Hell on Wheels s05e07 Episode Script

- Gentlemen, if you please.
- : We're getting absolutely nowhere.
- May I repeat - You made your point, sir.
- For the record, this time.
- For the record, we are going round and round and round in circles.
- This meeting, I'm beginning to think, has no shape at all.
- No.
No shape, nor a purpose.
Neither.
- May I suggest we start from the beginning? - No.
Let's start at right now.
I want an answer, Mr.
Durant.
Not an equivocation, not a redirect A simple answer to a simple question.
Will the Union Pacific build north or south of the Great Salt Lake? - The Union Pacific is planning to build south to Salt Lake City.
This great city in which we are gathered is and has always been our designated terminus.
- Are you suggesting Miss Ellison made this up? - I am stating that Miss Ellison is a journalist, Mr.
President.
She will write anything to sell newspapers.
- I thought her prose well founded, articulated and and compelling, frankly, Mr.
Durant.
- Nobody is interested in your literary criticism - Gentlemen.
Per my contract with Collis Huntington and the Central Pacific Railroad, he had agreed to build south through Salt Lake City.
Cassius? Yet this map, which I am recently come to possess, proves him to be both a liar and a thief.
- Mr.
Huntington? - Central Pacific Railroad intends to build north.
Any, uh, misunderstanding on the part of Mr.
Young is regrettable and unintentional.
I motion that construction on the Central Pacific's road be suspended pending a full inquiry.
- I would ask you, Mr.
President, to consider how Brigham Young acquired that map, private property of the Central Pacific Railroad.
Uh, Samuel Ammerman, my my telegraph operator, disappeared ages ages ago after being placed there by Thomas Durant to spy - That is an unsubstantiated accusation, sir! - private business of a private corporation! Have not corporations rights, sir? Now, surely, a penalty for corporate espionage must be levied.
- "Corporate espionage.
" You practically invented the concept! - Enough! Mr.
Bohannon.
- Mr.
President.
- I promised the American people a railroad that crosses this country, gentlemen.
It will be built.
If not by you, by someone else.
We will establish a route and a terminus, a place where your two railroads shall meet before any of us steps foot outside Salt Lake City.
One hour recess.
- Uh, you know that dream where a meeting's about to start, and you look down and you realize suddenly you've been stripped down to your unmentionables? And you're Never mind.
You're here now.
Uh, we have lost Brigham's trust and his workers with it.
Regrettable but not irreparable.
We're gonna strike back Hit Durant hard.
- Listen to me.
There is no way Durant gives up Ogden.
He's lying to Brigham Young just to keep the Mormon workers on his payroll long as possible.
- We catch him in a lie, get Grant to give us Ogden and its millions of dollars' worth of coal as penalty for Durant wasting our time.
Hmm? - I'll pick my spot.
- Mr.
Bohannon! Ah! I'd heard Collis had taken you under his wing.
I hope all this talk of business and politics doesn't prove too much of a bore for you.
- No.
You always keep things interesting.
- Well, I try to do my bit.
Well, I I hardly recognize you.
- We have Durant's support, but only as long as his interests align with ours.
He needs our workers, but not as badly as I need his road.
- Father, I've returned.
- Yes, four days late, and wearing unsightly boots.
Your brother and I are concerned with pressing railroad matters.
- The railroad is also my concern.
I pulled the men from Truckee as you requested.
I've done your bidding, Father, and I have a small request.
- A quick one, I hope.
- The Hatchites.
The heretic sect, I need to know where they are.
- What you needed was an awareness of the treachery brewing right under your nose during your time on the Central Pacific! - Brother Phineas is is not at fault, O Lion.
It was the gentiles, in particular, Cullen Bo - Don't defend this imbecile! I'm perfectly aware were it not for you, our mission there would've proved twice as disastrous.
- You will not speak to me in this way! - Enough.
Get out of my sight.
Now! - Brother Phineas.
No.
Brother Phineas No.
It - Do you see how he treats me? - I do, it is deplorable.
- Our men are well-trained.
- Yeah.
- Well-armed.
- Yes.
- We have prepared for this.
- We have.
- We must strike now.
- Yeah, he has so many well-armed guards - Phineas! - And now the soldiers.
No, Zion is better protected than when we left.
Uh, now, we we must be patient.
Huh? - Phineas, wait.
- Ah! Hey, Cassius.
Oh, look at you.
- The Hatchites are in the Red Valley, southeast of Camp Douglas.
Couple hours ride from here.
- Thank you, Cassius.
- Welcome home, brother.
- You see, yeah, Heavenly Father continues to bestow upon us his unexpected blessings.
Uh, he will tell us when it is time.
- I grow tired of waiting, Brother Thor.
- Yeah, yeah.
Uh, yeah.
I see that.
I see that.
- If only it was your own favors I was paying for, Madam Eva.
- We thank you for your patronage.
Uh, Mr.
Crigler.
- Distracted by your charms, I was.
- He takes me, right there on the stairs, but he said it didn't count, "'Cause we wasn't in the sack.
" Dumb-ass cowboy! - This box was full.
Seven hundred dollars.
Our money.
Now, whoever's doing this is stealing from all of us.
- Just say it, if you're accusing somebody.
- Oh, I'm looking at her.
- Josie would never - Quiet, Tess! I'm real scared.
No, no, no.
You're too stupid to be scared.
Highfalutin on account of your pretty face and your fast hands.
Don't forget, little girl, I found you in a pile of pig slop gnawing on a chicken bone.
You cross me, you'll be back there quicker than you can come.
That money'd best turn up.
- Eva ain't fit to be running things.
That's the truth of it.
- It's what I been saying, Mick.
- She don't protect us from Johns when they get rowdy, and now there's this money gone.
- Stolen? All she can do to fix it is blame us.
- You mean she blames you? - She's just got it in for me 'cause all the girls like me better.
- They listen to Josie.
I've seen it.
- And you think you could run the girls? - I could look out for 'em, keep the cash safe.
Be happy to work alongside Johnny here, you think that's best.
- The route west and south along the lake, Mr.
President, it crosses open country for thirty miles.
It has advantages both as to cost and speed of progress.
As per federal law, we will acquire the land and mineral rights twenty miles on either side of the southern route, precise numbers here.
- Any questions, you may direct to the man who made the survey for the Union Pacific while he was in my employ, Cullen Bohannon.
- I have some questions, Mr.
President.
This is the route the Union Pacific plans to follow, exactly? - Saving room for any necessary detours, yes.
- Detours? - Unforeseen departures from the thing you have committed yourself to doing.
I know you're familiar with the term.
- I'm familiar with the route.
And having surveyed it myself, I assure you it requires no detours.
Come, Bohannon.
Changes in the weather, uh shortage of supplies Employees leaving.
- Barring extenuating circumstances, do you agree this route requires no detours? - Barring extenuating circumstances.
- Let the record show Mr.
Durant's nod in the affirmative.
I propose that we take a vote to lock in the southern route through Salt Lake City and exclude any detours north, including the coal fields around Ogden.
- Central Pacific is ready to lock in the southern route, as proposed by the Union Pacific.
- Wise decision.
- What do you say, Mr.
Durant? Will you make it unanimous? - Excluding Ogden is premature.
Foolhardy.
Could I suggest that we Mr.
Durant, Ogden is outside the straightest route.
The southern route.
Building to Ogden would constitute a waste of federal funds.
A felony for which Mr.
Durant has already served time, if I'm not mistaken, Mr.
President.
- Mr.
Durant, you have two choices, go south and forfeit Ogden, or go north through Ogden.
I want your choice made now.
- You force my hand, um The Union Pacific will have to go north, through Ogden.
- You lying heathen! - The northern route has been confirmed.
When we reconvene, we shall settle on where your two railroads would join by naming a final terminus.
- It's the ease with which you lie and steal that truly impresses me.
Did you not hear me fighting for you in there? For Salt Lake City, to the point of hoarseness? The bone you have to pick is with Cullen Bohannon, the man who just saw to it that the Transcontinental Railroad will bypass your fine, fecund city.
- I need you to put Salt Lake City back on the table.
- Give me back your laborers and I will order the immediate construction of a glistening spur line direct to Salt Lake City.
There, your Zion resurrected! - The President's dream of uniting this country by rail will crumble to dust without lumber from Mormon poplars, sugar from Mormon beets, flour from Mormon wheat, and tools forged in Mormon fire.
- Brigham, you and I both know your Zion will die without the influx of cash a contract with me provides.
Now, you have a choice.
You can stomp your feet like a petulant schoolgirl or you can join me in undoing Cullen Bohannon.
- Salt Lake City is the terminus or you can build your railroad alone.
- Come.
Come, come, come, please.
We propose Fort Bridger as the final terminus of the railroad.
Edge of Wyoming, and that fatuous double-dealer, he won't even make it far enough west to smell the coal in Ogden.
- We ain't even through the Sierras.
Durant will see through it, so will Grant.
- Grant's never been to the Sierras, and Durant neither.
Nobody knows for certain where we are except you and me.
Put it on the map, Grant will believe it.
- I ain't lying to the President of the United States.
- What's good for the railroad is good for America.
We are patriots, Mr.
Bohannon! Do you know why I hired you? - To build your railroad.
- Yeah, and also because Grant, that old soldier, holds you in higher regard than the rest of us combined.
You call it a lie.
Call it a battlefield strategy But this this, right here is the very stuff of your lifetime.
Now you fancy yourself a railroad man Minute you accepted a stake in the Central Pacific, you became a tycoon.
And a tycoon always chooses the win no matter how he comes by it.
- Pretty goddamn sure of yourself, ain't you? - I am.
It's a well that replenishes.
Time for you to drink from that same water.
Deliver this for me.
- Josie's a whore.
Whores lie.
- Well, Josie's running all over you and all the other girls see it.
She came to me after your job.
- She's a nasty piece of work.
- Running women is nasty business, sure.
They need to be kept in line.
And you let them away with too much.
My cousin favors the change.
We'd keep a place for you, of course.
Always room for a good whore.
- I'll get the money back.
- Pray that you do.
And get control of Josie and the other girls, otherwise - Your favorite brand, as I recall.
- Ain't you got schemes to spin? - You know, it gives me no pleasure to find us set against each other, Bohannon.
I'm a little surprised, I will admit.
Given all your talk of "honor.
" - I joined the Central Pacific to find my family.
- The Union Pacific is your family.
It has been since the day you bust into my rail car and told me to hire you instead of hanging you.
- You regret your decision? - Not if you come home.
You don't owe that puny shopkeeper Huntington anything.
He's using you.
He will ask you to misrepresent the progress of the Central Pacific to the President of the United States, if he hasn't already.
It's what I'd do.
But I would never ask you to lie.
- Saint that you are.
- You can't beat me, Bohannon.
But for some damned reason, Grant likes you.
You and I have always given each other an edge.
Join me.
Together we can bury Huntington and win the coal fields of Ogden.
- You are full of surprises, I give you that.
You told me when I left that you'd never take me back.
- Well, all is forgiven.
Just come home.
- Wasn't me who killed Johnson, you know.
- What? - That day I busted into your train car, you was gonna hang me for killing Johnson.
Was Elam done that, not me.
- Um, I don't care who you killed.
- I know.
Got a few surprises of my own, is all.
Sir? You wanted to see me? - Mr.
Bohannon We are up and running, bursting with grain and fruit, bustling with industry, all ready for export.
- Going through Salt Lake City ain't practical for the railroad.
- Grant told me himself he's willing to consider it.
- I come to you heart in hand.
My people, our very way of life depend upon you.
If you'll just speak to the President.
I know he listens to you.
- He's his own man.
At the end of the day, he'll call it like he sees it.
- Well, perhaps my route has some practical applications that are escaping you at the moment.
Not long ago, I received a telegram from you inquiring about the Hatchites.
I responded that I didn't know their location.
I did.
And I do.
I know exactly where they are.
And you know exactly what I need from you.
- Them gold plates teach you to lie like that, or was you just born a son-of-a-bitch? - Heavenly Father looks out for me, Mr.
Bohannon, as I am attempting to look out for you.
Let my good fortune be yours, and you shall be reunited with your loved ones.
- Not like that.
- Get off Tess' bed, Josie.
- It's my bed - Shut it! Move your ass.
I won't ask again.
- Or what? You'll shoot me? You dumb enough to find out? Now you go and get me that money.
- I said already I don't have it! - Put it in my hand! Go pack your things.
- Bitch! - You're fired.
- You can't fire her! - I'm the madam, Tess.
Now, you like her so much, you go get on that train with her.
Leaves at 10:00 for Cheyenne.
- Brother Phineas.
- I had the vision, Brother.
- Tell me.
- I was walking through the desert, with a dagger.
And I came across a lone sheep.
- Yes? - Abandoned by his flock.
- Oh.
- A sheep with fangs and claws.
But I just I just stood there, Brother.
I couldn't I couldn't move.
I was frozen.
Heavenly Father is telling you to slaughter the sheep so that you may wear his wool.
He's calling upon you to cut the unholy sheep's throat! You're afraid.
I see it, my son.
But fear not, this holy divination has been bestowed by Heavenly Father above upon you, and you alone.
- Yes.
My mission is clear.
- Yes, my son.
- Why are you doing this? The railroad? - The scars of reconstruction can't heal until we link this nation east to west Make it whole again.
- You sound like a politician.
I never pictured you as one.
- Never pictured it myself.
The last morning I have a clear memory of is in Appomattox Court House.
Yesterday I was watching Robert E.
Lee surrender.
Today I'm sitting behind a desk in the White House.
You know, sometimes you can't avoid the thing you want most, even if getting it is detestable.
As much as I pretend I hate it, the detestable thing I want is power, and power means politics.
What's yours? - I used to know.
Thought I did.
- I know two songs, Mr.
Bohannon.
One's Yankee Doodle, and the other one isn't.
Keep things simple, that's my advice.
The American people don't care where the two railroads meet up, only that they do.
- Even if it's Salt Lake City? - In politics, nothing is ever off the table.
- Tell me where my family is, I'll make the case for Salt Lake City.
- You'll have their location the minute the meeting concludes.
- Here and now or the deal's off.
I walk out that door, don't bother coming to the meeting.
Time she's finished, you won't even be able to find Salt Lake City on a map.
Fair enough.
- Mr.
Bohannon.
The railroad goes south through the city.
- You have my word.
- You found me in a pile of pig shit That's true.
I was starving and lonely and lower than low.
But it was better than where I come from.
I can't go back.
- Josie.
- I went to the station, Eva.
I did.
But then I thought, why should I be the one to leave? - I can't have you here.
- Well, I ain't going.
You are.
Josie, no! - Clean up this mess now, girl.
- Josie - We're gonna need a new redhead.
- All right, sit down! John, sit down! You cost me a lot of money there, Eva.
Customers' favorite, Josie.
- It was my decision to make.
- It was.
Now, get yourself cleaned up, and get back to work.
- Now, under my compass, the Union Pacific has laid 987 miles of tracks across four states, using half the amount of money, work force, and supplies as the Central Pacific.
The Union Pacific would like to propose the naming of Promontory, Utah, 385 miles west of Laramie, Wyoming, as our terminus.
At three miles a day, we will be there in less than 130 days from today.
- Thank you, Mr.
Durant.
Mr.
Huntington? - Mr.
President, if it pleases you, I'd like my partner, uh, to deliver our case.
- The Central Pacific will not be naming Fort Bridger as the final terminus here today.
Mr.
Durant spoke true when he said such a proposal would be outside our capabilities.
But he is mistaken in naming Promontory as the proper terminus of this road.
Central Pacific wishes to propose a more radical alternative, one which has been considered but not fully discussed by the men in this room over the last couple days.
We propose no terminus at all.
- Mr.
Bohannon, I - But that both railroads follow the agreed upon northern route, bypassing Salt Lake City, the point to be determined by the speed with which each railroad builds.
- Godless bastard! - I second Mr.
Young's objections! - Mr.
Bohannon, the purpose of this meeting was to set a final terminus.
- Mr.
President, not long ago, I took a train ride after a long war.
And today, I sit here, in this room, a stakeholder in the Central Pacific Railroad.
And make no mistake about it, the other men in this room are driven by self-interest and greed.
Greed for the coalfields in Ogden.
But Ogden's riches shouldn't go to the man with the best speech or the most devious lie.
This contest hadn't ought to end in a room.
Ogden should go to the man who gets there first.
- You said it yourself Nothing's ever off the table.
- You want a race? - Yeah Yeah, I want a race.
- Then, Mr.
Bohannon, you shall have a race.
- I would be within reason to fire you.
- Not if you aim to win this race.
- Get us through that tunnel quick.
Thomas, as always - No.
Collis, you don't stand a chance.
- Oh, I think I do.
- You know, starting a race from behind a granite wall is not going to make for a very exciting finish.
I was hoping for more of a fight from you.
- You've been an advocate of mine, Doc, but if you aim to beat me, you should've ended this race where you stood a chance of winning it, right here in this room.
The race we start tomorrow will be decided in the mud.
Hell, I've I was born in the mud.
Tore a farm out of that mud.
Built an army out of more mud.
- Failure stacked atop failure.
- In one month, I'll punch through the Sierras.
In two months, I'll be across Nevada.
By year end, both railroads will be at the Utah state line, and the last place you want to see me is at rail end building in your direction.
- Don't fool yourself, Bohannon.
The coal fields of Ogden will be mine.
- We will see.
- Mr.
Bohannon.
- Father.
- Another time, Phineas.
- Why did you never read to me? - This is the question you ask? Now? When I'm fighting for the life of my holy city, for the very life of my flock! - It is not your flock anymore, Father! It's mine.
Beautiful day, eh? Oh, made with love.
Yeah? The Prophet has fallen! Brigham Young, the False Prophet, who led us away from God's path.
But fear not, brothers, for I am he who replaces him.
The True Prophet.
Heavenly Father has anointed me, Phineas Young, to his earthly throne.
And - Traitor! My sometime son! He very nearly took my life.
But Heavenly Father spared me through his mercy.
- Uh, my friend.
My friend.
You stay.
You stay, yeah? - Brother Cassius! It's your father, hurry.
He's been stabbed.
- Father! - It was Gundersen.
He planned this! Thor Gundersen's the man you want! - He's already gone.
- Find him.
Find him, my son.
- This morning, Phineas asked about a heretic sect, their location - Come here!