Bad End for the Con Teens | Deadwood S1E8 | Dudes Daily
It's a relief in this episode to resolve Alma Garret's will-they-won't-they relationship with Deadwood camp, and it's very funny to me the Bullock himself is saying "this has gone on too long, let's make up our minds here."
This episode also resolved some of the ambiguity and plain oddness in the Bella Union plot, but not in a way I'm terribly compelled by. The parallel of Joanie and Cy's relationship to Trixie and Swearengen's is blunt to start with, and the details don't do much to help it. Some combination of the performance and writing of Tolliver really fail to match McShane's, and the result is a much more trite and flat reflection of the (equally horrifying in objective terms but much more emotionally rich) abusive dynamic next door.