The Son (2017) s02e04 Episode Script
Scalped a Dog
1 Previously on AMC's "The Son" MAN: What did you find out? South Texas Improvement Company.
These guys will try to come in here, take what's ours and give us pennies on the dollar.
- [GUN COCKS.]
- I'm going with you.
I'm grateful you welcomed us here.
- I never said you could stay.
- [GUNSHOT.]
My daddy told you to get out of town.
You should've listened.
It's like a curse.
If I could just pump it all back into the ground, I would.
I saw Maria GarcÃa.
- Mr.
Monahan.
- Miss GarcÃa.
We're gonna need bigger dogs in this fight.
Just drive.
[YOUNG ELI SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[CHUCKLES.]
[ARROW FIRES.]
[CHUCKLES.]
[INDISTINCT TALKING.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[ARROW RELEASES.]
Elbow up as you draw.
[ARROW FIRES, HITS TARGET.]
TOSHAWAY: Yuhu Senna! [HOOFBEATS APPROACHING.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[HORSE NEIGHS.]
[INDISTINCT TALKING.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[BIRDS CHIRPING.]
[HORSE SNORTS.]
[CHIRPING CONTINUES.]
[HORSE SNORTS.]
[HOOFBEATS DEPARTING.]
[LEAVES RUSTLE.]
[GUNSHOT.]
[HORSE NEIGHS.]
No! [COUGHS, SPUTTERS.]
Jonas, care to tell your brother and sister the good news? What happened, did you get shot again? Did you give up piano? - No.
- That'd be good for my ears.
- Jeannie.
- But you'll be rid of me soon enough.
- I made my decision.
- Oh.
I'm gonna be going to Princeton.
- JEANNIE: Where's that, New York? - New Jersey.
Princeton? Why not Harvard? 'Cause Grandaddy said Harvard's full of pederasts.
- SALLY: Whoa! Language.
Ladies at the table.
- Sorry, Mom.
- Wait, what'd he say? - Nothing you need to hear.
- I don't see how you could say no to Harvard.
- They said no to him.
- M-My application was deferred.
- Rejected.
Well, Harvard's where all the famous people went presidents.
- President Wilson - President Wilson went to Princeton.
He did go to Princeton.
[CHUCKLES.]
Aren't you a little young for college? You know, he's gonna be 17.
And it was my idea to have him apply.
I'd have asked your opinion, but you weren't here.
So [SILVERWARE CLINKING.]
My boy.
Congratulations.
Thanks, Daddy.
Now, did I hear you say you're going out after breakfast? Yeah.
Going out to see Pink Stewart about his mineral rights.
He's trying to welsh on the Colonel.
I need to set it right, get him to sign that paperwork.
Gonna see anyone else? No.
Just Pink.
Charles, why don't you come with me? CHARLES: Sure thing, Daddy.
Sounds good to me.
[BIRDS CHIRPING.]
[KEYS JINGLE, DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR CREAKS.]
Morning.
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Colonel McCullough, Sir.
Don't bother.
I fought for the South.
Who the hell are you? Vincent Hastings, sir.
Here to pick up Phineas.
We're going, uh, sparring.
Boxing.
Hmm.
Mmm, I see you have the keys.
Phineas! [FOOTSTEPS APPROACH.]
Your sparring partner is here.
PHINEAS: At ease, Vincent.
Vincent, Daddy.
We've got Brogan at noon.
Brogan? What about Looney? The A.
G.
has a full dance card.
Don't you read the papers? I don't drive 10 hours to talk to a man I've already bought.
That's what the telephone's for.
It's been one day, Daddy.
This is what was possible for me to arrange in that time.
I'm still working on Looney.
It may take a couple of days.
All right? Noon.
Mm.
Don't get your teeth knocked out.
[SIGHS.]
[WHISPERING.]
We may need to work out a system.
[WHISPERING.]
You mean so I don't pop over and run into your father? [IMITATING ELI.]
"I don't love you, son.
" - [LAUGHS.]
- "I prefer your older brother.
He's a real man.
" Shh.
I am the older brother, asshole.
[DOOR SQUEAKS.]
PINK: Well, I can see how the Colonel would feel like we had an agreement.
PETE: So you didn't? I expected he'd be drilling by now.
You can't buy a lease and just sit on it till doomsday.
- It ain't right.
- Come on, Pink.
You made a commitment.
You gotta stick by it.
My word's my bond normally.
But I need the money.
My family needs it.
Cattle ain't supplying it, and the other fella's offering more.
- How much more? - A seventh.
Plus a signing bonus.
Can y'all match that? This other fella I'm guessing his name's Monahan South Texas Improvement Company? That's him, all right.
Just so you know who you're dealing with.
He's a front for Standard Oil of Pennsylvania.
And he's the one who attacked my cattle.
Shit.
That was him? You really want to do business with a man like that? Well maybe there's people who'd say the McCulloughs' hands ain't so clean neither.
Like maybe the GarcÃas.
I don't mean to give no offense, but from what I heard CHARLES: Sir, you are mistaken.
It wasn't the McCulloughs.
It was the whole town.
Our people went there to arrest the same man who shot up our house and shot my little brother.
And my daddy here did everything he could to prevent bloodshed.
You can ask anyone who was there.
I'm sorry.
I regret bringing it up.
It's a real damn shame.
But the GarcÃas brought it upon themselves.
He apologized, son.
Don't keep after him.
[SIGHS.]
[CATTLE LOWING.]
We both know there's blood in all this land.
There's good comes out of it, too, and I'm not just talking a quick buck.
That oil, it's been there since the time of Adam.
And if we let these foreign companies get their hooks in, they're gonna drain this oil.
It'll be just like Spindletop.
Biggest gusher in history.
Where's that profit? They sucked it out, they moved it to Pennsylvania, and they will do it again if if we let 'em.
I'm not gonna match their offer.
I can't.
So it's up to you, Pink.
If you want to be the one that lets Standard take what's ours I can't stop you.
[BIRDS CHIRPING.]
[CATTLE LOWING.]
You got that paper on you? I do.
That was amazing.
You talked ol' Pink from a seventh down to an eighth.
[CHUCKLES.]
Hell, I thought for a second we might have to come back tonight and rough him up a little.
Don't say that.
Sorry.
I think we should do more of this ride around together.
You can teach me the oil business.
I think I'd be great at it.
Be like Granddaddy, you know? [ENGINE STARTS.]
BROGAN: So, tell me all about them Yankee interlopers of yours.
PHINEAS: Well, they're hurting us, Cal.
Coming at us with blind tigers, incorporated in Texas, but the money's out of Pennsylvania.
- Hmm.
- These foreigners can outbid us, outspend us ten-to-one, and beat us at distribution.
Well, what do you hear from the A.
G.
? Still setting a meeting.
[LAUGHS.]
I wouldn't bother with it.
Looney's in the tank for Standard common knowledge.
If it's common knowledge, why isn't something done about it? The fallen state of man.
[INDISTINCT TALKING.]
[CLICKS TONGUE.]
I want to know the truth.
Did they get to you, Cal? - Standard? - Mm-hmm.
Hell no.
I've never taken a dime.
What about South Texas Improvement? They have been very generous.
They are Standard.
Well, if that's true, how come the Attorney General's not on 'em? Sounds like you've jumped out of my pocket and into my enemy's.
Now, hear me out.
Sure, I like the money.
But I hate those foreigners coming in here as much as you do.
Now, if I can cut the legs out from under them without nicking the money supply, well, then all of us here at this table ought to be happy.
What are you proposing? What if I was to tell you there's a vacancy coming up on the Texas Railroad Commission? Oh, I think I might piss my pants, Cal.
Might die from exhilaration.
Three bureaucrats sitting in a government office pricing railroad tickets.
Not for long.
Now, listen.
Nobody knows this not even Standard but come the end of next session, Texas will be directly regulating the oil industry.
And they're gonna do it through the Railroad Commission.
I'm talking every aspect of the oil business.
Production quotas [LAUGHS.]
You fellas won't be able to drill a quart without the Commission's say-so.
And neither will Standard.
So you get yourself on that commission, you can bring Standard to their knees.
[CLICKS TONGUE.]
Can we buy you lunch, Cal? [DICE RATTLE.]
What'd your daddy say about it? The Colonel wants me on the Commission like a dog wants his own balls.
[LAUGHS.]
Well, maybe he's right.
He's never right.
Even when he's right, he's wrong.
Finn, you need to step back.
Nope.
If I take this, it bars me from holding a place on the board of McCullough Oil.
I'd be handing the whole damn enterprise to Pete with a red bow tied around it.
It's already his, ain't it? Your words.
Look at it clinically.
- [DICE RATTLE.]
- Rather not, thank you.
This new version of the Railroad Commission sounds like a powerful position.
Sounds like the only thing wrong with it is that he wants you there.
Can't keep jumping through hoops for him my whole life.
Won't stop until I make it stop.
I'm no politician.
Nor are you a backgammon player.
But I see how this government thing works.
Spend a few years at a big job like that, then you go back to the private sector.
You won't even have to go back to your father's company.
You become one of those highly paid advisors.
You could go anywhere.
Shell, Humble Oil.
Standard.
Oh, the look on the old man's face be worth it just for that.
You owe him nothing.
He made his choice.
Way I see it, he's your brother's problem now.
The back door's locked.
I've been thinking about the Railroad Commission.
I'll do it.
It might provide options for the future.
I'm glad.
I know I know life has not dealt you a good hand.
Hell neither have I, sometimes.
You've always stood by me.
And I thank you for that.
Get my bag.
[DOOR OPENS.]
JONAS: I've been thinking a lot about what I'm gonna do when I graduate the Ivy League.
Be a lawyer like my uncle, diplomat, maybe.
Whatever it is, gonna have nothing to do with cows.
Oh, sorry.
[BREATHING HEAVILY.]
You You shitbird! Not so uppity now.
What's the matter with you? You think that's funny? Out of my seat, Tommy.
Or what? You gonna sic your boyfriend on me? You gonna recite a poem? At least I can read and write.
Why do you even bother coming to school? Jonas.
You just like the way the chalk tastes? Jonas, shut up.
Least my daddy didn't run across the border with some Mexican whore.
[GROANS.]
[EXHALES SHARPLY.]
SALLY: Tell me what happened.
[STERNLY.]
Tell me what happened.
I didn't mean to hurt him.
You meant to walk up behind him with no warning, hit him in the back of the head with a bag full of books, and not hurt him? Must have been the buckle.
Why?! What's your excuse? What did he do? Come on, Jeannie.
What the hell set you off like that? What did Jonas say? What are you afraid he said? Tommy was picking on Jonas.
He always does, and I'm tired of it.
I'm sorry.
That's not enough! This story's not gonna go away, you know.
It's gonna follow you.
And is this how you want people to think of you as a violent, crazy He was talking about Daddy! Tell me what he said.
Every word.
[BREATHES SHAKILY.]
He said that Daddy left us and ran off with a Mexican whore.
[FOOTSTEPS DEPART.]
Not a word of that is true.
Not a word.
I swear to you.
Go on to your room.
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
YOUNG ELI: Oh, shit.
[SPEAKS COMANCHE.]
[SPEAKS COMANCHE.]
Uh - Ah.
- Mm.
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[GRUNTS.]
[INDISTINCT TALKING.]
You want to talk about it? [KNIFE SCRAPING.]
I think you wanna talk about it.
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
Okay, how about I talk and you jump in when you're ready? I'm holding weapons.
Fat Wolf doesn't want to move camps because you do.
He'd set his head on fire in a second if you told him not to.
What is it between you two? His mother shamed me.
She was my wife, and she laid with another warrior.
They were all sent away.
Exiled? Fat Wolf, too? How old was he? [EXHALES.]
I don't know.
Pretty young.
Wanted to go with his mother, so I let him.
They were going back to his mother's people.
But they were killed by the whites.
Fat Wolf was captured.
Kept him in a fort for a couple years before he escaped.
A son can hate his father, but he cannot disrespect him.
It's not allowed.
Dishonors them both.
You need to make peace with him.
There was frost this morning.
Winter's here.
If we get kicked out, my wife and my baby won't make it.
[FOOTSTEPS DEPART.]
- [WHISTLING.]
- [CAR DOOR CLOSES.]
[WHISTLING CONTINUES.]
[WHISTLING CONTINUES.]
[RACHMANINOFF'S "PRELUDE IN G MINOR, OPUS 23, NO.
5" PLAYS ON PIANO.]
[DOORBELL RINGS.]
Good.
Good lesson.
Keep working the Rachmaninoff.
And just know that he had big hands, just like you do.
Why should I know that? I can think of no reason.
Well done.
See you next Wednesday.
All right.
I, um I want to thank you for, uh, the But I-I think you should take it back.
[WHISPERING.]
Have I scandalized you, ma'am? No.
[SALLY COUGHS, LAUGHS.]
MATTHEW: It's just like a cigarette.
Well, I don't know why you would assume that I know how to smoke a cigarette.
You do live on a ranch.
[SIGHS.]
Oh, fair enough.
You know it does more than just relax you.
It also makes you tell the absolute truth.
So we're playing kid's games? All right.
You start.
You tell me something that is the absolute truth.
Okay.
[EXHALES.]
I hate children.
- What? - Honestly, I hate children well, "hate" is a strong word.
I intensely dislike them.
They're boring.
Jonas is no exception.
You intensely dislike Jonas? My son? Well, he's a fine young man, as far as it goes.
He's talented.
He's got the makings of an interesting person, but there's no guarantee he'll get there.
And most of them don't, do they? Your turn.
For what? To tell me something completely honest.
[COUGHS.]
I think I believe my husband killed a man in this room.
[SNICKERS.]
[LAUGHING.]
[BOTH LAUGHING.]
MANUEL: Hernando.
Hernando qué? Rojas.
Eduardo Lopez.
Claudio.
[SPEAKING SPANISH.]
[CHICKENS CLUCKING.]
Manuel.
Teresa.
Tenga buen dÃa, Señora.
Gracias, Manuel.
[HORSE SNORTS.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
MONAHAN: The vaqueros were of limited use anyway.
All they knew about is the actual attack.
They know that Eli McCullough's men shot first.
That's good.
I'm not discounting the importance of that.
Do you want your land back? Don't talk down to me.
Of course I do.
Then you're gonna have to gird yourself do things you'd rather not do.
If you want justice, you've got to drill deep, and you got to drill in the right place.
We've got to prove a whole conspiracy burning the bar, inciting the vigilantes, forging the tax records, faking the auction, bribing the judge.
And these are things that you don't have personal knowledge of.
I know my father paid his taxes.
I would sooner doubt the Scriptures, Señora.
But we need somebody who was on the inside.
Someone who heard the villains admit to their atrocities.
Did you have someone particular in mind? [INSECTS BUZZING.]
[HORSE SNORTS.]
[HORSE NEIGHS.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[BIRD SINGS.]
I need your help.
You need money? No, Peter.
Well, it's too late now.
Whatever you have to ask me now, I can't.
I tried.
You know I tried.
Yes.
I know you did.
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
But that's over.
I'm home now.
I don't blame you for returning to your family.
I understand that you hate me for what I Di I don't.
[HORSE SNORTS.]
I wanted to hurt someone.
I was I I got a new one.
[CHUCKLES.]
Why are you here? I'm alone in the world, Peter.
And I have nothing.
Nothing except the truth about what happened here.
What are you saying? That you are thinking you can take down the Colonel? There are people helping me.
But I need you.
If you back my story, we can I can't.
If you know anything about me I know that you're a good man.
You see your father for what he really is.
[METAL CLANKS.]
[EXHALES SHARPLY.]
You know he needs to be stopped.
I can't do it without you.
I have to go.
Please don't come back here.
[GLASS CLINKS.]
[LIQUID POURS.]
Maria GarcÃa came and talked to me.
[INSECTS CHIRPING.]
[EXHALES SHARPLY.]
This afternoon.
Yeah? She said she wanted me to talk about what happened to the GarcÃas.
I think she's coming after you in court.
For what, exactly? I don't know all of it.
She's got nothing.
She'd want her land back.
Well, it's not me she's coming after, then, is it? It's us.
This whole family.
I guess so.
What did you say? I said she should leave me alone.
And she did.
That's it? She said she had help.
Given everything else going on, I'd say it's a fair bet Standard's backing her.
You didn't have to tell us.
Thank you.
[WATER SLOSHES.]
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACH.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[GRUNTS.]
[GASPS.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[GRUNTS.]
[GRUNTS.]
[WHIMPERS.]
[GRUNTS.]
[BOWSTRING CREAKS.]
[ARROW FIRES.]
[ARROW THUDS.]
[ARROW FIRES.]
[SNIFFS.]
- [ARROW FIRES.]
- [GRUNTS.]
- [ARROW FIRES.]
- [GRUNTS.]
[GROANING.]
[GRUNTING.]
[BREATHING HEAVILY.]
[VEHICLE PASSING.]
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Señora.
If you could spare a moment.
[INDISTINCT TALKING IN DISTANCE.]
[SIGHS.]
What do you want? For one, I want to apologize.
When I [CLICKS TONGUE.]
On that day it was never my intention for anyone to die women and children, least of all.
It got out of hand.
I do not to expect you to accept that, but it is the truth.
I will say one more thing.
Though you may find it grotesque, it is also the truth.
I know how you feel to see your family slaughtered in front of your eyes.
Do you know how it feels to sit across from the man who did it? I do.
His name was Toshaway.
He was a Comanche chief.
I came [CLICKS TONGUE.]
in time to look upon him as a father.
Many years later on, after the Apaches killed my wife and my oldest boy, it was different.
[SIGHS.]
I tracked them down, and I killed them all with their families.
I learned what it was like to take revenge.
But having a father was better.
One moment.
One moment.
It's an offer.
Twice what any other landowner is getting.
A one-third royalty deal on all the oil produced on what was your family's land till the end of time.
All you have to do is leave.
For good.
I suggest you have a lawyer look this over for you.
There's more money in that piece of paper than any deal you could strike with Standard Oil.
Even if you won back every inch and half my ranch for good measure, you would never see this much money.
And if my family had lived and not been driven off our lands and we had drilled our own oil like you are doing then we'd have all of it.
Look around us, Señora.
How many families like yours, the old hidalgo families, are left in Texas? [HUFFS.]
So, this is what you tell yourself? That if it hadn't been you, it would have been somebody else? Their time had passed.
Because men like you made it pass.
[LAUGHS.]
We're saying the same thing.
You just don't realize it.
This is your chance to move on, like I have many times - like Pete has to now.
- Pete? He risked his life for you.
He turned his back on his family to get you to safety.
Now he's trying to repair that damage and get his three children back their father.
Whatever you think of me they, at least, are innocent.
[SIGHS.]
I will take this to my lawyers.
Perhaps they will find a way of using it against you.
So, that's it, then, is it? You're out to destroy me, plain and simple.
Yes.
These guys will try to come in here, take what's ours and give us pennies on the dollar.
- [GUN COCKS.]
- I'm going with you.
I'm grateful you welcomed us here.
- I never said you could stay.
- [GUNSHOT.]
My daddy told you to get out of town.
You should've listened.
It's like a curse.
If I could just pump it all back into the ground, I would.
I saw Maria GarcÃa.
- Mr.
Monahan.
- Miss GarcÃa.
We're gonna need bigger dogs in this fight.
Just drive.
[YOUNG ELI SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[CHUCKLES.]
[ARROW FIRES.]
[CHUCKLES.]
[INDISTINCT TALKING.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[ARROW RELEASES.]
Elbow up as you draw.
[ARROW FIRES, HITS TARGET.]
TOSHAWAY: Yuhu Senna! [HOOFBEATS APPROACHING.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[HORSE NEIGHS.]
[INDISTINCT TALKING.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[BIRDS CHIRPING.]
[HORSE SNORTS.]
[CHIRPING CONTINUES.]
[HORSE SNORTS.]
[HOOFBEATS DEPARTING.]
[LEAVES RUSTLE.]
[GUNSHOT.]
[HORSE NEIGHS.]
No! [COUGHS, SPUTTERS.]
Jonas, care to tell your brother and sister the good news? What happened, did you get shot again? Did you give up piano? - No.
- That'd be good for my ears.
- Jeannie.
- But you'll be rid of me soon enough.
- I made my decision.
- Oh.
I'm gonna be going to Princeton.
- JEANNIE: Where's that, New York? - New Jersey.
Princeton? Why not Harvard? 'Cause Grandaddy said Harvard's full of pederasts.
- SALLY: Whoa! Language.
Ladies at the table.
- Sorry, Mom.
- Wait, what'd he say? - Nothing you need to hear.
- I don't see how you could say no to Harvard.
- They said no to him.
- M-My application was deferred.
- Rejected.
Well, Harvard's where all the famous people went presidents.
- President Wilson - President Wilson went to Princeton.
He did go to Princeton.
[CHUCKLES.]
Aren't you a little young for college? You know, he's gonna be 17.
And it was my idea to have him apply.
I'd have asked your opinion, but you weren't here.
So [SILVERWARE CLINKING.]
My boy.
Congratulations.
Thanks, Daddy.
Now, did I hear you say you're going out after breakfast? Yeah.
Going out to see Pink Stewart about his mineral rights.
He's trying to welsh on the Colonel.
I need to set it right, get him to sign that paperwork.
Gonna see anyone else? No.
Just Pink.
Charles, why don't you come with me? CHARLES: Sure thing, Daddy.
Sounds good to me.
[BIRDS CHIRPING.]
[KEYS JINGLE, DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR CREAKS.]
Morning.
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Colonel McCullough, Sir.
Don't bother.
I fought for the South.
Who the hell are you? Vincent Hastings, sir.
Here to pick up Phineas.
We're going, uh, sparring.
Boxing.
Hmm.
Mmm, I see you have the keys.
Phineas! [FOOTSTEPS APPROACH.]
Your sparring partner is here.
PHINEAS: At ease, Vincent.
Vincent, Daddy.
We've got Brogan at noon.
Brogan? What about Looney? The A.
G.
has a full dance card.
Don't you read the papers? I don't drive 10 hours to talk to a man I've already bought.
That's what the telephone's for.
It's been one day, Daddy.
This is what was possible for me to arrange in that time.
I'm still working on Looney.
It may take a couple of days.
All right? Noon.
Mm.
Don't get your teeth knocked out.
[SIGHS.]
[WHISPERING.]
We may need to work out a system.
[WHISPERING.]
You mean so I don't pop over and run into your father? [IMITATING ELI.]
"I don't love you, son.
" - [LAUGHS.]
- "I prefer your older brother.
He's a real man.
" Shh.
I am the older brother, asshole.
[DOOR SQUEAKS.]
PINK: Well, I can see how the Colonel would feel like we had an agreement.
PETE: So you didn't? I expected he'd be drilling by now.
You can't buy a lease and just sit on it till doomsday.
- It ain't right.
- Come on, Pink.
You made a commitment.
You gotta stick by it.
My word's my bond normally.
But I need the money.
My family needs it.
Cattle ain't supplying it, and the other fella's offering more.
- How much more? - A seventh.
Plus a signing bonus.
Can y'all match that? This other fella I'm guessing his name's Monahan South Texas Improvement Company? That's him, all right.
Just so you know who you're dealing with.
He's a front for Standard Oil of Pennsylvania.
And he's the one who attacked my cattle.
Shit.
That was him? You really want to do business with a man like that? Well maybe there's people who'd say the McCulloughs' hands ain't so clean neither.
Like maybe the GarcÃas.
I don't mean to give no offense, but from what I heard CHARLES: Sir, you are mistaken.
It wasn't the McCulloughs.
It was the whole town.
Our people went there to arrest the same man who shot up our house and shot my little brother.
And my daddy here did everything he could to prevent bloodshed.
You can ask anyone who was there.
I'm sorry.
I regret bringing it up.
It's a real damn shame.
But the GarcÃas brought it upon themselves.
He apologized, son.
Don't keep after him.
[SIGHS.]
[CATTLE LOWING.]
We both know there's blood in all this land.
There's good comes out of it, too, and I'm not just talking a quick buck.
That oil, it's been there since the time of Adam.
And if we let these foreign companies get their hooks in, they're gonna drain this oil.
It'll be just like Spindletop.
Biggest gusher in history.
Where's that profit? They sucked it out, they moved it to Pennsylvania, and they will do it again if if we let 'em.
I'm not gonna match their offer.
I can't.
So it's up to you, Pink.
If you want to be the one that lets Standard take what's ours I can't stop you.
[BIRDS CHIRPING.]
[CATTLE LOWING.]
You got that paper on you? I do.
That was amazing.
You talked ol' Pink from a seventh down to an eighth.
[CHUCKLES.]
Hell, I thought for a second we might have to come back tonight and rough him up a little.
Don't say that.
Sorry.
I think we should do more of this ride around together.
You can teach me the oil business.
I think I'd be great at it.
Be like Granddaddy, you know? [ENGINE STARTS.]
BROGAN: So, tell me all about them Yankee interlopers of yours.
PHINEAS: Well, they're hurting us, Cal.
Coming at us with blind tigers, incorporated in Texas, but the money's out of Pennsylvania.
- Hmm.
- These foreigners can outbid us, outspend us ten-to-one, and beat us at distribution.
Well, what do you hear from the A.
G.
? Still setting a meeting.
[LAUGHS.]
I wouldn't bother with it.
Looney's in the tank for Standard common knowledge.
If it's common knowledge, why isn't something done about it? The fallen state of man.
[INDISTINCT TALKING.]
[CLICKS TONGUE.]
I want to know the truth.
Did they get to you, Cal? - Standard? - Mm-hmm.
Hell no.
I've never taken a dime.
What about South Texas Improvement? They have been very generous.
They are Standard.
Well, if that's true, how come the Attorney General's not on 'em? Sounds like you've jumped out of my pocket and into my enemy's.
Now, hear me out.
Sure, I like the money.
But I hate those foreigners coming in here as much as you do.
Now, if I can cut the legs out from under them without nicking the money supply, well, then all of us here at this table ought to be happy.
What are you proposing? What if I was to tell you there's a vacancy coming up on the Texas Railroad Commission? Oh, I think I might piss my pants, Cal.
Might die from exhilaration.
Three bureaucrats sitting in a government office pricing railroad tickets.
Not for long.
Now, listen.
Nobody knows this not even Standard but come the end of next session, Texas will be directly regulating the oil industry.
And they're gonna do it through the Railroad Commission.
I'm talking every aspect of the oil business.
Production quotas [LAUGHS.]
You fellas won't be able to drill a quart without the Commission's say-so.
And neither will Standard.
So you get yourself on that commission, you can bring Standard to their knees.
[CLICKS TONGUE.]
Can we buy you lunch, Cal? [DICE RATTLE.]
What'd your daddy say about it? The Colonel wants me on the Commission like a dog wants his own balls.
[LAUGHS.]
Well, maybe he's right.
He's never right.
Even when he's right, he's wrong.
Finn, you need to step back.
Nope.
If I take this, it bars me from holding a place on the board of McCullough Oil.
I'd be handing the whole damn enterprise to Pete with a red bow tied around it.
It's already his, ain't it? Your words.
Look at it clinically.
- [DICE RATTLE.]
- Rather not, thank you.
This new version of the Railroad Commission sounds like a powerful position.
Sounds like the only thing wrong with it is that he wants you there.
Can't keep jumping through hoops for him my whole life.
Won't stop until I make it stop.
I'm no politician.
Nor are you a backgammon player.
But I see how this government thing works.
Spend a few years at a big job like that, then you go back to the private sector.
You won't even have to go back to your father's company.
You become one of those highly paid advisors.
You could go anywhere.
Shell, Humble Oil.
Standard.
Oh, the look on the old man's face be worth it just for that.
You owe him nothing.
He made his choice.
Way I see it, he's your brother's problem now.
The back door's locked.
I've been thinking about the Railroad Commission.
I'll do it.
It might provide options for the future.
I'm glad.
I know I know life has not dealt you a good hand.
Hell neither have I, sometimes.
You've always stood by me.
And I thank you for that.
Get my bag.
[DOOR OPENS.]
JONAS: I've been thinking a lot about what I'm gonna do when I graduate the Ivy League.
Be a lawyer like my uncle, diplomat, maybe.
Whatever it is, gonna have nothing to do with cows.
Oh, sorry.
[BREATHING HEAVILY.]
You You shitbird! Not so uppity now.
What's the matter with you? You think that's funny? Out of my seat, Tommy.
Or what? You gonna sic your boyfriend on me? You gonna recite a poem? At least I can read and write.
Why do you even bother coming to school? Jonas.
You just like the way the chalk tastes? Jonas, shut up.
Least my daddy didn't run across the border with some Mexican whore.
[GROANS.]
[EXHALES SHARPLY.]
SALLY: Tell me what happened.
[STERNLY.]
Tell me what happened.
I didn't mean to hurt him.
You meant to walk up behind him with no warning, hit him in the back of the head with a bag full of books, and not hurt him? Must have been the buckle.
Why?! What's your excuse? What did he do? Come on, Jeannie.
What the hell set you off like that? What did Jonas say? What are you afraid he said? Tommy was picking on Jonas.
He always does, and I'm tired of it.
I'm sorry.
That's not enough! This story's not gonna go away, you know.
It's gonna follow you.
And is this how you want people to think of you as a violent, crazy He was talking about Daddy! Tell me what he said.
Every word.
[BREATHES SHAKILY.]
He said that Daddy left us and ran off with a Mexican whore.
[FOOTSTEPS DEPART.]
Not a word of that is true.
Not a word.
I swear to you.
Go on to your room.
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
YOUNG ELI: Oh, shit.
[SPEAKS COMANCHE.]
[SPEAKS COMANCHE.]
Uh - Ah.
- Mm.
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[GRUNTS.]
[INDISTINCT TALKING.]
You want to talk about it? [KNIFE SCRAPING.]
I think you wanna talk about it.
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
Okay, how about I talk and you jump in when you're ready? I'm holding weapons.
Fat Wolf doesn't want to move camps because you do.
He'd set his head on fire in a second if you told him not to.
What is it between you two? His mother shamed me.
She was my wife, and she laid with another warrior.
They were all sent away.
Exiled? Fat Wolf, too? How old was he? [EXHALES.]
I don't know.
Pretty young.
Wanted to go with his mother, so I let him.
They were going back to his mother's people.
But they were killed by the whites.
Fat Wolf was captured.
Kept him in a fort for a couple years before he escaped.
A son can hate his father, but he cannot disrespect him.
It's not allowed.
Dishonors them both.
You need to make peace with him.
There was frost this morning.
Winter's here.
If we get kicked out, my wife and my baby won't make it.
[FOOTSTEPS DEPART.]
- [WHISTLING.]
- [CAR DOOR CLOSES.]
[WHISTLING CONTINUES.]
[WHISTLING CONTINUES.]
[RACHMANINOFF'S "PRELUDE IN G MINOR, OPUS 23, NO.
5" PLAYS ON PIANO.]
[DOORBELL RINGS.]
Good.
Good lesson.
Keep working the Rachmaninoff.
And just know that he had big hands, just like you do.
Why should I know that? I can think of no reason.
Well done.
See you next Wednesday.
All right.
I, um I want to thank you for, uh, the But I-I think you should take it back.
[WHISPERING.]
Have I scandalized you, ma'am? No.
[SALLY COUGHS, LAUGHS.]
MATTHEW: It's just like a cigarette.
Well, I don't know why you would assume that I know how to smoke a cigarette.
You do live on a ranch.
[SIGHS.]
Oh, fair enough.
You know it does more than just relax you.
It also makes you tell the absolute truth.
So we're playing kid's games? All right.
You start.
You tell me something that is the absolute truth.
Okay.
[EXHALES.]
I hate children.
- What? - Honestly, I hate children well, "hate" is a strong word.
I intensely dislike them.
They're boring.
Jonas is no exception.
You intensely dislike Jonas? My son? Well, he's a fine young man, as far as it goes.
He's talented.
He's got the makings of an interesting person, but there's no guarantee he'll get there.
And most of them don't, do they? Your turn.
For what? To tell me something completely honest.
[COUGHS.]
I think I believe my husband killed a man in this room.
[SNICKERS.]
[LAUGHING.]
[BOTH LAUGHING.]
MANUEL: Hernando.
Hernando qué? Rojas.
Eduardo Lopez.
Claudio.
[SPEAKING SPANISH.]
[CHICKENS CLUCKING.]
Manuel.
Teresa.
Tenga buen dÃa, Señora.
Gracias, Manuel.
[HORSE SNORTS.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
MONAHAN: The vaqueros were of limited use anyway.
All they knew about is the actual attack.
They know that Eli McCullough's men shot first.
That's good.
I'm not discounting the importance of that.
Do you want your land back? Don't talk down to me.
Of course I do.
Then you're gonna have to gird yourself do things you'd rather not do.
If you want justice, you've got to drill deep, and you got to drill in the right place.
We've got to prove a whole conspiracy burning the bar, inciting the vigilantes, forging the tax records, faking the auction, bribing the judge.
And these are things that you don't have personal knowledge of.
I know my father paid his taxes.
I would sooner doubt the Scriptures, Señora.
But we need somebody who was on the inside.
Someone who heard the villains admit to their atrocities.
Did you have someone particular in mind? [INSECTS BUZZING.]
[HORSE SNORTS.]
[HORSE NEIGHS.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[BIRD SINGS.]
I need your help.
You need money? No, Peter.
Well, it's too late now.
Whatever you have to ask me now, I can't.
I tried.
You know I tried.
Yes.
I know you did.
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
But that's over.
I'm home now.
I don't blame you for returning to your family.
I understand that you hate me for what I Di I don't.
[HORSE SNORTS.]
I wanted to hurt someone.
I was I I got a new one.
[CHUCKLES.]
Why are you here? I'm alone in the world, Peter.
And I have nothing.
Nothing except the truth about what happened here.
What are you saying? That you are thinking you can take down the Colonel? There are people helping me.
But I need you.
If you back my story, we can I can't.
If you know anything about me I know that you're a good man.
You see your father for what he really is.
[METAL CLANKS.]
[EXHALES SHARPLY.]
You know he needs to be stopped.
I can't do it without you.
I have to go.
Please don't come back here.
[GLASS CLINKS.]
[LIQUID POURS.]
Maria GarcÃa came and talked to me.
[INSECTS CHIRPING.]
[EXHALES SHARPLY.]
This afternoon.
Yeah? She said she wanted me to talk about what happened to the GarcÃas.
I think she's coming after you in court.
For what, exactly? I don't know all of it.
She's got nothing.
She'd want her land back.
Well, it's not me she's coming after, then, is it? It's us.
This whole family.
I guess so.
What did you say? I said she should leave me alone.
And she did.
That's it? She said she had help.
Given everything else going on, I'd say it's a fair bet Standard's backing her.
You didn't have to tell us.
Thank you.
[WATER SLOSHES.]
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACH.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[GRUNTS.]
[GASPS.]
[SPEAKING COMANCHE.]
[GRUNTS.]
[GRUNTS.]
[WHIMPERS.]
[GRUNTS.]
[BOWSTRING CREAKS.]
[ARROW FIRES.]
[ARROW THUDS.]
[ARROW FIRES.]
[SNIFFS.]
- [ARROW FIRES.]
- [GRUNTS.]
- [ARROW FIRES.]
- [GRUNTS.]
[GROANING.]
[GRUNTING.]
[BREATHING HEAVILY.]
[VEHICLE PASSING.]
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Señora.
If you could spare a moment.
[INDISTINCT TALKING IN DISTANCE.]
[SIGHS.]
What do you want? For one, I want to apologize.
When I [CLICKS TONGUE.]
On that day it was never my intention for anyone to die women and children, least of all.
It got out of hand.
I do not to expect you to accept that, but it is the truth.
I will say one more thing.
Though you may find it grotesque, it is also the truth.
I know how you feel to see your family slaughtered in front of your eyes.
Do you know how it feels to sit across from the man who did it? I do.
His name was Toshaway.
He was a Comanche chief.
I came [CLICKS TONGUE.]
in time to look upon him as a father.
Many years later on, after the Apaches killed my wife and my oldest boy, it was different.
[SIGHS.]
I tracked them down, and I killed them all with their families.
I learned what it was like to take revenge.
But having a father was better.
One moment.
One moment.
It's an offer.
Twice what any other landowner is getting.
A one-third royalty deal on all the oil produced on what was your family's land till the end of time.
All you have to do is leave.
For good.
I suggest you have a lawyer look this over for you.
There's more money in that piece of paper than any deal you could strike with Standard Oil.
Even if you won back every inch and half my ranch for good measure, you would never see this much money.
And if my family had lived and not been driven off our lands and we had drilled our own oil like you are doing then we'd have all of it.
Look around us, Señora.
How many families like yours, the old hidalgo families, are left in Texas? [HUFFS.]
So, this is what you tell yourself? That if it hadn't been you, it would have been somebody else? Their time had passed.
Because men like you made it pass.
[LAUGHS.]
We're saying the same thing.
You just don't realize it.
This is your chance to move on, like I have many times - like Pete has to now.
- Pete? He risked his life for you.
He turned his back on his family to get you to safety.
Now he's trying to repair that damage and get his three children back their father.
Whatever you think of me they, at least, are innocent.
[SIGHS.]
I will take this to my lawyers.
Perhaps they will find a way of using it against you.
So, that's it, then, is it? You're out to destroy me, plain and simple.
Yes.