Deadwood “Reconnoitering The Rim”

So, a character named Brom Garret was swindled out of $20,000 on a bad gold claim.  Brom’s a city-slicker from New York City and his wife Alma is clearly a drug addict of some kind.

I bring this up because his high-falutin’ talk gave the episode its title.

He also was killed by Swearengen’s goon, but it turns out his bad claim was actually quite good since his skull bounced off a gold vein.  A big one too.  Now how Swearengen handles the next part is probably going to be a bit underhanded since, you know, Alma still owns that claim.

But here’s the thing that bothers Swearengen the most:  he has competition.  A new saloon and brothel opened up across the street, and innkeeper (and Swearengen lackey) E.B. Farnum had something to do with it out of greed.  Al won’t kill E.B. yet.  He’ll use him as a spy.

Swearengen’s competition has its own spy in the form of the drug addict Swearengen also hired to spy on the new people.

See, here’s the thing:  Swearengen can’t completely believe it’s coincidence that Seth and Sol, Hickok, and the new saloon all arrived in Deadwood as a wild coincidence.  He thinks, at the least, Bullock and Hickok are working together, but the only thing going on there is Sol and Bullock are the only people in town who aren’t looking to rob Hickok blind at cards or shoot his head off, so it’s the closest he can come to friends that didn’t come with him.  So, sure, Swearengen will finally sell the lot to Sol and Bullock, but he still thinks the two ex-marshalls are working together.

He may not have to worry much longer since Hickok seems content to drink himself to death.

I know these have been short, but this show is still laying a foundation and I’m still trying to get the right grip on it.  It’s worth it, believe me it’s worth it, but it needs me to see where the show is going for now.