This is part of a series going deep into the 2000s era HBO show Deadwood. 

If the town of Deadwood is the show’s main character—it’s Luke Skywalker, if you’ll allow the blatant Star Wars—then Al Swearengen (Ian McShane, incredible) is a mix of Darth Vader, Boba Fett, and Jabba the Hutt. You simply cannot talk about this show without also talking about Al. They’re one and the same. It’s frankly shocking we’ve gotten so far into this series without mentioning him other than in passing. 

We are positioned to despise Al the moment we meet him. 

Al is tending bar at the Gem, a saloon and brothel. He’s a frontier pimp wearing a dirty pinstripe suit and the meanest mug you’ve ever laid eyes on. Al isn’t a large man, but menace swirls around him like cologne. He’s dangerous in the same way as a crocodile.

A gun goes off upstairs; one of his working girls shot a customer. It isn’t without cause, but whores with pistols are bad for business. The acquisition of money—and through it, influence and power—is Al’s religion. The Gem, then, is his church. And there’s simply no justification for casting a pall over this den of inequity. As in the Old Testament days, such blasphemy must be dealt with severely, so as to prevent the sin from spreading. 

Al studies the ruin of the girl’s face and actually seems sympathetic. The next moment he throws her into a wall, puts his foot on her throat, and grasps her arm as though to break it. This sudden change in temperature comes after she asks him to get on with her punishment, which only amplifies the viciousness. It’s an ugly scene, even allowing for the norms of 1800s America, when women were viewed not so differently from cattle—something to be owned and controlled. Property versus personhood. But abusing an already bloodied woman feels especially dastardly. 

From that moment, we hate Al.

Until we don’t.