Note: Major, major spoilers of the midseason finale follow. You have been warned.
We have made it to the midseason finale, and I'm expecting some fireworks. Let's see just how everything played out. The show starts off with Durant, Huntington, Brigham, and President Grant in a meeting room discussing the paths that the railroads are planning on taking. Brigham produces the map showing that the Central Pacific has lied about their plans, and that they will be bypassing Salt Lake City. The president declares that a decision will be made as to where the railroads will meet and form their terminus, and it will happen before any of them leave Salt Lake City.
We then see Huntington attempting to get Cullen to lie to the president about their progress, so that they can get the advantage against Durant. Durant also comes to Cullen and attempts to get him to return to the Union Pacific, and help him get the advantage. Then, to make things even worse for Cullen, Brigham tells Cullen that he knows where his family is, and will tell him where to find his wife and son if he agrees to make sure the railroads pass through Salt Lake City.
After thinking it over, Cullen tells Brigham that he will do as he asks, and Brigham tells him where his family is. But then in the meeting, Cullen goes against his word, and shuts down all three plans, saying that the way to decide this is with a race to Ogden, where the coal fields will go to the victor. President Grant agrees, and so the race is on, which will pick up in the next half of the season next year.
Meanwhile, there were two other storylines going on before the big ending to the episode (more on that in a bit). Eva is struggling to get control of the girls at the whorehouse, and Josie has gotten in with Johnny (Mickey's cousin) and is trying to become the new Madame. Josie steals the money Eva has been hiding, in an attempt to get control, and Eva calls her out on it. Eva then threatens Josie at gunpoint, gets the money back, and tells Josie to leave. However, Josie says it isn't her that will be leaving, but that Eva will be the one leaving. Eva doesn't even think twice and shoots Josie in the guts, letting her die on the floor before telling one of the other girls to clean up the mess.
The other storyline is with Thor and Phineas, as the Swede has now convinced Phineas that he is to ascend as the new head of the Mormons, and that he must rise up and take his rightful place. And so Phineas goes to his father, and stabs him multiple times, until his father stops fighting and his body goes limp on his desk, bleeding out massively. Phineas then proclaims that the Lion has passed, and he has been anointed the new Lion, until his father rises up and shows that he is not dead, and exposes Phineas as a traitor. Seeing this play out, the Swede does what he does best, and leaves before it can be found out that he was the mastermind of the whole plan. And then we get the big payoff at the end of the episode.
Cullen goes to see what has happened, telling the Mormons that it was Thor Gundersen that they need to find. And then someone says that he had been inquiring about the outcast Hatch family, which is Cullen's wife and child. Cullen takes off immediately and is racing across the countryside when we see Naomi and her son, playing in the field, and nearby on horseback, the Swede sits atop his horse, watching them with a menacing look on his face. And that is how it ends.
We get some glimpses of the next season, as there are a few scenes showing Thor attempting to get at Naomi inside the house, and of Cullen showing up. And then we see the two of them fighting in a stream in the woods, and so it looks like the epic showdown that we have all been waiting for will be happening sooner rather than later, as it appears we will get closure on the Swede and Cullen as soon as the show comes back on next year.
Okay, so there was a lot going on here, and I feel that everything played out like it should. I thought it was very interesting to see everything coming down to a decision that Cullen alone was going to have to make, and instead of picking a true side and making one person very happy, he instead kind of screwed over everyone. He is staying with the Central Pacific, and will help Huntington try to win the race, as I think that his distaste for Durant runs too deep and so he would not return to help him after all they have been through. He really had no allegiance to Brigham, and so it didn't really surprise me that he did what he had to do to find his wife and son.
I also found it very interesting that the Swede's plan blew up in his face, and so now he has to improvise a bit, and has sped up his plan to find Cullen's family. I think that this will ultimately be his demise, as I think that he is just flying by the seat of his pants, and Cullen is coming for him. Unlike many times in the past, I think this time the Swede has gone too far, and Cullen will not be letting him off the hook as he has done before. I think we will see the final showdown between these two early in the second half of the season, and then we will get to see who wins the race to Ogden in the final episodes of the series.
I'm not sure if I'm okay with this outcome. I know that the whole show has been about Cullen finishing this railroad (or whichever railroad he is working for), and his priorities have changed a bit along the way, but I have always felt that the underlying thing was him and Thor Gundersen. I feel like the final episode of the series needs to be their epic conclusion, but it looks like that will be happening before the end of the series, unless something changes. I will reserve full judgment on this until I see how things play out (a loooooooooong year from now), but for now I feel satisfied with where they left off and a little sad with where they left off as well. I guess that is to be expected though, as I have had conflicting feelings about this show since I started watching it a couple of years ago.
The midseason finale did what it was supposed to, in the end. It gave us a good cliff hanger, so that we can spend the next year wondering what is going to happen, and it set up the final push as we head to the end of the series. Even though I'm not completely sure I like how things are going to play out, as least things appear to be heading to a logical and final conclusion, and so I will just leave it at that for now. Maybe a year from now, I will be writing about how the show had the perfect ending, and all my doubts were all for naught.
My rating for the episode is 7.5/10
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