Hell on Wheels (2011–2016): Season 3, Episode 6 - One Less Mule - full transcript

♪ I like to look for rainbows ♪

♪ Whenever there is rain ♪

♪ And ponder on the beauty ♪

♪ Of an earth made clean again ♪

♪ I want my life ♪

♪ To be as clean as earth ♪

♪ Right after rain ♪

♪ I want to be ♪

♪ The best I can ♪

♪ And live with God again ♪

Here, you comb your hair,
and I'll hold this for you.



Thank you.

You're welcome. Like that.

Nice. And this one right here?

Get... That's nice.

Then you can put it down
like that, yeah?

Good boy.

Yeah.

♪ I know when I am baptized ♪

♪ My wrongs are washed away ♪

♪ And I can be forgiven ♪

♪ And improve myself each day ♪

Lord, pour out thy spirit
on thy servant,

that he may do this work
with holiness of heart.

I baptize thee...



having authority
from the almighty God...

as a testimony
that ye have entered into a covenant

to serve him until you are dead.

♪ I know when I am baptized ♪

Through the redemption of Christ.

I baptize thee...

- Hold your nose.
- Yeah.

Papa?

; Hem!
- Joseph!

Help!

Mr. Anderson?

Help!

Joseph!

Run, Ezra!

Ezra!

I'll find you, Ezra!

I always do.

What in the hell's going on?

Come on, show him what you got there!

- Come on now!
- Hit him! Yeah!

Hold on, get off him.

Hold on! Get off!

What in the hell's going on?

This cranky bastard won't budge his animal!

He's holding up me wagons!

He won't move, Mr. Bohannon,
I tried.

Son of a bitch!

(gunsnon.

What the hell?

Had a broke leg.
See that swole up ankle?

That's why it wouldn't move.

That mule cost me $50.

Well, I'm sorry for your loss.

Help me get this animal off the tracks?

Here. Unhitch this.
Unhitch that.

All right,
we're all gonna lift him.

And we're gonna swing him around
this way, okay?

- And...
- Well...

- One...
- I see nothing's changed around here.

One less mule.

One more jackass.

Yes, well...

ls there something
you want to tell me?

No.

Mr. Bohannon.

I told you not to come back here.

And I told you if I ever did,

it would signal
a reversal of fortune for you.

Here I am.

You Bohannon?

Grant, Ulysses.

For God's sakes, this man
is the next president of the United States!

If you come looking for my vote,
you've come a long way for nothing.

And I was sure
that I'd carry Mississippi.

Well, by order of the court,
this injunction.

It requires you to cease and desist
all railroad operations immediately,

pending the outcome
of our investigation.

You're shutting down my railroad?

For starters, yes.

Can we at least move the mule first?

Yes. Yes. General.

All right.

That guy's here!

Yeah, it is.

Mr. Bohannon.

The board of directors

for Crédit Mobilier
is troubled by news

coming out of Hell on Wheels.

- What news is that?
- Allegations.

Unseemly to our cause,
and souring public opinion of the railroad.

As a publicly held company,

dependent upon the government
for our operating capital,

it is incumbent upon this board
to restore public trust.

Best way to restore public trust
is to let me get on with the work.

And we will, just as soon
as we determine your fitness

to continue as Chief Engineer.

And you bring
Ulysses S. Grant, here,

to help you do that?

As you know, the general
serves as Secretary of War,

and as such is Washington's rep...

You mean to grandstand
for them photographers outside?

I'll leave the grandstanding
to the former head of the UP, Mr. Bohannon.

Yeah, a criminal.

There's a good idea.

Five weeks ago,
an appeals court in New York

overturned the ruling against Mr. Durant

for embezzling railroad funds,
so not only is he not a criminal,

he has rejoined the board
of Credit Mobilier,

and remains its chief stockholder.

Well...

I got me a town to move
and a railroad to build.

Ain't got no time
for a kangaroo court.

You should make time.

Mr. Durant, you have the floor.

This is a competency hearing,
Mr. Bohannon,

not a court of law, and as such,
the board has instructed me

not to dwell on the murders
you committed,

but I shall, for the record,
enumerate them.

November, 1865.

Four months after
the end of hostilities,

Captain Ebert Nelson,
formerly of the 13th Ohio,

gunned down in Dayton, Ohio.

Private Buckton Prescott
was killed in a church in Washington, D.C.

Captain Daniel Johnson,

Union Pacific foreman,
murdered in Hell on Wheels.

- I think we get the point, doc.
- Nearly done, General.

Lieutenant Wuster,
Lieutenant Tanner,

sergeant Frank Harper,
all murdered,

and all attributed
to Cullen Bohannon,

as enumerated
in Miss Ellison's article.

Told you when I took this job
there's a lot of graves

along this railroad, Mr. Ames.
Yes.

But you didn't tell us
that you had murdered these men.

Ain't nobody misses 'em.

Well, be that as it may,

the board is here to ascertain
your character, Mr. Bohannon.

Your impropriety,
your penchant for violence,

your innate lack of judgment
is what's on trial here,

as the Secretary will attest.

For the record, it's his men
done the murdering of my family.

General Grant is not
the subject of this inquiry.

Maybe he ought to be.

- You're out of order, sir!
- Calm down, Senator.

I suggest a ten-minute break before
we call our first witness, Mr. Chairman.

Ten-minute break.

- Come on, let's go.
- You too, everyone.

Mr. Bohannon.

What did you mean when you said
General Grant's men murdered your family?

Look, if I'm gonna write the truth...
What truth?

Yours, mine, or theirs?

The truth.

There's no such thing.

Hand off that pistol.

Nod if you understand me.

You promised...

that if I provided you with information,
you'd protect me.

I came from nothing.
Did you know that?

There is nothing in my heritage,

my people, where they came from,

their place in the world,

to give me even the slightest leg up
on what is to be my destiny.

The school of hard knocks
was my teacher.

And do you know what I learned?

If Mr. Bohannon finds out that I've...

That a man who is encumbered
by what's right and what's wrong

will never achieve anything.

Are you listening to me?

I am not encumbered
by what encumbers most men

because I am not most men.

I thought I saw
the same potential in you.

If I was mistaken...

you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

I will remind you, Miss Ellison,

that you are under a moral obligation
to tell the truth,

as you know it,
for the benefit of these proceedings.

I understand.

You have written numerous articles
about Mr. Bohannon

for the New York Tribune
since your assignment

in Hell on Wheels, haven't you?
Yes.

You know him well?

I don't think...
anybody knows him well.

Well, keeps to himself, does he?

- That's not what I meant.
- What did you mean?

Well, he's... not the chattiest person,
and...

- He's...
- A bully.

No, I was going to say...

Didn't you write a story
about Mr. Bohannon's decision

to hang the Hatch boy?

- Yes.
- You described Hell on Wheels

as... "a Sodom and Gomorrah
of the Nebraska plains",

with Mr. Bohannon as its lot."

Well, surely you don't condemn
the Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific

for performing his duty and punishing
the murderer of his Chief of Police.

You can, and you must,

if you're not certain
that the man he lynched

committed the crimes
for which he was hung.

Are you suggesting
that Mr. Bohannon,

in the name of the Union Pacific,

hanged an innocent man?

The boy in question
was suspected of the transgression,

but no one was able to say,
definitively, that he had done it.

I myself thoroughly examined his skull
in the aftermath,

and found nothing
to suggest criminal tendencies.

And the boy was, what, 17?

And quite devout, I understand.

Mr. Bohannon asked me
if I'd had occasion

to know what the Mormons are like,
as a people.

How they might react
to being forced off their land.

He asked me if I thought
they would fight.

Sounds like he
was looking for a fight.

Not a fight. It was a baby.

Along with Mr. Ferguson, sir.

And yet, it was Mr. Bohannon

who gave those young people,

your employee and her hapless suitor,
a pistol,

and bullets,
and left them to die in the wilderness.

He handed them a gun, yeah.

Did you witness this inhumanity?

No, sir, but Mr. Bohannon
told me about it, yeah.

- Bragging, no doubt.
- Bullshit.

Again, sir, you're out of order.

Am I the only one
who sees what's going on here?!

- What, Mr. Bohannon?
- A total mis-retelling of events.

Decisions had to be made,
it fell to me to make them,

the railroad had to move forward.
You're two weeks behind, are you not?

Over the decision you made
not to move camp

while you searched for a whore's baby.

Or am I mis-retelling that?

These are complicated issues,
Mr. Bohannon,

with serious public
and fiduciary ramifications.

And as stockholders
of this company,

we have every right to explore them,
whether you like it or not.

So you was a soldier?

Where'd you fight?

I marched with Sherman.

In Mississippi?

What the hell you doing out here?

Looking for railroad work.

You ain't never did no railroad work.

Was you with them boys
that killed Bohannon family?

You come here for revenge?

My brother was murdered,

in a church, in Washington, D.C.

There needs to be a reckoning.
Ain't gonna be none!

'Cause you gonna be gone.

Mr. Ferguson...

is Mr. Bohannon,
formerly a killer -

pardoned, by law,
for those sins -

still, in your opinion,
capable of killing a man?

I suppose he would kill...

if another man tried to kill him.

That was not the question.

Have you seen him kill a man?

Yes, or no?

Yes.

How recently, Mr. Ferguson?

Recent.

Recent.

No more questions.
Thank you, Mr. Ferguson.

I move we clear the room,
go into executive session,

and vote on whether to retain

or relieve Mr. Bohannon
of his position.

All in favor of the motion?

Aye,

Aye.

Here.

What is that?

A contract, binding you to the railroad,
whether I'm here or not.

Bohannon.

We're always the first to go.

The saloon and the... whorehouse,
the last.

Why do you suppose that is,
Mr. Bohannon?

Sin takes longer to pack.

Anything else you need?

I'm sorry for my part
in what happened today.

- No, you spoke honest.
- No, but I failed to tell...

I am who they say I am, Ruth.

I done every damn thing
they say I done.

My father... once told me...

to put the past behind you,

you must accept
that you've moved beyond it.

I don't think you have,
Mr. Bohannon.

The truth is, until you do...

I'm not sure the railroad can save you.

The point of this was to get Bohannon out
and my son-in-law in.

You said Ames would go along
once he heard the evidence.

He didn't.
So how are you gonna fix this?

I am fixing it now!

If Delaney isn't running this road
by the time Grant is elected,

we'll both end up in Hudson prison.

I swear to God, if your family
did not own half the Boston waterfront,

you would be working in a fish shop!
Here!

What is this?

A backup plan.

And, if I may say,
a brilliant one.

Your son-in-law will be Chief Engineer
by the end of the day,

because Bohannon will resign.

Are you sure Bohannon
won't sign this?

So sure that I guarantee
that by this time tomorrow afternoon,

you and I will once again be
suckling on the railroad's teat!

We'd better be.

So, you want me to sign
this piece of paper,

denying the things I done,
which you pardoned me of,

so you can tell people
I ain't done 'em?

And if I sign it,
I get to keep my job?

Killing ain't that easy to put behind.

I don't expect men like these,
who bought themselves out of the draft,

to understand what I'm talking about,
General, but I reckon you do.

Killing ain't something
anyone is born to.

It's something we learn.

And you're the one
who has to live with it when it's done.

I done a lot of killing,

both during and after the war.

Mr. Durant and Senator Metcalf here, they'll
call me a murderer as it suits them.

But no matter what they call it,

it won't bring back those men,
or my family.

Damn sure won't change who I am.

- You're refusing to sign the statement?
- I won't sign it because it ain't true.

I'm a killer and a railroad man.

You can't pick one
without choosing the other.

Like I said, I make no apologies
for my temperament.

- Mickey.
- Everything okay, Mr. Bohannon?

I have never... been better.
The good stuff.

From underneath the bar.

Yes, sir, boss man, sir.

Ain't nobody's boss no more,
Mickey.

- Durant is.
- They fired you?

I quit.

What about the railroad?

Durant will finish it.

Shit, he started it.

Did you know
when you fed me the story

about Mr. Bohannon's
involvement in those killings

that it would lead to this?

Justice?

You getting your railroad back.

History is never kind
to men like Bohannon.

Though that has nothing to do
with men like me.

So what's left for a man like you?

The only and only thing
I ever truly wanted.

To be known as the man
who built the Union Pacific Railroad.

That's all?

That's quite enough, thank you.

Tell me something, Miss Ellison.

Why aren't you further ahead?

You are the most widely read journalist,
male or female, in the country.

What are you doing out here?

I go where the story takes me.

No.

You did something...
to get yourself excommunicated.

What was it?

Involved with the wrong man?

I'm here, as you already seem to know,

because of one small,
unrequited indiscretion,

the sort of thing that wouldn't have
warranted an afterthought were I a man.

Well...

I believe that, my dear,
is the crux of your problem.

I have met Miss Ida Greeley.

She's very fetching.

Were you a man,
I am sure that Mr. Greeley

would welcome whatever affection you felt
toward his daughter.

I wrote a story, Mr. Durant.

As a result...
you got what you wanted.

Perhaps you could tell a story for me now,

that would hasten my return
back to New York.

Take advantage of my relationship
with Mr. Greeley, you mean?

Would that I could, Miss Ellison.
Would that I could.

Whiskey, please.

We're closed.

Closed?

Whatever she wants, Mickey, on me.

- No, that's fine.
- No, no, no, no, you did your job.

She told the truth, Mickey. I admire that.
If more people did that,

the world would be a better place.

Give us a second, will you?

To the truth.

And consequences.

You know how to two-step?

- Yeah.
- All right, let's do it.

Whoa!

What was that?

I don't know, but I liked it.

I ruin you, and you kiss me?

I'm drunk.

Elam, I'm tired.

I got something I wanted to tell you.

What?

- Lookie here.
- What is it?

Durant kicked Bohannon
off the railroad,

but this piece of paper mean
I still got a job,

whether Bohannon here or not.
Elam, I-

- Hey, hey-

I ain't never expect
to have all this.

You, the baby,

the Chief of Police job.

I got a future.

But I want more than that.

I want a house, with steps...

and glass windows.

A little garden.

We got a girl.

I want a boy, too.

I want you to be mine, woman.

I want you to be my wife.

I want to marry you, Eva.

Proper like.

Elam...

You gonna marry me, then?

Elam...

Yes.

Turn around.

Slow.

Who are you?

Jasper Prescott.

Prescott?

You killed my brother.

Shot him dead in that church.

You come here to kill me?

Yes.

Anything I can say
to talk you out of it?

No.

I am sorry for your loss.

Recent advances in cranioscopy
have proved that the human brain

is the seat of character,
General.

Phineas Gage proved that.
You may remember...

Shouldn't you be getting back
to the fort, Major?

Let me quote just one item

from the most recent
American Phrenological Journal.

I believe you will see the value
of craniometry in the building...

You may not. Barkeep!

This beer or horse piss?

Actually, sir, we ran out of our
better dark lager sometime last week.

Mickey.

After what you've been
through today,

you've earned this.

I'll meet you back at the train.

- Yeah?
- Damn, I miss that.

You know the problem
with being me?

Can't be no worse than being me.

Everyone knows I'm a drunk.

And I've been told
you can't make it to the White House

on the back of a pink elephant.

You mean you can't drink in public?

Shit.

May be best
you don't run for president.

It's too late for that.

Well, General...

I think maybe you're in need
of a good snipe hunt.

I've been known to enjoy
a good snipe hunt now and again.

♪ I know when I am baptized ♪

♪ My wrongs are washed away ♪

♪ And I can be forgiven ♪

♪ And improve myself each day ♪

♪ I want my life to be as clean ♪

♪ As earth right after rain ♪

♪ I want to... ♪

♪ Look for rainbows
whenever there is rain ♪

♪ Ponder on the beauty
of an earth made clean again ♪

♪ I want my life to be as clean ♪

♪ As earth right after rain ♪

♪ I want to be the best I can ♪

♪ And live with God again ♪

They call me The Butcher.
Did you know that, Bohannon?

On account of the men
who died by my orders.

300,000 in all.

Men, fathers, sons, brothers.
All dead.

Thanks to me.

Of course, those who gave me that moniker
also thanked me,

publicly and privately,
for winning their ugly war,

and keeping them out of it.

Yeah.

What?

What I wouldn't give...
to be this close to you three years ago

with a Griswold in my hand.

That pistol was one damn
unreliable piece.

Always worked when I needed it.

I consider myself lucky, then,
that your killing days are behind you.

- Yeah.
- I need you to finish this railroad,

not that shifty sack of shit Durant.

I need a soldier to win this battle.

I will pull whatever strings I need
to in Washington.

You reach Cheyenne in 20 days,
on time, on budget,

and I will convince Congress
to reinstate you permanently

till you can join up
with Huntington and the Central Pacific.

General...

What about Durant?
You let me worry about Durant.

A Northern general,
a Southern soldier

working together
to unify these United States.

It's what the country needs.

Well, where the hell is Cheyenne?

I had the Bureau of Land Management

rename the town of Durant...
to Cheyenne.

- You renamed Durant's town?
- Yes, sir, I did.

Does he know yet?

- Nope.
- Can I tell him?

Only if you agree to my terms.

You're damn good.

That's why I won, son.

And that is why I will be
the next president of the United States.

I'm smarter than I look.

Are you?

I don't know.

This train is for railroad employees only.

You're fired.

CNST, Montreal