannon says something like, “I’ll say I did the best I could in a bad time,” which reminded me of Mr. Eko saying he did the best he could with the life he was given.) Did you think the preacher was more developed this week than last?

Chris: Oh, absolutely. I don’t know how much may have transpired between the time the pilot was written and shot and when the series was green-lit and in production for this and subsequent episodes, but there is marked development in almost every facet of the show since the very interesting but slightly disjointed first installment. Tom Noonan’s Reverend Cole did initially come across as a standard righteous missionary but here shows us a very different side. His response to Bohannon’s “best I could in a bad time” line hints at his own past: “Now see, I understand that … better than you know. But, it won’t be good enough for Him.” We see how deeply he feels his calling to bring others to salvation as he understands it. But, he may have found his own repentance after living a lifestyle he is all too eager to renounce. I look forward to learning more of his backstory and seeing him connect with Bohannon in weeks to come.

I completely agree with you that The Swede is one of the more interesting characters to come on the scene in quite some time. He is iron-willed yet not above true sentimentality at seeing the Magic Lantern Show. His history at Andersonville, the most notorious of Civil War prison camps, reveals itself in the haunted look he gives Bohannon during their scene in the boxcar. Most of the characters we meet in this series are scarred by their past in some way, and it shows in the desperate way they seem to fling themselves headlong down this iron road towards the prospect of a brighter future. Elam, Bohannon, Lily, Reverend Cole and even Durant are urgently moving forward, fleeing their old lives and reinventing themselves on the way to a new one. This is potent stuff for a primetime cable drama and I’m eager to see how the episodes to come deliver on this promising beginning.

I can’t wrap up without a nod to the production values in this episode. The camera work, lighting effects, sets, costumes and props are all stellar and contribute mightily to our ability to enter this world fully. The bodies on the wagon at the massacre site, the shot of the boxcar at early dawn as Elam steals away, the mud-splattered tents, the camera shots from under and between the railroad cars, Lily’s blood-streaked clothes, the long sweeping shots of the landscape … together make a rich tableau and are a feast for the imagination.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this week. Can’t wait for the next installment, Nik!

Nikki: Agreed. As usual, AMC has pulled out all the stops for this one. And by creating these rich backstories for the characters, there’s a possibility we may see some flashbacks, and be taken back to the moments where their lives changed. As you mentioned at the top, Lily’s hallucination was beautifully done, and really put us in her state of mind, longing for the beloved husband she’s just lost. But she’s refusing to give up, as are all of these people. These are strong-willed people with purpose and determination.

I shall see you next week!

Hell on Wheels Ep 1: Pilot

Well, you last saw us blogging together on Person of Interest, which we grew tired of after about three or four weeks (I think both of us are still watching it, but it’s still not dynamic enough to be blogging on) but once again I’m joining forces with the lovely and talented Chris Doran, and this time we’re going to discuss Hell on Wheels. Chris and I have been discussing AMC shows for a long time; I think we watch all of them: Mad Men, The Walking Dead (which I blog on with Josh Winstead), The Killing (and boy, do we have our opinions on THAT one). Did you watch Breaking Bad and Rubicon too, Chris? My husband watched Rubicon but I didn’t, and I think Breaking Bad is the best of the bunch.

But this week a new show started, a different look at the frontier building than that previous Wild West show, Deadwood. It’s just as grimy and gory and lawless as the world of Al Swearengen, but like The Wire did with the drug trade, I felt it showed a lot of different angles to what it took to build the railroad (and how many lives were lost along the way). We’ve got menial workers, architects, magnates, evil bosses, and the lone gunslinger in the midst of it all, trying to find revenge for his dark past. While I think there were parts that felt a little forced, I really liked this debut. Unlike so many premieres (on both network and cable), this gave just enough of the main plot to situate us in the time and place without getting too bogged down in exposition. What were your initial thoughts, Chris?

Chris: Oh. My. I’ve been the subject of a few adjectives in my day, but I’d have to say that “lovely” is a first! Must be because the Internet subtracts a few pounds…

Now, what was the question? Ah, yes! AMC, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. Oh, wait – Nikki already did. My love for Mad Men knows no bounds, I was one of the seventeen mesmerized souls who watched Rubicon faithfully, The Walking Dead does the seemingly impossible on a weekly basis and Breaking Bad is destined to be spoken of as one of the most powerful, game-changing dramas in the history of television. And The Killing was … ah … they certainly … well … *cough* … how often do you get to see such a spectacular belly flop on TV? Impressive indeed.

And now, AMC returns to their roots, with a Western that echoes their early success with the original mini-series Broken Trail but smartly plays upon the “revisionist” Westerns that have graced screens big and small in the surrounding years. Despite the comparisons that Hell On Wheels seems to invite at times (from its theme music right on down to its closing soliloquy), I cannot honestly compare this show to Deadwood. Not only was that show was one of my favorites of all-time, it was one of the very few productions for television that could truly be called “Shakespearean” in its depth, complexity and richness of language. Nobody, not even the plays that were written after Shakespeare, should be measured by that yardstick. Hell On Wheels will be, and should be, evaluated on its own merits.

There is a reason why Westerns may always have a place in American consciousness in particular, and capture the imagination of many other cultures as well. The archetypal characters they sketch, and the morality plays that they present, are as close to mythology as this culture has ever produced. For me, this is made more resonant by the fact that this myth-making was going on while the history was still playing out. The Ancient Greeks evaluated every aspect of their lives in light of their gods, and Americans of the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries have been seeing themselves in the Gunslinger, the Lawman, the Land Baron and the Resilient Woman ever since the first stories from the Frontier filtered back to the hinterlands and cities. Endless variations on these characters are so familiar, so comfortably worn and yet so compelling that they turn up in every other setting, from inner cities (Dirty Harry, Die Hard) to outer space (Star Wars, Firefly).

So, how do our newest versions fare? Quite well, I think. Anson Mount gives us his best Man With … well, not No Name but actually a humdinger of one: Cullen Bohannon. (Full Disclosure: I am a bit of a name freak. I enjoy scanning credits for interesting names and will forever value the sport of baseball for its nomenclature. I admit it; they had me at “Cullen Bohannon”.) Wonderful actors such as Ted Levine and Tom Noonan (look, dueling serial killers from the Hannibal Lecter Charm School!) give us thumbnail sketches of characters whose backstories may be inferred from other films. Colm Meaney, whose versatility can been seen in low comedy and high drama, has the toughest assignment; trying to flesh out his character with the proper venality and villainy while trying not to chew the scenery with his dialogue. His performance in the pilot episode strikes a few discordant notes but I feel that there is ample room for this character to grow on me, and the audience.

All in all, I’m a great deal more optimistic that you and I could be talking about this show for a TAD longer than … what was that other one? Person of Some But Not Particularly Compelling Interest? What stood out to you about this first installment of Hell On Wheels, Nik?

Nikki: And… I really have nothing more to say. Chris covered it all, thanks, Chris! I need you to co-blog with me more often. It would certainly save my wrists a lot of strain. ;)

But seriously, when Ted Levine was on the screen, it took about a minute before I said, “Oh my god, that voice… is that Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs? And from that point on I was really creeped out by him. (Not as creeped out as I am by American Horror Story, but that’s another blog…)

A few things stood out to me in this first episode, mostly in that it seemed to really be positioning itself in opposition to the overly politically correctness of TV at the moment. For one, the “Indians” were the bad guys, which we haven’t seen in a long time. Modern history tells us that the settlers invaded their lands, monetized it, pushed them off into small areas, ran roughshod over their territory and belief systems, and even (as we saw in this episode), took some of them and “saved” them by Christianizing them. In this episode, we see the natives fight back in a way they often did, but which often isn’t depicted that often anymore (unless they show them being provoked in a terrible way right before hand, and then it seems justified). As modern viewers, WE know they were provoked and had been for years by that point, but what happened in that scene was shocking. And realistic.

However, it’s that same daring to push the envelope of political correctness that I found irritating at times, because it was like they were purposely trying to make us go, “oooh” at home. “Hey, let’s let everyone at home know this is THE BAD GUY because he makes racist remarks!” So Ted Levine’s character asks Bohannon if he can handle “niggers” and Colm Meaney’s character is looking at a map and just throws the word “Chink” in there. It actually had no bearing on the sentence before or after it, nor did they discuss bringing in Asians to work on the railroad. He just said, “Hm… might be a good job for the CHINKS.” And I found that really annoying. If you’re going to push the envelope, do it in a convincing way, and don’t use it as shorthand to let us know This Guy Is Evil.

But that’s a pretty small nitpick, because as I said in my opening, I felt they really fleshed out these characters – shorthand notwithstanding – and made me care about them from the outset, which is a very difficult thing for a pilot to achieve.

Chris: Very good points, Nikki. I agree that parts of this episode felt very much like a work in progress, as the writers and showrunners sought to lay out the period elements, introduce the characters quickly, set the tone and explain both the over-arching plot (revenge, redemption, greed, rapacious development, survival of the fittest) and episodic storyline (Man on a Mission, government support for railroad building, freed slaves struggling to make their way in the post-Civil-War era and people of various types seeking their fortune over the horizon). This is a lot to juggle when you’re also trying to pull in viewers and hold them for this hour of television and many more to come. I would always rather see ambition go through its growing pains than be fed the same ol’, same ol’ in almost any medium.

The useful thing about the Western tropes that were on display in the premiere is how relevant and timely they are in today’s world. Let’s see: man dealing with personal tragedy struggling to come to terms with his irretrievably broken world? Check. Citizens of all stripes trying to understand the New World Order in the wake of national trauma? Check. And, desire for a decent life and upward mobility causing people to clash with one another while capitalism churns their lives out like sausage? Sadly, check. Over-reaching on my part to read too much into a primetime drama on cable television? Quite possibly, check. Sorry ‘bout that!

For all its flaws, there’s a lot to like in Hell On Wheels. Little details such as the type of weaponry Bohannon uses and what it tells the discerning eye about him. The “Magic Lantern Show” put on by the Irish immigrant brothers and the power that photographic images could have on people so far from the people and places of importance to them. The contrast to be drawn between the fully detailed railroad car that serves as “Doc” Durant’s office and sleeping quarters and the rude canvas and plank abodes for Bohannon and others. Bits of information about the massive undertaking that was the Transcontinental Railroad and the way in which its construction irrevocably altered the lives of its labor force and the land it crossed, and the conflict it engendered with Native Americans and settlers all along its path. For the facts on this era, I highly recommend Stephen Ambrose’s Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built The Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. For a glimpse of the mythic and mundane characters who were swept along in its wake, I hope we’ll have Hell On Wheels to drop in on Sunday nights for some time to come. See you next week, Nik!

Nikki: Excellent points, Chris, and I too really enjoyed the “Irishman’s Movie Night” scene. It really brought home how terrible it must be to be away from home, and how tough these people were. They had the courage to leave their homes and build a new land, and they were willing to eschew property, food, steady income, and most of all, personal hygiene, to accomplish that. While I felt like Colm Meaney’s Big Speech at the end was a tad overwrought, I still backed up the PVR and watched it more than once just to really take in the grandeur of it. Meaney delivered the speech like he was performing on stage, and I felt like the artifice was intentional, almost like a narration of what we just saw and what we were about to see. I enjoyed that moment a lot.

Other things to note:
• The prescience of the line, “I fear this cough will be the death of me.”
• I really enjoyed the use of anachronistic music in the very beginning, as we first saw the settlement where they were working on the railroad. It was totally not of its time, and yet worked beautifully.

I’m definitely looking forward to next week’s! And maybe we can get in some more potshots at The Killing.