Deadwood 7/9 (spoilers)

I was out of town and just got to see this on my DVR tonight. Knowing that several storylines were coming to a head and that Milch had written this episode by himself, I was expecting great things. And still I was blown away.

A few late thoughts:

1. That was the rawest, grittiest, most realistic fight scene I've ever seen. Dan and the Captain didn't come out with fists firing and throwing haymakers like you typically see on the big (or little) screen. They bearhugged. They rolled around a bit. They chewed on each other and made all kind of awkward, panicked movements. They had to stop to catch their breath, and in Dan's case, vomit. The eye thing might have been a little over the top, but it worked. And then there was the moment when Swearengen -- surveying the scene from above -- dropped his head in defeat, then perks back up when Dan makes his comeback. Priceless.

2. Sad to see Hostetler go. Usually I can see TV/movie suicides coming a mile away, but that one caught me by surprise. I guess the thought of having to appease Drunk Steve for one more second was more than he could bear.

3. Dan's despondent scene with Johnny -- and Al's later explanation about how killing a man in a fair fight is different -- was nothing short of brilliant.

4. Comic relief -- Con Stapleton playing the role of a ship captain on one of Tolliver's employees, and Richardson asking, "Are they performing?" when the actors were having their meeting in the lobby.

5. The best line of the night was Al's question to the chief's head. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like, "When you were in that tepee and we were coming for you, and you knew you had to make the first move, didn't you first just want to fuckin' understand?"