FULL LENGTH DEADWOOD REACTION - 1x4
Added 2020-03-13 03:04:08 +0000 UTC
Comments
I love your passion for this show!! ❤️❤️
Reaction Junkie
2020-03-14 17:54:10 +0000 UTCAs for how the show expanded on real life Jack's motives in these early episodes, it's very well seeded! In the true story from history, Jack joined a poker game Bill was playing in, and Bill really did give him some money to go get a meal. Jack was offended by this, and the next day, angry and drunk, Jack walked into the bar where Bill was playing yet another poker game, seated with his back to the door which was unusual for him, holding two pairs (Aces & 8's) and Jack walked up to him and shot him in the back of the head, shouting "Damn you, take that!" according to witnesses. The show just reversed the order to "Take that, damn you!" They also built up the backstory by having Jack's jealousy of Bill and Bill's perhaps suicidal taunting of Jack, exist over several days and poker games. They add onto this by having him go to Bullock & Star's hardware store in the 3rd episode and say that he was either going to buy prospecting tools or something else, and that it's better that he buy prospecting tools or else he'd give Bill his "just deserts". Bullock with his temper, takes exception to this veiled threat and throws him in the mud, which arguably pushed Jack close to the killing rather than dissuaded him. In this episode we see Jack, in his new mud-free suit, having just said he bought a gun (instead of prospecting tools), walk by Bullock talking to Bill, thus in his mind firmly cementing the shaming in the mud (where Charlie "You follow him around!" was present) and all the shame he felt from Bill directly, helping the whole thing snowball in his head. It's just...this is my favorite show because Milch is such an excellent writer and storyteller. He built this all up so well in small moments, some of them seemingly unrelated, some of them not even having dialogue, just Jack looking and being jealous and angry and growing moreso. Sorry for multiple long posts I just could go on and on about Deadwood...
Michael
2020-03-13 18:10:35 +0000 UTCAs far as Bill expecting or perhaps even wanting death, there are several indications in the episode as Jimmy and others have seen. First of all, the fact that he seems to give a series of goodbyes, to Charlie, to Jane, to Bullock, to his wife in a way, via the letter. Even that I consider part of it: I don't think he was thinking about how his death would affect his wife UNTIL Alma said that "a wife inevitably feels they have some part in what befalls her husband." After that line we cut to a very small reaction, all in the eyes, from Bill. I think that made him think, "Shit, I should write something nice to my wife before I die." There's his talk to Bullock about how he doesn't feel suited to the life he's pretending he can live, and he says that he's tired. Bullock tells him to turn in and that Bullock will take over, but as he says it we see a shot of the whole Deadwood camp. It can be taken literally as "I'm tired" "Go to sleep, I'll stay up" or as "I'm suicidal" "That's okay, you can die and I'll be what you were, here". Plus there's the fact, as Jimmy noted, of him putting on his red sash and getting really fancy looking, as if he wanted to look his best before he died. Finally, we see a clear shot of Tom, the barkeep, sitting at the poker table...the door opens, quietly enough, but creaks and lets in light, and Tom looks over his shoulder and notices Bill walk in. This tells us that someone in that seat totally knows if someone walks into the bar. But we see that same shot, when Jack walks in, except now of Bill...he just stares. Like he knew, just like Tom, that someone came in, he suspected who it was and their purpose, and he just stayed there and waited for it. And of course, the fact that he sat in the seat with his back to the door, when he hadn't ever done that before. All of this, and his "let me go to hell" speech, all seem to add up to him either wishing for death because he was unhappy with the direction of his life, or at the least expecting it.
Michael
2020-03-13 18:01:02 +0000 UTCI loved that death scene it felt so quick and real, I also felt like Bill knew he was about to die you could see it in his eyes right before he's shot. He wanted to go to Hell his own way and he did.
Feda
2020-03-13 14:15:32 +0000 UTCLike I pointed out Jimmy, this is the western version of Rome. They used real historical figures, added in some fake ones and constructed new narratives. That said, big important moments of history is preserved. Wild Bill Hicock was a notorious gunslinger back in his day, and he also got his head blown off by having his back to the door and not seeing that coward. The hand he had which was 2 aces and 2 eights was also immortalized as the dead man's hand in poker history. Think of his death as the catalyst to the whole story, the way Ned's death started a chain reaction in Game of Thrones.
Unbeheld
2020-03-13 05:50:01 +0000 UTCThat's where the dead man's hand comes from. It was his cards when he died.
T0ast
2020-03-13 04:39:52 +0000 UTCI agree its disappointing to see Bill go out like that, but you can't blame the writers, that's a historically true killing. With it's backstory dramatically embellished =) But the killing itself is pretty accurate.
Michael
2020-03-13 04:19:41 +0000 UTC
