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Hell on Wheels Season 1 Episode 7

Revelations

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AIRED: Dec 18, 2011

8.3

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Episode Summary

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Durant braces for financial ruin after hearing from the government officials. Cullen weighs the options of continuing on his destructive path. Lily meets with the family of her late husband, Robert Bell.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (2)

What happened?

3.0

By Falco, Dec 25, 2011

Senator politics and a chase in the woods, what's that all about? The first bad episode in the series. Come on, don't loose it now.
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Fear and Greed vs. Spiritualism and Equality

8.5

By AudioFileZ, Dec 19, 2011

Revelations, the seventh episode of Hell on Wheels, begins by underscoring the differences in the race issues over which even war wouldn't truly settle. Going further, the introduction, hints at the differences are perceptional based on depravity because good men are good and and only greed, hate, and fear mark the real dividing line. All of mankind is God's creation with color being one of society's most underscored realizations of that line. With that the week's episode begins.

Durant, being in dire straights with his misuse of stockholder's money, is preparing to leave on a desparate journey to plead for mercy, and offer whatever it takes. The Swede, in a walking boss meeting, lags behind to urge Durant toward what, on the surface, seems like a misguided love interest in Mrs. Bell. One gets the impression he not only wants the senator to be ruined criminally, but also in a deeply personal way. The suede has some kind of alliance with the senator, but, perhaps, his disloyalty to Durant has some deeper origin?

As Durant's train leaves for Chicago Bohannon is approached by the tattooed prostitute who pleads his intervention in Toole's posse's hanging of Elam. Bohannon pauses momentarily, but can't walk away and intervenes by shooting one of Toole's men and drawing on Toole himself. Toole's men fold like a deck of cards as he asks any of them to shoot Bohannon. Bohannon has horses ready as he tells all bystanders if anyone follows them he'll shoot to kill. The Swede, who sanctioned the hanging, is thoroughly disgusted with Toole's mess and stabs him in the face with a fork. A new posse is formed and the hunt is on.

On the train to Chicago Durant turns to the bottle and is, momentarily, at a loss as he feels the senator has him in a corner that he can't extract himself from. He picks up a symbolic penny and dispairs further. At just this time Mrs. Bell enters the room, welcomed by Durant who is happy for the pleasant diversion. Immediately their interaction is anything but pleasant, as Durant tells the tail of his hard-scrabble early life, the penny, and how far he has came only to be destroyed by a two-faced senator. Mrs. Bell, who has just lost her husband in no small part due to Durant's constant pushing ahead of his railroad, tells him to stop sniveling like a schoolboy and use the grit he has just spoken of to devise a battle plan. She tells him if he fails her husband's legacy is lost and walks out. Durant returns to his cunning "take-no-prisoners" egotistical self and in short order, by morning, has figured out a deal the greedy senator can't, likely, refuse.

In the meantime Bohannon and Elam find a campsite which Bohannon feels they can make a stand against Toole's posse. As they wait for Toole, they begin forming a deeper connection due to Bohannon's revelation as to his setting his slaves free prior to the war. Though Elam's chances of surviving a posse seem small, Bohannon is ready to risk his life doing so and teaches Elam to shoot a pistol. Toole, and his men, walk into the trap and are all killed. As he said he would when Toole attempted to hang him, Elam proves to be a cool headed student and shoots Toole, proving to be an equal, if not a more thinking, adversary.

The senator proves to be just as greedy as Durant believed he was and falls for the "bait-and-switch" plan Durant has devised as to which railroal line his railroad will intersect with. Mrs. Bell's trip to her husband's family turns bitter as she arrives in a flamboyant colored attire while all others mourn in black. After a confrontation with her husband's sister she leaves with Durant telling him instead of retiring to her hotel she wishes to return westward with him. Durant, emboldened by his personal financial gain at the senator's expense, acts on the Swede's bait and proposes to Mrs. Bell. Surprisingly, Mrs. Bell doesn't slap him or laugh...A pregnant pause ensues to leave all guessing.

This episode had good action and the kind of black dealing that would make J.R. Ewing envious. It had some depth in the look at the still rampant racism of the time and the spiritual teachings that can be a bridge. The viewer is left being invested in the need to find out more as to how Mrs. Bell will go forward and what exactly The Swede is all about. All in all a very good episode that sets the hook to find out what is next.

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Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Anson Mount	Cullen Bohannon
Common	Elam Ferguson
Philip Burke	Mickey McGinnes
Eddie Spears	Joseph Black Moon
Ben Esler	Sean McGinnes
Colm Meaney	Thomas "Doc" Durant

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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James D. Hopkin	Senator Jordan Crane	Guest Star
April Telek	Nell	Guest Star
Judith Buchan	Rebecca	Guest Star
Duncan Ollerenshaw	Mr. Toole	Recurring Role
Diego Diablo Del Mar	Dix	Recurring Role
Christopher Heyerdahl	Thor Gunderson	Recurring Role

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Episode Photos

Hell on Wheels from the episode "Revelat...

© 2011 AMC Networks Inc.
Common in Hell on Wheels from the episod...

© 2011 AMC Networks Inc.
Colm Meaney and Dominique McElligott in ...

© 2011 AMC Networks Inc.

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (1)
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- Cullen: What the hell were you thinking? Getting on with a white woman.
  Elam: I'm a freed man.
  Cullen: You ain't that free.
  Elam: Why do you get to decide that?
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NOTES (2)
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- Original International Air Dates:
  Turkey: April 8, 2012 on CNBC-e
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- Tom Noonan (Reverend Cole), Eddie Spears (Joseph Black Moon), Ben Esler (Sean), and Phil Burke (Mickey) are credited but do not appear.
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