Episode Report Card Al Lowe: A | 1 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Suffer The Little Children
By Al Lowe | Season 1 | Episode 8 | Aired on 05.08.2004
The little girl comes to the bedside now, saying Trixie's name in a worried little voice. Trixie tries to reassure her, but the tiny squarehead has come to say something else. "Sophia," she says, pointing to herself. "Sophia." For some reason, possibly because my heart is not actually made of stone as hard as diamonds, this little moment has caused the tears to flow not once, but twice. I'm not a statue, people. Sometimes even a strangely bewigged child actor can bring on the waterworks. Trixie says the little girl is so beautiful, she should have guessed it. "Take her home, Mrs. Garret," she says, smiling. Mrs. G rises, asking what Trixie thinks of her suggestions. "You sure that gold's real?" Trixie asks, and when the widow says she is, Trixie asks her to leave her to think things through.
Miles is loitering around with a buxom whore on the floor of the Bella Union when Flora walks straight to Joanie to announce that she's quitting. "All right, Flora," Joanie says, not questioning this. "I left a pin up in your room," Flora says, rudely. "I want to go look for it." Joanie tells her to go ahead and look, and as she goes upstairs, Cy comes over and angrily asks when Flora is going to finally get into her "work clothes" and make them some money. Joanie flatly tells him Flora has quit. "Yet that seems to be your room she's walking into, once again," Cy smarms. Joanie tells him about Flora looking for her pin. Cy ain't buying it, at all. Joanie merely rolls her eyes, however, and heads upstairs herself. Flora, as expected, is rifling through all of Joanie's things, and when the older woman walks in, neither seems at all surprised. "Can you tell the stones from the paste?" Joanie asks dryly. Flora only smirks, telling Joanie to show her the difference. Joanie says she doesn't think so, no, and tells Flora to put down the things and get out and she won't raise hell. "Why don't you let me go with your things," Flora smarts off, "and shut your fucking mouth because I remind you of whoever the fuck I remind you of." Oh, girl. First of all, it's so weird to see Kristen Bell dropping such a vicious series of F-bombs, but what's even weirder is how much I enjoy seeing her do it.Joanie gives her the dead eyes. "No," she says. "Now what are you gonna do, Flora, kill me?" Flora goes for her knife, and all Joanie can do is look even more heartbroken and sick. "Do you think you're going to get out of here alive?" she asks. Flora says she'll give it a goddamn whirl. "You're not gonna get out alive," Joanie says, so very miserably. "You're gonna die here." Despite this emotional display, Flora is unmoved. She steps closer to Joanie, asking who it is she reminds Joanie of: "Your little baby? Your little sister? You?" But Joanie can't even answer, so aware is she of how things are bound to work out. She lets Flora leave the room with all her jewels, and the girl doesn't even make it to the bottom of the stairs before Cy cuts her off. They have a little small talk -- Flora tells him she's just not cut out for it after all -- and things quickly get nasty. Flora tells him to step aside and let her do her business, and Cy loses it. "What is your fucking business?" he yells, furious, just as Joanie comes out to try and salvage it. "She just came to say goodbye, Cy," she says. "She's moving on." Smug, Flora gives Cy a look so cold, my TV screen fogs over. Cy can't take it. "Don't feel right to me, babe," he says, maximum evil, and smacks Flora across the face, knocking her to the floor, "but if I am mistaken, may I regret what I just did for the rest of my life." Joanie pleads for him to now let the girl go, but Flora won't risk that. While on the ground, she fishes out her knife and drives it straight into Cy's leg. I applaud her quick thinking, but the rest of this plan doesn't go so well. Screaming, she runs back up the stairs, grabs Miles, and the two of them head to the balcony, where they shimmy down to their awaiting horses. Or that's what they would do, if Cy hadn't already tipped off his henchmen. "Don't impede her progress, Joanie," Cy says as he heads out to watch the show. "Don't do nothin' rash." And what a show it is -- the goons grab both kids, and a beatdown of serious proportions takes place in the thoroughfare for all to see. I'm talking headlocks with punches straight to the brain. It is brutally awful. I don't even know how they filmed it -- kudos to whoever did the stunt planning and the sound mixing, because it looks and sounds like a double murder being committed. People tentatively stop to watch, all sickened, but nobody stops it, not even Doc, who is still administering shots across the street. Sol steps out, yelling to Cy, asking what's going on. "Them two robbed my joint," Cy shrieks, as the thrashing continues, "and that's where they're gonna get dealt with." Sol: "Then I guess they needn't get beat anymore out here." Cy mutters to the giggling henchmen to drag the kids inside. They do, Flora by her neck. "You can help your delicate sensibilities," Cy tells the crowd, "by turning the fuck away." Man, that was awful. But it's about to get awfuller.