Synopsis:

An attack on the cattle pens sends Cullen and Elam into the prairie in search of their stolen food. Then, a stranger's arrival threatens Elam's family.


Episode 3 of 10

Although I like the actor, I'm not thrilled that the Swede is back. I grew tired of the character towards the latter half of season 2.

I am not sure how someone could survive a fall of 100 feet into a stream one foot deep.

Obviously the other showrunner intended to kill off the Swede and the network thought he was too popular to kill off. His body language seemed to indicate he intends to kill off the father of that family and replace him.

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Agree with the above three posts (although hoping we're wrong about the last one since it would be a surprise if Gunderson lets the family live).

From the start of the show, the Swede was a favorite character, but I was glad when they killed (!!) him off...although we expected he'd make a comic-book style return from the dead. Yeah, it looked like the water was so shallow that he'd have been crushed even if that huge fall didn't break his neck/back/pelvis just hitting the water flat.

I talked to a police office recently who described a recent suicide from a local bridge about one-third of the height of the one in HOW. The guy's neck was broken, and even though they got him out of the water alive, he died on route to the hospital. Falling from a reasonable height and landing face down flat on the water is like landing on concrete.

Setting aside the miraculous Norwegian, how about that dialogue? Seems that the writers are really clicking especially with Elam & Bohannon. Very naturalistic, human responses to situations.

Also interesting to see Bohannon's struggle with faith & redemption. While he shows frustration with Ruth and certain church trappings, he also seems to have a high degree of respect for faith traditions. Nice scene when he brought the meal to Ruth, started to storm out... "It's my job!"...and then returned. Also, nice ending in which he offers some sort of quiet supplications when taking the heads to the burial site.

And I like the new character (Toole's brother). Some good possibilities there. I'd imagine that he's quite the brawler as demonstrated by his first appearance...wouldn't be surprised if he was a pugilist.

And the cavalry officer is just this side of the coo-coo's nest.

I see how many might think Swede would be dead, but think of the circus acts that do that very thing.
End of last season when he jumped, I had a strong gut feeling he survived the fall. One because it was so silly with the way he 'escaped' knowing he would be back but also he was too good a character to kill off like that. If they wanted him dead, he would have been shot by Bohannon.

Toole's brother wont last long. He either gets what he wants or ends up dead. I dont see him just hanging up his hat.

That Officer seems nuts but he seems to have smarts as well. I wonder what his back story may be before the War. His rant almost had an Illuminati ring to it the way he was going about.

And let's not forget his serious lice problem.

Good call about his back story, but I doubt they'll delve into it unless they start meandering the way Deadwood did in its third season. Maybe the officer should have kept a chief's head to pull out and talk to from time to time.

The way the season ended I knew he would be back if the show did. My problem with Gundersen coming back is that it presupposes that on some level he and Bohannon will eventually continue their cat and mouse game. Upon seeing him again Bohannon, at least the one of the first two seasons, would most likely just shoot him the face.

My guess is the Swede has to get tied into a position of power with Durant somehow. Durant is looking to stick it to Bohannon, and there wouldn't be a much better way than taking in the Swede.

For anyone curious, the show got 1.9M viewers and 0.4 Saturday

I like the actor and thought he was underutilized on True Blood but the Swede should be dead. He is no longer needed as Bohannon's "Newman", Durant has that role now.