The Beginning of the End
There comes a time in every television show's life where the end is near. You may notice it by lackluster storylines or uncharacteristic character actions or new plot twists added only for their shock value. For some shows, there is never any sign. The season simply ends, ready to go on to a second season, and then the studio decides to cut it from their lineup. Like, for example, ABC's Forever, which I am still holding out hope that it will come back to me...I mean us, all television viewers. For other shows, like The Mentalist, there comes a point when the original story arc is completed, and so the show comes to a conclusion, ties up all loose ends, and throws an amazing farewell party (like the wedding between Jane and Lisbon...oh, it was wonderful!).
Well, Hell on Wheels now fits into that last category. The fifth season premiered on Saturday night, and as we have been reminded again and again via Twitter and other outlets, this is the final season. Which, to me, begs a question: do writers and producers--and even actors--prefer to know when the end is coming? Is it easier to write episodes and flesh out characters when there are only a finite number of sections of the story left? Or are there avenues that can no longer be taken because there really is a narrow window to fit it all in?
Just to warn you, dear reader, there will be SPOILERS ahead! So if you haven't watched Saturday's episode, you may want to just stop here. And if you haven't watched any episodes, all four seasons are available on Netflix. You should totally get on that. Like, right now.
Season four ended with lots of characters in different places. Cullen, our wonderfully bearded hero, has left the Union Pacific to search for his lost family and to work for the Central Pacific railroad (historically, we can pick up on a lot of new challenges that might be in store for Cullen in season 5: the Chinese workforce, the route the CP has to take across the desert and through the mountains). The Swede, our terrifying antagonist (one of many), has been absolved by Brigham Young for his lies about his identity and continues to be a major force in the Mormon organization, not to mention the CP (hints at what's to come, perhaps?). Durant is still Durant, Eva and Mickey are going into business with each other, and it seems Cheyenne is going to be semi-civilized now (or at least more accepting of the governmental interference).
So then we come to season 5. The episode Chinatown opens with Cullen all dandied-up and standing on a beach looking at the Pacific Ocean. Up on a hilltop, we see a massive house, and Naomi and William (who is now a small boy) standing and waving at Cullen. My first thoughts were, based on season four's ending, this was either a dream or a huge jump into the future, and the rest of the season would be told in flashback. Regardless, we got to see an adorable interaction between Cullen and his son--a side of Cullen that we have never seen before. His first child died in the Civil War, and with Ezra, we saw the hintings at what a fatherly Bohannon might look like. And then the house is gone, his family is gone, and Cullen is hanging from a mountain side (so the dream-reality won that bet). However, it seems this isn't an ordinary climb up a sheer rock face for our hero: he has found the path the CP can take to Utah. A good thing to discover.
Cullen and his crew head back to the CP base town (at present, at least) of Truckee. There we meet our new supporting characters. There's Collis Huntington, who we've seen before. He's the head of the CP and is the one who hired Cullen. There's also one-eyed Mr. Strobridge, who I love already. He is the construction superintendent, so he works very closely with Cullen. Then we meet Mr. Chang, who is in charge of bringing the Chinese immigrants and hiring them out to the CP. Not a good guy, we can see. And Mr. Tao and his son, Fong, who are workers on the railroad.
There's a big explosion after Cullen and Tao work together to plant a charge deep in the earth. I love the way Cullen always gets down and works right alongside his workers. He did it with Psalms and Elam at different points, and he is doing it now with the Chinese workers. After this explosion, Fong reveals that Mr. Chang is skimming from the Chinese workers. This, of course, does not sit well with Cullen, who confronts the man. Mr. Change just seems so sneaky and underhanded, and the whole time he sat there, smugly listening to and insulting Cullen, I wanted to be like, "Dude, you don't know who you're dealing with."
Cullen brings this up to Huntington and Strobridge while at dinner with the two families. He receives a telegram stating that Naomi and William have been cast out of every Mormon camp--basically, no one, not even Brigham Young, knows where they are. Mr. Strobridge gets Cullen to go to the saloon with him, and that's where Chang finds them, keeping Cullen distracted as his goons beat on Tao for ratting out Chang's skimming operation (even though it was actually Tao's son). As they play cards, Chang tries to show Cullen that they are not so different, and it becomes very clear (to me, at least) that Chang knows no matter how hard he tries, he will never be fully accepted as a business man because he is Chinese. He knows that, but that doesn't stop him from trying. A very interesting character development is beginning to present itself. Even so, though, when Cullen hears the strains of a fight outside, he does what Cullen does: draws his gun and defends the innocent.
He draws his guns again when the Swede shows up on his doorstep late at night. The Swede thinks he's now the true prophet (not Brigham Young) and that Cullen is literally the Devil sent to test him. But Cullen hires him anyway, which could be interesting as things pan out. Huntington goes on and on about loyalty and if he has Cullen's, and as they both leave, we see Huntington's secretary telegraphing someone that the CP has found it's path..and we follow those telegraph lines to, as you may have guessed, the hands of Thomas Durant.
So much happened in this episode that it's hard to nail everything down. Is the show going to flip back and forth between the CP and the UP? With this being the last season, is Cullen ever going to get his revenge on the Swede for Lily's murder (among all the other things he did)? Will he find Naomi and William, or is Fong going to be the new Ezra? As one might suspect, the suspense is going to be killer, and I think that will be due in part to the fact that we know everything must come to some sort of resolution. I guess we'll see.
But, as strange as it sounds, it's good to be back in Hell.
~Stay Gold!
Well, Hell on Wheels now fits into that last category. The fifth season premiered on Saturday night, and as we have been reminded again and again via Twitter and other outlets, this is the final season. Which, to me, begs a question: do writers and producers--and even actors--prefer to know when the end is coming? Is it easier to write episodes and flesh out characters when there are only a finite number of sections of the story left? Or are there avenues that can no longer be taken because there really is a narrow window to fit it all in?
Just to warn you, dear reader, there will be SPOILERS ahead! So if you haven't watched Saturday's episode, you may want to just stop here. And if you haven't watched any episodes, all four seasons are available on Netflix. You should totally get on that. Like, right now.
Season four ended with lots of characters in different places. Cullen, our wonderfully bearded hero, has left the Union Pacific to search for his lost family and to work for the Central Pacific railroad (historically, we can pick up on a lot of new challenges that might be in store for Cullen in season 5: the Chinese workforce, the route the CP has to take across the desert and through the mountains). The Swede, our terrifying antagonist (one of many), has been absolved by Brigham Young for his lies about his identity and continues to be a major force in the Mormon organization, not to mention the CP (hints at what's to come, perhaps?). Durant is still Durant, Eva and Mickey are going into business with each other, and it seems Cheyenne is going to be semi-civilized now (or at least more accepting of the governmental interference).
So then we come to season 5. The episode Chinatown opens with Cullen all dandied-up and standing on a beach looking at the Pacific Ocean. Up on a hilltop, we see a massive house, and Naomi and William (who is now a small boy) standing and waving at Cullen. My first thoughts were, based on season four's ending, this was either a dream or a huge jump into the future, and the rest of the season would be told in flashback. Regardless, we got to see an adorable interaction between Cullen and his son--a side of Cullen that we have never seen before. His first child died in the Civil War, and with Ezra, we saw the hintings at what a fatherly Bohannon might look like. And then the house is gone, his family is gone, and Cullen is hanging from a mountain side (so the dream-reality won that bet). However, it seems this isn't an ordinary climb up a sheer rock face for our hero: he has found the path the CP can take to Utah. A good thing to discover.
Cullen and his crew head back to the CP base town (at present, at least) of Truckee. There we meet our new supporting characters. There's Collis Huntington, who we've seen before. He's the head of the CP and is the one who hired Cullen. There's also one-eyed Mr. Strobridge, who I love already. He is the construction superintendent, so he works very closely with Cullen. Then we meet Mr. Chang, who is in charge of bringing the Chinese immigrants and hiring them out to the CP. Not a good guy, we can see. And Mr. Tao and his son, Fong, who are workers on the railroad.
There's a big explosion after Cullen and Tao work together to plant a charge deep in the earth. I love the way Cullen always gets down and works right alongside his workers. He did it with Psalms and Elam at different points, and he is doing it now with the Chinese workers. After this explosion, Fong reveals that Mr. Chang is skimming from the Chinese workers. This, of course, does not sit well with Cullen, who confronts the man. Mr. Change just seems so sneaky and underhanded, and the whole time he sat there, smugly listening to and insulting Cullen, I wanted to be like, "Dude, you don't know who you're dealing with."
Cullen brings this up to Huntington and Strobridge while at dinner with the two families. He receives a telegram stating that Naomi and William have been cast out of every Mormon camp--basically, no one, not even Brigham Young, knows where they are. Mr. Strobridge gets Cullen to go to the saloon with him, and that's where Chang finds them, keeping Cullen distracted as his goons beat on Tao for ratting out Chang's skimming operation (even though it was actually Tao's son). As they play cards, Chang tries to show Cullen that they are not so different, and it becomes very clear (to me, at least) that Chang knows no matter how hard he tries, he will never be fully accepted as a business man because he is Chinese. He knows that, but that doesn't stop him from trying. A very interesting character development is beginning to present itself. Even so, though, when Cullen hears the strains of a fight outside, he does what Cullen does: draws his gun and defends the innocent.
He draws his guns again when the Swede shows up on his doorstep late at night. The Swede thinks he's now the true prophet (not Brigham Young) and that Cullen is literally the Devil sent to test him. But Cullen hires him anyway, which could be interesting as things pan out. Huntington goes on and on about loyalty and if he has Cullen's, and as they both leave, we see Huntington's secretary telegraphing someone that the CP has found it's path..and we follow those telegraph lines to, as you may have guessed, the hands of Thomas Durant.
So much happened in this episode that it's hard to nail everything down. Is the show going to flip back and forth between the CP and the UP? With this being the last season, is Cullen ever going to get his revenge on the Swede for Lily's murder (among all the other things he did)? Will he find Naomi and William, or is Fong going to be the new Ezra? As one might suspect, the suspense is going to be killer, and I think that will be due in part to the fact that we know everything must come to some sort of resolution. I guess we'll see.
But, as strange as it sounds, it's good to be back in Hell.
~Stay Gold!
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