Strange Empire (2014) s01e11 Episode Script

Previously, on Strange Empire He's my good boy! You sold your boy and I bought him.
Get rid of that, girl.
It's hard evidence you need.
And I shall have it, in time.
We deserve better.
I do, and I will have better.
You'd leave me if he cut me off.
He killed my friend, Joseph, in cold blood.
He needs killing himself.
Wasn't up to me! Told to do it! Please! No! No! Don't! Shut up! Shut up, or I'll shut you! Stop! Stop! Please! Let me go! I can't hear it no more.
I can't hear it.
Captain Slotter? He shot that girl's father down straight before her.
So to steal her for his father's bed.
No jury of cattle ranchers will hang Slotter for killing a black man.
Be angry with him for killing their one and only smithy, and that's all.
We could kill him.
Be done with it.
He is white and wealthy.
We would be hunted down.
A trial by peers is the only way.
Give me evidence against him in the murder of your men.
Seems I stand alone.
The first man I killed was a surveyor.
Sent by this government of Canada.
A man using law to rob my people of everything.
I lost home and family for that death and I would do it again.
Deliver proof Slotter killed your men white men and I will rally those ranchers to see him hanged.
Look at you shining in the morning light.
You were right to hand John over to the law.
Needs reflecting, that boy.
I was afraid for the baby, was all.
For all of us.
Remember how I took you that first time? All pink from the bath, your bottom lip trembling? Mm.
I was afraid I would disappoint.
How? As sweet as you were, as full of innocent fears unknowing, bewildered I am your one true daddy.
Mm! You givin' me appetite.
Ruby! No, no.
Sit you put.
Eggs and pork belly me, hot and quick.
And a nice bowl of berries for Izzy.
Sour or sweet? Don't mind her.
Jealous you took her place, is all.
And bring the baby when you come! We will all breakfast together.
Like family.
Cassie's your name, yes? Brought you a warm coat for your journey.
The man in the cage killed my pa.
Yes.
And he will stay there.
You're safe.
I will never be safe again.
Give me your gun.
I will shoot him from here.
Let me watch him die.
Please? I cannot allow that.
You stand by that man? Was born to his family.
John had a kindness to him then.
Boy always cried when I was beaten.
Never cried when it was him.
I have met ones like you.
Choose to stay a slave.
Too cowardly for freedom.
You could help us.
You know we are justified.
His own wife told me he confessed his murders to her.
Isabelle? She is a traitor.
Beds his father as her husband lies there suffering in his own mind.
I will not turn on John Slotter.
We are wove together.
Cassie? The marshal here will see you safe to the station house.
My daughter, Kelly, will take you the rest of the way.
My ma'll bring him to justice.
Come on.
She hurt bad? Wounds are in her soul.
Be a friend to her.
Will check back after Kelly returns.
You're at it early.
Never stopped.
Burned more oil than I can afford in a month.
You are certain you got those numbers straight? Same as my brother's paper used to pay.
Your penmanship is atrocious.
"Massacre on the plains.
" It's about us? Don't know if anyone will be interested.
I have a gentleman this morning, but I will make quick work of him and read straight through.
Take Seamus with you.
He drives me to distraction.
Last time, the man complained.
Said he didn't want to see the end result before he even got going.
We could leave here.
Be famous.
Or be out a month's worth of lamp oil for nothing.
They stick together in that big house, I'll say that for 'em.
Ruby cannot stand by him forever.
And Isabelle is the one who turned him over to the marshal.
A wife stoops to that out of fear.
Mm.
And has turned from the son to the father now.
Well, with the mine collapsed and half the men injured, we all need Cornelius's money.
Need it more than justice for our men? No one wants Slotter's neck more than me.
But Isabelle Slotter's the last person to turn to for allegiance.
She cares for no one but herself.
Then we need to make sure aiding us is in her interest.
This is yours? Chase cut the tongue from you? Chase Sloat? He's the one killed that boy? He cut his tongue from his mouth.
The dead are at him.
Good.
He deserves worse.
Seems if this one's still coveting trinkets, then maybe Slotter is, too.
Wife of his might know where he hides such things.
I'll talk to her.
You think you know how to pressure her? I will strike at her weakness.
Might be chase could help.
Stay away from that man, hear? Leave him to his demons.
Where's the marshal? He was to take my husband south.
No cause, being only a black man killed.
He must be kept jailed.
Give us proof of the massacre he ordered, and he will hang.
His father will not abide it.
You bed him now? Does Cornelius know that grandchild is not his? Seems if told of it He might not be so fond of his son's wife.
You tell him, and that child dies by his hand.
Can you wear that stain on your soul? Keep him confined, I will pay you.
Why should I keep your husband safe from you? Because you fear him more than I.
All of you are afraid to face him head-on.
What day is it? Day hell breaks loose, I suppose.
You let him out? Opened the door.
Still in there, last I left him.
Is your mind clouded? Mrs.
Slotter could not be persuaded yet.
She needs more pressing from within that house to turn.
So much dust here and heat and sun.
Fresh air, rugged terrain best thing for the little man.
Should be raised properly, with nannies and nurses, raised with children of his own creed and custom.
Afraid he'll grow up Red Indian? The boy would be best nurtured in a city like New York.
Surely, I could not separate the babe from his mama? Leave her abandoned here in the wilds? I could be set up in rooms nearest you, at your call for your comfort and pleasure.
How does my son fit into these machinations? Someone must run my mine for me, bring in new men, set these workers right for once and all.
John needs rest, Cornelius.
You said so yourself.
His mind needs reordering.
There are facilities for such.
You would put my son in a madhouse? There have been many improvements in such places of late.
And if declared unsound of mind, all his property falls to his legal wife.
He has named me heir.
You would be repaid, as we have a gentleman's agreement.
But as far as title, the mine is still in your son's hands, according to the papers he holds.
And, as such John? Good God almighty! May God strike you down! Should I pack your trunks, or do we crate your husband off first? You set to your dishes! I will do what suits me.
Your husband up there is sick and in need of his wife-mate.
John is murderous and mad.
You saw the state of that girl he brought here.
He was driven mad! By you, by his Father.
You worry for yourself, don't you? Cornelius was done with you long ago.
He bed you, filled you with child.
Where is that boy of yours secreted now? He is in school, learning to be a gentlemen.
Mm.
Paid for by his slavemaster of a father.
Do you dream of winning him back? Of settling down, just the three of you? You are a revulsion.
Acting the little girl for that man to win his bed.
Leave this house! Be packed and gone before I return.
Do you remember how the two of us became family? Pressing our cut hands together, pledging our love? Man's dead and gone.
I no longer think of him.
Isabelle ordered me out.
Nowhere to go.
No one to go to.
You are kin to me.
She is a stranger here.
Live or die Stay or go.
But do not bother me with such.
I will not go.
I will not! God damn you, Isabelle Slotter.
Stay away.
And don't bother me.
I needs sleep And peace in my mind.
One, two Three I have to die don't I, Georgie? You will hound me to my grave.
We'll see the elephants when the circus comes.
Ride one like the little prince you are.
I'll have that cold roast for lunch.
And some of that nice blackberry wine.
What now? Need more than that.
There's a marker out front of the bunkhouse.
You hate it? Say so.
That's not what happened.
None of us banded together.
There was no circling of wagons, of returning flaming arrows.
You infused that night with treacle.
Infused? "Infused.
" Give that one something to suck on! He never shuts.
We've never spoken of that night.
What happened to each other.
And I will not speak of it.
There is no point! But do you not think of it? The memories beckon me at night.
The dark and the screaming.
I huddled back in the trees with some of the children.
Hey.
Where are you going? Something beckons me.
What about the babies? Should not mess with the dead.
They are determined in their grudges.
I am like them in that.
Do I need have men haul you to the road? I'm not going anywhere.
This is my family.
Where is she? Where is he from? That lie you bundled in my arms? No.
Was he even born, what I found in that coffin? Did you rip my grandson from your flesh? There was no son.
She was a daughter.
John please! I dare you to plead for her.
John John think of our unborn child still cradled in my womb.
There is no child.
Won't be.
I'm done with the whole warped dream of it.
Turned father against son, she did.
She has been the rift between us.
Oh! Let me help you.
You you let him loose, and then you and then you come to my aid? Come.
Mary? Mary Mary! Did you see Junior? Do they keep him well? Is he warm and strong.
I seen him through the bushes.
Played with him.
Cuddled.
We be together three of us.
You and me proper wed.
Junior with your name.
I want that, Mary.
I What's wrong? I I have crimes.
Things done that can't be removed.
The dead, they they want me for them, and they'll drag you to hell with me if I do not go.
I try to fend them off! Do not.
Tell them all and reconcile, and they will forgive you and love you and let you free.
Yeah? Indians! Get away.
This will hurt.
Are you ready to free yourself of that man? Tell us what you know.
Says you of the perfect husband, sainted before he could sour? John was a hero once, too.
Bought my way out of the whorehouse.
And now he has beaten you near death.
Took me from a bedchamber where I had done things no spirit can stand.
First time, I was not 12 years old.
That is not your shame.
Ada was taken for those sins.
That is not possible.
I shall examine the body, if you wish.
You lay hands on her, and you will lose them.
Will you aid us or not? There is a glove with your husband's name on it, inked inside.
Blood on it.
Where? In the house.
Won't be me gets it.
What? Tonics and, uh, potions.
She insists on them.
Would not rest until I agreed to come.
Perhaps a a box for transport? Um I'll fetch something.
Purity.
Thought you'd be picking over miners' corpses 'bout now.
I I am treating your wife's wounds.
No wife to me.
No more.
You are unnerved.
Did you kill them? All of those men? We are one, you and I.
Both enthralled by life and its expiration.
I had my men herd 'em into the that grove of trees.
Picked off a number of 'em myself.
That moment when the bullet tears through, lets go a man's life, fills the soul with purpose.
Bright.
Still.
Been Fighting that feeling my whole life, thinking it wrong.
You struggle with that, too.
You want that feeling.
I know you got the glove in your hand.
You must leave it.
But you are always welcome in this house.
Slotter is most certainly mad.
And longs to kill again.
Often, and soon.
Chances are the glove is already gone.
You made those gloves for him.
The beads on them.
I remember.
You'd like to know what happened to him.
Slotter says most were herded into the trees.
Gunned down by him and his men.
I would give much to know by whose hand my men were killed.
Whether they suffered 'fore they died.
Chase wants to confess to them.
Confess to the dead.
You know this as fact? He believes i if he tells all and asks forgiveness, he'll be cleansed of sin, be rid of their haunting.
The howling coming from you! "My leg's broke, daddy.
My leg!" It was, too! Doctor said.
And the stunned look on that pony's face when I pulled the trigger.
You see that? Shocked off his little hooves.
This will be the end of our ill will.
Now, about that mine of yours.
Black gold down there, seam thick and at the ready.
For those with means.
I say we forge our bond.
Split the mine proper, father and son, 50/50.
I say We'll see.
I'm telling you, the spirits want to make peace.
You say what you told me, they will leave off of you.
Look.
Come on.
I come to make peace.
You said Jared killed William Briggs.
Shot him six times and laughed as he did it.
Man fought not not to die.
And Seamus? Y you told me Abe little took him.
Ran him through the trees first? Toyed with him and made game of death.
He screamed a woman's name.
And the printer Robbie Logan.
You said Slotter took him? Yeah.
And more.
And and more.
And Georgie? You said Slotter told you to cut out his tongue for fooling with him.
String him up for all to see.
You kept up pleading me with the knife to you.
I tell him.
I wish I could take my heart from me and give it to you.
What happened to Jeremiah loving? Never saw him.
You will sign this confession and attest its details.
Ink it at the bottom.
I'll lock him in that cell till morning.
Deliver him to Caleb first thing.
See him hanged alongside his master.
No.
He did as you asked.
Shush.
The men will hear you.
He should be forgiven.
Justice will be done.
They say you gonna testify.
Hang to see the captain hang.
No choice.
Never had none.
Did you kill that little Mary? Like you were sent to? I will be heartsick on leaving her alone when I hang.
I must pay back what I took.
Life for life.
No.
More than one way to atone for sin.
Taking care of the weak, that's one.
Say goodbye to Mary for me.
Fiona! It's wonderful.
Exciting, heartbreaking.
You read it through? The moment in the field in the night where the dying man reaches his hand to you and you take it and comfort him Bringing his widow to him at first light.
I'm so glad you chose to tell the truth.
Thank you for encouraging me.
I will travel to Billings and deliver this myself.
Proudly! What is it? We will head to your durham and never tell of this place.
His name is Chase now.
"Chase Sloat II.
" I have heard what he has done to you, he and his father.
I am glad you have come to me.
I haven't come to you.
I have come to devise their downfall.