"What a grand surprise, after such a piece of time."

Both fascinatingly alike and different to its abruptly canceled third season’s finale back in 2006. Like that episode, the many story threads here don’t exactly resolve themselves out, which feels appropriate for a show mainly about how a community forms, comes together, and evolves over time, rather than about full fledgling narrative arcs proper. The crucial difference though, is that this time Milch knows in advance that this is possibly the town’s final outing, so he seemingly pens the whole ethos of the show into one gloriously concentrated, feature-length burst, which is stirring and moving to the extreme.

Storylines are carried over from the show’s final episode and don’t end conclusively, but in between there are birth, death, funeral, and wedding, encapsulating the whole spectrum and emotions of what the original series usually take over multiple episodes to achieve its thematic catharsis. Most importantly, Milch makes very explicit this time how Deadwood the town has settled into a single, occasionally fractured, but collectively very united organism, ready to strike back hard as a front when threatened by a malicious and forceful outsides force. This sentiment leads to some rapturous passages, in which it’s amazing how Milch can make my heart soar by an auction to save one piece of themselves, or an angry mob forming to condemn one powerful, vile individual that threatens them.

That the characters we know to represent this town have aged visibly only add to the poignancy and pride. They remain the same in coming to protect their own, just with more lines etched on their faces, history shared in the long years we haven’t seen, and, in the case of one particularly distinguished member, heartbreaking frailty. Don’t let that one know though, or you will be cussed out for feeling too much about his vulnerability. “Fucking… stay there” indeed, Al.