Hell on Wheels

I'm gonna teach you a new song.

And I keep it on my back in an old sack or something!

Another one, for God sakes! Something we can drink to.

All right, this one I... I... I played for a rosy-cheeked lady named Elsa.

To Elsa!

Uh-uh-uh... To Thor Gundersen!

To Thor Gundersen!

Please...

I am only a quartermaster.

Don't.

That sound you, shithead, hmm?

No. - His name is...

Is Private James Goodwin.

Oh, when you address me, it's sir,

you goddamn Swedish bastard.

Norwegian, sir.

Goddamn Norwegian bastard, sir.

The Swede's got jokes.

Yeah.

Ah...

Jokes and contraband.

Maybe the Swede should play me a song.

Mmm-hmm.

I said play me a song, Swede.

My name is Thor Gundersen from Norway.

Well, here we go, boys.

Here you go, stumpy.

Here you go, Swede.

Come and get it.

All right, one at a time. One at...

Back up, back up or nothing.

Here we go.

Swede, I'm the one that feeds him, Swede.

I'm the one that feeds him.

I'm the one.

I'm the one that feeds him.

Do you hear me, Swede?

I'm the one.

James, look at me, James.

Look at me.

I am your friend, Thor Gundersen.

It is me.

It is... It is me!

Look at me, James.

It is me. I am your friend.

I am your friend.

It is me.

Thor Gundersen.

It is me.

I am your friend.

It is me.

You are my friend.

Hmm. Where'd he go, hmm?

Isaac?

Have you seen Isaac, sister?

Sara?

Sara, what's wrong?

Oh!

Sara...

Isaac?

Get William!

Papa?

Papa!

Papa...

- Run! - Papa!

Naomi,

I'm coming to get you.

You best run.

Naomi!

Naomi!

I'm coming.

Naomi? - Cullen.

You move and I'll shoot you.

These stitches won't hold.

- This thread ain't the right kind of... - I'll be fine.

You need a doctor.

I'll send Isaac for a doctor.

Camp Douglas has a doctor.

You won't make it half way.

He won't let you.

He will hang.

Then why go?

End it here.

Tell me where... Where are we headed, huh?

If you wanted to kill me you would have...

You would have done it down in the creek.

Uh, perhaps a slow death, eh?

Torture.

Mmm, the leg in that condition...

No man tortures his enemy if he must torture himself in the process.

Camp Douglas, huh?

Some 60 miles west of Gobbler's Knob,

with jurisdiction over all crimes committed in the Utah Territory.

You want this to end in the way

you believe it should have ended a long time ago upon that trestle bridge.

Uh, Heavenly Father has spared my neck twice now.

He can manage a third, hmm?

My friend took a ball to the leg during the war.

Same place as you. You would not believe how he suffered.

I don't believe you had a friend.

Uh, uh, Confederate soldiers took us captive,

forced us to ride two days,

about the same distance we are traveling, yeah?

By the time we arrived at the Georgia state line,

gangrene had set in.

A river of shit ran through the center of Andersonville,

and I tell you the stench of Goodwin's wound overpowered it.

The rot did not take his leg.

Uh, the rebels did. And with it, his dignity.

Imagine saving a man's life only to watch his slow death.

What breed of monster is capable of such inhumanity?

I can think of one.

Oh, as can I.

Untie me, Mr. Bohannon. I can help you.

Devil!

Mr. Bohannon...

What, huh?

It's just a snake.

Trapper once told me that squirming is a...

It's a soul's way of leaving the body.

Said it could last for minutes.

Huh...

Guess it depends on the soul.

Sure you don't want none?

You could be sharing a hot meal with your wife and child.

Instead you are out in the cold,

with a festering wound.

It's interesting you would rather be here,

offering me sustenance, instead of your family.

I'd rather keep 'em far away from you.

If protecting them was your only motive,

you would have been safer to kill me.

And you fear killing me.

Why?

- I fear... - Hmm.

I fear it would bring you peace.

Son of a bitch.

And I will see you hang.

If your misguided sense of justice

requires that I hang for my crimes,

surely you can understand that you must hang there beside me...

For yours.

And, the bodies you have piled up

do not disappear when you bury them away,

out of sight.

And you bring death everywhere.

You scared?

Oh...

You need your rest, Mr. Bohannon, hmm?