The English (2022) s01e03 Episode Script

Vultures on the Line

1
What's up there for you?
- Land claim.
- Where?
- Nebraska.
- Is that far?
Not as far as you wanna go.
You know
the greatest enemy to an Indian?
Our past.
We have to turn our back on it.
I got a knack for survival.
What's in her bags?
- Nothing worth dying for.
- So hand them over.
Oh, my God.
We have to get somewhere safe
for the both of them.
I get what you gotta do
and why you gotta do it,
but I've been here before
and I ain't going back.
I brought you something.
Thank you.
Mister Trafford.
That was a 13-week
gestated Hereford cross.
A hundred more lying up there,
all ripped out the same.
What kind of community
you got going on up here, Sheriff?
- Billy Myers, remember him?
- Uh-hmm.
Lonnie's brother. I hear he's up there.
Caine County or some such.
You might wanna look him up,
tell him we finally got him.
We finally got Lonnie's killer.
You hear that?
How was it they allowed him in?
For shooting his wife.
And then for killing himself.
We put everyone like that at a crossroads.
This is where the cemetery would be.
Well, it's a nice spot.
Better hope it doesn't fill up too quick.
No. No, those days are done.
Mr. Myers. How can I help?
There's been a cattle break,
but I know where there'll be.
Where is he?
It's fine, Mr. Myers.
Take your time.
Tim-Timothy Flynn, what, shot hisself?
- Uh-huh.
- Who, uh who saw his body?
I did.
Were there, uh were there any marks?
Marks?
Yeah. On him.
He put a barrel to his mouth, so
What exactly is it you're looking for?
No marks on Timothy Flynn?
Only took him in down to his johns,
closed casket and all.
To be honest with you,
if wasn't for Mr. Melmont,
lucky they didn't go down
in a couple of old gunny-sacks.
- Melmont?
- Paid for the coffins.
She had cow pox.
Mrs. Flynn. On her hand.
Come on. Hey.
Hey.
- Hey!
- That's mine.
So is that! So is that!
You cut them up and give them back!
Relax. Cool down, ma'am.
- Mrs. Myers.
- You got my cattle.
How's that?
- Look.
- At what?
- That's my cut.
- That?
- That's not a registered brand.
- Those are my cattle.
Ma'am, all unbranded cattle
found on the open range
become the property
of the Stock Growers' Association.
And as you are not an Association member,
this stock does not belong to you.
Don't go thinking, you're no gentleman.
Been here since '75.
Long since divested myself
of that illusion.
Huh?
I'm not a gentleman.
That why you steal my cattle?
They were in the open.
I'm glad they done sliced up your cows.
- Well, that was a crime.
- This is a crime.
It's a mistake of anyone
to give the likes of Billy Myers
and Timothy Flynn
the chance to start again.
And Flynn just went and blew
his wife's head off,
so if I was you,
I'd put a lock on my gun box.
Don't you go threatening me.
I'm not. Threat's already in your bed.
Is that like a Prussian thing?
Are you asking me to dance?
- I'm Austrian.
- Right.
So which one wears the pointy hats?
This is my country.
Those are my cattle.
Compliments on your riding.
Help you there, ma'am?
Let her go, boys.
Did you round them
up deliberately?
Anything with Billy Myers' name on it
is fair game by my book.
Where is he?
No, Ma. Please.
You're flat.
Dear God.
I think we need a word with Billy Myers.
Oh, my God.
Hey!
Haema say it again.
Haematozoa.
Haematozoa.
How do they get in?
Tick bite.
Cow gets bit, parasite gets
into the blood, gets inside the cells,
multiplies, then they burst out,
and the whole thing starts over.
Before long,
you got a thousand head of dying cattle
just 'cause they got nipped by a creature
no bigger than my pinky nail.
Oh. So you're looking for ways
to treat it?
- Found one.
- Hmm.
You heard of a fella named Charles Darwin?
English like yourself.
- I have.
- Nature, red in tooth and claw.
You know, I think
that might actually be Alfred Tennyson.
It is a way to harness nature, ma'am,
is what it is.
And that is what we intend to do
with this.
Take the parasite, kill the parasite,
put it back in the body.
That way, next time a live one comes
along, body knows it already.
- Hmm.
- Just goes right ahead and eats it all up.
And I am of the personal opinion
that in short order,
all the ills of the world
may be similarly treated,
whether it be a tick or an Indian.
An Indian? And how might that be?
- Acculturalization.
- A, what?
What the body does to the parasite,
society must do to the Indian.
- Kill him.
- Absorb him.
How might you do that?
You wanna survive in a White man's world,
you have to become one.
- Simple as that.
- And that's science?
That, ma'am, is Tennyson.
So I noticed you're wearing a knife.
No, no, no. Please. I understand.
A stranger has joined your firesides.
Biology may indeed be our sole creator
but morality must remain
our constant guide.
I wish you well with the delivery
of those dear children
and praise you for your brave intent.
I know you're not shot.
I did not aim to shoot you.
Just him.
Because you went where you should not.
Don't bother to send anyone after.
The vultures in Kansas leave no trace.
Where am I not to go?
It's all right.
Oh.
Smaller pieces great for grinding.
Bigger in that one for the furnace.
Finest bone meal this side of Topeka.
Buffalo?
Was a time you could cross this whole yard
on nothing but tailbones.
Why not get the corn in first?
Huh?
No. That's last year's surplus.
Just leaving them to rot?
Way I heard it, you Pawnee
it was the women did all the farm work.
You men just sat around horse-lifting.
Horses look good too.
- They do.
- That how you make your money?
Because the way I heard it,
market's been dead for corn a year now
and buffalo don't need no explanation.
Don't go guessing at my business, son.
Don't go telling me who I should be.
Don't wanna argue with you.
You can be who you want
so long as you pay your debt.
For a compass?
Fine one.
Fine enough to steer your lady friend
right back into your heart, hmm?
I can see you wanna break some bones.
Oh.
That wagon you came in by
got someone take it at a price.
Not mine to sell.
Not yours to keep then either.
So you don't mind if I do.
Fair's a share.
Ma.
Hmm.
If there's any good come from having spat
you two out of my pelvis,
it's getting up there on this fat-fuck.
So
what've we got?
It will be fine, all right?
Uh-hmm.
180 for the wagon.
300 for the horses.
20 for the harness.
Maybe 15 for the rifle, unless it's a '73.
Bits and pieces.
500, 550 tops.
I don't know, boys.
You wanna dip your wicks
into something warm,
you go right ahead.
But personally, I'll save my snatch
for something bigger.
First, we thought it was a trap.
Yeah. Old Captain Clegg
and his crew testing us.
See if we'd muscle his patch.
They're dead.
They all are.
Clegg been working that line for years.
Now, it's up for grabs. You interested?
What's the competition?
Black-Eyed Mog and her boys.
She ain't gonna work with you,
nor any your kind.
That's why we're looking to you.
Well, I ain't gonna stop her.
Shit no. She got poison punch
through horsehide.
Yeah. And tit-fed her kids on the same.
Uh-hmm.
Well, we got someone else in mind.
- Take her out.
- Who?
Same as stopped Clegg.
They working for you?
Will be.
Now, how'd you reckon it being a trap?
Just sitting there with this inside it.
Regular, it'd be at 300,
but got to keep back 50
for its contents.
- 50?
- Unless you wanna deal with it yourselves.
What you gonna do?
Trust me, boys, everything's got a price.
Go in the back, lie down, and don't move.
Lie down. Lie down. Don't move.
Go! Go!
Hyah!
Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!
Hyah!
Stop!
Come on!
Stop!
Rachel!
Rachel!
Someone came to camp here,
told us of terrible happenings.
My son, he was going.
But here you come.
How did you know where to look at us?
To find you?
Uh, it was an Indian couple, farmers.
They said they'd met you.
Yeah. They say they will look for them.
- Look out for them.
- Nein, nein.
Look for them.
Where exactly, for help.
Too late.
If not for you and your friend.
Thank you.
So you don't eat with us no more?
Stir your own pot.
I get it.
Heard you got yourself
a tongue-lashing from John yesterday.
I paid it no mind.
He ain't used to having another man
round the place, is all.
Weren't through lack of trying.
You a father?
Been.
Him too.
None made a year.
Christian?
American.
This here is our baby now.
That compass
Oh, yeah.
Fancy bit of clockwork.
Worth a fence line or two.
That why he offered it?
My husband may not be much
with a corn shucker, Mr. Whipp,
but he sure can cut a deal.
How'd you come by it?
Englishman.
Passing through.
That happen a lot?
Yes, sir.
People cross oceans
just to get to where we are now.
But they always come up a little short.
They will sell anything
at any price just to get themselves
a little bit further.
You're hucksters.
From people who only want to take
what was already ours?
Then that's what we are.
Ain't farming though, is it?
Ain't it?
Wheat seeds.
- Thank you.
- Russian,
red turkey.
- Best.
- Erm,
I'm not looking to start a farm.
No, no, no. Please. Please. Erm, life.
Erm,
the man who saved her,
erm, he's Pawnee, yes?
- Indian?
- Yes.
The land that you want,
erm, it was his already.
We are we are taking it.
Erm
stealing.
Stealing it.
Nein.
This land is
Father's?
God's?
Ja.
I don't I don't
This land is not ours.
It is His and His alone.
And His will be done.
If He did not want us to have this land,
He would not have delivered us here.
Thank you.
For who?
For her horse.
Ah, yes. They had horses on that farm.
She says it was her horse on the farm.
Did you see it?
With white socks on its front feet?
It was taken from the wagon
by the bad men
the farmers.
I need a, erm
saddle.
Saddle.
If I was where would I be ♪
Then I'd be where I am now ♪
Here I am where I must be ♪
Why would I where I cannot? ♪
To the hills, I travel ♪
Through the boggy mine ♪
Straight away down that hole ♪
To my heart's desire ♪
You welching on your debt there?
Reckon you've set the price too high.
Still gonna hold you to it.
No, you're not.
What you seen?
Not my business.
You packing her stuff too?
Tracking's my job, best get back to it.
- She owes me a wagon.
- Buys my silence.
So you have seen something.
Found it in the German wagon.
Hell.
Yeah, I don't make the mess.
I just get paid to clean it up, is all.
Bushwhackers?
Well, I don't care to inquire.
Except you do.
You tell them everything
that comes through here,
us, them German folk,
and then you get a cut
of whatever it is they bring back.
Unless it's bodies.
Comes to grinding up bodies,
I'm just guessing that's a flat fee.
They're stealing our land.
Stolen.
- So what do you care?
- Don't.
Claim's yours.
You gotta keep it whichever way you can.
Ain't by corn,
"mother", or no sorghum neither.
I tried them all.
Topsoil's dead.
Bedrock's too deep.
Nothing gonna grow here, ever.
That's why they gave it to you.
This way, I get to give it back.
Kind of like a parasite though, ain't it?
Sucking till you pop.
Says a man who got his coin
from the US Army.
- Weren't like this.
- No.
'Cause the only people we strip down
are White.
Not what I'm looking for.
Yeah, well, see?
There you go.
'Cause I got someone
looking for you
real hard.
- Who?
- Seems to reckon
you had saw something
during your soldiering days.
Something no one else was allowed to.
I ain't gonna shoot you.
Can't risk damaging the goods.
If I was where I would be ♪
Then I'd be where I am now ♪
Here I am where I must be ♪
Why would I where I cannot? ♪
Where is he?
- Gone.
- Where?
Too much to ask for a hand?
With that amount of cash,
your guess is as good as mine.
But how you thought to leave
that much cash with him,
I cannot imagine.
Or maybe I can.
Either ways, it's him
you should be pointing that thing at
like we tried to do
before he lit off with it all.
Whose was it anyway?
Mine.
No sense riding around
with that amount of cash less it's stolen.
It wasn't.
Well, it is now.
My point proven.
Who's that for?
- Family dog.
- It's deep for a dog.
Well, I place no curb
on my maternal affection.
A sentiment I believe you share.
You lost a child, ain't you?
It's a look in the eye.
I've felt it so many times in my own.
Them's mine.
All of them.
Long since buried.
But you
Oh, you're still raw, ain't you?
I know.
Your mind's a whirlwind.
Still got me a mind
as tattered as that dress you sport.
Come now, dear.
Killing and thieving,
you ain't got the stomach for this,
do you?
Lady like you?
That's it.
Shh.
There you go.
That's it.
Well, hell.
Shived by a cracker.
Eli!
Eli!
It's a shock
to see the exact value of a man's life
laid out on a table.
Saw his horse in the corral.
Wouldn't have left without it,
or them, or me, I'd hazard.
So where is he?
- Who'd you sell him up to?
- Didn't.
Okay.
So seeing
as we're weighing up values here,
how much for you?
- Take it.
- Take it?
You don't think you're worth a bit more?
I mean, you did say that Eli
was just a backward-looking Pawnee,
do you remember?
So a bit more, I think.
Is that it?
That's your lot?
Every single cent?
Ah.
That's it.
Maybe you don't value yourself enough.
I already found gold under your mattress.
That's everything.
I swear.
Okay. Thank you.
Now what about your wife?
How are you going to pay for her
now that you've given up everything
just to save yourself, I'd think.
Think carefully.
Because if you haven't
already given me everything,
well, then you haven't
even saved yourself.
Do you know the first time out here
I tried this?
This. And I gotta be honest,
I just oh, I ended up flat on my face.
But then, I don't know,
I don't know, six hours later,
the man who did it,
he ended up flat on his face.
And he had a knife
sticking out right here.
There's just something about this country.
And you know your wife's is right here.
Nasty wound.
She won't last long,
so don't you dilly-dally.
What do you want?
What I just asked you,
except this time
you're going to give me everything
because that is how much
my friend is worth.
So where is he?
My name's Kills on Water.
You don't know me
but I've been looking for you.
Long time.
You want this back?
Tell me everything you know
about the massacre at Chalk River.
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