Lawmen: Bass Reeves (2023): Season 1, Episode 6 - Part VI - full transcript

Come on out, Webb!
Law won't ever stop!

Excuse me, you need to get
to the back of the line.

Sally.

Shouldn't talk to
my sister like that.

You're awfully tough when it's

four of y'all and two of us.

Think it's okay to let
them wander on their own?

Black folks been
disappearing up and down

the Territory.

You are to deliver the prisoner

Jackson Cole to the Red River,



turn him over to the Rangers.

I ain't been home for 41 days.

You ride out tomorrow.

Mighty strange, this feeling.

Riding to my death.

We both Negroes.

We know the world
in the same ways.

You asked if you had the
grit to be a deputy marshal.

You don't.

You giving up on me?

I never give up, Billy.

Where you taking that creature?

Reintroducing the beast
to a rightful home.

No animal belong in a box.



That is the truth.

She won't be in there long.

Did you make a
home for yourself?

Marry, have a family?

I have.

And what would you
do now to protect it?

To hold on to it?

I'd wager you'd kill a thousand.

And no man would fault you.

I surely would not.

These badges we
wear on our chest,

made from different materials.

Yours a tin star,

mine a star cut from
a cinco peso piece.

Just raw materials.

But the power they give...

The real power lie beneath.

In the heart.

You honor the badge, Bass.

But even with it, a man like you

couldn't arrest a man like
me once we cross that river.

You touch that other bank,
it's a whole other law.

I have no mind to arrest you.

No, by those angry eyes,

I'd reckon you'd
just as soon kill me.

My prisoner a good man.

I trust you'll see
he get a fair trial?

Well, he's my prisoner now.

My prisoners always
get what they deserve.

This one tell you what he did?

I know he killed a man.

He told me why he did it.

Might've even had just cause.

But did he tell you how he
killed old James Neblett?

He kidnapped and rode that
man blubbering and praying

all the way from Austin to
Neblett's property in Columbia.

Then he chained him
to the one pecan tree

Neblett hadn't burned down

and he shot him in his
blubbering, praying mouth.

No man deserves to die that way.

Not even a Yankee.

But I don't need to tell
you about killing Yanks.

As I recall, you're something
of an expert on the subject.

Saddle up.

You're in my prayers.

Ah, don't bother the
big man about me.

We need to ride.

Billy, bring that mule.

We can't have this man walk
all the way to Fort Worth.

He won't.

On that, you have my word.

Bass.

Where I built my ranch,

the land is littered with
ancient bones of giants.

Monsters.

Thigh bones as big as a man.

Locals call 'em
huesos de ángeles.

Angel bones.

But I know a monster when
I see one, Bass Reeves.

Moving out!

Come pay me a visit one day.

You'll feel right at home.

Sara?

It's Bass.

Place don't smell right.

You ride ahead. I'll catch up.

Come on.

How much longer we
gonna ride, Bass?

These horses need rest.

Shoot, we need to rest.

I'm tired.

We're all tired.

We've been riding
straight for days.

Look at Pistol.

Hardly hold his head up.

Tell you what.

We'll stop the night in Checotah

if you stop flapping your
gums till we get there.

You took your time.

Sally, I'm leaving.

I should be gone already.

What are you talking about?

I can't stay here.
They'll have my neck.

They was just kids being stupid.

You got nothing to worry about.

Maybe you don't, but my
last name ain't Reeves.

Arthur Mayberry, I never
took you for no chicken.

And I never took you for a fool.

You don't understand.

I'm asking you to come with me.

We can visit Paris and...

you can write poems
by the "Seene."

Seine.

And Reeves don't run.

I'll wait there for you.

By the Seine.

I'll send you a poem every day.

We don't want any trouble
here tonight, Deputy.

Just payday in Checotah.

Whiskey.

You too shy to go inside?

I'm just waiting
for you to come out.

I see you got yourself
into some trouble.

All in a day's work.

Mm.

Bought this for
you in Fort Smith.

Thought you might not
get the latest out here.

Thank you, Billy Crow.

You're welcome.

My feet shot out
of them stirrups

and I flew off of that
horse like I'd been plugged.

Damn nearly was.

I landed upright in time

to hear the report
of a Winchester.

I dove into that sagebrush
and when I came up,

I saw that man hoofing it
faster than a stuck deer.

Whoa.

Mind you don't fall, partner.

Mind you keep your voice down

while the rest of
us try to think.

Barkeep,

I reckon my friend
here has had his fill.

Barkeep.

I reckon we all had enough
of this cowboy's ballyhoo.

I reckon people on the
far side of the Territory

about had enough of it, too.

You got too many teeth.

Outside, fellas.

You sure you want to do this?

Sure am.

Then I guess we'd better be
getting on with it, then.

Deputy Marshal Reeves.

Braxton Sawyer, Texas Ranger.

I'm mighty honored
to meet you, sir.

Let me buy you a drink.

My daddy had a good outfit
not far off the Shawnee Trail.

I loved riding that range
with him, moving herd.

We got into some
trouble after the war

when drovers started
bringing their longhorns up.

My daddy already lost one herd

and he wasn't about
to do it again.

So we mounted up and we
turned those longhorns

and their cowboys right around.

But, you know, not
without a scrap.

Daddy got lead in the belly

and was dead before
the marshals showed up.

I mean, they would've
hung my daddy anyway,

if he was still alive to hang.

And...

well, for assault
with intent to kill,

they gave me 18 months at the
Detroit House of Corrections.

That was my first time
out of the Territory.

I'm mighty glad you came back.

Well...

I guess this is home.

Esau Pierce tell
you to follow me?

I was holding forth
gone three hours

before you brought your
storm cloud in here.

I didn't follow you.

And who the hell is Pierce?

Man from my past.

What are you doing here, Bass?

Sometime I get to
wondering why a man like me

putting folk in manacles.

This thing...

weigh just as much as the chain.

Someone once told me there
ain't no law in the Territory.

Starting to think there
ain't no God either.

Hmm.

Don't despair, amigo.

God is present.

And He knows your good work.

Many miles back to Austin,

and I'd hate to ride
all of them sober.

You gonna stand there all night?

That's all right. Go ahead.

Are you going to be
a baby about this?

No.

Well, then stop your squirming.

You're the most glorious
creature to grace this earth.

It burns.

I thought you said you
weren't gonna be a baby.

Just didn't think you were
going to hurt me so bad.

Hurt a strapping,
young raider like you?

Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Marry me, Calista.

You can't afford the ring
it'll take to hitch me.

This the one who done Webb.

Where were you...

two hours ago when I was
spoiling for a fight, hmm?

That bounty on you?

Pays the same dead...

or alive.

Give it a spin.

Adios, Reeves.

Aw.

Bullet's in the chamber.

I can feel it.

Best not miss, then.

Come on. Come on, come on.

Now that's how you
aim, Billy Crow!

- Let's get you some help.
- No.

Let's get them sons of bitches.

There.

Whoa!

Hurry up in there.

Don't need a saddle,
just get the horses.

What is it?

Don't.

Easy, fellas.

Good work, Billy Crow.

Have a nice time earlier?

She said I can't
afford the ring.

But she did bring me my apparel.

Well, that's something.

So glad y'all could make it.

I think I was bleeding
before I realized

Pearl Lee's real
name was Pearla Lee.

Pearla Lee.

God rest her soul.

"I'd shudder and start
if I heard the bay

Of bloodhounds seizing
their human prey."

"And I heard the
captive plead in vain

As they bound afresh
his galling chain."

Frances Harper is a
brilliant role model.

It is young women like you,
Sally, that give me hope.

Bennie.

Don't walk off like that.

You don't scare me!

Let's go.

Fred Douglass consented to have
his image on our next pamphlet.

Might even write some words.

What have they done to you?

I'm fine.

You're sitting in my chair.

It's so good to see you, Bass.

My, it's been forever.

I'd like you to
meet Edwin Jones.

Hello, Esme.

I kept it warm for you.

Now, Bass. You stay right there.

No, no. My mistake, Reeves.

Let's not get off
on the wrong foot.

As the good book says,

"But when you are invited, go
and sit in the lowest place

so that when he who
invited you comes,

he may say to you,
'Friend, go up higher.'"

I didn't invite you.

We've been hearing about
your adventures, Bass.

Now we see the danger you face.

We're all very proud of you.

Mm-hmm.

Reconstruction is dead.

Has the world
changed for the Negro

in the United States of America?

Yes, in many ways.

But we need to ask,
how much has changed?

And for how many?

Why, they will use just about

any pretext to drive out,

lock down, or string
up the Black man.

The Klan continues to
rain terror upon us.

We are the only ones
who can keep us safe.

Edwin and I have traveled
far and wide, Bass.

You won't believe the
things we've seen.

He'll believe you.

He's seen it all himself.

I seen some things.

Well, you must have
heard the stories

about Black men disappearing.

Rumors of Black men
being killed for sport.

Legally, slavery is
supposed to be dead.

But in practice it
is only wounded.

We need a place where
we can be safe and free.

But let there be no doubt
that we still need to fight.

I think we're doing our
fair part right here.

Well, sure. And I-I admire that.

You have made a career
that honors your talents

instead of violently
suppressing them.

But tell me...

why are there not more
stories like yours?

Black folks make up, what,

ten percent of the
population of Fort Smith?

How many former
slaves right here

have had the same good
fortune that you have?

I'm sorry your wife
couldn't join us.

How long you been
away from home?

Like your beautiful family,

my wife and children make
great sacrifices for the cause.

- Hmm.
- We all must.

Esme and Edwin
were speaking about

whole towns made
up of Black folk.

Whole counties. Whole states.

Up Kansas way and throughout
the Indian Territory

lies a rich land of opportunity

for industrious, caring,
God-fearing Black men and women.

Where do you expect the
Indian people to go?

Think they don't suffer?

You see all them white folks
coming up on those riverboats?

You know where they will settle.

Your beloved Indian Territory

is not going to stay
Indian for long.

And our people need
real protection.

My job is to protect everyone.

Black, red or white.

Are you happy with
what you are doing?

I have to ask, respectfully...

which master do you serve?

Esme says old William
Reeves taught you to shoot.

George Reeves made
you shoot the very men

who were fighting
for your freedom.

And now Judge Parker puts
the names on your bullets.

Man is lucky to have
such a hired gun.

I'm the only one
pulling the trigger.

You ever felt the
lash on your back?

Hmm?

You carry on about
our experience

like it's a set of
boots we both own.

I did not have to experience
those wrongs to denounce them.

To fight against them.

Think hard about
what you are doing.

Ride with me, with us.

Together...

together we can build a place

where everyone can live free.

Mm.

Is that why you were so
eager to meet my husband?

That why you brought
him here, Esme?

We may support your
vision, Mr. Jones.

But my husband is not a
face for your pamphlets.

He ain't no show pony
for you to trot around.

I see you two have
your house in order.

I admire that.

Even envy it.

I apologize.

I did not mean to overstep.

And we do not want to
overstay, do we, Esme?

I'll see you to the door.

Shouldn't you be
asleep, Sally gal?

I'm sorry I missed the carnival.

I guess I missed a lot.

Forgive me?

Maybe just this once.

You didn't like
that man, did you?

Daddy just had a
bad day. That's all.

You and Mama okay?

We're okay.

You lucky you're
your mama's daughter.

That's funny.

She always say I'm
my daddy's girl.

Want me to fix you a bath?

Maybe tomorrow.

I'm sorry I had to leave.

I should've told you sooner.

I ain't angry that you left.

Disappointed by the
man you brought home.

Every time you come back,

you bring less and less of you.

Maybe you the one that changed.

How dare you?

Where my husband?

Where that light in your eyes?

Scrutinize those
receipts, Mr. Reeves.

You 50 bucks short, Florence.

You delivered that man's
boots, you earn less.

I did not deliver boots,

I delivered a
living, breathing man

into the hands of
a Texas Ranger.

Well, I got the
telegram right here.

"Confirmed. Texas
Rangers having received

from Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves

at Red River the boots of
one prisoner Jackson Cole,

which they promptly
delivered at Fort Worth."

Ramsey!

Ramsey!

Who making Black men disappear?

Who Mr. Sundown?

Make way.

Ramsey!

Who is Mr. Sundown?

♪ He ride by night

♪ Drawn fast to the firelight

♪ Ain't no peace to be found

♪ When the sun go down

Heard you lost that prisoner.

Tough break.

Hang 'em already.

You had it coming!

I love you, Mama.

You had it coming!

Bass Reeves!

Mr. Sundown is cinco peso.

Cinco peso is Mr. Sundown.

Cinco peso.

You honor the badge, Bass.

These badges we
wear on our chest,

just raw materials.

But the power they give...

What are the chances
of Parker giving me

a writ for a Texas Ranger?

Nil to none.

Well, cock-a-doodle-do.

Blood can be the heaviest
damn thing in the world.

I always said we
weren't so different.

Except that one thing.

Blood never weighed
me down at all.

But all this blood
on your hands...

filling them up so
much, you can't hold

those precious children...

you can't caress
your pretty wife.

Bass, you're gonna bend and
bow under the weight of it

till you break and burn.

Only God...

can judge me.

As you judge me.

But what if God already did?

Hmm?

What if he weighed out your
soul and found it wanting?

Don't you see?

I am his judgment.

Heaven is full of
killers, Bass Reeves.

By His grace they welcome
me as they will welcome you.

Bass is dedicated to justice.

There's hardly much room

for anything or anyone else.

Looking for a Moody O'Neil.

Sitting on this porch.

You set out to hang
an old Black woman

in a white man's noose.

Slave catcher,
that's all you is.

Mama.

Get upstairs.

Where's the old crow?

Want to say your goodbyes?