Done

Hell on Wheels 5×14

& Bohannon: An address? China?

& Durant: Ribbed with iron, clad in silver, and crowned with gold, this spike will wed the oceans...

& Durant: ...At the fall of my hammer, the operator will tap out a three dot transmission. The message? One word... Done.

& Bohannon: It’s over, there ain’t no sides. All right? Except the side of whiskey.

& Campbell: What the hell is this all about? Mr. Bohannon?
    Bohannon: .... Mick?
    Mickey: I...
    Bohannon: Hell if we know.

& Huntington: Once you’re back in San Francisco, we’ll get started on the Southern Pacific.
    Bohannon: Shortline?
    Huntington: Uh-uh. She doesn’t have the romance of the transcontinental, but don’t write her off. She’s just beginning. Plenty of roads to build yet.

& Grant: Have you boys heard how to tell a good Yankee from a bad one? Mr. Bohannon?
    Bohannon: Why, that’s simple, Mr. President. All the good Yankees go home.

---

& Grant: I’d like to make you a Colonel in the Fourth Cavalry...

& Bohannon: Sounds like you’re asking me to wear Union Blue.
    Grant: I’m asking you to wear an American uniform. Your country needs you, Mr. Bohannon. Don’t deny who you are.

& Grant: You’re a soldier. Lost without a war to fight.

& Bohannon: The fact I know to be true is that the transcontinental railroad could not have been built without Thomas Durant.

& Campbell: This committee has the authority to hold you in contempt, Colonel.
    Bohannon: You have the right to detain me, Governor, but that won’t change the fact that the transcontinental railroad could not have been built without...
    Campbell: Thomas Durant.

& Louise: The point is to let Mrs. Toole tell her story in her own words... Go ahead, Eva. We won’t interrupt.

& General Custer: Don’t worry about Grant’s bullshit. You’ll ship out, kill some Injuns, blam, blam, blam, then ride back to Washington a hero. Nothing better.

& Priest: Do you seek salvation? Do you wish to be saved?

& Durant: I’m not interested in the record of history... I am interested in reality.

& Durant: Dreams don’t come pretty, they don’t come clean and they sure as hell don’t come simple... They come true.

& Durant: Truth delivered by lies is no less true. And dreams made reality by falsehood are no less real... 1,776 miles of iron track, that is what I delivered!

& Durant: Put me on trial, lock me in prison, erase me from the record. For history is written in pencil... And the truth is carved in steel across this nation. And one truth above all others is this... Without me and men like me, your glorious railroad could never have been built.

The End

To everyone who made Hell on Wheels... And to everyone who loves it, AMC says
thank you for a hell of a ride.

--
On the IMDb

Σ Thanks.

Railroad Men

Hell on Wheels 5×13

& Louise: ’....at last, no longer a question of «If the road will be built?», but of who will cross the finish line first... Will it be Doc Durant, the financial rascal with a burning desire for wealth and fame? Or Collis P. Huntington and his Chinese workforce, led now by America’s great railroad man, Cullen Bohannon? The answer, dear reader, will be decided in the coming days on the plains of Utah, «at or near Ogden» as prescribed by Congress, and blessed by the Almighty above.’

& Campbell: You’ll get your judgment, Mr. Durant, but not today.

& Huntington: Look, you give me Ogden, and I will reroute the five southern railroad lines I own from Promontory to Cheyenne. Your majestic city will sit as the most important railroad junction in the country. Can Thomas Durant give you that?

& Jim: Mining has helped me figure things out, Bohannon. Life is simple down here. Cut a vein, bleed it dry, scrape away until there’s nothing left.

& Eva: Sometimes the loving thing to do is run.

---

& Bohannon: I ain’t thought past the first rail laid tomorrow morning.
    Mickey: After that?
    Bohannon: Second rail.

& Mickey: After all this time, I’ve learned never to bet against Cullen Bohannon.
    Bohannon: Well...

& Mr. Lee: Bossman. Finish what we start.
    Bohannon: 10 miles in a day... Ain’t never been done.
    Mr. Lee: That is what they say about the Great Wall.

& Bohannon: .... We have moved mountains. It’s been an honor, gentleman. M’ghoi?

& Louise: How are you feeling right about now? For the record, of course.
    Bohannon: Like it’s over.
    Louise: Does that make you happy or sad?
    Bohannon: .... The cost was high.

& Louise: So what’s next? For America’s greatest railroad man?
    Bohannon: The Chinamen got a saying ...... Make friends with change, it’s the only thing you can count on.

--
On the IMDb

Soundtrack

Any Sum Within Reason

Hell on Wheels 5×12

& Chang: One day we’ll have to do this over tea like respectable businessmen.

& Bohannon: You need to run from this place, fast and as far as you can before death catches up with you. You hear me? It will. It always does.

& Bohannon: It’s one coach ride.
    Mei: Never just one.

& Huntington: The future is in China, Mr. Bohannon... We’re not building a railroad, Mr. Bohannon. We’re building a bridge. Across the great land of ours linking Europe and the Orient.

---

& Huntington: You need to start planning for what lies ahead, what lies beyond that final rail.

& Bohannon: She ain’t property, Chang.
    Chang: Your workers come in cargo holds and leave in coffins. Tell me, how exactly do you calculate fair compensation for being vaporized by nitroglycerin? Every businessman places a value on human life.

& Bohannon: Do not... misjudge me.

& Bohannon: Sumbitch.

--
On the IMDb

Soundtrack

Gambit

Hell on Wheels 5×11

& Durant-1885: Didn’t you learn anything in school?.. The marriage of the mighty Union Pacific and the significantly less mighty Central Pacific Railroad Companies connecting at last the east and west of this great nation.....
    Let that be a history lesson... Free of charge.

& Durant: Only a fool doesn’t diversify.

& Mickey: You give him the note, he telegraphs the board of the railroad, they pay, we all go home rich. It was a simple plan, John!
    Johnny: Yeah, a simple plan that turned to shit. I adapted.

& Eva: Mickey. What the hell did you do?
    Mickey: ....I’m in trouble, Eva.

---

& Mickey: We’ll take the money and we’ll go home.
    Johnny: Ireland? Are you off your head?

& Durant: Of course they’ll pay. They can’t have the country’s most consequential businessman taken by bandits. And they’ll keep quiet about it. It’s the American Way!
    Mickey: Aye. It must be exhausting, being so consequential...

& Campbell: Ransom yourself... That’s one way to solve that problem.

& Mickey: No loose ends.

& Mickey: ...Anyway, I was meeting a man out at Soda Springs when it happened. He sells these. Grapefruit. A bit more bitter than I’d hoped. Go on... Exotic, isn’t it?

--
On the IMDb

Soundtrack

Σ No loose ends. But not in impressive way.

61 Degrees

Hell on Wheels 5×10

& Mei: What happen?
    Bohannon: Long story. But that’s over for now.

& Huntington: Heard you found your family.
    Bohannon: I did.
    Huntington: Thought you were gone.
    Bohannon: I ain’t.

& Bohannon: Just one batch, Jim. That’s all I’m askin’.

& JiM: What’s the temperature?
    Bohannon: Fifty five.
    Jim: Up here, you’ve to stay below 60. One degree more, you start a chain reaction you can’t stop. What’s it now?
    Bohannon: Fifty seven.
    Jim: Here. At sea level, you can let it get all the way to 65.

& Jim: He made a dozen batches before he realized his mistake. He disappeared into a red mist. That’s the last thing my left eye ever saw... Hm?

& Jim: Every breath you take with this in your hand, is a challenge to God.

---

& Maggie: No more schemes. Mmm-mmm. Cheatin’ people, it leaves a bad taste.
    Durant: It is in the nature of the lion to eat the zebra. Come back to bed.

& Durant: The Railroad never keeps cash on hand. A defense against thieves.

& Maggie: Where’s the money, New York?
    Durant: I needed the funds to cover a lumber deal in Maine.
    Maggie: Maine?
    Durant: That lumber deal is financing a steel mill in Chicago, which is supporting a cotton operation in Virginia, which is supporting a coal mine in Kentucky...
    Maggie: Jesus. You’re broke.
    Durant: I am between transactions.

& Huntington: Can’t have Mozart and Chopin playing different tunes on the same piano.

& Janie: Why do fish fight when they get hooked?
    Jim: Because their job is to get away.
    Janie: But doesn’t fighting a hook make it harder?

& Chang: What lies beyond the railroad for you?
    Huntington: Everything that’s not nailed down is mine. Whatever I can pry loose isn’t nailed down.
    Chang: A truly American sentiment.

& Chang: A man who desires only one thing will never be satisfied.

& Jim: Hey, Bohannon. You know why fish always pull against the hook, even though it makes things worse?.. Because they’re fish. They don’t know any better.

& Bohannon: Whoo! Let’s clear this rock! We got a mountain to move!

& Bohannon: Every step of my life, I lost everybody I ever had. All I got left is scars.

--
On the IMDb

Return to the Garden

Hell on Wheels 5×9

& Isaac: Didn’t ’spect we’d be seeing you again.
    Bohannon: Well... here I be.

& Isaac: We’ll be moving on in the morning, Mr. Bohannon. I suggest you do the same.

& Eva: I don’t know, Mr. Durant. I’m warm, I’m safe. Got a full belly. I ought to feel grateful, but...
    Durant: Ennui.
    Eva: On what?
    Durant: There’s a certain dissatisfaction sets in when we get what we think we want.
    Eva: Yeah. Ennui. I guess that’s it.

---

& Durant: I did caution you not to tangle in the complicated world of real estate investment. You chose...

& Prophet: The Bible describes an apostate as a sow that was washed, then leaves to wallow in the mire. The Word commands they be stoned to death.
    Bohannon: Ain’t no apostates here. Just good Mormons. And me.

& Bohannon: I was going to say this to you when you got older, but I best tell it to you now. I hope you strive... your whole life... to be humble. You respect women. You take your hat off at the table. Don’t... Don’t never start a fight nor run from one neither. Forgive. Forget. Speak true... Listen to your mama and your daddy.

& Mei: I thought you no come back...
    Bohannon: Yeah, I thought so myself for a second. But that’s all done now.

--
On the IMDb

Soundtrack

Two Soldiers

Hell on Wheels 5×8

& Union Soldier: I said play me a song, Swede!..
    The Swede: My name is Thor Gundersen from Norway.

& The Swede: Look at me, James. It is me. I am your friend... Thor Gundersen. It is me. I am your friend. It is me. You are my friend.

& The Swede: You best run.

& The Swede: No man tortures his enemy if he must torture himself in the process.

& The Swede: Uh, Heavenly Father has spared my neck twice now. He can manage a third, hmm?

& The Swede: Imagine saving a man’s life only to watch his slow death. What breed of monster is capable of such inhumanity?
    Bohannon: I can think of one.
    The Swede: Oh, as can I.

& The Swede: It’s interesting you would rather be here, offering me sustenance, instead of your family.
    Bohannon: I’d rather keep ’em far away from you.
    The Swede: If protecting them was your only motive, you would have been safer to kill me. And you fear killing me. Why?
    Bohannon: I fear... I fear it would bring you peace.

---

& The Swede: You cannot see it, can you? It is right there in front of you but your myopic single-mindedness on prosecuting me has blinded you to the simple facts! You like this! You would rather be on death’s door than with Naomi and William. No, death and killing have been your only wives. Your only family.

& The Swede: ...for blowing a note or two, you should be drawing. A more intimate instrument does not exist. You... You give to it the most cherished gift a man has... His breath, hmm? You release into it your... Your very soul. The best players, for a moment, they touch God. I can show you.

& The Swede: Mother gave me a harmonica on my tenth birthday. «A man who can make music will never be lonely,» she said.

& The Swede: You are a merciful man, Mr. Bohannon.
    Bohannon: Thought I was the devil.
    The Swede: I was wrong. You are just a man. Just a man. A man of war. War made both of us, after all.

& The Swede: Forgive me, Cullen. Forgive me. Forgive yourself, huh?

& Captain: Have you any last words?
    The Swede: I. Am. Thor Gundersen. From Norway.

& Doctor: He’s dead.

--
On the IMDb

Soundtrack

False Prophets

Hell on Wheels 5×7

& Durant: May I suggest we start from the beginning?
    Grant: No. Let’s start at right now.

& Grant: I want an answer, Mr. Durant. Not an equivocation, not a redirect... A simple answer to a simple question. Will the Union Pacific build north or south of the Great Salt Lake?

& Durant: I hope all this talk of business and politics doesn’t prove too much of a bore for you.
    Bohannon: No. You always keep things interesting.

& Eva: You’re too stupid to be scared.

& Bohannon: I ain’t lying to the President of the United States.

& Huntington: You fancy yourself a railroad man... Minute you accepted a stake in the Central Pacific, you became a tycoon. And a tycoon always chooses the win... No matter how he comes by it.
    Bohannon: Pretty goddamn sure of yourself, ain’t you?
    Huntington: I am. It’s a well that replenishes. Time for you to drink from that same water. Deliver this for me.

---

& Durant: Your favorite brand, as I recall...
    Bohannon: Ain’t you got schemes to spin?

& Brother Young: I know exactly where they are. And you know exactly what I need from you.
    Bohannon: Them gold plates teach you to lie like that, or was you just born a son-of-a-bitch?

& Bohannon: You sound like a politician. I never pictured you as one.
    Grant: Never pictured it myself. The last morning I have a clear memory of is in Appomattox Court House. Yesterday I was watching Robert E. Lee surrender. Today I’m sitting behind a desk in the White House. You know, sometimes you can’t avoid the thing you want most, even if getting it is detestable. As much as I pretend I hate it, the detestable thing I want is power, and power means politics. What’s yours?

& Grant: I know two songs, Mr. Bohannon. One’s Yankee Doodle, and the other one isn’t... Keep things simple, that’s my advice.

& Eva: Clean up this mess now, girl.

& Eva: We’re gonna need a new red head.

& Bohannon: We propose no terminus at all. ...
    Brother Young: Godless bastard!
    Durant: I second Mr. Young’s objections!
    Huntington: Mr. Bohannon, the purpose of this meeting was to set a final terminus!

& Bohannon: This contest hadn’t ought to end in a room. Ogden should go to the man who gets there first. You said it yourself... Nothing’s ever off the table.

& Grant: You want a race?
    Bohannon: Ha. Yeah... Yeah, I want a race.
    Grant: Then, Mr. Bohannon, you shall have a race.

--
On the IMDb

Hungry Ghosts

Hell on Wheels 5×6

& Bohannon: Hell.

& Bohannon: I tried that once... Going back home.

& Brother Young: Do you know who I am, young lady?
    Eva: My mama taught me to love you. Same as I loved Jesus and Joseph Smith.
    Brother Young: You’re a Mormon.
    Eva: Jack Mormon.

---

& Durant: You will remain as you are... An aging charlatan, the polygamous master of a doomed and desert-locked sect!

& Brother Young: Our contract stands for now. Lay one track north of Salt Lake, and you’ll learn why they call me the Lion of the Lord. I’ve defeated the United States Army. I’d damn sure make short work of you.

& Mei: For my father. Light will help ghost find his way home. For your ghosts. Those you have buried and those you could not. When light goes out, they will be home.

--
On the IMDb

Elixir of Life

Hell on Wheels 5×5

& Bohannon: If you’re smart, you’d make Thor Gundersen part of your past. Forget him.
    Chang: Perhaps it is you, Mr. Bohannon, who needs to put Thor Gundersen behind him.

& Bohannon: You’re not the first person to buy Swede’s stock, Mr. Young...
    Phineas: Brother Gundersen is Norwegian.
    Bohannon: He’s fooled a lot of folks. Most of ’em dead now.

& Chang: I was told that, in America, to embrace the future, one needs to forget the past... So, I say, let old grudges and rivalries melt away with the winter snow, and allow new flowers to blossom in their place.

---

& Psalms: Mr. Durant, I’ve been working for you goin’ on four years now. Hear what you tellin’ folk. Land bought today be worth 10 time what it cost tomorrow. Only right that the men would make it worth somethin’ in the first place, make some money off it, same as you. Now, you ain’t gonna sell it to us, better be a reason other than the one I’m thinking you got...
    Durant: There is nothing... I can say... to you... that would prevent... me... from selling you land that you wish to buy.

& Maggie: What are you up to, New York?
    Durant: Laramie is not going to be the hub of the Union Pacific, Maggie. Cheyenne is.

--
On the IMDb

Struck

Hell on Wheels 5×4

& Mary Fields: I’ve got money, if that’s the holdup. Show him the money, Sam.
    Shea: Me thinks you best be on your way, miss. Assuming that’s the appropriate way to refer to you.

& Mary Fields: All right, then. One punch. One dollar.

& Chang: The strength of your workforce derives from the integrity of your workers, Mr. Bohannon. You must show them the respect they deserve.

& Sam: Our progress on the C.P. has sped up since Bohannon took over the work.
    Durant: That fustilarian backstabber!

& Durant: I will not lose this race because you cannot be trusted to handle a bunch of Irish pissants.
    Delaney: They hit me in the mouth!..
    Durant: The only thing worse than a weak-backed leader... is a shit-brained engineer.

---

& Shea: My name is Johnny Shea, and I’m your new foreman. This is what happens if you screw off on my watch. Now, back to work!

& Tao: There may be another way. I can show you. ... In China, it’s a tradition for a man’s family to look after his grave. We provide our loved ones with food, money... Everything he might need in the afterlife. But, if there is no one to care for him, he wanders as a ngor gui. Hungry ghost... Forever.

& Tao: If living Chinese can’t have the same respect as white men, maybe the dead can... Honor the ones who gave their lives for your road, I think they will go back to work.

--
On the IMDb

White Justice

Hell on Wheels 5×3

& The Swede: You are God’s instrument. I come to remind you, is all.
    Bohannon: You remember... got you in my line of sight.

& Bohannon: No women on the railroad, plain and simple.

& Huntington: Spectacular! Three inches before lunch. That is what I call an improvement. We’ll be makin’ four foot a week.
    Bohannon: If it holds up.
    Huntington: Oh, Mr. Bohannon, you are like Hercules, triumphant after his seven labors. I believe in this colossus of yours.

& Huntington: Back in Sacramento, during the rush of ’49, every jackanape with a dollar and a dream wanted to turn up his fortune in gold. Now, the thing about gold is, it’s buried in the ground. If you wanna get it out, you gotta dig it up. In order to dig it up, you need one thing... At that time, a shovel cost $15. A plot of land, $75. I had $90 to my name, exactly $90. Just enough to buy a plot of land and a shovel.
    Jim: Or enough to buy six shovels...
    Huntington: The first six sold by Huntington Hardware Incorporated.

& Huntington: And Jim, uh, you can be a man with a shovel in your hand or you can be the man that sells the shovel to the man with a shovel in his hand.

---

& Jim: Matt Keane, Pete Jones, Dan Cates. They’re good men. They’re good men with families.
    Huntington: Good men with families get fired every day. Don’t be one of ’em.

& Chang: «By three methods we may learn wisdom. First, by reflection, second, by imitation...»
    Tao: «And third, by experience.»
    Chang: «Which is the bitterest.»
    Tao: Hmm. Wisdom gained through experience is the reason young men must respect their elders.

& Jim: I had it under control.
    Bohannon: Hell you did.
    Jim: It was moving in the right direction.
    Bohannon: Hell it was.

& Bohannon: This is America. Ain’t nobody belongs to nobody. We fought a war over it.
    Mei: But we still Chinese.

& The Swede: Control yourself. For your own good.

& Jim: All right, the railroad comes first.
    Bohannon: It’s all we got. You and me.
    Jim: Actually, boss, I have a wife. Five sons, a daughter, two dogs, eight hens, a couple of cats, and a canary.
    Bohannon: I liked you better quiet.

& Chang: So this is America. It may be the law, Mr. Bohannon, but it is not justice.
    Bohannon: No, it ain’t.

--
On the IMDb

Mei Mei

Hell on Wheels 5×2

& Bohannon: You lied. You ain’t a soldier. You ain’t Si Bing! Soldiers don’t lie. Soldier doesn’t put their men in danger. A soldier follows orders!

& Bohannon: This race is gonna come down to inches, not miles, Mr. Strobridge. Couple six inches a day is everything.
    Jim: That’s what my wife keeps telling me. Khm! Wrong pipe.
    Bohannon: She tell you that, too?

---

& Bohannon: What’s your name?
    Mei: Mei. But you must call me Fong.

& The Swede: Pioneer Day come early, boys!

--
On the IMDb

Chinatown

Hell on Wheels 5×1

& Chang: What can I get for you? Something to eat? Tea?
    Bohannon: Just them workers right there.
    Chang: Oh, in China, it’s an offense to refuse a host’s offer of food or drink. But this isn’t China, thank God.

& Bohannon: Sooner or later, a beat dog bites.

& Phineas: Heavenly Father. Thank you. Thank you for... I’m sorry, brothers, I know not what to say.
    The Swede: Heavenly Father, bless this loathsome gruel we have set before us. Thank thee for this time with our beloved companions, Hunger, Want and Desolation. Bless this frigid, lonesome desert, this emptiness which threatens to freeze our hearts. For though we are alone and surrounded by wolves, we know we are not forsaken...
    Phineas: For our faith sustains us.
    The Swede: In the name of Jesus Christ.
    Phineas: And our prophet, my father, Brigham Young in Zion. Amen.

& Jim: You don’t have many friends, do you, Bohannon?
    Bohannon: Hmm. None living.

---

& Chang: There are superstitious fools among both our peoples. They attribute our fates to Cai Shen riding his black tiger, Jesus Christ on his cross, Joseph Smith uncovering his tablets, or to a simple four-leaf clover.
    Jim: I met a Injun once, prayed to a bottle of whiskey.
    Chang: «This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, the stars, as if we were villains of necessity.»
    Bohannon: So. You’re a villain.
    Chang: «I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.»
    Jim: You’re pretty well-spoke for a heathen, ain’t you, Chang?

& Huntington: They have an ancient civilization, Mr. Bohannon. They’re mysterious and wise, industrious. Beautiful in their way. Oh, you can hire them, admire them, eat their food, lay with their women. It’s easy to get distracted. Hmm.

& Bohannon: Now you think I’m the devil. That’s fine. Probably take a devil to finish this road.
    The Swede: Mmm-hmm.
    Bohannon: And you can call yourself whatever you like, long as you brought a shovel. Because this ain’t the Mormon fort, you Swedish son of a bitch. You work for me.

& Bohannon: I got a race to win.

--
On the IMDb

Further West

Hell on Wheels 4×13

& Bohannon: I’m going home, Doc.
    Durant: Home?

& Durant: I won’t take you back. Not again.

& Huntington: Well, I am curious. What brings you to this Mecca of polygamist pretension?

& Huntington: Mr. Bohannon. Brigham Young is rumored to have a bed 7 feet long by 96 feet wide to accommodate his 55 wives. I do hope yours is not found among ’em.

& Campbell: Good news. There’s a train leaving tomorrow morning. You’d best be on it.

& Eva: Them girls need caring for, Mickey. I-I’ll see to ’em, tend to ’em, and keep ’em in line.
    Mickey: Make you madam, you mean?
    Eva: Partner.

& Brother Young: Impossible...
    The Swede: You are pleased, brother?

& Huntington: Well, sir, you have the visage of a man who could use a drink.
    Bohannon: Searched high and low for that too. Ain’t here.
    Huntington: Well, then it is fortuitous that you have run into me. Come along, sir. Let us imbibe in our comfort.

& Durant: Come in, why don’t you?
    Campbell: The Cheyenne Palace is mine. The Comfort House is mine. Jailhouse across the street... Mine. The hotel... Will be mine, one way or another. Now, that leaves just one outstanding item...
    Durant: Which is?
    Campbell: Chicken Hill.

---

& Private: Should we intervene, major?
    Maj. Bendix: Only if guns come out.

& Campbell: Okay... I’ll give you... Double fair market value.
    Durant: Triple!
    Campbell: Done.

& Bohannon: Thank you for the drink. But I prefer rotgut.
    Huntington: If rotgut is all that you have had, rotgut is all you prefer.

Lead me on — Joe Henry Ft. Lisa Hannigan

♪ The day draws a shade ♪
♪ pulls the thread of ♪
♪ your frayed lace undone ♪
♪ it falls like the ♪
♪ evenings that charm ♪
♪ then devour their young ♪
♪ the face of the moon on the ♪
♪ river will shiver and run ♪
♪ from belief to ♪
♪ surrender and I want you ♪
♪ to lead me on ♪

& The Swede: Beautiful day. 970 mile to go!

& Durant: To Collis P. Huntington, director of Central Pacific Railroad. Stop. Sherman peak is behind me. Stop. I am coming for you. Stop. The zebra shall be eaten. Stop.

& Huntington: Welcome to the great state of California, Mr. Bohannon!

& Huntington: Durant is on the downslope of Sherman Peak. Now... with you in camp, maybe this is the moment when the zebra turns tables on the lion. What say you, Mr. Bohannon?
    Bohannon: I say blood will be spilled.

--
On the IMDb

Σ Decent season finale.

Thirteen Steps

Hell on Wheels 4×12

& Judge: ...Having heard these charges, what say you?
    Ruth: Guilty.

& Ruth: I murdered that man, Governor. Not out of fear, nor aiding the law, but for no purpose other than to end the man’s life who took my son’s. I am guilty. I have pled so.

& Judge: You, Ruth Elizabeth Cole, are guilty of murder and shall be hanged by the neck until you are dead tomorrow. May God have mercy upon your soul.

& Ruth: Pardons are for cowards. Like Sidney Snow.
    Bohannon: Taking a pardon, that ain’t a coward’s choice. Dying is.
    Ruth: Either way, the choice is mine. And my choice is no.

& Ruth: I’ve made my decision!
    Bohannon: Yeah? Well, I just unmade it.

---

& Durant: When we lost my only son to cholera, I was away working. Do you know where I was and what I was doing?
    Bohannon: No.
    Durant: Neither do I.
    Bohannon: There ain’t nothing I can do for Ruth.
    Durant: The thing to do is be with her.

& Ruth: Would you do anything different if you could go back?
    Bohannon: ... I would be a better husband, a better father.

& Bohannon: This town needs their preacher.
    Ruth: I’m nobody’s preacher anymore.

& Ruth: Do you love me?
    Bohannon: Of course I do.
    Ruth: But do you love me?

& Ruth: You always know, deep down.

& Ruth: The brave choice is always family.

& Ruth: You’re writing an article about me? Don’t. It won’t be remembered, and neither will we.

& Durant: .... Well, what is it, Bohannon?
    Bohannon: I quit.

--
On the IMDb

Bleeding Kansas

Hell on Wheels 4×11

& Bohannon: Ruth? What’d you do?
    Sid: She did plenty.

& Durant: Good God. Is that coffee?
    Bohannon: We used it in the war to slow the bleeding.
    Durant: No wonder you lost.

& Bohannon: Water... Won’t chase the metal from your mouth. It’s from your heart racing. It’s what happens when you shoot a man.

& Durant: You can’t be serious.
    Sid: Hell no, you ain’t gonna take my leg off!
    Bohannon: Can’t let you die, Sid. Leg’s coming off.

& Campbell: Mr. McGinnes, control your man!
    Mickey: Johnny! I said stop, let go of him.
    Johnny: I heard ya, Mick! Thing is, I love ya, but I don’t work for ya!

& Durant: This is going to hurt like hell.

---

& Bohannon: Hold still. It’ll go faster.

& Sid: What becomes of men like us, Bohannon? Where do you suppose we end up?
    Bohannon: ... Nowheres good.

& Bohannon: What you think is gonna... happen to men like us? After she’s built.
    Durant: Well, I will be remembered as the man who built the Transcontinental Railroad. You will not be remembered at all. Not even by me.
    Bohannon: Thanks for sugarcoating it.
    Durant: It’s the truth.

& Sid: «Shut your damn mouth.» That’s funny.

& Ruth: «Thou shalt not kill.»
    Reverend Cole: Those men last night... God sent me to them to... To avenge their sins.
    Ruth: «’Vengeance is mine. I will repay,’ saith the lord.»
    Reverend Cole: Yeah. Paul to the romans. Satan himself does sometimes quote scripture. It’s one of his foulest tricks.
    Ruth: «Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.»
    Reverend Cole: Enough!

& Ruth: What does it mean, Papa?
    Reverend Cole: When you’re older the... The truth meanings will stand revealed. That is why the Lord puts our elders above us.

& Campbell: He’s better off. A man like that... Men like us... We still got a job to do.

--
On the IMDb

Σ Men like us, huh?

Return to Hell

Hell on Wheels 4×10

& Louise: That was the triumph of curiosity over experience.
    Campbell: Several triumphs. At least three.
    Louise: Two. Maybe.

& Bohannon: Ain’t got to be this way...

& Bohannon: Gentlemen. Don’t matter how we got here. Got to find out way somewheres new.

& Bohannon: You have my word.
Ω Bazinga!

---

& Mickey: Right, lads! Every Irish, negro, cowboy and kraut!..

& Huntington: Tell me, did you ever have the opportunity to work with Cullen Bohannon? That man impresses the hell out of me.
    The Swede: Everything I know, I learned by careful study of Cullen Bohannon.

& Eva: Look at me! My name is Eva. I’m a mother, daughter, injun, wife, and whore.

& Ruth: When you find the devil... I hope you return him to hell with my wish that his suffering be deep, and eternal.

& Delaney: Not a delicate lady, Mr. Bohannon. What we have here is a strong-backed, thick-thighed whore. I’d recommend a plumbing wrench.
    Bohannon: Plumbing wrench it is, Mr. Delaney... Mr. Delaney?.. Thank you.

& Sidney: Ahh! Well, dip me in dog shit. The church lady?

--
On the IMDb

Σ No Ezra, no revelation? This’s it? No need a revelation to kill a dog Gundersen?

Two Trains

Hell on Wheels 4×9

& Bohannon: My men, at the depot, 10:00 A.M.

& Campbell: Good mornin’.
    Bohannon: No, it ain’t.

& Durant: Well, it’s about time.
    Campbell: Time, Mr. Durant, is a fickle mistress. First it appears an endless supply, and then suddenly the last few grains of sand trickle down the hourglass.

& Bohannon: Most of ’em won’t be expecting a fight nor ready for one. Surprise is better than bullets.
    Mickey: I’ll take the surprise, but I’ll be having me bullets as well.

& Sidney: You believe in God, Bohannon? Jesus and all that shit? I never understood people prayin’ to a guy who let himself get crucified. And for what?
    Bohannon: I reckon faith ain’t easily explained to some.

---

& Delaney: Going to war with the Governor is insurrection, Mr. Bohannon.
    Bohannon: Wouldn’t be my first do-si-do.
    Delaney: You’ll wind up in prison or worse.
    Bohannon: Yeah, danced that number likewise.

& Bohannon: You work for the Union Pacific, Mr. Delaney. That’s a dream for some. For others, it’s an obsession. My granddaddy tore hisself a cotton empire out of swamp bottom and a sun, and I aim to do similar with this here railroad.

& Mickey: Shotgun. Balls and powder... All of ’em.
    Seller: The whole rack?
    Mickey: All of it.

& Bohannon: You make things right with Campbell. He wants to keep his job. He’ll negotiate with you.
    Durant: Your confidence is very annoying, Bohannon.
    Bohannon: I was just ponderin’ what you’d do if things was similar. I’m wrong, you tell me now. .... Just like old times.
    Durant: I preferred the cover of the hotel... When they were shooting at you.

& Bohannon: Last chance, Sid. End of the line.

--
On the IMDb

Under Color of Law

Hell on Wheels 4×8

& Bohannon: I know what you see when you look at me... The man who killed Elam. But that wasn’t Elam. The one you and me knew. He never come back. That’s all I’m gonna say about it. Now or ever.

& Durant: Damn it, I need you, Bohannon. I need your gun. I see you aren’t even wearing one anymore.
    Bohannon: Lost my taste for it.
    Durant: Well, you picked one hell of a time to turn Saint!

& Brother Young: I do believe in your remorse, and that you seek forgiveness.
    The Swede: Good. I do. I do. I do. I do.
    Brother Young: And what is your name?
    The Swede: I... I am Thor Gundersen. Of Norway.

---

& Brother Young: Well... Thor Gundersen of Norway. You may go forward with me... and begin life again.
    The Swede: But... But... But where shall we go?
    Brother Young: Time will reveal.

& Bohannon: I can’t build a railroad with them men in jail.
    Campbell: Then the railroad and everything else will have to wait until I bring this town to heel.
    Bohannon: Let me spell it out for you, Mr. Campbell. Release them prisoners. I’m only askin’ you once.
    Campbell: If that’s a threat, I didn’t hear it. Now would you let this lady and me go on with our dinner?
    Bohannon: You remember: I asked you as a gentleman first. Miss Ellison.

--

On the IMDb