“August commencement to my administration, standing stymied outside a saloon next to a degenerate tit-licker.”
This is a subtle, well-written script, well realised. As ever, there’s a lot going on. The Reverend continues to deteriorate- the Doc thinks it’s a tumour. Business is good for Charlie while Joanie is stuck. Fascinatingly, Bullock honestly talks to Sol of his doubts about a wife and boy he barely knows as “she” is a beautiful woman. But the episode is, as ever, about the town’s slow process towards annexation and order... and systemic racism.
The episode shows us the racism, and doesn’t tell us how to react. Certainly, Wu is not a nice man. He supplies opium to Al and feeds murdered bodies to his pigs- and the other members of the Chinese community are clearly afraid of him. He is, I suppose, a community leader of sorts- but, because of his ehnicity, there's no possibility of his being considered one, and there is uproar when he enters the Gem through the front door. He is, in a sense, respected- certainly by Al- as an individual, but it seems to be accepted by all that there's a "proper" separation of "races". Racial slurs are everywhere, whores find his entering by the front door scandalous, and Cy even comments that a white dope fiend is "still while"- and Al is wary of being seen as too close to the "celestials".
It's interesting that this structural racism is clearly shown, and shocks with how clearly ingrained it is, without a need for a sympathetic character. Interestingly, too, we meet Hostetler, our first black character.
Beyond this, civilisation grows nearer, although not without Al having to pay extra bribes to make a murder charge go away. Already there's tension between using tax for corrupt purposes and for public services. There's a lot of nuance and subtlety here. It is, as ever, superb telly.
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