"How are you?"
"I'm the fucking man, and that's all there is to say on that."
Seriously, how many actors could pull that line off and not have it sound forced or hollow, but actually almost understated? McShane is a freaking god in this role.
I notice that you didn't give a lot of attention to Wolcott's massacre, which understandably tends to overshadow the rest of these episodes in people's memories. That's a shame, though, as they're otherwise packed to the brim with potent quotables. Wolcott's recital of the episode's title, for one, is actually rather funny in the darkest fucking way imaginable. And his rationale is also interesting, as he tells Carrie that he doesn't want her to have "seen" him. The notion of seeing or being seen by others seems to be an important aspect of being part of the community to Milch. Al hides himself from everyone when he gets sick, similarly to the way Alma won't let the Doc "see to" her when she's in the way, as it brings with it the prospect of vulnerability and judgment. But with judgment comes the possibility of acceptance, provided you aren't such an unmitigated monster as Wolcott. It seems important to me that while Al insists on presenting a very particular image of himself to the camp when he has the boys help him onto the balcony or into his desk chair, he allows Bullock to see him in his bedclothes despite having recently been ready to cut his throat (which he only forbore because William was watching him).
There's also the flip side to this, in that Deadwood likes to depict kindness in the ways in which characters allow others to be invisible. I'm thinking of the way Bullock and Charlie ignoring Jane's mortifying tale of the Finnish fellow, or the way Charlie generally insists on treating her like a human being despite her determination to be something less. Or how Sol refuses to let Trixie be a whore when she's at the hardware store, despite her constant need to remind him that she's knows it's what she is. Or how Joanie finds a way to tell Charlie about the meeting at the Gem without acknowledging he wasn't invited. Or how Ellsworth volunteers himself for a loveless marriage so as to allow Alma, and by extension the Bullocks, to continue to be seen as they wish to be. Or a whole bunch of interactions in the third season between certain female characters. There seems to be a motif there that one of the ways we show kindness to others is to see them for what they are, but not make them feel like they have been "seen".
