Hell on Wheels

Previously on AMC'S Hell On Wheels

What brings the defender of the saints to Laramie?

What's this?

I'm not stealing from you.

Don't mistake me for soft, Josie.

Salt Lake City's to be the terminus.

I have assurances from both railroads.

No luck finding your wife and child?

My father's declared a work stoppage.

We are to report home to Salt Lake immediately.

Are you prepared for your ascension?

President Ulysses S. Grant has called a meeting in Salt Lake City...

and you my friend are late.

Gentlemen, if you please.

Wait, we are getting absolutely nowhere.

May I repeat... You have made your point, sir.

For the record, this time.

For the record, we are going round and round and round in circles.

This meeting, I'm beginning to think, has no shape at all.

No. No shape, nor a purpose. Neither.

May I suggest we start from the beginning?

No. Let's start at right now.

I want an answer, Mr. Durant.

Not an equivocation, not a redirect...

A simple answer to a simple question.

Will the Union Pacific build north or south

of the Great Salt Lake?

The Union Pacific is planning to build

south to Salt Lake City.

This great city in which we are gathered

is and has always been our designated terminus.

Are you suggesting Miss Ellison made this up?

I am stating that Miss Ellison is a journalist, Mr. President.

She will write anything to sell newspapers.

I thought her prose, uh, well founded,

articulated and... And compelling, frankly, Mr. Durant.

Nobody is interested in your literary criticism, Mr. Hunting...

Gentlemen. Per my contract

with Collis Huntington and the Central Pacific Railroad,

he had agreed to build south through Salt Lake City.

Cassius?

Yet this map, which I am recently come to possess,

proves him to be both a liar and a thief.

Mr. Huntington?

Well, Central Pacific Railroad intends to build north.

Any, uh, misunderstanding on the part of Mr. Young is regrettable and unintentional.

- (SCOFFS) - I motion

that construction on the Central Pacific's road

be suspended pending a full inquiry.

I would ask you, Mr. President,

uh, to consider how

Brigham Young acquired that map,

private property of the Central Pacific Railroad.

Uh, Samuel Ammerman, my...

My telegraph operator, disappeared ages...

Ages ago after being placed there by Thomas Durant to spy...

That is an unsubstantiated accusation, sir!

Private business of a private corporation!

Have not corporations rights, sir?

Now, surely, a...

A penalty for corporate espionage must be levied.

"Corporate espionage." You practically invented the concept!

Thomas Durant is undermining your railroad, Mr. President.

Enough!

- Mr. Bohannon. - Mr. President.

I promised the American people a railroad that crosses this country, gentlemen.

It will be built.

If not by you, by someone else.

We will establish a route and a terminus,

a place where your two railroads shall meet,

before any of us steps foot outside Salt Lake City.

One hour recess.

Uh, you know that dream where a meeting's about to start,

and you look down and you realize

suddenly you've been stripped down to your unmentionables?

And you're... (SIGHS)

Never mind.

You're here now.

Uh, we have lost Brigham's trust

and his workers with it.

Regrettable but not irreparable.

We're gonna strike back...

Hit Durant hard.

Listen to me. There is no way Durant gives up Ogden.

He's lying to Brigham Young

just to keep the Mormon workers on his payroll long as possible.

We catch him in a lie,

get Grant to give us Ogden

and its millions of dollars' worth of coal

as penalty for Durant wasting our time.

Hmm?

I'll pick my spot.

Mr. Bohannon! (CHUCKLES)

I'd heard Collis had taken you under his wing.

I hope all this talk of business and politics

doesn't prove too much of a bore for you.

No. You always keep things interesting.

Well, I try to do my bit. (CHUCKLES)

Well, I...

I, uh, hardly recognize you.

We have Durant's support,

but only as long as his interests align with ours.

He needs our workers,

but not as badly as I need his road.

Father, I've returned.

Yes, four days late,

and wearing unsightly boots.

Your brother and I are concerned with pressing railroad matters.

The railroad is also my concern.

I pulled the men from Truckee as you requested.

I've done your bidding, Father, and I have a small request.

A quick one, I hope.

The Hatchites.

The heretic sect, I need to know where they are.

What you needed was an awareness

of the treachery brewing right under your nose

during your time on the Central Pacific!

Brother Phineas is... Is not at fault, O Lion.

It was the gentiles, in particular, Cullen Bo...

Don't defend this imbecile!

I'm perfectly aware were it not for you

our mission there would've proved twice as disastrous.

You will not speak to me in this way!

Enough.

Get out of my sight.

Now!

Brother Phineas.

No. Brother Phineas...

No. It...

Do you see how he treats me?

I do, it is deplorable. Hmm.

- Our men are well-trained. - Yeah.

- Well-armed. - Yes.

- We have prepared for this. - We have.

We must strike now.

- Yeah, he has so many well-armed guards... - Phineas!

And now the soldiers.

No, Zion is better protected than when we left.

Uh, now, we...

We must be patient. Huh?

Phineas, wait.

Ah! Hey, Cassius.

Oh, look at you.

The Hatchites are in the Red Valley,

southeast of Camp Douglas.

Couple hours ride from here.

Thank you, Cassius.

Welcome home, brother.

You see, yeah,

Heavenly Father continues to bestow upon us

his unpected blessings.

Uh, he will tell us when it is time.

I grow tired of waiting, Brother Thor.

Yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah. I see that.

I see that.

If only it was your own favors I was paying for, Madam Eva.

- Oh, we thank you for your patronage. - (CHUCKLES)

Uh, Mr. Crigler.

Distracted by your charms, I was. (CHUCKLES)

He takes me, right there on the stairs,

but he said it didn't count,

"'Cause we wasn't in the sack."

Dumb-ass cowboy!

This box was full.

Seven hundred dollars.

Our money.

Now, whoever's doing this is stealing from all of us.

Just say it, if you're accusing somebody.

Oh, I'm looking at her.

- Josie would never... - Quiet, Tess!

I'm real scared.

No, no, no.

You're too stupid to be scared.

Highfalutin on account of your pretty face and your fast hands.

Don't forget, little girl,

I found you in a pile of pig slop

gnawing on a chicken bone.

You cross me,

you'll be back there quicker than you can come.

That money'd best turn up.

Eva ain't fit to be running things.

That's the truth of it.

It's what I been saying, Mick.

She don't protect us from johns when they get rowdy,

and now there's this money gone.

- Stolen? - (SCOFFS)

All she can do to fix it is blame us.

You mean she blames you?

She's just got it in for me 'cause all the girls like me better.

They listen to Josie. I've seen it.

And you think you could run the girls?

I could look out for 'em, keep the cash safe.

Be happy to work alongside Johnny here, you think that's best.

The route west and south along the lake, Mr. President,

it crosses open country for thirty miles.

It has advantages both as to cost

and speed of progress.

As per federal law,

we will acquire the land

and mineral rights