American Primeval Recap: Good Deeds Punished
As American Primeval’s third episode opens, some of the series’ plot strands keep getting pulled apart while others start to wind around each other. Jacob and Abish, for instance, have never been further from each other than they are in the episode’s opening moments, which find Abish attempting to escape the Wolf Clan camp only to be stopped by Red Feather as Jacob doubles down on his belief that his wife is still alive and that they’ll be reunited, even if he’s starting to question God’s plan in keeping them apart. But the arrival of Virgil and his friends — and with them the wanted poster with Sara’s face on it — forces Jacob and Virgil’s searches (at least for the moment).
Though Jacob, in good faith, tells the bounty hunter Sara was killed in the massacre, Virgil knows better and tells of his own encounter with the fugitive and her child. This, of course, leads Wolsey to prick up his ears. If Sara’s still out there, that means another witness to the attack is still alive. This mop-up job never ends! Even so, Wolsey suggests an opportunity in this new development. He pays Virgil $200 for the privilege of having Jacob and Brother Cook (Dominic Bogart) join their search. And with that, they’re on their way to Crooks Springs, which Virgil describes as a “tough ride.” But what ride isn’t in this part of the world? For Cook, it could be even tougher: Wolsey gives him instructions to kill Sara and Devin if he finds them.
Elsewhere on that tough ride, Sara begs Isaac to let them build a bigger fire lest everyone freeze to death. But a healthy fire is a luxury they can’t afford, Isaac tells them before taking Devin off to find an alternative to a big, smoky fire: hot rocks. As they search for the right rocks, Devin asks a few questions about the marks on his hands and his background and receives terse answers for both. But at least he gets an answer. When Abbey asks about the medicine Isaac takes, she gets only questions as a reply. Though she does her best to answer without revealing too much, it soon becomes clear that Devin’s father, who she says has a gold claim and has done quite well, doesn’t know they’re coming (and possibly doesn’t know about Devin at all). She’s fled all this way in hopes that he’ll take them in. It’s a long shot, but Sara tells him, “If you had a child of your own, you’d understand.” If she doesn’t see that she’s touched a nerve at that moment, it must be truly dark by their campground.
Their troubles don’t disappear at dawn. As they prepare to leave, a girl toting a doll appears. Isaac wants to ignore her, but, overcome by compassion, Sara embraces her. The girl speaks French, but the word “papa” translates pretty easily, so Sara decides they should head in the direction of the girl’s camp. This, to put it mildly, turns out to be a bad idea. At the camp they first encounter a wizened old woman and a man who insists they stay for some soup. Before long, other members of the francophone party join them with guns that suggest Isaac, Sara, and the kids will be staying whether they want to or not. (Will they even get any soup? Seems unlikely.)
Back at Fort Bridger, Jim Bridger is in the process of buying some pigs when he’s visited by Brigham Young himself. But even the governor doesn’t get special treatment. He has to talk through the mug for a private meeting in an office that doubles as a store room. Over whiskey (from which Young abstains) they have a conversation about the events of the day, but only after Bridger needles Young a bit about his stable of wives. Some of the older ones, Young tells him, he regards more as mothers than wives, to which Bridger replies, “That puts a whole tilted spin on things I’m not sure even the best girls here could keep up with.”
Then they get down to business. Young would like to acquire Fort Bridger. So, Bridger notes, would the army. Asked why he founded the fort in the first place, Bridger tells his origin story: chased by bears and members of the Blackfoot tribe, he looked for a safe spot to call his own. He’s called it that ever since and doesn’t have any plans to sell, or at least not for a price he feels Young would be willing to pay. It’s a defiant pose, but also, Bridger admits as the Mormons ride away, just that: a pose. “I believe,” he tells his companion, “we better get a drink while we still fucking can.”
As the day stretches on, the situation inside the French-Canadian camp turns ever more nightmarish. In the series’ ugliest moment to date (which is saying something, given the first episode’s massacre scene and the second episode’s throat-slitting), the camp leader strikes and rapes Sara while the old woman cackles in delight. Their predicament seems to have altered Isaac’s views of his companions. He promises Devin to teach him to fish if he stays strong, “like your mother,” and when Sara is taken away to be assaulted again, he’s driven into a rage. This coincides with Two Moons’ timely return toting a burning branch, an attack that allows Sara to grab a gun and exact her revenge on their captors, which she does without hesitation, sparing the old woman only because she runs out of ammo. In the aftermath, Sara rejects Isaac’s attempt to offer reassuring words and castigates herself for making a mistake that put Devin in jeopardy. Only Two Moons’ silent acknowledgment of what’s happened — a gesture exchanged from one woman who’s done what it takes to survive to another — seems to give her any comfort.
While this unfolds, Wolsey meets with Dellinger somewhere on the plains. Asked by Dellinger what he knows about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Wolsey immediately turns defiant. The victims included Mormons, and it’s his understanding that Red Feather and Wolf Clan were behind the attack. In fact, one witness, Jacob, has confirmed that. And, sure, Jacob’s not around anymore, but that doesn’t make Dellinger’s insinuations that white attackers, real white attackers the same shade as Wolsey, any less offensive. If Dellinger doesn’t believe him he can head toward Cedar Falls and talk to Jacob himself, if Wolf Clan doesn’t kill him first. Dellinger sees through the bravado, prompting Wolsey and his men to ride off in a huff. To cover all the bases, Dellinger sends scouts out in search of Red Feather to get his take on the matter. This quickly proves to be ill-fated when Red Feather and his men kill the scouts in a surprise attack, leaving only one survivor who later points them in Red Feather’s direction.
Sara, Isaac, and Devin aren’t the only ones being held captive. At Red Feather’s camp, Abish has decided she has nothing to lose by demanding Red Feather return the locket he’s taken, but the spirited nature that seems to have saved her from the fate of her companions is not well received, at least in the moment. However unpleasant, Abish’s experience is much different from that of Sara and the others. It’s also far removed from the tales of rape and torture Tilly (Kyle Davis) uses to taunt Jacob as they make camp as revenge for Jacob’s incessant hymn singing. She’s there against her will and has been roughly handled but Abish is also the recipient of attempts to integrate her into Wolf Camp life. In another moment in which much gets conveyed without words, the look on Abish’s face when she accompanies Red Feather to the camp of his mother, Winter Bird, suggests that life in Wolf Clan is not what she expected. And, perhaps, not all bad.
Jacob, of course, remains intent on rescuing her despite the bad company it requires him to keep. Yet while Tilly continues to be a jerk, it’s Cook who, as the episode draws to a close, opens his eyes to what’s really going on: the last time Jacob saw the pocket watch Cook now sports it was in the hands of a dead man as the massacre erupted.
Bullets and Arrowheads
• Amidst all this carnage, Devin and Two Moons form a sweet friendship. Will it last? Who knows? The series is set in a cruel world where acts of kindness can exact a terrible cost. (See above.)
• This third episode follows patterns set in the second: Sara, overconfident in her grasp of what’s going on, gets herself and her companions in a difficult situation that escalates out of control. Two Moons proves essential in saving everyone. But the Sara seen at the end of the episode appears much changed than the Sara we see at its beginning. We don’t yet know the details of the incident that made her a wanted woman, but it’s safe to surmise she committed violence in order to survive and to protect Devin. Perhaps she thought this would be the only time she’d have to do that. The events of the third episode have proven otherwise.