The essential episodes of Deadwood
Watch these 15 in order and you've got Deadwood — each pick states its reason.
- 01
Montana marshal Seth Bullock executes a last act of justice and relocates to a gold-mining camp known as Deadwood, where he and partner Sol Star look to start a hardware business.
- 02
As suspicions arise that 'road agents' may have been the true perpetrators of the massacre, Swearengen takes a special interest in the health of its sole survivor—a young girl ministered to by the unlikely team of Doc Cochran and Calamity Jane.
- 03
Competition arrives for Swearengen in the form of the Bella Union, a gambling outfit from Chicago.
- 04
Swearengen directs Farnum to buy back the Garret claim; Alma prevails on Calamity Jane and Hickok for help.
- 05
Swearengen transforms the Gem into a courtroom as Deadwood is forced to try a cowardly killer.
- 06
Deadwood breathes easier when riders bring a vaccine--and word of a possible Sioux treaty.
- 07
With annexation looming, Swearengen calls a meeting to set up an informal government.
- 08
Alma proposes forming a bank, and looks to familiar faces to run it. To test himself, Swearengen grants audience to a long line of supplicants; talks with Farnum and Miss Isringhausen prove most illuminating. The arrival of low-priced Chinese whores begins the next phase in Tolliver and Wolcott's arrangement. Humiliated by Bullock, an angry claim owner looks to "square the scales." An enchanted Merrick tours a new schoolteacher about the camp. Wolcott's inner demons test his alliance with Tolliver, and prompt Stubbs and Utter to covert action.
- 09
Swearengen's shrewd manipulation of the rumor mill pays off in a Yankton counter-offer that requires only slight amending. Meanwhile, George Hearst's arrival in Deadwood has shaken up the camp's status quo from Wu to Farnum to Wolcott. Tolliver, for his part, seeks to avoid marginalization by offering the tycoon damning nuggets about his engineer's nasty habits.
- 10
I Am Not the Fine Man You Take Me For
Captain Turner tips off Swearengen with a cryptic note to another bloody incident at the Gem; later, Hearst makes his intentions known in a more straightforward way. While Jane finds a captive audience for her oratory skills, the candidates for mayor and sheriff aren't as fortunate. Alma's health raises the issue of Sofia's stewardship and newly reformed Andy Cramed pays a visit to Tolliver, with a different agenda and outcome
- 11
As Tolliver tries to find a respectable employee suitable to be his liaison with Hearst, Swearengen tries to understand the reasoning behind Hearst's actions. The conflict becomes more tense as Dority and Captain Turner violently settle their differences. Bullock tries to finally settle the dispute between Steve and Hostetler and another murder brings Bullock once more face to face with Hearst, forcing him to take action. Trixie becomes suspicious of Alma's odd behaviour at the bank. Ellsworth and Alma have a close encounter that alters their relationship. Langrishe welcomes more arrivals from his theater troupe.
- 12
As Deadwood is overrun by Hearst's men, Bullock issues contingency plans to Martha. Wu is caught in a Pinkerton stampede and delivers a cryptic message, that is solved by the unlikeliest person, to Swearengen. Barrett makes Merrick pay for embarrassing Hearst in "The Pioneer", while Morgan Earp calls out one of the "Pistoleros". As night falls, Langrishe mines Deadwood's talent pool with an amateur-night performance in front of his future theater, financed in part by a "loan" from Alma's bank.
- 13
With the Sheriff out of camp, Alma is assailed by Hearst's men and as she never would have expected, shelter comes from Swearengen. Barrett is sent to the Gem, but Al resorts to old fashion methods of inquiring to his employers plans. Meanwhile, Langrishe recruits a new actor.
- 14
Bullock holds an impromptu morning meeting to determine which emergencies warrant wiring him in Sturgis, where he and Harry are delivering campaign pitches. The first summons doesn't take long, as Hearst follows up Alma's close call with one that's decidedly more on-target. In the aftermath, Alma takes refuge at the Gem, again, while Trixie decides to take matters into her own hands. Langrishe has a falling out with Hearst, giving him little time to huddle with his new lineup of actors. Dismissing the likelihood of ever seeing 23 mercenaries promised by Hawkeye, Swearengen turns to Wu to deliver more reliable, if not quite weapons-tested, reinforcements from Custer City.
- 15
In the Season Three finale, Deadwood turns out to vote; Alma makes a deal; Utter receives one body for Hearst, who demands to see another.
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