Note: Major spoilers incoming for the first two episodes of the last half of the final season of Hell on Wheels. You have been warned.
The moment I have been waiting for and sort of hoping would never come officially happened, and I don't know what my exact feelings are now that the deed is done. I really thought (and still think) that this episode should have been saved for the series finale, but I understand why they wanted to go ahead and get it out of the way and start wrapping up all the other storylines. I just feel like the tension they were going for would have felt much bigger if you didn't know if Cullen was going to come out of the episode as well as the Swede, but that part of the episode was just lacking for me.
So, first we get some back story with Thor Gundersen, and get some extra explanation as to why he is what he is. I don't know that it added a whole lot to the story other than to give you a little more pity towards Thor, despite all the terrible things he has done. He has always been a complicated character, and I guess this did add to that, I just don't know if it was all that necessary to the big picture. Next, we see what is going on at that Hatch farm, and we get to see the demise of Naomi's parents at the hands of Thor. But before Thor can get to Naomi and William, Cullen shows up to save the day.
Naomi and the baby run off to the woods, with Thor right behind them, and Cullen right behind him. This leads to Cullen getting shot, and fighting the Swede in the river. Cullen looks as if he is going to kill the Swede and then thinks better of it and instead decides to take him in so he can stand trial. Cullen is still badly hurt, but he makes the journey anyway.
There are some pretty good scenes along the way, as Thor and Cullen converse back and forth, and we really get the feeling that this battle between these two is finally going to come to an end. Which is exactly why I thought that surely the Swede is going to get out of it, like he seems to always do. But, that was not to be the case this time. Cullen stands by as the Swede is hanged from the neck until he dies. And with that, the best part of the show is no longer with us, and there are still six episodes to go.
I felt that the episode was very strong, and it really felt more to me like how I envisioned the series coming to an end, but the decision to put it right in the middle of the final season just feels weird to me. Like, I'm trying to think about what I look forward to at this point, and I can't figure out just what I want to see happen. Do I want Cullen to go back to work for Durant and finish the railroad? Do I want him to go be with his family and live happily? I really don't know, so I guess I will have to let the show tell me over the course of the next six episodes.
The next episode picks up with Cullen getting back to the Hatch homestead, where he discovers that Naomi has fallen in love with another man, and they have made vows to each other, as she thought that Cullen was gone for good. He explains that he left the railroad and was trying to find her, but she says it is too late now. He decides to help them go back to Brigham Young's community, and see if he will take them back in.
We also get to see a little bit of what is going on with the rest of the cast, which feels like it has been forever since we have even seen them. Eva is dreaming of something bigger than running the whore house in town, Mickey is looking to get out of the bar ownership business, and Durant is just trying to finish the railroad and be done with it. Once again, not sure how much I care about the rest of the cast and where they end up, as the focus has been off of them so long now, that it almost feels like a completely different show when they are on screen.
As Cullen and the others arrive at Brigham Young's community, he speaks with the Mormon leader and convinces him to take Naomi and her family in. Brigham also tells Cullen that if he doesn't find love, he will die alone and a wretched thing. Seems like some foreshadowing, but guess we will see about that. Naomi decides to tell Cullen that she has been lying and wants him to take her away and they can be together. However, this time, Cullen is the one that has decided that they would be better off without him, and so he tells his family goodbye and leaves to go back to the railroad.
He arrives back at town, and everyone looks on at the returning Cullen, almost in disbelief that he has returned. We also got a little bit of a look inside Mei's life since Cullen left and her father died. She has been miserable, but when Cullen returns, she seems to light back up a bit. She goes to his house and she disrobes and they look to do the business as the episode ends.
I really just don't know what to say about this episode. I felt like it was all over the place a bit, didn't really fit in with all the characters as we have come to know them, as they were all sort of going against their normal behavior. Cullen spending all that time to get back to his family, Naomi saying that she wanted to be with him, and him just leaving was very strange to me. Maybe best to have left it at her lying to him so he didn't know her true feelings, but I guess it was done to show that Cullen has lost pretty much everything and destroys everything he comes in contact with, as Thor told him, and as Brigham told him. What does that mean for the railroad? I assume he will still finish it, but maybe he won't quite get there either. Seems like they are headed down a dark path for the ending to this series, and maybe Cullen is going to really lose everything by the end. Sadly, I'm kind of interested, but at the same time, not sure if I really care anymore. This show has been up and down for me over the years it's been on, so I guess it's fitting that it's going to do it all the way down to the wire.
My rating for the episodes are 7.5/10 and 6/10
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