DEADWOOD: "A Lie Agreed Upon, Part 1"

Welcome back to f*****g Deadwood

By Jason Davis     March 06, 2005

Some time has passed since the first season finale, and the future is headed to Deadwood in the form of telegraph poles, which Al Swearengen considers just one more harbinger of bad news for his little camp on the edge of civilization. At its heart, the second-season premiere is about new ideas and how they affect people who could take them or leave them.

Having settled into his new life as sheriff, Seth Bullock has made his personal life a priority by advancing matters with the widow Alma Garrett. No longer is the good sheriff just looking after her claim, and it's a comment on his extracurricular prospecting made by Swearengen from his saloon balcony that leads to the centerpiece of the episode as the two men commence to settling matters in the fashion proscribed by the western genre. When this interlude is unexpectedly, and rather impressively, taken to the streets, it devolves into a free-for-all that washes the street in blood before a carriage draws up with newcomers who quickly make their presence felt in the lives of the regular characters.

Perhaps the most interesting and eagerly awaited aspect of this episode is the audience's first glimpses of Bullock behind his badge. Will he be corrupted by Swearengen? Will the morals he's so rigorously upheld throughout the first season fail him under the burden of the law? As to the corruption, Bullock answers that question with bruised knuckles and a bloodied face, while the second answer is a little more ambiguous. He's quick to send the soap-with-a-surprise peddler packing when the con man comes too near the legitimate businesses, but a shooting in Tom Nuttall's tavern draws a strangely unconcerned assessment from Bullock, who fails to mete out any punishment in a matter of manslaughter at the very least. Is this frontier justice or are Sheriff Bullock's priorities back in the Grand Central hotel, where the morals he so rigorously employs in his work have fallen away in his personal life? With the arrival of the coach and two of its passengers, things are going to get quite complicated for the sheriff, and the awkward pause he shares with Mrs. Garrett in the doctor's office is likely to be the first of many.

While the episode starts slowly with the political machinations of Swearengen and some unwelcome tidings of Deadwood's future, it soon picks up the pace and finds its way back to the steady rhythm of expletive-punctuated drama that was the hallmark of its spectacular first year. If there's a downside to the premiere, it's to be expected. With the need to get the story rolling, some of the more colorful personalities of the camp have faded into the background for this installment, making only brief, restrained appearances. Still, it's likely that Doc Cochran, Calamity Jane, and E.B. Farnum will be back in full swing within a week or two, and like this series, they'll be welcomed back to the screen with a curse and a kick in the gut.