There’s a quick subplot to this episode where a racist drunk gets schooled by two black guys who get some blackmail material that suggests the racist drunk had his way with Seth Bullock’s horse.
That’s all I wish to say about that.
So, while Bullock spends the episode fuming silently over a wide variety of things, like learning Alma is probably pregnant and Sol was talking about starting a bank which may or may not include Swearengen, let’s look into the town’s biggest moral cesspools.
Swearengen has the simpler path. He’s still recuperating from his gall stones, but he opts to see a lot of folks to dip his feet back into running the camp. That means learning about the bank and the possible pregnancy from Trixie, about the land swindle from Farnum, about the incoming Chinese tong leader/pimp from Mr. Wu, and then seeing the man himself turn down a lot of gold to move on. It’s a productive day for Swearengen, even if he never gets up.
But then there’s Tolliver. He thinks Wolcott might be running a scam of some kind within his own land scam. So, he confronts Wolcott about his sexual proclivities. What does Wolcott do to that? Well…he goes down to Joanie’s and ends up killing two prostitutes (including his favorite) plus Joanie’s partner who foolishly tried to blackmail a murderer with a razor blade in his hand.
Tolliver’s plan? Cover up the deaths. Joanie hustles her remaining girls out of town with some help from Charlie, but these are some bad dudes, and if Bullock weren’t so fixated on Swearengen and Alma’s pregnancy, well…
But at least Trixie found a way for Alma to get out of her mess: get Ellsworth to marry her. At least he’s willing.
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