 Tagline: Blood will be spilled. Lives will be lost. Men will be ruined. Storyline: Cullen Bohannon, a former soldier and slaveholder, follows the track of a band of Union soldiers, the killers of his wife. This brings him to the middle of one of the biggest projects in US history, the building of the transcontinental railroad. After the war years in the 1860s, this undertaking connected the prospering east with the still wild west. Written by cc ardbeg The fourth season continued to focus on the westward expansion of the Union Pacific Railroad. Conflict between the government and businesses, ranchers, homesteaders and the railroad also arose, as all of those interests compete with one another for control of Cheyenne, Wyoming, the most important railroad hub in 1867. Conflict arises between the government and businesses, ranchers, homesteaders and the railroad, as all of those interests compete with one another for control of Cheyenne, Wyoming, the most important railroad hub in 1867. Meanwhile, the Union Pacific Railroad continues its expansion westward, and Bohannon adjusts to being a husband and new father. 4.01 The Elusive Eden At Fort Smith, Cullen Bohannon tells Aaron Hatch that he will remain there until Naomi gives birth to the baby. He also warns him of the bishop, whom he knows is the Swede. After the baby is born, the Swede refuses Cullen's departure when Cullen states he is taking Naomi and baby William with him. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, Thomas Durant tries to maintain control of both the town and the railroad after a disaster occurs. He also awaits the arrival of the newly appointed governor, John Campbell. Meanwhile, Eva tries to cope with being without both Elam and her child by doing chores for the brothel. 4.02 Escape From the Garden When Cullen realizes the Swede has taken the bishop role too far and will not let him and Naomi leave the fort, he publicly confesses his own past crimes, while also revealing the bishop to not be who he claims to be. In Cheyenne, Campbell arrives with his legislative team to impose law in the town. He also gives reporter Louise Ellison an interview. After Ezra Dutson sets some horses free, Durant scares him by giving him a train pass to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he will be placed in an orphanage. However, Durant tells Ruth to be more loving to the boy, and she later tears up the train pass. On the way to Cheyenne, Cullen and his family meet Psalms and the crew. Psalms informs him of Elam not returning from a previous search for Cullen. 4.03 Chicken Hill Cullen and family arrive in Cheyenne. He assaults Marshal Jessup and Heckard when they seem threatening. Cullen then asks Durant for his former chief engineer job, but is denied when Durant states that he is not dependable. Psalms offers him a job on the crew and his family a tent in which to live. Durant decides to tunnel through a hill that impedes the railroad progress. He debates the use of another hill with Campbell, who says it will be the future site of the statehouse, unless Durant establishes a structure on it within 24 hours. Durant has Delaney to put chicken coops on it. Eva loses a game of poker at the casino, but thinks the winner cheated. She later exchanges sex for cheating lessons from him. Cullen saves the rail crew when Delaney uses more than enough blasting powder on the hill, which contains methane-infused shale. Campbell offers to buy sundries for Naomi and later visits their tent to offer Cullen a better-paying job. He declines, telling Naomi that all he has gone through means nothing if the railroad is not finished. Later, he is beaten unconscious by Jessup and Heckard. 4.04 Reckoning Since Delaney nearly caused the deaths of his crew by trying to tunnel into the hill, Cullen takes it upon himself to plot a line of track over it. In town, Naomi faces religious differences with Ruth and later tries to find comfort from her busy husband. Meanwhile, Campbell's men claims eminent domain of the saloon, causing proprietor Mickey McGinnes to put up a fight and land in jail. When Durant refuses to help, Cullen reminds Mickey of coming to this country with nothing yet finding a way to succeed. Eva, without a job, tries to prostitute herself to Durant, who gives her money simply because she is the only one in town that he respects. At Fort Smith, Aaron Hatch seeks evidence that the Swede is not Bishop Dutson. The Swede suggests asking Brigham Young to make the final judgement. 4.05 Life's a Mystery - In Juαrez, Sydney Snow escapes a lynching by killing the Fuentes Brothers, intent on hanging him. Sydney flees, not noticing Marcos Fuentes survived. Sydney arrives in Cheyenne, claiming to be a Cullen's war buddy. Although Cullen doesn't remember him, he still houses him and vouches for him with Psalms to work on the crew. Soon after Sydney's arrival, Marcos arrives with his men. Sydney not only kills Marcos in the general store, but he also fires wildly and kills a young boy. When the store clerk contradicts Sydney, he also kills him. Naomi, hiding with the baby, is found by Sydney, who is then stopped by Cullen. Meanwhile, Durant elicits Campbell's anger by flattening his government office. A decree stating the site has been approved for a roundhouse is handed to Campbell, who later vows to take over Cheyenne and then the railroad. Brigham Young arrives at Fort Smith. In private, he appears to know that the Swede is not Bishop Dutson by asking him about Cullen, Durant, and the railroad. After Jessup insults Mickey in the bar, Mickey strangles him in an alley. Heckard believes Durant killed Jessup and attacks him in his railcar. 4.06 Bear Man - Barely alive, Elam Ferguson is found, near the carcass of the bear that attacked him, by two Comanche braves who take him back to their village. A Comanche medicine man's wife, Smiling Crow (Michele Thrush), nurses him back to health, even though he loses vision in his left eye and has hallucinations. Elam continually fights a brave called White Feather (Moses Brings Plenty) for ownership of Charlotte (Sara Canning), a white woman brought from a raid whom Elam thinks is Eva. Later, he is taken to the village's sweat lodge, where the medicine man unites him and White Feather by blood. Elam is taught how to say his new name, Bear Killer, in Comanche. Jimmy Two Squaws (Brent Briscoe) arrives in the village on business and recognizes Elam, but Elam doesn't recognize him. Thinking Elam's mind has been damaged, Jimmy still tells him that a Cavalry regiment is looking for Charlotte. He also tries to get Elam to go to Cheyenne, but Elam stabs him. Major Bendix and two others escape a Comanche raid with injuries, while Elam and the braves take souvenirs. Later, Charlotte begs Elam to sell her so he can get Eva back. White Feather carries her away, Elam kills and scalps him, then leaves the village with her and Jimmy's two wives. Charlotte tries to escape, but he catches her. She accuses him of being an animal, worse than the Comanche, for killing Jimmy. Weeks later, the four arrive at some railroad tracks. 4.07 Elam Ferguson - After Psalms suggests Cullen gets his family out of Cheyenne, Cullen finds the beaten Durant. He manages to get his signature on a railroad letterhead then tells him to not seek revenge for the beating. Cullen then gets Maggie Palmer to sign off on a loan for a steam shovel by producing Durant's signature for collateral. Durant meets with Campbell, who denies ordering Heckard's attack but says he will put him on the next train out of town. On the train, Durant sees Abby, who is returning to Boston because she still grieves for her father, Senator Metcalf. Durant lies to her, saying that he caused her father to commit suicide when he invested all his money in Durant's railroad. He then finds Heckard and bludgeons him to death. Elam arrives in town, looking to sell the women as slaves. Campbell seeks to have a sniper to kill the seemingly crazed Elam, but Cullen asks for some time to reason with his friend. He reminds Elam of their friendship and history, but nothing can help him, not even Eva, whom he doesn't recognize. Cullen wrestles with him and is forced to stab and shoot him. Cullen later digs Elam's grave alone, crying from grief. 4.08 Under Color of Law - In the middle of the night, Naomi finds Cullen working on parts for the arriving steam shovel. She mentions his needing rest, and he sends her back to the tent. He later shows Delaney and Durant his plans on how to reach the mountain summit, but he needs men to refit the shovel. Delaney affords him ten. Cullen asks Psalms for his crew's help. His plans are delayed when he finds Naomi has taken the baby and left for Fort Smith. He meets her to escort her the rest of the way. Hatch tells Cullen that the Swede went to Utah with Brigham Young. Naomi tells Cullen that she will not return to Cheyenne nor to him, if he remains a killer. He vows to return for them one day. Back in Cheyenne, Campbell appoints Sydney as the new marshal, and he arrests most of Psalms' crew, whose bond Durant hasn't paid, as well as Durant himself for Heckard's murder. Mickey is also sought for Jessup's murder, but Ruth hides him in the church. Eva, after listening to Charlotte's expression of thanks, manages to get her a job in the dining room at Maggie Palmer's hotel. The Swede is asked by Young who he really is. After lying at first, he is given another chance at the truth. He admits to being Thor Gundersen and that God sent him to take the Dutsons' lives and become bishop. Young believes him. In Cheyenne, Cullen interrupts Campbell's dinner with Louise to ask him to release Psalms and his crew. Campbell refuses until the town's lawlessness is curbed. Cullen warns him that he asked as a gentleman, then retrieves his gun from his tent. 4.09 Two Trains Cullen's attempt to have Sidney release the freedmen fails, resulting in a jail-break plot with Delaney and Mickey. Campbell says the prisoners should be taken by train to the jurisdictions where their crimes were committed and that Durant will be sent to Omaha to face a judge. Mickey manages to get himself arrested and lies to Sidney, saying the plan will occur as the men are being loaded onto the train. Instead, Cullen later unhooks the railcar with the prisoners, as they use a key he gave Mickey to escape their shackles. Meanwhile, Delaney arrives from the other end on a train with a Gatling gun and rifles for the prisoners. After a shootout, Sidney escapes. In Cheyenne, Campbell and Louise's relationship deepens and they have sex. 4.10 Return to Hell Cullen returns to Cheyenne with Durant, Mickey, and the freedmen. The workers take refuge in the church, while Durant and Cullen make compromises with Campbell about the railroad construction and upholding the law. Sydney blocks the door to the church and sets fire to it, as Ruth watches in horror. Most of the men are able to escape, except for those shot at by Sydney. Eva finds the man who raped her among those injured, and she smothers him to death while Louise watches from a distance. She later mentions this to Eva, but promises to keep it secret as the man also once raped her. Ruth cannot find Ezra, and Mickey mentions the hiding place under the floorboards of the church. There, Cullen and Ruth find Ezra dead. Cullen forces Campbell at gunpoint to allow justice be served on Sydney, even if he has fled. In Utah, Brigham Young and the Swede discuss the Central Pacific Railroad's progress with Collis Huntington (Tim Guinee), although the Swede oversteps his bounds and Young corrects him. Huntington still shows interest in the Swede. Back in Cheyenne, Louise tells Campbell that she is writing an article about his administration, which he might not like. After burying Ezra, Ruth tells Cullen that her wish is for Sydney to be returned to Hell and his suffering be "deep and eternal". Sydney returns to challenge Cullen to a duel though Cullen says he's done with killing and will arrest him. He says Cullen will have to take his guns from him. As they approach each other, Ruth gets another man's gun and shoots Sydney twice. 4.11 Bleeding Kansas Cullen enlists Durant and Eva's help to save Sydney's life, whatever the cost, in order to keep Ruth from being hanged for his death. Ruth, while being kept at Louise's newspaper office, reflects on her upbringing with Reverend Cole (Tom Noonan), when he usurped his position as both father and preacher. Despite all efforts to save Sydney, he dies. Campbell, still trying to get Cullen to be a lawman, forces him to arrest Ruth, who shows no remorse. Meanwhile, Mickey's Irish cousin, Johnny Shea (Andrew Howard), arrives to be the new saloon proprietor and Mickey's protector. 4.12 Thirteen Steps The casino is converted into a court room, where Ruth pleads guilty to mortally shooting Sidney, despite a written statement from Cullen stating she protected an officer of the law. She is sentenced to hang. Cullen begs Campbell to pardon her, as a hanging would serve no purpose. Campbell offers to do so, if Ruth accepts it, which she doesn't. Louise informs Campbell of the article that she is publishing about his kangaroo court. He says Ruth made her decision, but Louise asks if Sidney's appointment of marshal and his burning of the church were also Ruth's decisions. Campbell asks if Ruth should be made a saint; Louise is still deciding on a devil. Cullen's attempts to change Ruth's mind prove futile. She also professes to love him, but remained quiet when he returned with his new family. She tells him to always choose family and to go to them. The gallows get constructed in the town square, and she is hanged. Campbell asks Louise to not print the article, or their relationship will end. She chooses the former. The steam shovel gets tested and works. Durant tells Cullen to wire General Grant that the summit will be reached by month's end. Cullen replies, "I quit." 4.13 Further West Cullen leaves the Union Pacific and rides to Fort Smith to be with his family. However, upon arrival, he finds some of the fort's residents are missing, including Naomi and child, and the rest are dead. He buries them and proceeds to Salt Lake City for answers. There, he learns that Fort Smith had an outbreak of smallpox. He finds someone with the Hatch name at a makeshift clinic, but it is Naomi's mother, who tells him that Naomi was sent somewhere west where he will never find her. Collis Huntington sees Cullen and offers him principal interest in the Central Pacific, which, with its expansion, may possibly be the only way Cullen will find his family. Back in Cheyenne, Campbell has had the provisional part removed from his governorship and begins to obtain most of the businesses there, except for the newspaper, which is owned by the railroad. He fails to convince Louise into being partners with him. Durant and his crew reaches the summit, and he telegraphs Huntington in California, where Cullen arrives to accept the offer. Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, August 10, 2015 Having grown up largely in Salt Lake City, Utah, my childhood history lessons in school were often infused with tales of the Mormon pioneers and related epochal events, which included the joining of the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California's eastward bound tracks and the mirroring westward approach by Union Pacific Railroad Company at the otherwise fairly unremarkable spot known as Promontory Point or Promontory Summit. Utah begins playing a more central role in Hell on Wheels as it enters its fourth season, with none other than "the" Mormon pioneer, Brigham Young himself, showing up in a featured role. The series' historical accuracy may be at least somewhat questionable at times, with real life characters interacting with fictional ones in sometimes improbable ways, but the show continues to be generally quite compelling even as it has tended to delve more and more into the soap operatic byways of its large and at times ungainly cast, rather than the straight and narrow pathway of the Transcontinental Railroad itself. Utah's neighbor Wyoming is also a focal locale for much of this fourth season, with major characters including both Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) and Thomas Durant (Colm Meaney) either residing (if only for a veritable moment) in places like Cheyenne, or (in the case of Cullen) trying desperately to get there. Cheyenne's seemingly paramount importance to various characters might be a somewhat whimsical formulation on the part of the show's writers, but it gives the series another "watering hole" around which several interlocking stories congregate, even as apparently incremental progress on the actual railroad occurs, sometimes in the veritable background. A probably unavoidable aspect of the plot machinations in the previous seasons of Hell on Wheels has been the evolving seesaw of shifting power between Cullen Bohannon and both Thomas Durant and the Swede (Christopher Heyerdahl), and so it should be no big surprise that this very gambit informs much of the fourth season. There's a more visceral immediacy to the conflict between Bohannon and the Swede in this particular season, with Bohannon being held as a virtual hostage of the Swede, who continues his subterfuge this season after having assumed the identity of a high ranking Mormon bishop. The issue of identity has informed at least some of the subtext of Hell on Wheels, especially with regard to Cullen's turbulent past but also in terms of any number of supporting characters, including bizarrely tattooed working girl Eva (Robin McLeavy), but it finds its most overt statement in the ongoing escapade involving the Swede. While Cullen seems intent on protecting his newish wife Naomi (MacKenzie Porter) and (ultimately) new child, it's also obvious he's developing some kind of strategy to get out from underneath the Swede's imperious thumb. That mind game plays out in the early episodes of this season, finally allowing Cullen and family to matriculate back into "society" in Cheyenne, where the bulk of this season's activities take place. There's a bit of contemporary sounding irony when the "Feds" show up in the form of new Wyoming governor John Allen Campbell (Jake Weber), a guy who informs Durant right off the bat that "governmental oversight" is here to stay, something that obviously catches Durant off guard and which announces a new nemesis for the character. Durant in fact reverts to his somewhat more feral tendencies as the season progresses, but there is one delightfully hilarious incident involving a showdown between Durant and Campbell which actually plays almost like something out of a Buster Keaton film. Identity also factors into one element in the fourth season that many fans of the series will probably find both predictable and in a way rather unexpected. It shouldn't come as any huge spoiler to say that one of season three's supposed cliffhangers, the fate of Elam (Common), is not resolved with the character's demise. However, that said, the upshot of the vicious attack Elam sustained plays out in a gruesomely violent way, contradicting the kinder, gentler ambience that Elam at least putatively offered other characters like Eva formerly in the series. As started to be the case perhaps as far back as the second season, the actual building of the Transcontinental Railroad, while certainly germane to the ongoing drama, almost becomes a sidetrack (sorry) at times, with the sometimes soap operatic interactions of the many characters taking center stage. The good news is there's more than enough real feeling drama on hand to not make the series seem like it's needlessly detouring things, since there's obviously a shelf life to how long a series about an event which has historical circumscriptions can go on portraying events. Performances continue to be exceptional, and while there's a certain stasis with things centered in Cheyenne, Hell on Wheels is still proving that the journey can be at least as entertaining as the destination. Cullen Bohannon continues to be one of the more riveting characters driving a historical drama, and while some of the traumas facing him and other characters this season verge on the florid and soap operatic, the series continues to provide well scripted episodes which neatly develop characters in often somewhat unexpected ways. There are great little turns by the rather large cast here, with supporting players like Phil Burke as Mickey McGinnes really given a chance to shine in some unusual ways. If Hell on Wheels hews to the actual historical record, the series should be reaching its endgame starting with the fifth season, and the writers have carefully established several longer arcs which seem to be about to collide in calamitous fashion. Technical merits are very strong on this release, and Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season comes Recommended. IMDb Rating (02/11/17): 8.3/10 from 40,084 users
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