"Change calls the tune we dance to."

I Am Not the Fine Man You Take Me For

It's the following day in Deadwood, and the battle between Hearst and Al is about to turn into a war.

Actually, we begin with Al lying awake in bed in the pre-dawn hours. As he lies there, a drunk hooplehead climbs onto the speech platform and yells out the first words of the episode: "I am not the fine man you take me for." Al listens as he exclaims that he came to the town to make a life for himself but wound up gambling, whoring and drinking it all away. The hooplehead then passes out and falls over the edge of the platform, breaking his neck when he lands. I wonder, is the hoople representative of the 'old Deadwood'? And does his death serve as a warning to Al that the end of his rule in Deadwood may also be coming to an end?

After standing up to Hearst the night before by cancelling the speeches, Al is waiting for Hearst's response. He doesn't have to wait for long. Captain Turner delivers a cryptic note to the Gem, in the form of a crudely drawn map. It's of the inside of the Gem and the Xs represent men that Hearst is sending to kill Al and his men. It's all very complex and confusing, but the gist of it is that Hearst is giving Al a heads up and the opportunity to dispatch these men before they can dispatch Al. As to the specific message he's sending, well, I can't say I'm sure - I can kill you but I won't? I was going to kill you but now I'm not? Al, being the brilliant strategist that he is, does understand the message. He and Dan kill two of the men and send the other two back to tell Hearst that the speeches are back on for that night.

Captain Turner returns to the Gem to deliver yet another note to Al. This time it is an invitation to join Hearst that evening to watch the speeches from his veranda. Hearst has taken up his sledgehammer again, tearing down the outer wall of the hotel for passage to the roof over the hotel's porch. Al accepts his invitation and goes to meet Hearst without bringing a 'second' with him, despite the protests of Dan, Johnny and Adams. Having Dan or Adams along would send the wrong message to Hearst, be too confrontational, I suppose.

As the speeches start, it becomes quite clear that after all of the hubbub surrounding their importance in the forward movement of the camp, they are really inconsequential after all. The real moving and shaking is happening on Hearst's 'veranda' as he and Al talk. He tells Al that the purpose of his demonstration in the Gem earlier that day was to show him "the virtue of consolidating interests." Al will have none of that and he throws down the gauntlet: "What the strong call consolidatin' [is] bending the weak to their will." Oh, Al, RUN! They return to Hearst's hotel room, with Al under Captain Turner's gun. Things deteriorate quickly as Al refuses to help Hearst gain access to Alma Garrett's claim. To my disbelieving eyes, Turner knocks Al over the head and grabs him around the neck. Still defiant, Al refuses to help Hearst and is paid for it by getting a big pick ax brought down on his hand.

Before I get to the fantastic ending, I'll quickly recap the other developments in the camp:

Alma and Ellsworth - Alma has taken a turn for the worse. Doc tells her that she will lose the baby and they need to take action (perform an abortion) before she miscarries and likely bleeds to death. Before the procedure, Alma lets her bequests be known: She names Sophia as her inheritor and names Bullock as the steward now to Sophia's interests, essentially removing any claim that Ellsworth may have to little Sophia, who he dearly loves. Alma survives the procedure, so Sophia's guardianship remains the responsibility of Alma, but I think her dying wishes will breed some resentment in Ellsworth toward her.

Jane - Jane takes a bath! And gives her speech to the schoolkids about her work with General Custer. I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for her to slip into her more familiar colorful language, but Jane does fine. Quite well, in fact. She spends the day sober - could this be turning point for her?

Joanie/Cy/Charlie - Joanie comes back to the Bella Union to look in on Cy again, but can barely contain her distress. She tells the despicable Cy that she tried to kill herself and he selfishly tells her that she feels she should die because she doesn't have anything to keep her busy, like caring for him and the girls. Thank heaven for Charlie. During the speeches, as he and Joanie listen and wait outside Alma's for news about her, Charlie consoles Joanie in the sweetest way, telling her that they way she thinks about herself is not the way that other people see her. The evening ends on a positive note for Joanie, as she tells Lila, "Nothin's over yet." As far as Cy goes, I don't know what to think about his antics. Personally, I thought his entire holy-roller-overcome-by-the-holy-spirit routine was a show put on for Andy Cramed and he would have shot him dead if his stupid cronies didn't barge in and interrupt.

Okay, so, back to the end. As the crowd that gathered for the speeches disperse, we see Al leaving the Grand Hotel looking horrible and with his left hand tucked under his suit coat. Bullock sees him and runs to his side. Al, though clearly in terrible pain, proudly holds himself up and will not give Hearst, who is standing on his veranda and looking down on the thoroughfare the way that Al normally does, the satisfaction of seeing an affect on him. As he leans on Bullock for support, Bullock tells him he wants to go and kill Hearst himself. Al tells him to hold back, and not seek revenge, yet: "I'm having mine served cold. "

And so, as many have already said, it is ON.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Would you close your flap, that I don't forego my boiled eggs?" ~ Al to Johnny

"Chang ain't looking for friends. Change calls the tune we dance to." ~ Al

"When you speak, I feel like it's the Devil talkin'." ~ Joanie to Cy

"I am, for the day, off the bottle and about to bathe."
"Camp get up a petition?" ~ Jane and Mose

"Could you have been born, Richardson, and not egg-hatched as I'd always assumed?" ~ E.B. to Richardson

"Listen, and you won't get scalped! And don't look at yourself too much in the mirror." ~ Jane's lesson to the schoolchildren

"That'd knock a buzzard off a shit-wagon." ~Johnny

"If he was trailin' water we might get took for ducklings." ~ Adams

"Overturnin' turtles is my specialty." ~ Harry Manning's taunter

"I'm having mine served cold." ~ Al