Hell on Wheels (2011–2016): Season 4, Episode 5 - Life's a Mystery - full transcript

I reckon he's asking
for your last words, Sid.

Shucks, Jose,
I never was much of a poet.

Your fancy tongue with
these boys' sister

is about to get you hung.

He's real twisted up, ain't he?

He sure is.

What you thinking, amigo?

I'm thinking Virginia City.

There was only two
in Virginia City.

Yeah, you let
me figure that part.

When?



On my say-so.

Uno.

W-w-wait. What... What about...

"Life's a mystery."

You mean as your last words?

Yeah.

Dos.

Maybe you do got some poetry
in you after all, Sid.

Well, you mean that,
or are you just saying it?

I'm just saying it.

Honest up to the end, Jose.

I'll give you that.

Tres!

Sure enough, Jose.



Life sure is a mystery, amigo.

This was in our son's crib.

All right.

I'll get some sideboards.

This baby needs four walls
and a door that locks.

I know he does.

He needs a home.

I'm workin' on it.

By order of the governor...

all firearms are
banned from the casino floor

and will be collected
in a barrel outside.

Any man in violation...

will be prosecuted
to the full extent of the law.

Good luck, gentlemen.

Happy with your deal,
Mr. McGinnes?

Gave it away for nothing.

Price of freedom.

Freedom from Campbell
and freedom from you.

I had plans to
secure your release.

We were in this together,
Mickey.

You're in it alone,

and now so am I.

End of the line!

Cheyenne.

Last stop!

Let's get through the back here.

How about you, sir?

Hey, there, darlin'.

Thank you, sir.

~ Ohm.

Bohannon?

Colonel Bohannon!

Naked man seem to know you.

Yeah.

Whoever he is...
He don't know me now.

You are colonel Cullen Bohannon.

I'm Cullen Bohannon.

Sid... Sid Snow.

18th Virginia?

Our companies
came together back in '64.

It was a long war
a long time ago.

Longer than I come acrost you.

I never seen a meaner Yankee
killer on God's green earth.

Yeah, well...

I got a flatbed to load,
Mister Snow, so...

Reckon I got
one to load likewise.

Well, stack 'em high
and tight, then.

Cullen Bohannon.

Last time
we worked a train together...

Must have been, what, Lufton's
Crossing in northern Virginia?

That's the one.
I remember it like yesterday.

Load 'em up!

Well, train's pullin' out.

Hey, you got room
for another Johnny Reb?

Only job left's throwin' rock.

You got somethin' else?

I ain't got nothin'.

Hey, Psalms?

- Yeah.
- You got room for one more?

Name's Sid.

He's with me.

Know your way
around a shovel, Sid?

I'm a quick study.

Ain't too many ways
to study rock.

Welcome to Union Pacific.

Load 'em up!

We a long way
from the South, ain't we?

Yeah.

Ain't but one direction left.

I know it don't make no sense,

but we spend our days blowin' up
this mountain in pieces...

pick up the pieces,

put 'em in wagons.

Damn. They got to blow up
the whole mountain?

Yeah, all the way
to Salt Lake City.

Utah?

We break for lunch on occasion.

Any good?

Bull meat.

Come out here lookin' for glory,
son, best look somewheres else.

I follow you into war.

Reckon I'll follow you
into this.

What's the trouble, Monroe?

Slack work's the trouble.

Slack, you say?

I ain't stutter none.

Bohannon, listen to the way

these niggers talk to us.

Whoa, hey...

Let me to talk to you
for a second.

This right here, hey, is my job.

Now, I work with these men.

That man right there,
he my boss.

You got yourself a nigger boss.

He's yours too,
if you want to be here, all right?

Well, life is a mystery.

I'll give you that, Bohannon.

Shit.

Citizens appear to be
complying with the ban.

No one's discharged
a firearm since this morning.

You hear somethin'?

What the hell do you think
you're doin'?

Why... I'm reading
the "Cheyenne Leader."

We could have been killed!

Smallest of pities.

Permission from the Commissioner
of the General Land Office

to invoke the right
of eminent domain

for the construction
of a roundhouse.

You can't tear down
a government building!

And you can't muscle into
the casino business.

Yet here we are.

What we are building here,
Mr. Campbell, is a roundtable.

A locomotive drives onto it,
and with the turn of a lever,

the train turns around
and around...

until it is pointed
in the opposite direction,

ready to head back east...

Where some people belong.

Guns off and in the barrel.

I thought I came west.

Thought wrong. New law now.

That ain't my law.

We just come
for a quick drink, is all.

Why separate a man
from his guns?

- Come on.
- Gamblers kept gettin' killed.

That's why they call it
gamblin'.

First one's on me.

Come on, come on!

That's the one, lads.

Come on, come on!

' - 0h!

I'm out. No, no, no.

No, best of luck, lads.

Best of luck. I'm out.

- Wallace, my boy!
- Hey.

Friend to friend?

60 hasn't hit in months.

You are a gentleman
and a scholar, Mr. Mayor.

- All right, I won't keep you.
- Good luck.

Thank you, for that.

Mayor's gonna buy you a drink,
Marshal Jessup.

On the old house, as it were.

Your money's no good here.

It's one drink.

I insist.

What I mean to say is,
we no longer accept patronage

from Irish scum the likes of you...

As it were.

Well...

Isn't wise to kick a man
while he's down.

He's liable to kick back.

Here.

Here's somethin' for ya.

Fresh from a English dandy
I met down in Juarez.

Well...

That is fresh.

It smells like home, don't it?

Well, go on.
Shit ain't gonna chew itself.

You aim to make today regular,
say the word.

I'll talk to Psalms.

No money. Rotten food.

16-hour days.

I can't think of a single
reason why not.

I don't know why you
toil like that dusk 'til dawn.

Started it.

So quit. We'll ride for Denver.

No. Left too much
undone already.

You'd do well to help me finish.

I ain't cut out for work.

Found a better way to live
down by the border?

I got DY-

- 'Cause a train ticket
to Cheyenne...

That can turn
into a death certificate,

you ain't careful.

I ain't crossed no one
I can't handle yet.

Is that what you
did down in Mexico?

Handle things?

I ain't never seen rope
burns on a live man before.

I didn't do nothin' in Mexico...

unless a misunderstandin' with a
sefiorita be a hangin' offense.

Ain't no crime there, I guess.

Yeah, you know
a little somethin'

about them
sefioritas, don't you?

Heard tell.

Found a place to bunk yet?

Stable lets you sleep in
the straw for a nickel a night.

You'll stay with me and my wife.

Ain't much. Roof and meal.

Well,
I suppose it's worth meetin'

the lion tamer done caged
Cullen Bohannon.

Damn.

Open the gate!

Lord lion,
father prophet, Brother Young.

Welcome to Fort Smith.

Yes.

I am Brother Aaron Hatch,

acting presiding elder,

head of the militia.

- The letter writer?
- Yes.

Thank you for gracing us.

The order to hang
a bishop is a serious matter.

I hope your indictment
is beyond reproof

and this is not
a waste of my time.

While you are visiting us,
the maidens of our community.

I've come to hand down
judgment, not take up wives.

Name of the prophet Joseph
bless you all.

Bless this bounty.

Show me the accused impostor.

Hey, you remember that beefsteak
raid in Prince George County?

Stole 3,000 head under
Grant's nose.

Rode with them boys from Texas.

Ate like kings for a month.
You 'member?

Remember gettin' tired of beef.

Yeah, but them first few steaks?

Don't hold a candle
to this fine meal here, ma'am.

I apologize if we are boring you
with old times.

It reminds me of home, actually.

Naomi's father heads
a Mormon militia

at a ward some ways north.

Father trained
with the same men,

bested the U.S. Cavalry in Utah.

Bested Yankees?

Reckon I'd like to meet
that man and buy him a drink.

We're a sober people.

You mean besides your husband.

He ever spoke
on Lufton's Crossing?

My husband doesn't
speak on the war.

Apologies. I only... 'cause you
said you were accustomed.

No need to stop on my account.

I can't believe
he ain't told you this already.

It was the best day
of our lives.

It was June of '64, and
we come across this empty train

at a whistle stop in backwoods Virginia.

It was the definition
of a sitting duck.

But when we get inside...
Now, you're gonna love this part...

When we get inside,
it's a medical train.

And it's not empty.
It's piled up with Yankees.

They all hobbled up on cots.
They're cryin' to their mamas.

They ain't got a gun, nothin'.

We jump a couple sentries,
and then it's just barn...

Barn... Bam...

All dead.

That's finished.

War ended.

Damn, Bohannon,
they had it comin'.

They did, right?

John...

have a seat.

Um, whiskey?

I've been tasked
to bring order to this city

by the next president
of the United States.

You say you bring order...

yet men hang from saloon
rafters and lampposts.

Lynch, burn,
bludgeon, or bury...

I will do whatevefs necessary
to rid this city of corruption.

Then seize your railroad.

Seize my railroad?

Are you having headaches, John?

T-t-that edema.

Forgive me, I have a degree
in ophthalmology

from Albany Medical College.

You see, ocular malformations

can inhibit mental processes,

clouding one's sight...

leaving one delusional.

My vision is perfectly clear.

In fact, I can see
into the future, doctor.

You're not in it.

One moment, the world
is as clear as day.

The next...

It flashes to black.

First your city...

and then your railroad.

On the old house, as it were.

I know you remember that train.

And I know you
got hounds on your heels

for somethin' you done
over the border.

You keep a gun within reach,
your head on a swivel,

and the only time I
seen pistols plated in silver

was on man tangled
with Mexicans.

Then you spoke like you
done at dinner in front of my wife?

All you need to know is,

nobody findin' me here,
Bohannon.

You got somebody after you.

They after the bounty, I reckon.

Ain't nobody findin' me.

You need money,
I'll spare my last.

Somebody comes lookin'
for ya, I'll keep a tight lip.

But as for a place to stay?

Got to be no.

Southern man don't open his home,
then dishonor his word.

Got family inside.
I won't risk it.

Risk what?

Your job chuckin'
rocks with niggers?

This shit-splattered
tent with rats?

Hell, I know what it is.

That little Mormon wench
has got your balls

pressed tight
between the pages of her bible.

My wife's name is Naomi.

That's what I like
about you, Bohannon.

You carry the worrying share
for the both of us.

Adios.

Come on.

Sidney never came back?

He's probably halfway
to Denver by now.

Part of you wishes
you were ridin' with him?

Sidney spoke true about
that train last night.

Sick and wounded...

killed 'em all...

the doctors too.

I can't make sense of it.

Can't.

We was tired of losin' the war...

Men like Sidney...

Like to think we
won somethin' that day.

Me, I just...

All I can remember is...

after it was over,
how hot my gun was.

Smelled like... blood
and honeysuckle.

So when we talk about Sidney...

Yeah.

I ain't no better than him.

No, that's your mistake.

All the people
I could lose money to,

beautiful woman tops my list.

Familiar with the term
"drawing dead"?

Honey, I'm always drawin' live.

If I were to die, I reckon
I'd use my last breath on you.

I bet it all.

Ain't fair to take a man's money
and run.

You ain't positioned to be
givin' lessons on what's fair,

now, is you?

Is you?

Hey. Get out of here.

Hey, watch where you're going.

Watch yourself.

Sefior Snow, manos arriba.

Si, si.

Shit.

Sueltela.

Sueltela!

Al suelo.

Date la vuelta.
Quiero ver tu cara.

Y ahora dime tus ultimas
palabras.

La vida es un misterio.

Any last words?

You shot a kid.

No,
he was caught in the crossfire.

No, he wasn't. You shot him.

You turn around real slow.

Shh.

Take him.

Shh.

You all right? You all right?

We-we-we needed bread.

Shh.

Now leave us.

Brother Brigham...

Lion of the Lord.

I bow down before your glory.

Be advised...

my hand will fall
with the might of God's fist

should he reveal a necessary
judgment today.

I accept your judgment...

as Heavenly Father's own.

Brother Hatch charges

you presided over this ward
as an impostor

after murdering Bishop
Joseph Dutson and his family.

How do you meet these charges?

I am a former immigrant...

A soldier.

Prisoner of war.

I was born

and have remained,
to this day, a pilgrim.

A lone man on an... on an exodus!

West to the promised land.

Cast out at
every home I have found

as a... as a leper.

My time as father
of this ward...

it's already fostered a miracle.

My miracle is Cullen Bohannon...

A man who cast me out,

tried to kill me,

was brought to this ward

by the hand of God to be saved.

And after a winter
of spiritual healing,

this gentile, sinner,
killer, slaver

fell to his knees...

and begged for forgiveness.

If that is not

divine providence of God...

then, brother...

hang me.

I believe Father's lips
have not pursed at your ear,

nor his hands laid on
your shoulders.

You appear nothing
more than a ravening wolf.

What you stand accused of,
spilling the blood of a saint,

is a heinous, sinful crime

whose just punishment

must be of equal weight and measure.

Yes.

And yet, the spur line...

which proves essential
to the saint's journey west

to the promised land,

has made twice the progress
under your tenure

than it did
under your predecessor.

You worked on the gentile's road?

Under Thomas Durant, head of...

I know who he is.

What did you think of the man?

I hated him

with the fire
of a thousand suns.

Perhaps Heavenly Father
has a use for you yet.

That man shot a child.

He'll knowjustice.

Our son was next.

Hey.

I wouldn't let that happen.

I thought
you would have killed him.

I wasn't gonna shoot her,
and you know it...

same I knew
you wasn't gonna shoot me.

I wished I had.

That ain't so, Bohannon.

Truth is, you even wish
you were in here with me,

waitin' for someone like
us to bust us out.

That's it, ain't it?

You miss it.

No.

I'll be glad to watch you hang.

I've been hung before.

Life sure is a mystery,
ain't it, Bohannon?

Any business with the governor
will have to wait until morning.

Tell me why you did it.

Did what?

Jessup is dead.

I haven't the slightest idea
what you're talking about.

I loved him.

You... loved him?

I see.

Well, whatever it
is you think I've done,

I can assure you, you are wrong.

Stop lying-