The English (2022) s01e04 Episode Script

1
[Billy] Timothy Flynn what shot his-self.
[gunshot]
[Billy] Were there any marks, on him?
What is it you're looking for?
[indistinct chatter]
[Thin] Mrs. Myers.
You got my cattle!
Don't you go threatening me.
Threat's already in your bed.
[Jenson] I wish you well
with the delivery of those children.
- [gunshots]
- [grunts]
[Black-eyed Mog] What've we got?
[tense music playing]
[Katie] Killing and thieving?
You ain't got the stomach for this, do ya.
[Robert] Dear God!
Think we need a word with Billy Myers.
[Martha] Where is he?
[heavy breathing]
- [tense music playing]
- [horse neighing]
Hey!
I got someone looking for you.
Seems to reckon you saw something,
during your soldiering days.
[Cornelia] My friend
[gun cocks]
Where is he?
Tell me everything you know
about the massacre at Chalk River.
[fly buzzing]
[horse neighing]
[horses galloping]
Morning.
[Tobias] What you see is what you get,
four mules.
Everything as requested.
[Thomas] Just checking for the corkscrew.
You surely are a puzzle of a gobbler.
Real hunting outfit'd
need a flatbed for the hides.
Just getting the lay of the land.
- For what?
- Cattle.
Ain't none.
Come back in a couple of years.
I'll have run this place black
with steer-horn.
- Big business.
- In the wrong one if it isn't.
We're good.
Dandy set of duds.
Pretty, aren't they?
Saw a Cheyenne in something similar,
'cept he'd used a white man's hide.
Then he won't be needing mine.
You're short.
What's agreed, one gentleman to another.
I look like a gentleman to you?
I don't go on appearances.
Then you best do.
[gun cocks]
The gentlemanly thing.
[tense music playing]
How much?
Hundred dollars extra,
twenty-five per mule.
- How'd you get to that?
- Thirty dollars per mule.
Sure you can stand it.
A man of your
ambition.
[eagle cawing]
Pay him.
Melmont. The money.
[tense music playing]
Deal's a deal.
What the hell
That point beneath his oils,
that ain't his cock.
[Thomas] Pay him. That is an order.
[tense music playing]
And I'll tell you for why.
After we made the deal,
I took a little walk around your town.
Miserable shit-hole.
It turns out that you've got
quite the reputation
for doing this sort of thing.
So I thought it best,
I'll make a little deal of my own.
Are you a patriot
Mr. uh, Biskind?
It's 'cause I saw you got
a great big flagpole
outside your house.
And I'm a mad fan
of heraldry myself actually,
I hope to have my own
coat of arms one day.
Although, I don't know what I'd put on it.
Numbers maybe
'cause I'm good with them you see
and my big ol' sticking knife
that's for sure,
'cause that's what got me started
Bullet in your brain-pan
is how it's gonna be
No, no.
No, no, you, you're gonna wanna hear this,
trust me, trust me, it's interesting.
So, uh, knowing that
this would be the way that it is,
I've hidden a little bit of cloth
about a mile back.
Now
if I don't tell you
where that bit of cloth is
and if you don't go and pick it up
and if you don't get back to Casper
as quick as your little trotters
can carry you
and you don't hoist
that little bit of cloth up
that great big fucking flagpole of yours,
then the man that I've paid
to keep watch for it,
if he doesn't see it,
then he's gonna kill your wife.
[tense music playing]
Nah, can't be so.
Do I look like a gentleman to you?
[horse neighing]
Is it true?
Deal's a deal.
[theme music playing]
[tense music playing]
[Thin] Cheyenne
[Melmont] Blimey
looks like a side of beef.
[Thin] Not to his mother.
Why the display?
Sure scares the shit outta me.
I thought you said they were gone?
They have.
They coming back?
[Thin] Nah, their day's done.
[Melmont] Fuck for that.
So, this place open for business then?
- We need to bury him.
- [Melmont] What for?
If he's scaring everyone,
means we got the place to ourselves.
Let him do his job.
[tense music playing]
[tense music playing]
Sergeant Whipp.
They send you out?
Corporal McClintock.
Gone AWOL.
Along with two others:
Troopers Myers and Flynn.
- Why?
- Hunting.
Buffalo?
Indians.
Orders are leave 'em be.
[Sergeant Ellroy]
Maybe that's why them three's gone AWOL.
None of my business.
Been mustered out, heading home.
For good?
War's over, in'it?
N'yeah [laughs]
- [gunshots]
- [wolf whimpers]
- You missed it.
- I winged it.
That's a miss.
Well, then I'll go and finish it off.
Don't know why you shot at it
in the first place.
[Melmont] A fucking wolf?
Tell you what, I'll bring it back
and we can make a nice
little stole out of it
for your beautiful fiancee.
But, don't worry,
I won't tell that her I shot it.
She doesn't even know you exist.
What Lady Cornelia Locke.
Don't tell me
5 Holland Park West.
And you know the Tradesman's entrance,
no doubt.
Yeah, I know everything.
Everything.
That's my job.
Stick the kettle on.
He talks loose to the man
who pays his bills.
Not me.
Board of directors.
Chose him to keep a check on my finances
which you have to admit,
he shows a certain panache.
- You bad with money?
- What do they say?
A man can lose a fortune many times over
but his confidence only once?
Well, trust me,
as a man who has lost many fortunes,
my confidence has taken
a hell of a battering.
Yeah.
It ain't good when a servant
tells his boss what to do.
Don't worry about that.
[grunts]
In England we have a class system.
So, for better or worse,
David Melmont knows exactly where he sits.
Yeah, well, we don't have that here,
so you best keep an eye on it.
I seen what happens to men like him
in a place like this.
Sometimes freedom ain't pretty.
[tense music playing]
[gun cocks]
[tense music playing]
[wolf growls]
Come on then
[tense music playing]
[horse galloping]
Cheyenne.
We leave 'em be.
How many arrows do I need in my back
before you tell me I'm in trouble?
None, because we ain't.
[mimics gunshots]
What you doing that for, eh,
make sure they don't follow us?
You said they wouldn't
give us any trouble.
They won't.
That wolf you shot give you more jip.
They don't want trouble same as us.
Well, I'm not sure
you'll be looking as kindly
when they start eating our profits.
This one's lame.
Gotta keep an eye on it.
He's not the only one mate.
Looks like the Delphi
made by God.
You got a word for "Beauty"
in that ledger of yours?
[Melmont] Yep, yep.
I, uh, I had it down as, uh
unforeseen costs".
Well, thank God
I'm the one with the vision.
No. I've got a code for that and all.
Are you sure you want to hear it?
I mean I don't want to
make your eyesight go all blurry.
No, go on.
[Melmont] Oh, all right well, er,
years one to five
there'll be a six fold increase
in your profits.
Making you very rich.
And then er, years four,
yeah four to seven,
the competition will arrive
driving up volume pushing down prices.
But you'll still be rich.
And then seven and eight,
the market will saturate.
Prices will collapse
costs will balloon.
And then by year ten, you'll go bust.
And you the same.
[Melmont] Ah, well, no,
you see in this little book here,
this little book here.
er, yep, here,
it tells me when exactly to get out.
So if I were you,
I'd be watching me like a hawk.
Already am.
You see sir, you see, um
you never know, you never know.
Maybe, maybe one day
maybe one day, uh,
me and you, we could be partners.
[laughs]
[scoffs] I fucking knows.
Oh, I fucking knows it.
Just like I know
that having shit on your shoe
would smell a hell of a lot
better than me.
[sniffs]
And that's exactly the smell
I am getting off you.
At least, we know each other.
What you talking about,
you ain't got a fuckin' clue,
you ain't got a fuckin' clue who I am.
'Cause if you really knew,
then what you'd know is that really
I'm the one.
[Jerome] Hulloo The Camp!
[tense music playing]
[Jerome] Soldiers on patrol!
Permission to approach?
Guns up, do it slow.
[tense music playing]
[horse neighs]
Corporal Jerome McClintock.
Troopers Billy Myers and Timothy Flynn.
You stand us a little of your company?
Too fucking right.
[tense music playing]
Thank you.
[bottle cork opens]
[gibbers]
Oh, what is it?
Soldier's Joy,
what keeps an army on its feet.
Or off it.
You know the Vikings
they used to take opiates
so they wouldn't care who they killed.
Sounds about right.
Judging by the color of your duds,
I'd say you been out here no time.
Twelve days.
[Jerome] Oh, my mistake.
- And you?
- On patrol.
Small patrol.
[Jerome] Unofficial business.
[coughs]
Such as?
[Jerome] You are mighty direct.
- Just curious
- Should watch for that;
every trap's set the same.
Execution patrol since you ask.
On behalf of the First Regiment,
Colorado Volunteers.
That who you are?
Were.
- Will always be.
- 'Gainst who?
Indian named Running Hawk.
Cheyenne.
Heard of him?
You seen him?
Nor anyone else besides.
[Jerome] Well, he's out here.
Why you want him?
He killed my brother.
[Jerome] Not just killed.
Cut him up like stripped beef.
[Thomas] What had he done?
- Your, your, your brother
- Whaddaya mean?
For being here.
Like you are now.
Bit more than that though, ain't it.
You were at Sand Creek, right?
If you're First Volunteers.
That were all sorts of horror
from what I hear.
When ain't it?
When you made purses
out of women's private parts.
[Jerome] Still got it,
if you'd care to take a look
Woah. No
- Gentleman, please.
- You want for us to leave?
- Getting that way.
- [Melmont] Not me!
No, not me,
no I, I would very much like you to stay.
Do you want to know why we're here?
This time next year, we're gonna bring
50,000 head of cattle, right here.
That's a hundred thousand dollars
of my employers' money.
That's big business.
And I can't have anything
tapping off that.
No wolves, no lions
and definitely no fuckin' Indians.
There aren't any.
Well, except, except there are. There are.
There are.
- What you seen
- David.
- Shut up.
- [chuckles]
So what are you gonna do with him,
when you found him this er,
this Hawkey fella?
Same as he did to my brother.
I'm gonna cut his eyeballs out,
sit em on a rock
so as he can watch hisself die.
Yeah.
And then what?
Court martial, most likely of you.
[Melmont]
What, they gonna chuck yous in jail?
- That don't seem right.
- No. It ain't.
You see, er, you see, I'm like you.
Huh?
I spent all my life in the meat business,
I mean not your meat business,
the meat business.
Abattoirs.
From the er, from the blood-yards
to the boardrooms,
so I know what it's like.
And you, gentlemen, are the, er,
the slaughter-men of my trade.
But you do things
that others care not to think about
yeah, but must be done.
And out here, right now
- something must be done.
- [twig snaps]
- I've seen Indians.
- Where?
- I said, Shut. Up.
- Oh, who would ever listen to you!
- You're sacked, listen to that?
- [laughs]
Sacked?
Oh, it feels good
just to laugh in your face.
Cause up until now it's just been
everyone else behind your back.
Oh, come on, then, you vellum arsed ponce!
Sit down.
[tense music playing]
[sniffs]
[grunts]
[chuckles]
Blimey.
Show us.
[tense music playing]
[gunshots]
God, it sounds like a grouse shoot.
They were packing a '58 Cal.
[Thomas] What's that?
[gunshots]
No!
[screams]
There's nothing you can do!
Nothing!
[screams]
He'll kill you too!
Reckon it's just the excuse
he's looking for!
[grunts]
We ride down to Fort Fetterman
and we report it.
You got that?
It's the best we can do.
[tense music playing]
[spits]
[gunshots]
[gunshot]
Sergeant Whipp.
They send you?
Then why are you here?
Heading home.
Are you er
[sniffs]
aimin' to do something?
[tense music playing]
None of my business.
It's all right boys, he's one of us.
Ain't ya, Scout!
[tense music playing]
Who the fuck are you?
Ey?
[growls]
[barks]
[horse neighing]
Who?
Well, it ain't Running Hawk,
that's for sure.
[shush]
[tense music playing]
[Kills on Water] They were my family.
Jerome McClintock,
Billy Myers, Timothy Flynn.
You know where they're at now?
And that civilian, Melmont?
What happened to him?
Or weren't that your business either?
[tense music playing]
[Cornelia]
You are lucky that you caught me.
Because I was only here
for the competition,
we haven't even opened up the house.
Come in, come in.
Oh, God. [chuckles]
And you won?
Well, it was uh,
it was a bit of a to-do though.
One of the competitors,
she let fly an arrow in anger.
Can you imagine?
And she almost speared a horse
on the Bayswater Road.
Anyway, I think she was aiming
at the umpire so,
obviously, no chance of winning.
Erm, are you an archer, Mister?
Melmont, David.
Nah, not since they invented the gun.
[tense music playing]
I used to stare at that for hours.
Imagine myself in it.
And now you've been there for real.
Please.
Ta.
So, you bring news.
Have you not heard from Thomas?
Oh, well,
I don't suppose there's a post office.
Well, there is at the forts
but erm, what I'm about to tell you
is best for only your ears.
Oh?
Thomas is in jail.
And now,
now, I imagine it takes
a lot of strength, pull a bow like that.
But what you are about to hear,
you're gonna have to be
a whole lot stronger.
Tell me.
It all started with a wolf.
[slow music playing]
[singer] Time ♪
Has colored in ♪
The black and white ♪
[gunshot]
[singer] Of your sin ♪
So, burn, burn to fly ♪
Rip it up ♪
[wolf growling]
[singer] Bury the rakes ♪
But I will find you still ♪
Moving for the kill ♪
You caught her hair ♪
[Melmont blows raspberry]
I don't know what made him do it.
I'm thinking it was the er,
the country, Miss Locke.
He he just got himself caught up in it.
I was all for just, you know, getting him
straight out, keeping it quiet.
For the company but mostly for himself.
You know, cause I I know
he's been he's been struggling
- and what with, what with erm
- Money.
I mean that's why I was there, weren't it?
But I couldn't
I couldn't I couldn't save him.
I couldn't save him from this.
'Cause our guide, he's gone down
an army fort and reported him.
It has all kicked off.
All right, they sent out
a search party and eventually
they were, the soldiers and him,
they were found in a er in a, er
Go on.
It was called the Hog Ranch.
A farm?
- Whore house.
- [sighs]
That's it, that's the irony of it really,
'cause the army didn't go for the killings
and there's been too many, you see.
Once they started they couldn't stop.
So, instead, the soldiers,
they were charged with erm,
- the unauthorized use of
- Women.
Yeah.
Whilst being, erm, absent without leave.
For which they all got
a dishonorable discharge.
For illicit sex. But not mass murder.
And Thomas?
We banged up, awaiting payment of a fine.
Maybe he should just serve his time.
Thing is erm, it's not a jail.
It's a well.
Deep one.
When the rains come,
it's gonna start filling up.
There might be a week,
could be a month, but they will come.
[tense music playing]
How much?
Two thousand pounds.
Sterling.
Why have you come to me?
'Cause you cause you are his fiancée.
We are not engaged.
Oh? Oh no, I thought he said he proposed.
- He had
- Ah.
- Have you told my father
- [Melmont] No, no, no.
Nor anyone else besides.
This was Thomas' last chance
and he'll never get another.
It was me that made my father invest.
[sighs]
[Melmont] Well, there you go.
Save yourself a few blushes too.
Blushes I can live with.
[Melmont] But ignominy he cannot.
The Company neither.
My father has spoken of you
- Yeah?
- [Cornelia] Yes.
What's he What's he say?
Oh, I'm not sure.
You started in
Started in, in the meat business, yeah
- Yes.
- Yeah, in the blood pits.
And then?
Well, then, the 'Cause I got
I got me a head for figures, you see,
- so
- So here you are.
[Melmont] Oh, yeah, but don't you worry,
Miss Locke, I still know my place.
Well, no one should know that.
[Melmont]
Well, then I must be a bit thick
loyal servant as I am.
To the company.
To Mister Trafford.
And to your good self, of course.
Now more than ever.
But we can't leave him in his cotton socks
stuffed down a well, now can we?
- No.
- No.
No.
No.
I sometimes wonder
if there's horror in us all.
There is.
Which is why pretty rooms
like this are so important.
They keep it from us.
[scoffs]
And this really is quite the beautifullest
room I've ever seen in my life.
[tense music playing]
I'll get you the money.
[piano playing]
[knocks on door]
Morning.
Miss Locke.
What, did you think I was the postman?
Erm, I think he's already been.
[door closes]
[door opens]
[Cornelia] It's from Thomas.
Not him.
You.
All of it.
Did they arrest you?
Yes.
And the well?
[Melmont] D'you know what?
D'you know what I learnt?
[door closes]
"Hate" is a hell of a lot warmer
than a bear skin coat.
Although, my toes are a bit black.
And, er, the fine was very steep,
let me tell ya, it almost cleared me out.
- Are you thinking of shopping me
- As soon as you leave this room
- Nah, you won't
- I will, I will.
I'm going to open that window
and I'm going to scream,
"Liar. Thief. Killer."
You won't make it
as far as the street corner.
Oh, no.
'Cause you see
I'm going all the way to Colorado!
The Alamosa River!
I got me a little mate
and he's gonna show me the way.
And with that money there
And with that money
With that money
[tense music playing]
Yeah, we're gonna buy us a stake
in a gold mine, a big one.
Because me and that country
[finger snaps]
- We're like that.
- Get out.
But we haven't made
a little deal yet, have we?
And I'll tell yous what,
I'm gonna promise you,
I'll never talk about this
and you're gonna do the same.
I tell you what, though,
you're right about these rooms.
They do mean nothing.
[gibbers]
[hushes]
I took on a wolf once.
A fucking wolf!
[tense music playing]
[piano playing]
[Melmont] What's that?
Erm Antonin Dvorak?
It's missing a bit.
Yeah?
Yeah.
She's taken to her bed.
[man] Oh?
Hmm. I'll show myself out.
You do the same.
Not yet, though, eh?
Keep playing for a bit.
It's pretty.
[piano playing]
[sniffles]
[sighs]
[violin music playing]
[Melmont] Deal is a deal.
Now, put your gloves back on,
someone will notice.
[violin music playing]
Alamosa!
[gunshots]
[Thomas]
I know the horror was not mine by design.
But it was I, alone, who made the choice
to come to this place.
I, who looked to rescue my fortunes
with such wayward risk
and it was upon my trail
the Devil followed.
Within my employ, in fact, he stole.
Which leaves me no choice.
It is here I must stay.
Place myself against this country
let it test me, weather me,
beat me for so many years
as it feels fit to so do.
I'm not sure what material
will be fashioned by its end,
or even if an end should come,
but I pray to God my previous life
will have long since been eroded
and forgiven,
by these hard unforgiving winds.
My final lines to you, my dear Cornelia,
must be a warning.
Never come to this place.
For, whatever the evils have been released
and however unwitting my part,
let them remain here, with me,
so that you, there,
may remain and live your life
in perfect safety
half a world away.
It is in this profound wish
that I may remain,
eternally, your true protector,
Thomas Trafford.
[slow music playing]
[theme music playing]