In Hearst's rooms, Langrishe pays a call and, after some small talk about Hearst's recent wounds and his back ailment, goes full-on Greek Chorus on our asses. I'm already on page two trillion, so allow me, please, to break it down. He tells Hearst that Deadwood is not the town in which Fate has chosen Hearst to meet his Destiny, but that the same cannot be said of his friend, Al. "And Mr. Bullock," Hearst smarts, "who took me by the ear?" Langrishe says that Bullock, too, "less possessing his character than possessed by it," is also someone for whom the outcome must be soon. But for Hearst, Langrishe says, the earth entertains some larger purpose to be told to him elsewhere, and at another time. Ah, now Jack is speaking his language -- that whole "Boy the Earth Talks To" thing we so love to hear Hearst repeat. Not. "I imagine she still speaks to me still, the earth," Hearst says, "what's inside her, how to get it out." Ugh. Langrishe somehow listens to this without calling Hearst a drama queen, and says that listening and following the directions of the earth can mean a lonely life for any man. "The mountain I must go up on, Mr. Langrishe, I have ascended before," Hearst tells him. "It's in Montana, and I came down it with silver, suspecting there was copper too, and now I'm told that's true." Jack is shocked. "Do I understand you to say," he gapes, "[that] you're leaving us?" Hearst: "For the Anaconda, yes," he says. That's right! He's taking his ball and going home! But first, he says, he'll hear the election returns and see the whore who shot him in her coffin. Yes, well... priorities, right? Langrishe leaves, his face registering much shock.

Dan's at the Gem's bar when Al comes down from upstairs. "Box her in my office," Al says with a tinge of regret, and Dan asks if he wants Jewel sent up to clean the mess. "If I'm having her boxed in my fucking office, don't I want the blood left for the cocksucker to see?" Al asks. Dan nods and heads upstairs to do the job. "And when that's over," Al asks, "if we're still alive, I'll clean my own fuckin' mess up." As Dan goes up, Al adds one final, tired instruction: "Look in on Johnny, see if he's grown the fuck up."

Merrick and Blazanov come in with early results from the Sturgis voting. It's a landslide for Harry Manning. "Heavy turnout among the bivouacked military," Merrick says, blue. They all see Trixie come in the back door, carrying clothes, followed by Bullock and Sol, who reports that Hearst should be there within the hour. Al looks at Bullock. "How do you think you might enjoy private life?" he asks. Bullock: "Sturgis?" Blazanov:"970 votes for Harry Manning, 68 votes for Mr. Bullock." Bullock clenches, but he's not surprised.