On the boat, at the moment he steps on that ship and sets sail for China, the show is no longer a Western. However, the mother superior helped her set up restaurant in a nearby Cascade. I think he continued to be a reliable, hard-working railroad man on the Southern Transcontinental Railroad, which came to be several years after the first transcontinental railroad. Wirth: First of all, it was true. Bohannon is then told that there is a great meeting between, Durant, Huntington, Brigham Young, and President Grant regarding the hubs and meeting point of the railroad. Bohannon then goes to the church where he killed a man in the first episode, and a priest asks if he seeks salvation. Bohannon and family arrive in Cheyenne. [6] The T'suu T'ina Native Indian Reservation, an Indian reserve in southern Alberta, was the location for most of the exteriors. ("Timshel") Bohannon, though, is not far behind. And I realized what that thank you" was about. While Psalms is cold to him due to his murder of Elam. After the baby is born, the bishop blocks Bohannon's departure, when he states he is taking Naomi and baby William with him. This was sort of the beginning of Industrial America. He also arrest Durant for not paying their bonds. Bohannon must also exceute his friend Doc Whitehead, who asks him to shoot him instead of letting the Union military men do it. The end left me hanging..seems that Cullen left SF to chase the girl back to China? "You think I'm the Devil?. They were also doing their part to protect the environment. Cullen ultimately decided to board a ship for passage to China to reunite with Mei. He says to the confessor, "Tell me about Meridian." After strangling him to death he finds documentation on Harper that proves he was not there at the time of the murders. His connections with the gangs back East allowed him to provide Irish immigrant labor to the railroad. Guns Akimbo: What he prefers. "[4], The pilot premiered on November 6, 2011. I DID NOT INTEND TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK FOR NO REASON TODAY, YOU STUPID SITE. He also befriended a physician named Doc Whitehead who constantly patched him up more than any other child and once removed a buckshot wound from his rear end. The whole board agrees to this, but Ulysses Grant, the next US President, keeps Bohannon in charge, but only if he can made it to Cheyenne (previously named Durant) by the deadline. John Wirth: It was incredibly powerful to see him realize that. When slavery was outlawed in 1865, Fields and other slaves were freed, and she went on to work for Judge Edmund Dunne. He carries a .36 caliber Griswold revolver, an unusual gun of which only 3,600 were ever made and very few survive . At one point, I thought it would be funny if you had a guy who was being buffeted around the fight, who really had nothing to do with it, who hadnt thrown a punch, so they grabbed onto that idea and they put a guy in the middle of it. Most notable at the end was the developing love story between Cullen & Mei. When Hannah Durant kicks Lily out of her train car, she moves in with Bohannon in his caboose, though he does not sleep there as he does not want to encourage the knowledge that they are sleeping together. I felt very strongly that Cullen was our guiding light, our compass, and if we killed our compass, we would be kind of lost as viewers. The answer, in the end: hes neither. A majority, if not all movies or TV shows based on real-life events tend to exaggerate, adding or removing some parts as they deem fit, except for the latest conjuring movie; No, really, it was pretty much accurate- even the real Lorraine Rita Warren said so. Later, Bohannon is beaten unconscious by Jessup and Heckard. We sort of evolved him from this guy who was making his living with a magic lantern show, to a saloon owner, to a provider of labor. Snow is rude and racist to the freedmen. However Durant forces Huntington to give up the honor, upon the promise that the coming ceremony will be held on the CP side. I got offered a lot of things. The full ramifications of that scene that were implied in the writing and it was great writing by Tom Brady and Jami OBrien I had not considered until I was in that booth shooting that scene. She disagrees and says she killed him simply in revenge. Cullen Bohannon is a fictional character appearing in Hell on Wheels and portrayed by Anson Mount. He manages to get through all of this and keep the railroad moving forward. He is in every way Cullen. Bohannon stays in Fort. The two come up with a rouse that will show the bishop for who he really is. Asked by: Chase Hauck. Emotionally devastated, Cullen buried his family, then set out to seek his revenge against the soldiers responsible. It wasnt to the priest next to me, it was to god. The twenty-first episode of the series is written by Mark Richard and directed by David Von Ancken. He arrests Bohannon and questions him. Bohannon originally states Salt Lake is not good for the railroad, even though the Mormons need it for their travelers. Bohannon helps in completing the railroad to the 20 mile mark, finishing it on time so the railroad and start earning money per mile. Over time, Cullen eventually renounced his vengeance and became a 'railroad man'. The show has five seasons which is about the same time it took to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. Jay Seeg - one should not toss rocks when they can not seem to spell either sir "the person Bohannon was besed on" Not even a typo as the characters are too far apart on the keyboard. Bohannon publicly confesses his own past crimes, while also revealing the bishop to not be who he claims to be. I had everybody watch [1970s] Monte Walsh with Jack Palance and Lee Marvin. The big brawl Mickey and Cullen started in the finale was great. There is tunnel work to be done, and Bohannon suggests using nitroglycerin to do the blasting. Bohannon learns that Mei took on the guise of Fong in order to escape a forced marriage to the rebel leader who burned their village in China, and that if Chang were to recognize her, he would inform the rebel leaders in China of her location. There was a lot of industry in San Francisco. He is a southerner and he smells. Bohannon: No, I don't and I sure as hell don't care. He tells Bohannon where they are in exchange for the push at the meeting. Did you take anything from set? "[5], The show was rated 63 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 27 reviews, indicating mixed reviews. While Bohannon is a stoic, brooding, dark anti-hero who regrets the bad things he does, Sidney Snow is an energetic, hedonistic, Affably Evil Outlaw who chooses to relish in the violence he commits. Wirth: What Im thinking about now, as youre asking me about the decisions we made in terms of ending the stories for each of these characters, is it all started with going back to the beginning. When Naomi Hatch tells them she is pregnant with Bohannon's child, they stay his execution if he marries her and stays in their town. He starts in that confessional as a murderer and he walks out of that confessional as a complete human being. Bohannon states that he is a railroad man, to which Grant counters that he is a soldier "without a war to fight". He joined the Union Army in 1861 after the outbreak of the Civil War, serving as Major (7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry) and later as the Colonel and commander (103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry) In 1865, John was brevetted as Brigadier for his service during the war, and with brother, hired to by the Union Pacific to build the tracks in Nebraska. RT @DelilahSDawson: I DID NOT INTEND TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK FOR NO REASON TODAY, YOU STUPID SITE. He finds Elam sharpening a knife, intent on killing Johnson to avenge Willie's death. All I knew is when I was standing on the bow of that ship, I wanted to close my eyes and feel at peace with the sun in my face.. Advertisement. Still, for all the unlikely things [the creators] make happen in order to get their characters into place, and the dogged refusal of a couple of those characters to become interesting at all, the show gathers steam as it goes on. The show stars Anson Mount (Star Trek: Discovery) as Cullen, a former Confederate soldier seeking revenge for his murdered wife and child.The role was something of a breakthrough for Mount, who previously appeared in various movies and TV shows like Jason . He was later shot and killed by Yankees. The closing moments of the episode found The. After returning home from the American Civil War, Cullen discovered that his wife & son had been slaughtered by Union soldiers. When Campbell offers her a pardon she refuses to take it, stating she wants to die for her crimes. She searches for him in Cheyenne and eventually finds him working on parts for the arriving steam shovel. But Bohannon decides, very emotionally, to leave them to a happier life with Isaac. "[8], Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times says the show "takes its cues more from the movies than from life. My idea was at the end of the series, Cullen Bohannon would be hired on to build the Southern Pacific Railroad. Bohannon himself is based on a General in the Civil War that, afterwards, worked on the railroad as one of Union Pacific's Chief Engineers. We didnt really lean to heavily into the fact that she was a lesbian, but I wouldnt be surprised if Louise Ellison got married in Chicago and continued her career and possibly continued to have relations with women on the side. He goes to San Francisco. While working with the cut crew Bohannon saves the rail crew when Delaney uses more than enough blasting powder on the hill, which contains methane-infused shale. Bohannon manages to get Young agree on blessing Naomi and Isaac's wedding, then leaves Naomi and William. Most notable at the end was the developing love story between Cullen & Mei. After Bohannon fled Hell on Wheels, he returns to Meridian to find that Carpetbagers dug up the bodies of his wife and son looking for valuables. Bohannon: To hell with people. He seems to particularly excel at teaching others to shoot and use and maintain firearms. Bohannon is a veteran Cavalry soldier and well-versed in armed and unarmed combat. Four days later, The Swede has been found guilty of the Hatch deaths and is scheduled to hang. After being questioned by the federal marshalls, he is asked by the President of the United States, by proxy of Senator Howard, if he will continue the railroad. The move to Saturday night was a genius move on behalf of the network, because it really allowed us to live without being under the pressure of being a Sunday night television show. We think he went there to become a labor leader and then sort of a mover and a shaker in San Francisco politics. For Cullen Bohannon, rather than it being an ngo or a ship in a bottle, unfortunately, turns out to be the largest engineering project in the 19th century. Once on board, Bohannon reveals his identity to Elam and saves his life, making it look like Elam got the drop on him, forcing him to flee without the money. At the next meeting, it's suggested that Promontory, Utah, be the terminus. Before you know it, theres a big barroom brawl in the bunkhouse. When the store clerk confronts Snow about this, he's also killed. He also meets up with Doc Whitehead, a physician who lived in Meridian when Bohannon was a boy, treating him for ailments and wounds including "a shoulder full of buckshot". They eventually must bury his body and both return to Truckee. I think finally somebody said, If we kill him in the final episode, whats it all about? Together they had a son named Joshua whom he played hide-and-seek with and would always hide in their hayloft every time. As Durant and his crew reach the summit, and Durant telegraphs Huntington in California, to gloat Bohannon arrives at Huntington's version of Hell on Wheels, known as Truckee, and accepts Huntington's offer, at least until Cullen's family is found. He became a member of the Cavalry and quickly rose to the rank of Colonel where he served under the command of General Nathan Beford Forest. However Ruth cannot find Ezra, but when Mickey mentions the hiding place under the floorboards of the church. I came on the show at the third season, and it was sort of, Theres a new sheriff in town thought. We envisioned that Mickey would become a labor leader as he went through the next several years of his life. Bohannon launches his revenge in Washington D.C. by acting as a priest in a confessional. . They dont, but she does. His squadron initially held off against the 51st Pennsylvania infantry on the Burnside bridge and managed to kill 500 troops. Then he says, Thank you. Whats going through his mind?Anson Mount: That was one of those amazing moments where what youre going through as as a professional and what youre going through as a character sort of collide and they exist in parallel. Looks especially cool when he's carrying two pearl-handled revolvers from Mexico. Because we had done a couple of takes on that scene, and hes always amazing he was really getting into doing that scene and then we did a take where it literally dawned on him. Never, in the episodes I watched, did I feel as if I were actually seeing how a railroad got built, and sometimes it took a bit of squinting not to see the characters as actors in a field, reading lines. Durant arrives and attempts to get Bohannon ousted due to incompetence and his violent tenancies. As the Mormon residents of Fort Smith realize the bishop is not who he says he is, Bohannon leaves with his family for Cheyenne. Although the death was unintentional, Johnson tells his workers, "This is what happens when you break my rules.". Upon returning to Cheyenne, Bohannon discovers Campbell has made Snow a marshall to help replace his murdered ones and has had all the freedman and most of the other railroad workers arrested due to Durant not having paid their bonds. "[2], Wall Street Journal's Nancy Dewolf Smith considers the episode "like a bag of unpolished stones 'Hell on Wheels' finds enough beauty, danger and emotion to make some part of every episode seem fresh and worth waiting for. You can really only understand that scene if you understand the scene that its cut against, which is all of the fat cats who came out for the ceremonial pounding of the golden spike who had considerably less to do with the building of the railroad than the men who actually pounded those spikes into the ground, the guys who actually did the work who were not invited to the ceremony. Elam's friend, William, collapses due to dehydration and Elam takes him to a water spout to drink from. Really, it had nothing to do with the ratings in my opinion. After Psalms suggests Bohannon gets his family out of Cheyenne, Bohannon finds the beaten Durant in the latter's railcar. Among key demographics, the pilot episode delivered 2.4 million viewers in adults aged 1849 and 2.3 million viewers aged 2554, according to Nielsen. After the day's work is finished, Bohannon visits Elam's tent. Although Bohannon doesn't remember him, Bohannon nonetheless houses Snow and vouches for him with Psalms to work on the freedman's cut-crew. Bohannon: John Brown was a murderer. Yes. After they discuss the war, Bohannon asks Johnson if he has ever been to Meridian. Robert urges Lily to return to Chicago, as they are entering hostile Cheyenne territory, but he is ill, and she refuses to leave him. Photo: Chris Large/AMC.