"What did you know about me, Bullock, first we met," Al asks Bullock, as we open with them meeting at the Gem. "No concern for my feelings, huh?" Bullock doesn't even clench before he answers: "That you were a killer."

Al has to nod in acceptance. "Certain facts show in the mug," he says. Dolly walks by at this moment, and Al demonstrates his theory by pointing out certain facts about her. "Look at her," he says. "You know she's fucked for food." Bullock (along with the rest of us) wonders what Al's point could be. "In your mug," Al explains, "there's no such history." Is Bullock a c*nt-driven near-maniac, or a stalwart, Al wonders. He says no one can tell by looking at Bullock's face, because Bullock doesn't know himself. "But you do make a good appearance, so they're prone to grant you their trust," Al concludes, "which we will use as an asset in the coming campaign."

Bullock still ain't getting it. "What's the campaign?" he asks. Al asks for confirmation that Bullock does indeed have a friendship with a judge back in Montana. Bullock says he's cut ties with Montana judge. "Amiably, or owing money?" Al asks. Bullock's had enough of this cat-and-mouse business from Al and tells him that "maybe you're mistrusted less as a killer, than showing your cards one at a time."

Finally, Al explains. He wants to know if Bullock still has pull in Montana so that they can put pressure on Yankton, causing the Dakota big cheeses to believe that Montana is trying annex Deadwood. "Hikin' our skirts to Helena might put Yankton back on its heels," Al says. He goes on to say that he wonders if they shouldn't ruminate publicly, "in loud voices," over forming a new territory, with an eye towards future statehood, "or even our own republic." I knew Al was a militia man.

Bullock thoughtfully strokes his goatee and snarks, "No dictatorship." Al is not amused. "What the fuck do we need a dictatorship for, that silences the public voice? That eases the enemy's way." Al says what he's after is using Bullock to stir up interest among the hoopleheads in rallying behind this potential Montana angle. Bullock says he's not interested. Al leans in for the kill. "Will we, of Deadwood, be more than targets of ass-fucking?" he asks. "To not grab ankle, is to declare yourself interested. What's your posture, Bullock?"

Bullock sighs, and answers, "As you see." Ha! Posture. Al: "Huzzah, then." With that, he raises his glass in tandem with a boozehound who has been watching from the bar.