Strange Empire (2014) s01e01 Episode Script

H'yah! How far? How far now? The Station House.
Stage will be there, the doctor.
H'yah! H'yah! H'yah! The doctor, we were told he was on the stagecoach.
There ain't no stagecoach yet, only me here.
Two days.
This place is supposed to be a wagon stop, a depot.
Stage comes through tomorrow.
Is he okay? He's not moving.
He's not moving Oh, Kat.
Oh, God Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me He's gone, our Jacob Peter.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever.
Amen.
Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee, love her, and she shall keep thee Marry me, Kat.
Love him with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the strength.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour.
There, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Mercy unto you and peace.
Hey! Hey! You two, get for now, go on.
Get down off there.
Come on.
Go on, get! You camp here tonight.
Head for Station House come morning.
You're hungry.
Come eat with us.
Let me give you some more.
Girl over there said the Indians steal women and baby boys.
Girl babies they leave out in the fields for wolves.
You and your sister are going north? We are, too.
To see the new Canada.
It's our wedding trip.
You're old for a husband.
I'm recently widowed.
Rebecca's my new wife.
My new life.
Your mother's not with you? Or your father? Ma's cold dead 14 years.
We're going to Station House.
Driver there's paid to deliver me and Robin to a man there name of slotter.
We're to be whores, ma'am.
Kat Maybe the doctor, maybe he couldn't have saved him either.
Where did you get them? My mother's and my father's.
Been looking for a preacher since we left Red River.
I wanted to marry you so bad.
All the way south.
Jacob Peter born It's 30 miles more, Kat.
We're almost there.
Our land.
Jeremiah We'll make more children.
We'll do it now because it's our wedding day.
Why do they stare so? Shall I tell them that I am to be the proof of female ability? I shall tell them that the gentlemen scientists of the royal society have numbers and proofs of it.
But they don't recognize them.
Female ability is so difficult to prove.
A man who buys children has no conscience.
Yes.
I intend to speak to the driver.
Wouldn't he be part of it, Thomas? We must do something.
I have an idea, Rebecca.
Ma'am? My sister's got a cramp, a really bad one.
If you could go to her? Yes.
Of course.
You all right? No.
No? How long has this been going on? Not very long.
Not very long Here we are, Station House.
It seems the man isn't here yet.
I must have some shade.
Yes, of course, of course.
Certainly.
This one's a handsome fella.
He's got a bowed tendon.
Ah well, so he does.
This one.
And the mare.
You'll have a get with them, start your ranch with.
Your wife's got a way with horses.
How much? Well, you tell me.
He's but half-broke, that one.
Some don't take to a bit.
That is the God's truth.
We have a wagon coming in with supplies, waiting on a couple boys we hired to drive it.
Maybe you could tell us how the country is to the Canada border? Border's close.
Hills and dense trees, open delta, too.
Indians call it "Kutenai.
" My wife was like that.
Blackfoot Indian.
Glorious woman.
I'll tell you what.
I stole them horses.
Brung 'em here to sell north of the 49, no one the wiser.
Pay for the mare, mister.
Lady wife, that horse is hers.
You've put a child in it, Rebecca.
It's the wrong way 'round.
It's breech.
Remember Mrs.
Campbell? The child was strangled when I pulled him out.
A surgical process could resolve that.
Caesarean is most always fatal to the mother.
But if there was a procedure to save both mother and child No.
I am very warm.
Whoa.
The child was born astride the grave.
I'm a mother to a corpse.
Do you have the sight? Do you see spirits? Come.
I can't hear her cries.
I can't.
But she's here, isn't she? Do you see her? Father sent the payroll through? Uh, no, sir, not this time.
Not last time either.
Gotta get that money somehow, Captain.
No two ways.
I hear you had a cholera north, sir.
We got doctors on the stage if they're needed.
Too late for doctors.
Where are the girls? I'll take them now.
It seems that they've run off, Sir.
It was the girls you had charge of.
Whoa Two whores! Where are they? They are my property and I will have them.
You, come here.
Come here.
Go ahead.
Search the wagons.
Come on, goddammit.
The rest of you, take off your bonnets.
Let me see your faces.
Look at 'em.
Plums.
You'd be a man, you walk into a whorehouse, you see these virgins and angels descended.
Maybe payroll don't matter for a week or two? Maybe your investors swell, and so with their investments? Maybe you don't require your pa's dollars? Captain Slotter, I am Mrs.
Fogg.
You were to deliver me to Janestown two days past, but you never came.
You left me with no means to feed myself Stop it, George.
George, stop.
It's just trunks and equipment, Sir.
You can see there's no place for a body to ride.
Hey.
Get away from my wagon.
There's none of your property in it.
I'll show you myself.
Have a look.
Is that to your satisfaction? Are you afraid of girls, Sir? So am I.
Leave him be.
One day, you'll go too far, Kat.
Better too far than not far enough.
Whoa! Ah! Get me down! Ladies and gentlemen, this here is the real treasure of the west! Unhand me! Rebecca.
Please.
Put on your bonnets.
Shotgun rider says the bridge is out.
We're to camp a day till it's fixed.
The bridge is out? Delay will do us good.
Like a Sunday after church.
The water down there is cool.
We'll go for a swim.
I hope you're not inconvenienced, Mr.
Loving.
Well, there is the question of what to do with the girls, Dr.
Blithely.
I thought someone here might take them.
Yourself, for example.
Do you have children? No, but Then you take them.
My surgery is in Toronto.
I plan to return there after our wedding trip.
My wife will continue her medical studies.
I am prepared to pay their passage to San Francisco.
A new life for them there, I should think.
They'll be put to whore there as here.
Hey, come back here! You better run.
You and Georgie have no one.
What if we adopt them all? What, the girls, too? They're sharps.
Probably have a taste for gambling and thieving.
You who rides a stolen horse.
Depends how you think about that.
Okay.
We can work the ranch together, as a family.
Hey, wait for me! You're mine now, you understand that? You mind me, and I care for you and keep you.
Yes, ma'am.
Ma.
To you both.
This morning, we were two.
Now we're six.
I want to come, too.
No.
There's one horse and it's for me.
We've organized a hunting party.
Mr.
Loving's to lead us.
He's been on safari in Africa.
When when will you be back, then? Well, Mr.
and Mrs.
Loving have recently been married.
They haven't a chance to celebrate, so I arranged a wedding party.
It's a fitting goodbye to be among these people, in the middle of life.
It's a wedding party, for us.
Come on, Kat.
I saw a woman with a dead baby yesterday.
I have the feeling of death all around me.
You and I will be together forever.
We'll be surrounded by our children, and there will be generations of us to the end of the world.
Mrs.
Blithely.
Tell me about yourself.
My father found me strange.
Sent me to Bedlam as a child.
Bedlam? A madhouse? It was Thomas who found me there.
Took me home.
Thomas and his wife, Emily, they raised me as their own.
She died two months back.
So he married you.
Thomas is educating me by way of experiment.
I'm interested in surgical procedure and the function of organs.
You've cut into a living thing? I held a beating heart in my hand once, and I wrote a paper about it.
It was published, under Thomas's name, of course.
I am shown at scientific gatherings.
I am called "The woman of genius.
" They tell me my abilities derive from my head, which is too small, and my brain, which is over-large, and presses acutely against my skull, and these facts, I am told, explain my facilities with numbers and processes.
What if that man, Slotter, comes back? He has no claim.
They're my daughters.
You would kill him? Out here That's all you need.
Hey! They've found game.
We'll feast tonight in celebration.
Why haven't they returned? I'm worried.
There's another story I will tell you.
Apaches, fiercest Indians of all.
They tie men to stakes and light 'em on fire.
The big ones got enough fat on them they'll burn all night.
Of course, the Indians hereabouts, they got their own tricks.
Ask her.
She knows.
Now, I hear she buried a child the other day.
Buries one, two spring up, two more.
She's got the dark power, that one.
Why don't you ask her where all your men have gone! You shut up! You're drunk.
And a fool.
I know you, from a poster I saw somewhere.
Hey! They're back.
They're back! Neill! Neill! Georgie! Indians! Run! Kelly! Boys! Jeremiah! I found him in the tall grass.
A concussion, I think.
He has yet to regain consciousness.
It was Slotter who did this.
It's Indians, we saw.
Mrs.
Loving! Whoa Saw smoke at first light.
Not a one left standing.
Goddamn Indians.
Oh, you'd shoot an unarmed man? It'd be a womanly thing to do.
Where are my girls? Where's my boy and my husband? Ask the savages.
Where are they? Shh, shh, shh Leave her be.
You killed that boy! For taunting at you.
Cut a child's tongue from his mouth! Woman's crazed! The Indians are still out there.
We're taking you to a safe place.
You're welcome as well, of course.
There's always room for, uh, beauty.
My gut It's burning up inside.
I'm fine.
They're fools.
They're in shock, and we have no choice but to go.
I must go with them.
They're cattle, too stupid to think for themselves, and so are you.
We are just afraid.
We are not like you.
Be careful.
Be careful.
No women were killed.
Not one.
What do you think that means? Come with us.
It is too dangerous on your own.
Jeremiah will not know where to find me.
And your girls? Slotter has them.
Then we must get them back.
Stay back here, girls.
Is this Montana? No.
Too far north.
Where are we, then? You're icing on a teacake, old bird.
Warm end to a cold night on the range.
Welcome, ladies.
Be seein' you.
You're in Janestown now.
You're Jane, and Jane, and Jane.
There's not a body here worries you got your own name, or a soul who wants saving.
Your men will be lying in graves next to whores.
Took by cholera.
You to take their place.
You're wanting husbands, and lovers, and sweethearts, you'll end up lying with the likes of him, or worse.
Find your way outta here.
To kin and home.
The two girls Slotter was asking after at Station House, are they here? Over there.
Isabelle Isabelle! Now, that's enough, this grieving and carrying on.
No there will be no no damn there will be no stone.
A grave in the yard of a pleasure house is not conducive to the entertaining of investors.
You go to hell! Pull yourself together.
Jared! Fill up the damn hole.
Who are the women in the cribs? They're widows.
Husbands were murdered by Indians.
We'll give them work.
You let them finish their grieving.
Those girls I brought shall be ready to work tonight.
They're too young to whore! They work! Tonight! Robin and Kelly are at that house.
There's a gathering there tonight.
He intends them whores.
We can't leave them.
What are you going to do? It's for our ranch.
For stock.
I'm going to get them back.
Gentlemen.
Now, ranchers among you know, that this place here offers some of the finest pastures in the world.
Our freight cars will hold not only your cattle, but coal, from what promises to be the largest coal mine on the continent.
This is your opportunity to invest in that coal mine.
You'll be the first in, and richer for it.
Now enjoy the evening! Gentlemen, for your pleasure Oh, yeah.
Come with me.
You, sir, can piss up a tree It's her.
You've come for us.
Sir? What is this? The gentleman would like us both for an hour.
Okay, well, get up there, then.
Upstairs.
The doctor's coming.
You're okay? No one messed with us.
We wait.
Stay a bit.
We'll be out.
You're the doctor? Came as soon as sent for.
I bloody told you that those girls are too young to whore! Isabelle This is the doctor.
Well, I have no faith in a woman doctoring.
I have some training, Mrs.
Slotter.
What is your trouble? Bellyache.
It's his conscience pricking.
Most times, fit to puke.
'Twas meat I ate two days past.
The day your child was born? What is this? This is Isabelle's tonic.
I just started.
It helps some.
I can offer you the recipe.
You must keep it to yourself.
I shall get back to our guests.
You take your rest.
Miss Kelly! Ma'am The gentleman was needing a drink, so I just brought him Let them go.
The house owns these girls.
You know what it is to lose a child.
Let them go.
Izzy! Isabelle! The women who arrived in the cribs last night, it was your husband killed their men.
It was Indians.
He killed my boy.
Strung him up in a tree.
Cut his tongue out.
It was Indians, and you're a liar.
Isabelle? Don't call to him.
You keep quiet, or I will tell him about your tonic.
Arsenic will kill a man, not heal him.
You were deliberate in your intention.
My husband took my child's body and put it out.
There was a coyote there.
She was bitten.
She was tasted.
Get out.
Isabelle! I'm coming! God forgive me.
Izzy? Are you feeling any better? Whiskey's the healer.
Sleep of angels.
Thank you, ma'am.
For everything.
I found this.
It's yours.
You saw me take it.
I'm awful sorry for the trick.
I won't ever again.
Thomas gave it to me.
A wedding gift.
Well, hearts mean love.
A heart is a pump.
Good night.
Good night.
Is it him? Bear, could be.
Or coyote.
He won't be back here tonight.
We're safe to sleep? Yes.
You know this is Canada, ma.
There is no law here but our own.
My husband is not a murderer.
He killed 20 men.
You shut your mouth! I'll ride out, find Jeremiah and Neil.
What if they're dead? No! Mama! Take me instead.
Strange Empire, next Monday at 9:00 on CBC.