/r/Hell_On_Wheels
Subreddit for the TV series, Hell on Wheels, starring Anson Mount.
A subreddit for the AMC series Hell on Wheels.(http://www.amctv.com/shows/hell-on-wheels)
"Set in the 1860s it centers on former confederate soldier Cullen Bohannan, whose quest for vengeance has led him to the Union Pacific Railroad's westward construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad."
Episode Discussions
Season 5
Season 4
Season 3
Season 2
Season 1
Useful Links
Other Subreddits
/r/Hell_On_Wheels
They sing let your hammer ring as they finish the episode. But they sing it another time as well somewhere through the show, I remember Lily bell seeing them working and singing. But I can’t find the scene or episode
I saw the flash forward in "any sun within reason", and it appears that he dies alone of a disease or something after meeting and paying for lunch with someone else? Thx!
I learned that this series existed via Reddit about a month ago. After watching this first episode, I was hooked. Finished the series this past weekend. Very impressed on how good the acting, writing, realistic the series has been. I see that it came out in 2012 on AMC, was it not heavily advertised then? I watched breaking bad but not walking dead nor sons of anarchy. So was it not advertised during BB as they were trying to push low winter sun?
EDIT: SPOILERS
So my GF had me watch twilight and Christopher Heyerdahl is a character throughout the series. Doesn’t say much but the second I saw him I got excited and said “THATS THE SWEED!!!” She didn’t know what I was talking about so I had to start watching Hell on Wheels with her
I forgot how amazing of a villain he was, but I gotta ask y’all… was I the only one who, after seeing his whole story, actually got sad when he said “…but I’m Norwegian?” While he was in the cell before his death after he asked to play a harmonica again?
I may be a little too into his arc, but he is, I think, the only villain I hated but genuinely felt bad for when he finally died.
Thanks for reading my book. Have a nice night yall!!
NOTE: HEAVY SPOILERS
So I watched HoW way back when it first came out, which I guess is at least a decade ago now. I am rewatching it now, almost through the final season. There are many scenes and plot points that I coherently remembered this entire time, and even thought about years after I last watched it, that all match up with what I have seen with watching through it now... except for one thing: I remember a totally different ending involving Thor Gunderson.
So here is his ending that we do get: Thor goes to kill Collen's Mormon wife and kid, Collen shows up to save them and attempts to drown Thor in a river BUT THEN PULLS HIM OUT, drags Thor to an army camp where they hang Thor. And that's that. I had ZERO recollection of this scene when I watched it yesterday, especially the camp and the hanging.
Here is the ending that I remember: Thor ends up killing Collen's second family (in a fire, like his first family), Collen then drowns Thor into a river and leaves his body to float down the river with gospel chorus like music playing, and that is the last that we see of him. And before Collen kills him, Thor tells Collen that he may die but he is the devil, and he will always keep coming back after Collen like a curse. I distinctly remember this scene.
This river scene I remember also took place in a remote stretch of river in an open grassy plateau; in fact, earlier in the series, there is a scene where Brigham walks Thor up a hill in a remote spot to ask him who he really is, and I was confident that not only was this the place where I expected Thor to be killed at, but also that this scene intentionally showed this location for that purpose.
I fully expected to see that scene and I was surprised when it didn't happen. Maybe I should have held off from making this post until I watch the last few episodes, in case this all does actually happen somehow, but this is on my mind now lol.
Went searching for a show on Disney+ and Hell on Wheels was suggested. Don’t know if this is only in the USA though.
Been watching Hell on Wheels for yet another watch through. Always liked Cullen and Lily together so I figured I would make an entire YouTube video with all there interactions on the show. Feel free to check it out!
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShihnXqWQVk
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aCBa5WHT2g
Hope everyone enjoys!
Also please note if you are in Ireland or the United Kingdom this video is blocked due to copyright.
someone here asked for it & honestly i thought there would be a LOT more Dammit Elams
I gotta go Augustus Bendix. This guy is such an amazing weirdo.
I'm at the beginning of season 3 of a rewatch and hit a classic bohanan "damnit Elam" and went looking for a supercut of all the shows "damnit Elam"s. Couldn't find one, was hoping you guys have it?
also! the scenes being on beat is all done manually, my dad was like “damn did you have a tool set the scenes to the beats?” & i was like “….that exists? would’ve been nice to know five hours ago”
So just rewatched the series and it kind of bugs me that Bohannon gets a fresh start/happy ending despite being dare I say one of the more evil characters on the show.
Spoilers ahead.
Slave owner: despite his wife being against it he admits he never freed his slaves.
War criminal: he murdered potentially dozens of wounded men and unarmed doctors on a train, says he used his pistol till the barrel was red hot.
So just to keep track, he’s doing all these horrible things BEFORE he loses his wife and son, so we can’t even say he was a good person before being struck by tragedy, he starts as a mass murderer and slave owner.
Murderer: he murders a whole bunch of people to avenge his family… you could argue that’s justified… but he also murders a completely innocent sergeant Harper.
Armed robber: Loses his job and immediately joins a gang and becomes an armed robber that not only steals from the railroad but also any innocents who happen to be on these trains.
Had a thing for young girls: goes to some guys house to evict him and then knocks up his teenage daughter. Then goes after Mei… another teenage girl.
Bad father/husband: Constantly puts the railroad ahead of his Mormon wife and son, later abandons them.
Cullen is a genuinely horrible person and feeling bad about the terrible things he’s done seems to get him a pass for some reason.
I’m genuinely curious if the writers of the show were southern lost causers as his character seems to be this romanticized heroic and honorable southern gentleman while while every northerner seems to be mustache twirling evil (except grant… but only because he admires our honorable southern gentleman)
Still like the show, but would have much preferred he ended up being hanged like the Swede, despite all the evil he did he never faces justice
Love this show to death. On my fourth or fifth rewatch, and I swear, every time I find something new to cry at. First time I bawled my eyes out when Ruth was hanged, then when Cullen says goodbye to Naomi and William and tells him the things he'd teach him if he got to raise him, then the whole Elam death sequence. Also shoutout to the Swede and Cullen's road trip when Cullen brings him in to hang, that whole part was so heavy. Do you guys have any plot beats/scenes that touched you in particular?
Banished and called heretics? I feel like I missed something.
Did I miss something here - how is this his strategy?
Assuming everyone here has seen the show in its entirety, I probably need not explain further how poor Ezra ended up. Now, I might've been fine with that kind of ending if the show had delivered on tying up all the loose ends of Ezra's "arc" first.
Imo, at the point where the Swede kills Ezra's parents and tells him: "I'll find you too! I always do!", it's so clear to me that they had a future confrontation between these two in mind.
Why else show the audience the apparent "bond" they formed before Thor showed his true colours? Why else let Ezra be the sole survivor who then ends up with Bohannon and co.?
Why set all this tension up, only to not deliver on any of it by having Ezra become a simple tool in order to end Ruth's story?
I might be overanalyzing, but I genuinely feel like the original idea was for Ezra and the Swede to run into each other again, taking us back to Thor's words about "always finding" him. This would, in turn, give Bohannon yet another reason to hate the Swede, and basically, a lot of things would've made more sense AND tied up those loose ends I talked about too.
I kept waiting for Ezra to just-- you know, actually tell Ruth and Bohannon about what happened to him to make him an orphan, but literally nothing of the sort happens, even after Ezra realizes he can trust them. Huh?!
Inexplicably, he doesn't even tell them his surname, which makes his death even more sad and pointless because now, literally no one except the Swede knows the truth about what actually happened to the Dutsons and their son (and of course, the Swede doesn't mention it again). To the rest of the world, Ezra is and will be remembered as just another orphan without a backstory.
It boggles my mind how the writers apparently gave up on, or just forgot how to follow through on things they've built up to. Or was all that build-up somehow unintentional on their part?
What do you guys think? I can't be the only one who feels like Ezra's ending was wholly unsatisfying from a storytelling standpoint, right? It's been a few years since I finished the show now, and I didn't find much fault in it for the most part, but THIS... This loose end and how things could've been improved continues to haunt me, lol.
Why is the railroad just abandoned at the start? Seems awfully confusing.
For me it’s: Thomas Durant, The Swede, & Psalms!
To borrow a line from Mr. Toole regarding Mr. Durant S4 and on “He may be a son of a bitch…but he’s OUR SON OF A BITCH!!!” 😁
Hell on Wheels is a criminally underrated show. A show that’s some how flown under the radar. The longterm story telling is just beautiful 🧡
Title. Looking for the track on the OST they play when the Indian races the train.
It took 5 seasons, and experience, for Cullen to come to terms with his own past.
A rare moment where Bullock thinks about the consequences of his actions. Thinky pain as Marc Maron calls it
I finally pulled the plug and bought the complete series for the series and I was surprised when it arrived that it was just a collection of the individual season cases all put together. I thought they would have done something more like Mad Men or Breaking Bad or other show complete collections. Oh well 🤷♂️
Also, hi from a new mod!
I was thinking that maybe they didn't know about it. But naw Google says Alcohol has been used as an antiseptic since at least 1363. I know they were not that educated but as a field medic and the doctors, NOBODY poured booze on any wound!!
I know there's an episode that contains an old hymn and it's bothering me I can't remember the hymn or episode its in. I am not looking for "In The Sweet By and By" sung at the beginning of the episode just before Ruth is hung.