Something Very Expensive (Deadwood episode)

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“Something Very Expensive”
Deadwood episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 18
Guest stars	see main article
Written by	Steve Shill
Directed by	Steve Shill
Production no.	99762
Original airdate	April 10, 2005
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Complications"	"E.B. Was Left Out"

Something Very Expensive was the sixth episode of the second season of the HBO series Deadwood. The episode was written and directed by Steve Shill. It first aired on April 10, 2005.

[edit] Plot summary

Star meets with Alma Garrett who discusses forming a bank with Star as the Chief Officer. He refuses. He later tells Bullock about the meeting and Bullock is upset since they had agreed not to use Alma’s money. Star insists they agreed not to solicit her for money and claims he did not initiate the meeting. Bullock is upset that Star didn’t tell him in advance and says he probably told “the whore”, an outburst he later apologizes for when they reconcile. In his anger, Bullock goes out to bully the man who tarred Samuel Fields.

Swearengen is back in business, “an object lesson in the healing powers of obstinacy and hostile disposition.” He immediately jumps into action despite being self-conscious about some paralysis on the left side of his body though Doc Cochran believes it will be temporary.

His first order of business is decided by Trixie who marches into his office ahead of others. She tells him about Star and Alma Garrett meeting. This meeting suggests she is loyal to Al and is merely playing Star for information. She tells Al of Alma’s morning sickness and, going downstairs, meets Ellsworth and asks if he will do the honorable thing. When he swears his relationship with her is only business, she says she means marrying Alma and pretending the baby is his in order to save Bullock embarrassment in front of his wife.

E.B. Farnum is next and he presents a well practiced account of his dealings with Wolcott which make him out to be innocent, and indeed surreptitiously doing Al’s bidding. While Al doesn’t buy it, he doesn’t have the energy to punish Farnum and merely dismisses him.

Next comes Silas having arranged a meeting for Miss Isringhausen. We now learn she is not the school marm she has presented herself, but a representative of those who feel Alma killed her husband and see Swearengen as her “instrument”. Even she is not clear whether the agency that hired her from her previous job of captaining a boat on the Mississippi is the Pinkerton’s or members of Mr. Garrett’s family. Silas is naturally angry that she misrepresented herself to him, but she persuades him to sleep with him and then tells him her true purpose for being here.

The Chinaman is next complaining about the c**ksucker from San Francisco. In the episode, we saw that the mixed white/Chinese man has brought in a cartload of young Chinese girls, some of whom will be sold to Tolliver. Swearengen has him called to the office where he places two large bags of gold in front of him. The man’s refusal of the gold suggests he has bigger fish, obviously an agent of Hearst.

Tolliver is also doing business. He sees off a panicky commissioner who is in a rush to get out of this mad town. He orders his goons to mess up Merrick’s newspaper office in revenge for not printing the notice. He is also looking to provoke Wolcott. In a dialogue that is challenging to understand, he threatens to tell Hearst of his secrets, being a “dangerous lay” with the prostitutes, and questions whether he is “inclined every so often to ride one off the cliff. Wolcott says he is angered to hear his private affairs being spoken of and retorts that Tolliver has over-played his hand since Hearst already knows. The argument continues with Wolcott calling Tolliver “a man past his time” and storming out.

He mutters to himself, recalling the words of the conversation, as he makes his way toward Chez Ami. Bursting in, he finds Maddie waiting and to her surprise, asks for Doris (the girl who reports to Tolliver) before Carrie. He spends time with her and then asks for Carrie. Joannie comes in at this point and is worried about what is happening in the room. Maddie prevents her at gunpoint when she goes to check revealing that this has been part of her plan, and forces Joannie to leave. Wolcott has indeed killed both Doris and Carrie. Emerging from the room, he is held at gunpoint by Maddie who is demanding a large amount of money “for now and more when I want it”. Wolcott prefers to slit her throat.

Joannie walks in a panic to the Bella Union and tells Tolliver of the trouble. She then borrows money from a worker and later arranges with Utter for the secret transport of her other prostitutes out of town, never to return. Tolliver meanwhile goes to Chez Ami and, now the friend and saviour, agrees to take care of Wolcott’s mess. On the way back, he meets a distraught Merrick. Merrick had spent the day welcoming a teacher he had invited for the school whom he greatly admires. On returning back to his office with her he discovers his office vandalized. Tolliver makes it clear that he did it for Merrick refusing to publish the commissioner’s notice in the paper.

The prospector who tarred Fields and was humiliated by Bullock goes to the stable to get revenge on Bullock’s horse. Though he had no qualms about buggering the horse, he decides to simply insult Bullock by ejaculating on the horse. He is caught and tied up by Hostetler who is later joined by Fields. In an act of great restraint, they simply agree to a deal whereby the prospector signs a chalkboard that says he “f**ked the horse” and then goes forth in gratitude for the mercy, something the prospector readily agrees to.

The last scene sees Utter driving off with the women in the cart leaving a distraught Joannie staggering in the street watched down on by Swearengen propping himself up on the balcony outside his office.