Hell on Wheels Season 5B: The Full Collection

HELL ON WHEELS SEASON 5B: THE FULL COLLECTION, EPISODES 8-14 (6.3 AVERAGE)

(NOTE: All of the episode descriptions preceded by a * are sourced from Wikipedia.)

HELL ON WHEELS - Episode 5x08 "Two Soldiers"

"The Swede gets a headstart on finding Cullen Bohannon's family, so Cullen is forced to leave behind the building of the Central Pacific Railroad, save them and bring his relentless nemesis to justice."

Rarely does a TV show build four and a half seasons of hatred between two characters, and then put together an episode solely depicting a final clash between them without one of them being killed off, and in "Two Soldiers" it's Thor Gundersen, aka "The Swede", who meets his maker. And even if The Swede's death wasn't already how this storyline was destined to pan out, using flashbacks of one of the characters' past (as they did today with The Swede) is another dead giveaway an actor's getting their P45.

  "Two Soldiers" was full of twists and turns, with Cullen and The Swede battling each other furiously across lonely fields and fierce deserts, one seeming to gain the upper hand before suddenly slipping up only to recover and take control again. This back-and-forth carried on until Cullen finally reached his goal, Camp Douglas. Seriously wounded, he nearly gives his life to bring the psychotic Gundersen to a lawful judgement, but in the end, in a scene that lasted nearly four minutes, The Swede was "hanged until dead".

   It was a pulsating episode, even if longer than usual at 49 minutes (accounting for the 6 minutes of flashbacks that preempted the opening credits). I'm naturally saddened at The Swede's early death because he was my favourite character, but it was no big surprise and it (hopefully) allows space for a railroad focus now without Gundersen and his hidden agendas derailing (teehee) things.

VERDICT: Concludes the 5A cliffhanger in a well-earned and poetic manner for both characters. Six episodes to go. 8/10

HELL ON WHEELS 5x09 "Return to the Garden"

"Following The Swede's death, Cullen attempts to reconnect with his family, but finds Naomi has a new prospective husband. Durant deals with the fallout of Cheyenne becoming the railway's hub and Fong, grieving from her father's death and pretending to be a man to keep her work on the Central Pacific Railroad, finds an ally in a prostitute."

Another wrap-things-up episode to do with Cullen, only today the airtime was more evenly split between everyone. We see Cullen dealing with letting his family go, but also are shown how the characters in Cheyenne (where Durant has scammed a great number of people by telling them Laramie would become the railway's central hub and instead it was to be Cheyenne, benefiting himself and Eva; and Mickey is doing what he can to keep his gambling business legitimate) and at the Central Pacific (Fong's retreat into a dangerously indifferent reclusiveness),
   After realising he cannot win back his wife, the episode ends with Cullen returning to the Central Pacific, where Fong, seeing her mentor and the one man who knows the secret about her true gender, return, skilfully seduces him by dropping all her clothes to her feet.
   I must admit, I didn't see the Cullen-Fong sexytimes coming, and it made for an interesting conclusion to an episode that wasn't particularly gripping. There was little in the way of any kind of action as the writers began to set things up for a true-to-history finale, but the plots skipping from one to the other felt forced because of that need. A single cohesive structure, as in the previous episode, was missed, but then this entire season is all about wrapping things up and there is only six episodes (five after today) to wrap up the plots of a regular cast list that includes a tremendous thirteen actors.

VERDICT: Felt flat after the captivating 5B premiere, but everything here was necessary to set up the conclusion. Still wasn't enough to thrill. 6/10

HELL ON WHEELS - 5x10 "61 Degrees"

"Cullen's plan to get the Central Pacific through the mountainside is to blow through with nitroglycerine, but complications ensue when the railroad's chemical expert refuses to help and the unstable explosive detonates prematurely. In the middle of this, he continues his sexual relationship with Fong. Durant schemes with Mickey to con the Union Pacific board members into sending $250,000, in order to pay off the railroad workers he robbed and keep his life, but it invariably goes wrong."

Another Hell on Wheels episode that just does its job. It raises the stakes quite drastically, putting nitroglycerine in the mix for the Central Pacific and a kidnap scheme for Durant for the Union Pacific, both of which go wrong (though Cullen amanges to break through the mountain in the end), but it never really feels like much is happening with either. There's a lot of talking about scheming on Durant's side, building to the cliffhanger, and a lot of slow, careful movement of explosive on Cullen's side. The stakes were raised but it didn't feel as if I was watching anything life-threatening happen to our characters.

   Elsewhere, Cullen's relationship with Fong remains the most interesting and dangerous part of this second half of the final season (stop having sex on a table with nitroglycerine, guys, it's not healthy) but with the amoral Chinese labour contractor, Tao, suspecting they're growing close I expect to see sparks fly between the three characters.

VERDICT: I can't decide if season 5 is setting up for a big finale or just carrying me on a slow wind-down. Either way, this doesn't build to anything. 6/10

HELL ON WHEELS - 5x11 "Gambit"

"In the aftermath of the kidnapping gone wrong, a debate rises over whether it was real or staged. Campbell, Cheyenne's ex-Mayor, returns as Governor intent on retrieving Durant; meanwhile, Mickey realises he cannot control his cousin and makes a decision - but the consequences for some are deadly."

Today's episode was all about Durant's kidnapping. Mickey's unstable cousin Johnny Shea, continues to act intemperately. This was always going to be the case, so why on earth Mickey decided to hire him to orchestrate the fake kidnapping I don't know - but it was pleasing to see Mickey struggling to deal with the lawmen in Campbell and balance it with hiding his part in Durant's kidnapping.

   In the end, Durant's lover and Cheyenne hotel mogul Maggie Palmer was killed trying to rescue Durant, believing the kidnap real in the face of all the evidence. In retaliation, Mickey killed Johnny and took the $50,000 ransom money - which transpired to be the proceeds of Maggie desperately selling her hotel. A tragic end for her and a long-time-coming end for Johnny, but it was the scenes with Mickey and Durant lying to Campbell about what happened that really gave this decent episode a boost. I love how shady Mickey's character is, and Durant's just a clever schemer. Two men perfect for each other in business.

   And that closes down that storyline quite well. I do wonder what will happen with them from now on (although we see Durant's death in 20 years' time in a flashforward at the beginning of the episode), so maybe all that's left is to out Durant for his crimes and whatever will happen to Mickey.

VERDICT: An episode that didn't feel like a wind-down, even though it arguably closed more than the previous episodes. Good writing and acting, and it was clever to bring Campbell back. I hated that guy. 7.5/10

HELL ON WHEELS - 5x12 "Any Sum Within Reason"

* "Fearful that Chang knows Mei's secret, Cullen sends her to Cheyenne. Cullen then suggests Huntington remove the Chinese from the railroad construction and hire Irishmen to finish. Huntington counters by saying China is the future and Cullen should think beyond completing the railroad. Cullen then tries to buy Mei's contract from Chang, who refuses by stating Cullen rejected his previous offer to own a share of the railroad. Cullen gets a telegraph from Mei, who is in Washoe City, Nevada. However, Chang arrives before he does, and Cullen must kill him and the group that came with him. Mei tells Cullen that she will still be hunted and doesn't want that life for him. While he manages to dissuade a Chinese general from looking for her, she leaves to return to China."

Hell on Wheels is proving quite the conundrum this season. One episode it will raise the stakes for our characters ready to set up the coming finale, and then in the next we'll see the complete other half of our characters and the show will provide a drawn-out goodbye for one of them. And that was what we got today. Amid a bit of betrayal, Chang's death and an attempt at heavy emotion, Mei/Fong has finally gone, leaving Cullen heartbroken. That's the third person he's loved who's left him now, albeit the first one died.

   But that was about all that happened. There was no sign of Cheyenne, so no Durant or Mickey or Eva, and Hell on Wheels is just continuing its slow funeral march to the end.

VERDICT: Nothing of substance happened in 43 minutes, and it wasn't a gripping goodbye to Mei either. 5.5/10

HELL ON WHEELS - 5x13 "Railroad Men" (penultimate episode)

"The race to see which railroad company can reach the finishing line of Ogden reaches its conclusion, and the bitter loser refuses to take that lying down."

Ah yes, the railroad which was built for 30 seconds 3 episodes a season has finally been built, after over 100 miles plus of track laid. Cullen and Huntington with the Central Pacific gets there before Durant of the Union Pacific, after setting an unheard-of record when he orchestrated the completion of 10 miles of track in a day (because in TV, heart wins out over any form of logic and plausibility). Five seasons had built to this one moment where, for all of his scheming and conniving, Durant fails to meet his goal and his reaction is priceless and extremely satisfying.

   However, the writers then immediately undo that by having Durant whip out an amendment to the Railroad Bill that means an inspector must verify the safety of the CP's track before Huntington can be judged to have won the race. Oh, and then Cullen has a heart attack.

   Perhaps in real life Durant won the race and the writing is trying to reflect that, but to me this feels like a false ending. Without Cullen's heart attack or Durant's ungentlemanly refusal to accept his defeat, this could have served as the series finale. Pretty much everyone's storylines are wrapped up and there's little more left to do now. But at least the race made for an episodic plot more intriguing than the usual guff season 5B has offered up, although there's no denying that by next week Hell on Wheels will have fallen limply off the diving board into the crater of cancelled and forgotten TV shows, rather than taking its chance to valiantly jump

VERDICT: As the railroads hurtle towards completion, Hell on Wheels paradoxically continues the slow crawl to its own conclusion. 6.5/10

HELL ON WHEELS - 5x14 "Done" (series finale)

* "Following the golden spike ceremony, both Durant and Cullen are given summons to appear before Congress in Washington, D.C. Durant has been charged with bribery, fraud and corruption. Cullen asks a Chinese worker to translate Mei's note: it's an address in China. Eva declines Louise's book deal offer, her "survivor story", saying that she is "done whoring". In Washington, President Grant offers Cullen a position as army colonel and undersecretary for the western territories. Cullen states that he is a railroad man, to which Grant counters that he is a soldier "without a war to fight". Dressed in his Union Army uniform before Congressmen, Cullen refuses to implicate Durant, repeating that their railroad could not have been built without Durant. Cullen then goes to the church where he killed a man, and a priest asks if he seeks salvation. Cullen breaks down, thanks him and leaves. Despite Durant's lawyer invoking the Fifth Amendment, his client defiantly describes the future that he has wrought for them. As Durant speaks, Mickey departs for San Francisco, Eva rides her horse into the sunset, and Cullen boards a train, leaving behind his uniform. He disembarks in San Francisco and boards a ship for China."

An appropriate title for a series finale, but also a very good gauge of my feelings as Hell on Wheels comes to an end. That's not to say it wasn't a great show - if it wasn't enjoyable I would have stopped watching long ago, like with Arrow or The Blacklist - but the final season has underwhelmed, and the finale was no different.

   The final episode saw the aftermath of the railroad's completion and our characters find fitting endings, but it wasn't beautiful to watch. Cullen (after surviving a seeming heart attack without any help and being just fine) went off to China to find Mei, who I enjoyed as a character before she left, and Durant got his comeuppance for his crimes, but Mickey and Eva didn't really have that kind of poetry. And that's why in a way the finale, which had reached this point of closure for everyone, didn't work. It was no Person of Interest, because this end hadn't been planned years in advance. Eva getting a book deal was a random throw-in for her to decide to leave into the sunset and I'm not sure there was a particularly strong connection between Mickey and SF.

VERDICT: Made dull by disloyalty to our characters and the need to somehow fill 45 minutes, this finale doesn't do Hell on Wheels any favours. I spoke in a previous blog about how shows that get the chance to bring their story full circle need to do it properly, but Hell on Wheels failed even to interest me so much that I wrote all of what you've read about it so far before the episode finished. A generous 4.5/10