ScandalUMD

Confusion is excusable. You really have to have re-watched season 2 recently to be able to follow the political maneuverings between Hearst and Swearengen, and this stuff is hard to follow anyway.

The killing in the Gem in episode 3.1 served two purposes. One, Hearst was legitimately trying to put down organizing among his labor, but the second purpose was to assert his dominance over Al by killing a guy at the Gem without permission, and leaving Al to clean up the mess.

Al went to Hearst at the end of that episode and made it clear to Hearst his displeasure and announced his intention to cause problems for Hearst's interests if the insult wasn't remedied. If you remember Season 2, Hearst's man Wolcott bought up all of the significant gold stakes in Deadwood through Tolliver, with the exception of Garrett claim.

Wolcott used uncertainty about the legitimacy of the titles, which he spread through Farnum, to induce the owners to sell. They got the Commissioner from Yankton in on that racket, if you remember; the commissioner posted his notice with Merrick that the validity of titles would be decided on a case-by-case basis, which meant Hearst could buy with impunity, because he could also buy Yankton's imprimatur on his claims, but everybody else's was up for grabs. So Deadwood's annexation by the Dakota territory is very much in Hearst's commercial interest.

Al's threat was to fuck with that. He was instrumental in negotiating the accord with Yankton, and he runs politics in the town, and he was threatening to slow or reverse that process if he wasn't paid his due respect. This is why Al cancelled the speeches. So Al suggested that he could mess with the political situation to Hearst's detriment ("'less the insult's cured by tomorrow, there will be further tearin' down. Fuck the fuckin' elections and fuck the agreement with Yankton. Let the camp return to its former repute, dangerous and unsafe for commerce."), and Hearst suggested that he could kill Al ("Then I'll hope your insult is cured, to spare the camp danger, of however brief a duration."). Al suggested that he was not immovably opposed to Hearst's interest, and could be an ally ("Once placated, I'm meek as a babe.").

So the second episode starts with Al uncertain of whether Hearst plans to have him killed. What Hearst did instead was remedy Al's insult. The two men at the bar were the same guys who had killed the Cornishman in the first episode. They believed they were covered by the other two men. But the other two men stood down, which allowed Swearengen and Dority to kill the two at the bar. This was Hearst's way of remedying the previous day's insult, as Dority said, Hearst showed Al his ass, but at the same time, it reinforced Hearst's threat; the two men at the table didn't shoot, but they could have. Al accepted this as an apology by telling the two men "debates are on for tonight, whoever you might want to tell."

The gist of their discussion on Hearst's veranda was that Al said he'd be nobody's slave, and suggested that Hearst's goal of "consolidating purposes" was horseshit, and was really just a euphemism for the strong bending the weak to their will. Hearst lost patience with Al holding himself aloof and decided to play the strong-arm card. Hearst now evidently plans to make a slave or a corpse of Al.

My prediction is that, one way or another, Hearst will get the Garrett holdings before the end of Season 3.

Ravenous

Someones gotta say it, so thanks for the write up ScandalUMD. I for one appreciate it and it cleared stuff up. Especailly the veranda scene.

Is it me or does this season seem stripped down? The town seems smaller and less packed, the cast seems smaller (no Wu yet?) and the outside seems like a new land. Also, the dialogue seems simpler and less riddle like.

This season has seemed very different, but I like it!

ScandalUMD

It's the same set. In the first two seasons, they shot it from street level to make it look bigger. This season, they've been using some crane shots to show the Gem facing the Grand Central, in order to highlight the tension between Hearst and Swearengen.

andicus

Seconded!

PaperStreetSoapCo

Thanks for the explanations, everybody. Some of the events on the show fly right past me, and I sometimes feel moronic for not understanding what I just saw.

Edit: I think I answered what I just asked.

Mordred

Yes, thanks very much! I forgot to come back to this thread after asking my original question. I seemed to pick up most of what you said from the show, but it's more my vague impression of what's happening rather than being very concrete, especially since I'd forgotten a lot of season 2, particularly why the agreement with Yankton and the elections were so important.

I guess I missed that the two guys who came were the two guys who killed the Cornishman in Ep1. Thanks again. I now expect a detailed plot summary from you after every episode