S05.E09: Return to the Garden

[Bort]

Quote

Cullen faces life-changing decisions in Utah as Truckee adapts to life without him. Meanwhile, Durant's lies compromise his new partner.

[Ohwell]

Maybe I can watch this without getting angry now that the Swede is gone.

[Ohwell]

Ok, this was much better.  I liked the way the story ended with Cullen and Snitty Mormon Wife--no hard feelings, etc. 

I had a feeling the Chinese prostitute knew Mei was a woman but I'm surprised the owner hasn't figured it out.   I'm so happy she went for it with Cullen.  They both need and love each other so much, and that scene with the two of them was all kinds of hot.  Please writers, don't kill her off!  

Looks like Durant is in big trouble.

[nodorothyparker]

I am glad they didn't drag the rest of the season out on Cullen trying to woo back snitty Mormon wife.  It feels weirdly anticlimactic how it was left though.  Oh you made this grand gesture of quitting the railroad for the 14th time to come look for me?  That's okay.  I immediately went out and replaced you with this baby-faced Mormon guy to be a husband and father so you don't have to bother.  We good?

Cullen Bohannon, Old West deadbeat dad.  In the end though, a resolution is a resolution and we won't have to see her onscreen anymore.   The rest of the episode I spent trying to remember who all these other characters we were briefly checking in with were and noting that they're setting all the pieces in place so both sides of the railroad story need Cullen to ride in and save the day yet again despite his proclivity for wandering off every time he thinks he has something better to do.

[paigow]

18 minutes ago, nodorothyparker said:

I am glad they didn't drag the rest of the season out on Cullen trying to woo back snitty Mormon wife.  It feels weirdly anticlimactic how it was left though.  Oh you made this grand gesture of quitting the railroad for the 14th time to come look for me?  That's okay.  I immediately went out and replaced you with this baby-faced Mormon guy to be a husband and father so you don't have to bother.  We good?

Yeah...We good.  Tired of all these guilt trips...Got a booty call to make...Later ingrate.

[Ohwell]

1 hour ago, nodorothyparker said:

It feels weirdly anticlimactic how it was left though.  Oh you made this grand gesture of quitting the railroad for the 14th time to come look for me?  That's okay.  I immediately went out and replaced you with this baby-faced Mormon guy to be a husband and father so you don't have to bother.  We good?

But her reaction kind of made sense to me because, just as he didn't love her, I don't think she loved Cullen either.  After all, if they hadn't bumped uglies in the barn that night, he would have left and they would never have seen each other again.   So, I was cool with the way it ended, and so were they.

But I agree, the important thing is that we'll never have to see her again.  I give kudos to the writers for getting rid of her and the Swede in two episodes.  The torture is over.

[nodorothyparker]

I'm really not complaining.  And I agree it makes a certain amount of sense.  I'm just surprised on a show that has a habit of dragging things out waaaaay too long to inflict as much as damage on Our Hero as possible.

Edited June 19, 2016 by nodorothyparker

[Ohwell]

Yeah but he sure got some lovin' last night.  Go Mei!

[catrice2]

This episode, and the last, just highlighted to me the mess that the writers made of this series. The baby with Naomi should never had happened, nor should the Swede have existed for so many episodes.  I can barely watch anymore, I just fast forward through most of it. 

[Ohwell]

I think the young peach fuzz husband turned out to be a decent guy.  I liked that he felt secure enough to leave Cullen and Naomi alone to say their goodbyes.  Cullen's final words to his son just broke my heart, but at least he knows that his son has a good father. 

[NorthstarATL]

MUCH better without the Swede! I liked that we touched base with the rest of the cast and hopefully have seen the last of the Mormons. Kind of cool that Cullen had his last and really only words to his son on a Father's Day weekend airing. What was the significance of the horse Eva fixated on? I was thinking that maybe it was the kind Elam rode? Because Eva's never been on a horse that I can recall. Unless it was just symbolizing freedom or something like that.

[paigow]

3 hours ago, NorthstarATL said:

MUCH better without the Swede! I liked that we touched base with the rest of the cast and hopefully have seen the last of the Mormons.

 I think the only character with a university named after him will probably show up again.....

[Ottis]

What a shitty life Cullen has led, from his perspective. Losing everything he had that was good.

Of course, from ours, wow - Civil War, revenge quest, transcontinental railroad, westward expansion, beginnings of the Mormon sect ... he's like a Wild West Forest Gump.

[JWalker]

Happy endings don't seem to be on the writers minds to much at least where Cullen is concerned.

[juniemoon]

I am very, very glad snitty Mormon wife is gone. I'd like the whole show to rewind and bypass the ridiculous Let's Have Dessert in the Barn plot line, but I'm just grateful it's over. I wanted to feel something when Cullen passed his life wisdom to his young son, but I thought Anson Mount was really straining to make that credible. His face was tortured but his eyes were absolutely dry. I think he's struggled with the writers' continually morphing characterization of Bohannon and maybe having trouble finding the character's center now, although I do think he's doing the best he can with the bad writing he's been given.

I was hoping he'd get together with Mei but hated how they did it. I've never found those manic face-mashing scenes anywhere near as sexy as some slow, deliberate undressing and kissing (like the love scene he did with Lily Bell). And I'd have preferred one more episode of the two of them acknowledging their growing attraction before Mei just strips for him. (And not a fan of having the woman get naked while the man stays fully clothed. Again, is the audience made up of 12-year-old boys?)

Since when is Maggie Palmer attracted to Durant? For such a corrupt, pompous pill (with a murderous wife), he sure gets the babes. That kiss was a real WTF? for me.

Nice to see Psalms, of course, if only briefly. And yeah, what was up with Eva and the white horse?

[Ohwell]

I think Mei and Cullen have sensed an attraction to each other for some time.  Ordinarily I don't like the mashed-faced kissing trope either, but I think in the case of these two, at that moment, it seemed more natural.  We know that, in their own way, they both have been through hell.  We already know what Cullen has been through, climaxing with the Swede, and he just said goodbye to his son (he didn't care about leaving Snitty Mormon Wife).  Mei has lost her father and feels all alone in the camp (with the exception of the Chinese prostitute).  So yeah, a little desperate face-mashing was completely natural, IMO.  The needed each other; they wanted each other.  I also didn't have an issue with Mei undressing instead of him because I think it's more natural for that to happen.  Doesn't mean it's sexist and I'm assuming that if the woman didn't want to do it, then she wouldn't.

Also, I guess my UO is that I didn't like Cullen with Lily Bell.  I'm sorry she was murdered, but still...

Edited to add:  Plus, with the exception of Cullen and now the Chinese prostitute, no one knows she's a woman.  So I could understand her wanting to completely undress in front of Cullen and feel free to be the woman she is.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Ohwell

[paigow]

On 20/06/2016 at 2:16 PM, Ohwell said:

 We already know what Cullen has been through, climaxing with the Swede

Hey....what are ya tryin to say......

[Ohwell]

Heh, well they might as well have climaxed together, given how they just couldn't seem to give each other up. ; )

[Duke2801]

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 11:07 AM, paigow said:

Yeah...We good.  Tired of all these guilt trips...Got a booty call to make...Later ingrate.

 

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 10:45 AM, nodorothyparker said:

I am glad they didn't drag the rest of the season out on Cullen trying to woo back snitty Mormon wife.  It feels weirdly anticlimactic how it was left though.  Oh you made this grand gesture of quitting the railroad for the 14th time to come look for me?  That's okay.  I immediately went out and replaced you with this baby-faced Mormon guy to be a husband and father so you don't have to bother.  We good?

Cullen Bohannon, Old West deadbeat dad.  In the end though, a resolution is a resolution and we won't have to see her onscreen anymore.   The rest of the episode I spent trying to remember who all these other characters we were briefly checking in with were and noting that they're setting all the pieces in place so both sides of the railroad story need Cullen to ride in and save the day yet again despite his proclivity for wandering off every time he thinks he has something better to do.

Bwah!! Between these gems and Snitty Mormon Wife, you guys are way more entertaining than the show!

Ok, real talk- this episode was definitely better than the last - and many in the first part of season 5.  I was even a little sad for Cullen saying goodbye to his son.  But then I remembered: see quoted and bolded nickname for him above ("OWDD"). 

I must reiterate that the goodbye scene WAS strange, though, because Anson Mount did sound torn up - and sounded like he was crying - buy yeah, eyes were dry as the Sahara.  Very strange indeed.

Wasn't feeling the scene with Cullen and Mei.  I just haven't felt any chemistry between them.  Nor did I feel any between him and SMW...or Ruth.  Lily Belle was the only one I thought there might be some sparks with but ..... that darn Swede!  **shakes fist skyward** (or perhaps it should be downward)

[paigow]

27 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

Heh, well they might as well have climaxed together, given how they just couldn't seem to give each other up. ; )

"Why can't I quit you???????"

[nodorothyparker]

I was and remain completely indifferent to Cullen and Mei.  I don't hate them together or anything, it just seemed like it came out of nowhere after a long break in the middle of several episodes of him chasing an entirely different woman and thus didn't feel earned.

Sadly, the Swede was his great overriding relationship on this show.  Women came and went but they never stopped pursuing each other.

[Ohwell]

Brokeback Railroad.

[nodorothyparker]

They really couldn't keep their hands off each other in the premier.

[paigow]

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

They really couldn't keep their hands off each other in the premier.

Wonder if Cullen has a bloody Swede shirt in the closet....

[snowwhyte]

I think some people like Cullen with Mei just because in comparison to Mormon wife she's nowhere near as annoying. I liked Cullen and Mei as friends but am struggling to see how their relationship can work. She's young enough to be his daughter, she's from a different culture that is discriminated against and she is currently living as a man. They work together, can they really do that and not give any hint of their relationship? Does she go back to living as a woman? The only Chinese women there are prostitutes. I feel like a cynic but I just don't see it working.

[Commando Cody]

I'm not so sure that the hotel owner doesn't at least suspect. He looked at his hands after he was done grabbing Mei's face, like he had something on them. Like that stuff she uses to make it look like she sometimes has facial hair. Although, she didn't seem to be wearing it this time around. Although, he may not be absolutely sure yet because she left with the prostitute. 

At least we are now done with the Swede and the baby that should never have existed. I sat there wondering, while I was watching the episode, why I'm still watching this show. I thought it was supposed to be about the railroad and and the people who moved with it. They strayed too far away from it's original concept.  I'm not even really sure what's going on anymore. 

[Ohwell]

1 hour ago, snowwhyte said:

I think some people like Cullen with Mei just because in comparison to Mormon wife she's nowhere near as annoying. I liked Cullen and Mei as friends but am struggling to see how their relationship can work. She's young enough to be his daughter, she's from a different culture that is discriminated against and she is currently living as a man. They work together, can they really do that and not give any hint of their relationship? Does she go back to living as a woman? The only Chinese women there are prostitutes. I feel like a cynic but I just don't see it working.

I don't see the age difference as being that big of a deal because I imagine back then it wasn't unusual for an older man to be with a young woman.  As far as being from a different culture, to me it would be the same as him being with a Native American woman--a different culture, but not uncommon at that time.   The main issue I see is that it's only a matter of time before she's outed as a woman, and what will she and Cullen do then?  

With only five episodes to go, maybe Cullen will finish up his work on the railroad and they'll just ride off together and start a new life.  One can hope. 

[Ottis]

Quote

I was and remain completely indifferent to Cullen and Mei.  I don't hate them together or anything, it just seemed like it came out of nowhere after a long break in the middle of several episodes of him chasing an entirely different woman and thus didn't feel earned.

I agree with you on the timing part. Last season, there *was* some heat between the two, and them connecting made sense. The abruptness of what we saw in this episode was jarring. Mei needed at least to ascertain where Cullen had been and where he was now emotionally. I half expected Cullen to push her away after she stripped. It all seemed too soon. 

[Ohwell]

He did kind of push her face away from his, and looked in her eyes as if to say "Are you sure?"  It looked like he could see in her eyes that she was.  I thought the timing was just right, and he and Mei probably will find time talk about where he'd been, and where they both are emotionally.  

 Maybe it just winds up being a "glad to see you fuck," (I think it's more than that though) but I really don't see what the big deal is about them finally getting together.

[Shriekingeel]

I liked the Searchers reference in the last scene with his family, where Bohannon is silhouetted in the door frame. It never hurts to crib John Ford in a Western.