Series / Godless

Godless is a 2017 Netflix Western limited series. It stars Jeff Daniels, Michelle Dockery and Jack O'Connell.

In the mining town of La Belle, 83 men — almost the entire male population — died in single mining accident two years ago. Now, with only half-a-dozen men left and no funds to re-open the mine, the town is desperate for another mining company to come in with money (and men) to let their lives resume. For some of the women who have had to step up and run the town since the disaster, however, they don't want to see themselves squeezed out of their own claims, or relegated back to just being the homemakers and support structure.

Coming into this situation is the much pressing — and bloody — situation of Roy Goode and the Frank Griffin gang. Roy, a deadly gunman and bandit, has split with Frank Griffin and run off with the proceeds of their last heist. Furious at the theft, betrayal, and the loss of his left arm to Roy's gun, Frank is leading his men on a bloody crusade across the region, murdering entire towns for harboring Roy. Half-dead from his own wounds, Roy stumbles onto the farm of Alice Fletcher, who lives on the outskirts of La Belle.

All seven episodes were released globally on 22nd November.

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This series provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Martha, Maggie and Alice are all skilled markswomen. The rest of the women of La Belle are Action Survivors when forced against the wall.
• All for Nothing: Marshall Cook is passing through La Belle because he is seeking out a cavalry regiment in the area that he hopes to enlist in the fight against Frank Griffin. This is what allows Frank to set an ambush for Cook and kill him. When Sheriff McNue finally tracks down the regiment, they directly refuse to help because they're more concerned with tracking and fighting Geronimo.
• All Women Are Lustful: Implied to be some of the women's reason for wanting men back in La Belle again.
• Animal Motif: Bees for Frank Griffin. They are often seen swarming around him — and especially his severed arm — and other characters encounter them when following/discussing Frank.
• The Atoner: Roy is trying to make good of his life now that he has rejected Frank.
• Bandit Clan: Frank Griffin leads a crew of over thirty men to terrorize the region. His modus operandi seems to be to find children/young adults with family issues and raise them as his "sons" in the gang.
• Blade Enthusiast: Dyer Howe of Frank's gang wields several knives and is shown throwing them to deadly effect. He carries a pistol but is never shown using it.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Sadie Rose gave birth to her son on the same day of the mining accident which killed her husband and all of the other men in the town. She says that that is why the accident happened, since God was with her at the time instead of at the mine.
• Bittersweet Ending: La Belle recovers from Frank's assault, but loses a huge amount of characters seen throughout the show, including Whitey Winn. Roy also finally ends Frank personally despite suffering heavy injuries. The show closes off with everyone in La Belle paying due to the victims and being able to make their town thrive and Roy leaves all the money from the last robbery he did with Frank to Alice so she can leave town, all while Roy rides off to California to finally reunite with his brother.
• Bawdy Song: Two of the ladies sing "Don't Forget the Girls of La Belle" in the town saloon, a raucous listing of the attributes of women from different locales, but always reminding you not to forget the eponymous girls from La Belle. A much slower, somber version of the song plays over the end credits of the episode.
• Brick Joke: The absence of a town preacher, with a new one arriving 'soon', is a recurring reference/joke throughout the series. The new preacher finally arrives at the end of the final episode, just in time to preside over Whitey's funeral.
• The Cameo: Mixed Martial Arts fighter Donald "the Cowboy" Cerrone has a cameo as a member of Frank Griffin's gang. His biggest moment is looking into the windows of La Belle and shaking his head back at Frank. The casting of fellow UFC veteran Keith Jardine as Dyer Howe was probably a factor in his appearance.
• Captured on Purpose: Roy freely admits who he is to Sherriff McNue and goes willingly with him to prison. He doesn't have some sort of scheme going on though, he is just turning himself in.
• Chekhov's Skill: Sherriff McNue is established to be a crack shot in dialogue and in Alice's flashback, but his vision is too poor for gunfighting these days. In the climax, Griffin's men are backlit by the sun, so he can clearly see their outlines, allowing him to put his rifle marksmanship to use once again.
• Churchgoing Villain: Frank Griffin preaches the bible and stops to attend to the dying sick, even claiming to be a preacher, but in one ranting speech says that there is not actually a god (Or at least not in this territory). He takes offense to people blasphemously swearing, but is also willing to ride his horse into a church and threaten the congregation.
• Cloudcuckoolander: John Doe, the only survivor of the mining accident, has been left touched in the head. Nobody knows his real name — it was his first day in the town and everybody he had been introduced to died in the accident — and he is often stuck repeating the phrase "What's all this then"?
• Company Town: La Belle is a mining town built around a silver deposit. When the mine shut down after the accident, there was no other industry to take its place. In the second episode, the Quicksilver mining company moves in to buy the silver and, in essence, the town itself.
• Cool Old Lady: Iyovi. While she initially appears to be a superstitious old nag, she slowly reveals her coolness as she warms up to Roy. When Roy expresses how impressed he was that she shot out the eye of her target on their hunting trip, she wryly responds that she was aiming for the other eye.
• Coup de Grâce: In the series finale, Roy wins the final duel with Frank, but Frank's wound is not immediately lethal. As Frank repeats his oft-mentioned line about having seen his own death and knowing that this is not how it happens, Roy walks up to him, tells him that he saw wrong, and blows his brains out.
• Creepy Twins: The Devlin brothers, Donnie and Daryl, grin and giggle while participating in the worst of the gang's crimes. In a flashback we learn that they slaughtered their entire family and claimed it was done by "savages". Frank takes them in as sons with full knowledge of their actions.
• Curbstomp Battle:
  • The residents of Blackdom are revealed to be veteran soldiers who chased Griffin's gang out of their area back in the war. When the gang comes to their town, however, they massacre the inhabitants with negligible losses.
  • When Roy Goode confronts the five fleeing security men, he shoots the leader in the leg, causing the other four to immediately back down.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Frank Griffin has his moments.
  Rancher: My name is Ben Broome and I own a spread about 60 miles east of here called the double B.
  Griffin: Lucky you.
  • Another moment has this exchange:
  Griffin: [to a stranger hiding] What's your name?
  Stranger: Fuck you!
  Griffin: Well, Mr. "Fuck you"...
• Death by Childbirth: McNue's wife died giving birth to their daughter Trudy. At her grave in the first episode, Bill admits that though he's trying, he cannot forgive Trudy for killing her.
• Decoy Protagonist: Marshall Cook is the first character introduced in the series, surveying the destroyed town of Creede on the trail of Frank Griffin. It is only after we get further into the episode that Sheriff McNue is introduced as the primary lawman of the series, and we see Roy Goode's story at Alice Fletcher's ranch.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • The women of La Belle being independent and working for themselves are seen as highly unusual
  • While the relationship between the white people of La Belle and the local Native and African Americans are not hostile, they're not exactly cordial either.
• Determined Homesteader: None of the main cast. Alice Fletcher is fed up with being despised and ostracized by the town and plans to move back to Boston, and the entire population of La Belle plans to ride off into the hills rather than face the Griffin gang. Unfortunately, with Alice's son Truckee running off the day before the Griffin gang arrives and all of the town's horses being stolen, they're all stuck right where they are and need to band together despite themselves.
• Disappeared Dad: Truckee's father was murdered years ago, leaving his mother and grandmother to raise him.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Maggie is incensed at the thought that Whitey might have let her win their Quick Draw contest, since she claims that she's faster than him and doesn't need his pity. For his part, Whitey insists that he didn't let her win, but his tone of voice isn't that strident...
• Due to the Dead: After splitting with Frank's gang, and believing himself to be dying from a bullet wound, Roy Goode returns to his hometown to dig up the body of his father, who was just tossed into the ground and buried without a coffin. Roy re-buries him in a proper coffin, but keeps his clothing to wear himself. Roy also buried his pistol and gun belt, plus the loot from the last Griffin robbery, in the coffin as well.
• Dying Town: La Belle has been dying since the mine accident two years ago. With no other industry besides the mine there was nothing to attract new residents, and people have been leaving for better prospects.
• Enemy Mine:
  • There is no love lost between La Belle and the nearby town of Blackdom. In addition to all the racial issues of the time, the La Belle mine also poisoned the water and growing land in Blackdom so they couldn't even feed themselves. When they learn that Frank Griffin and his gang are coming, however, La Belle sends Whitey over to try and talk them into a common defense. Expecting something like this, Frank visits Blackdom the night before his attack in order to persuade them not to help, and winds up massacring the entire town.
  • The entire town hates Alice Fletcher, blaming her for their misfortunes, and after such harsh treatment she hates them in return. Maggie convinces Alice that she would nonetheless be safer in the town with them than alone on her ranch, and they could sure use somebody who actually knows how to use a rifle.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Frank seems to be legitimately regretful when his men wind up massacring the entire population of Blackdom. He had gone there to persuade them not to get involved, and is nearly in tears when his presence spawns the violence he had been trying to avoid.
• Expy: McNue is played by Scoot McNairy, has a degenerative condition and resides in a female-dominated corner of a male-dominated setting. As pointed out by Alan Sepinwall, he's basically Gordon Clark with a six-shooter.
• False Flag Operation:
  • Frank Griffin's family — and their entire wagon convoy — were slaughtered by Mormons masquerading in Native garb. The truth is publicly known but only infrequently believed, as many people think the natives are only blaming the Mormons so that they can avoid punishment.
  • It is heavily implied, but never explicitly stated to the viewer, that Alice Fletcher's attackers in the flashback were also white men masquerading as natives, perhaps even the same band of Mormons as from Frank's backstory.
• Famed In-Story: Despite Frank Griffin being the leader of the gang, it seems to be Roy Goode that is known and feared across the land due to his skills with a gun.
• Fastest Gun in the West
  • Roy Goode is a legendary shootist. When Truckee asks Roy to teach him the various gun-twirling tricks he expects, Roy explains that the only trick he knows is getting his gun out of the holster faster than the other guy. When Roy reclaims his gun and gun belt, he spends a few seconds performing the same type of twirls he had told Truckee he didn't know.
  • Whitey Winn, the town deputy, claims to be the fastest draw in town and spends much of his idle time twirling his guns. When two drunken cowboys ride into town and begin shooting off their pistols, Whitey shows that he is fast by first wounding one in the shoulder, and then wounding the same man again.
• Fatal Flaw: Whitey's fondness of showing off and pride in how fast a draw he is ends up costing him his life at the climax as he boldly walks out to confront Griffin's gang ... except Howe has no interest in a draw contest and just immediately puts a knife to his heart before any words are even spoken.
• A Father to His Men: Frank Griffin commands the respect of his 30 outlaws even after having his arm cut off. He's a literal father to some of them, having adopted a number of boys and young men as their surrogate father.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When they are repairing one of the fence posts on her ranch, Roy and Alice discuss the old wives' tale about gold being buried beneath such posts. The stories go that ranchers would bury it there to hide it from bandits and the government. In the finale, Roy tells Alice that there is one last fence post which needs fixing, and when she goes to set it straight she finds the money that Roy left for her.
  • In the second episodes, Charlotte Temple makes a point that the town hotel is made out of "brick and iron". In the final battle, the hotel is the refuge for the citizens of La Belle because its brick and iron construction make it impervious to being burned down.
  • Griffin makes a point of noting how the Winchester repeating rifle is the most powerful gun in the west, allowing a man to gun down whole swaths of men. Roy and the Sheriff are both later shown gunning down multiple men with rapid rifle fire.
• Foreseeing My Death: Frank is constantly claiming to have foreseen his own death and is fearless in situations that appear to be his end. He will calmly tell people "I have seen my end, and this ain't it." When he tries it one last time after having been shot by Roy, Roy tells him that he saw wrong and blows his brains out.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: While not explicitly mentioned, it is clear the people of La Belle were uneasy with Alice's second husband being Native American, and people often give Truckee a sideways look when they find out the very native looking boy is Alice's son. When Roy once claims that Truckee is his son to defuse a situation, Logan sarcastically remarks that he and the boy's mother must make a handsome couple.
• Hero Killer: The second Frank finds out he has a Marshall on his tail, he sets a trap and takes Cook out.
• Hidden Depths: Boastful, gun obsessed Whitey sneaks off to get violin lessons from Louise, whom he's obviously sweet on.
• Homage: The series ends with a replication of the ending to the classic western Shane as Roy (Shane, a gunfighter) rides off from the now-quiet town to leave them to their own lives. While the film left it a question of what happened to Shane after he rode off, the series follows Roy so we see where he winds up.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Callie is the resident madam, who has also been bankrolling the town since the mine closed down and runs the school.
• Improbable Aiming Skills:
  • Roy Goode is enough of a crack shot to — literally — shoot the head off a snake, which he demonstrates in the first episode when a sidewinder moves to attack an infant. This is partially what gives away his identity, as A.T. Grigg (who already suspected who he was) uses this as confirmation that "Ward" is the famed outlaw.
  • Whitey is so accurate with his pistols that he can graze the face of an attacker while shooting from the hip.
• Injun Country: La Belle sits close to an Indian reservation, but the two communities seem to have no difficulties between them.
• It's Personal: Frank seems to have a nonchalant reaction to the general people who try to stop him, even semi-affable to the lawmen he encounters, but he is enraged over Roy Goode's betrayal.
• Just a Flesh Wound: Numerous character get shot and react with little more than discomfort.
• Karma Houdini: A.T. Grigg, who engineered the final shootout between Griffin's gang and La Belle is shot, but escapes with his life, which is more than can be said about many characters.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Martha. For the final battle, most of the women of La Belle dress in men's clothes. Martha turns up in a beautiful white dress, with a gunbelt over the top. And proceeds to kick more ass than almost anyone else present.
• Lady Land: Downplayed in that there are some men in La Belle, but after the mine collapse killed their husbands the town's mostly run by women.
• Language Barrier: Martha speaks some English, but it's very rudimentary and she spends most of her time speaking German. She and the townspeople can get the vague meaning across via tone and charades, but they have a lot of problems with fine details.
• Lima Syndrome: It's implied that Martha falls in love with the Pinkterton she's kept bound in her cabin.
• Like Brother and Sister: Maggie is very fond of Whitey, even bringing him meals on occasion, and it is implied that he let her outdraw him in order to salve her pride. Maggie seems to be closer to Whitey than to her actual brother, and at the end, Sheriff McNue asks her to speak at his funeral because she knew him best.
• The Lost Lenore: Sherriff McNue's wife, who died giving birth to their second child. He has fallen apart since her death and can't even love his daughter for "killing" her mother.
• Love Before First Sight: Martha's husband hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to track her down after she ran off. When the dispatched detective finally catches up with her, he confesses that he doesn't care at all what her husband wants, since he has fallen in love with her after carrying her picture around for so long.
• Magical Native American: Exaggerated almost to the point of parody. Sheriff McNue keeps encountering one Shoshone man who claims he is just out hunting, but he makes all sorts of cryptic references about McNue's life and follows him no matter where he travels. Eventually McNue begins to wonder if he is hallucinating the entire thing, only to be relieved when Roy says that he, too, can see the Shoshone man.... Until Roy explains that he was with him a few months back and the Shoshone man died. The sequence ends with McNue wondering if he's been seeing a ghost all along, or if Roy is just messing with him.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Sheriff McNue's failing eyesight is a tragic example. He can no longer do his job and believes he'll be completely blind within a year — but then a stranger sells him a pair of second-hand glasses that effectively restore his vision. Being cheap and flimsy, they don't survive the episode, but he at least knows to seek out a pair of his own in the future.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage:
  • The people of La Belle were clearly uncomfortable with Alice's second husband being Native American. She blames his death on these prejudices.
  • Whitey falls in love with Louise from the neighboring black settlement. When her father figures out that Whitey has much more interest in her than music lessons, he is not having it.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Bill McNue confesses at his wife's grave in the first episode that he cannot forgive their daughter for killing her when she was born.
• Mercy Kill: Discussed several times throughout the series in reference to horses being put down after being run out or breaking a leg. In the finale, Frank Griffin explains that you are doing it a favor by ending its suffering. He is speaking as much to Roy, who is following him, and who they both know is coming to kill Frank.
• Mook: Griffin's gang has about nine famous members, with the rest being unnamed and expendable mooks.
• Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight: In the final gunfight, Alice manages to pick knife-user Dyer off from the roof of the hotel with her rifle, completely out of his range.
• No Mans Land: Both figuratively and literally; the frontier is harsh, La Belle is mostly inhabited by women.
• No Name Given: The mysterious Shoshone man that McNue keeps encountering is never named, and is referred to only as "Shoshone Brave" in the credits.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: When Frank Griffin sets it in his mind to kill Marshall Cook, there is absolutely no waver in the execution. He shoots him directly, without any banter or wasted time.
• Not What It Looks Like: Mary Agnes at one point sees her lover Callie Dunne come out from Martha's house, both of them fixing their clothes, making Mary think she's cheating, leading to a big fight between them. Eventually Mary learns, upon visiting Martha, that Callie was actually there to let herself be painted nude for a picture that was to be a gift to Mary. Oh, and Martha always paints wearing nothing but an apron, but that's just her way.
• Odd Friendship: Alice Fletcher isn't actually friends with anybody in the town, but she is at least the most civil with Callie Dunne, the current schoolmarm and former sex worker. It seems that Callie reaches out to her because she understands what it's like to be ostracized.
• Parental Substitute: In a cycle of abuse:
  • Frank was raised by the man who slaughtered his family.
  • Frank adopted Roy as a young boy and raised him in the same ruthless fashion.
  • Roy breaks the cycle, becoming a positive figure for Truckee.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Played with in the case of Roy Goode. He rode with the Griffin gang for over 12 years, is wanted dead or alive, and has been described in one newspaper with the phrase "no virtuous woman is safe" around him. On-screen, however, the audience only sees him rob, assault, and kill "bad guys" such as members of the Griffin gang and Logan's men, all of whom have it coming. His pre-redemption-arc crimes are therefore left to the imagination.
• Plot Armor:
  • Frank Griffin makes no effort to defend himself during the shootout in the street. He dares Maggie and Alice to shoot him, but they are both out of ammo.
  • Sherriff McNue and Roy Goode stand in the center of the street, shooting at Griffin's gang at point-blank range and suffer not a scratch from any return fire.
• Poor Communication Kills: Maggie sees Callie Dunne leaving Martha's shack while re-donning her clothing, and believes that Callie is cheating on her and returning to her former prostitute ways. Callie is hurt at the accusation, particularly the betrayal that Maggie of all people would treat her like the rest of the town does and accuse her of always being a whore. While hiding in Martha's cabin, Maggie sees that she has painted a nude portrait of Callie which Martha explains was to be a gift for Maggie for her birthday.
• Posthumous Character: Anna McNue died in childbirth six years before the start of the series. Bill McNue visits her grave to speak with her, and she appears in flashbacks.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: In the finale, when Frank again says that he has seen his death and this is not how it happens, Roy walks up to him and says that he saw wrong before shooting him dead.
• Quick Draw:
  • When they disagree over how to handle treating Roy Goode, Whitey Winn and Maggie McNue have a non-shooting showdown when Maggie outdraws Whitey and tells him how things are going to be. Later, they argue over whether or not Whitey let Maggie win. Maggie says he better not have since she really is faster than he is, and Whitey insists that she won fair and square.
  • The finale had Roy Goode and Frank Griffin settle their differences in a one-on-one duel. Roy killed Frank, but Frank got a shot off in return and wounded Roy in the stomach.
• Rape as Backstory: Alice Fletcher's experience after the sudden death of her first husband.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The massacre of innocent people aside, one of Frank Griffin's most heinous acts is when he forces one of the wives of two Norwegian immigrants to have sex with him.
• Red Herring: The center episodes of the series set up the Quicksilver mining company as the predominant enemy for La Belle itself, with Logan's goons intimidating nearby people into staying out of their way and setting up to take control of the town. He as much as admits that Quicksilver is going to shuttle in men who will take advantage of the women of La Belle. When it is revealed that Frank Griffin is on his way to the town, Logan's crew head out of town. Their biggest impact on the finale is that they stole the horses that La Belle could have used to escape themselves.
• Red Right Hand: A.T. Grigg, the newspaper man, has a weeping eye he got after a fight with his wife.
• Romancing the Widow: Sheriff McNue has a thing for Alice Fletcher, which his sister is well aware of. Part of the reason that he sets off to track down Frank Griffin is to prove himself to her.
• Sacrificial Lion: After chasing Frank Griffin for the first part of the series, Marshal John Cook is unceremoniously gunned down by Griffin and his men a few episodes in.
• The Scapegoat: Alice Fletcher is blamed for all the town's misfortunes. They claim she put a curse on them which lead to the mining accident, and that she uses her connections with the Paiute to get them to cause problems for the town.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Floyd Wilson is this for the Griffin Gang.
• Schoolmarm: Callie is the current schoolteacher, but she used to be one of the town whores working the brothel. After the mine accident the brothel closed down, and she fell into teaching instead.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ed Logan and his "security" men ride out of town once they learn that Frank Griffin is on his way. They even make a point of stealing all of the town's horses so that the women of La Belle cannot make their own escape.
• Secretly Wealthy: It's not really a secret, but neither is it very well known that Callie Dunne is actually the richest person in La Belle. She works as the local schoolmarm, but she has $20,000 saved from her time working as a prostitute and is single-handedly funding the town's expenses.
• Shame If Something Happened: Ed Logan and the Quicksilver security gang travels to Blackdom to warn the inhabitants from getting involved in La Belle, especially if any of the women come over asking for help. Logan warns that, if they do get involved, then the Quicksilver company won't be able to protect them from the anti-Black laws coming up when the territory gets statehood.
• The So-Called Coward: Sheriff McNue is chastised as a coward in his first scene for never being around when he's needed. We find out that he's not a coward, but his fading eyesight does make him practically useless in a gunfight.
• Solemn Ending Theme: A much slower, somber version of the Bawdy Song "Don't Forget the Girls of La Belle" plays over the end credits of the episode "Dear Roy...".
• Stay in the Kitchen: With the men all gone, the women had to fill many of the public roles in La Belle that they were traditionally barred from. Now that a new mining company is moving into town they expect to be moved out of those roles and back into "proper" feminine positions. Some of the women look forward to this, while others resent losing what they've gained.
• Super-Persistent Predator: In the first episode a sidewinder (rattlesnake) moves into Alice Fletcher's cabin to attack an infant. No species of rattlesnake seeks out humans as prey, and they only attack people when they feel threatened.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Poor, poor Whitey in the climax...
• Tactful Translation: Iyovi does not take to Roy, and calls him several disparaging things and decides to name him "Stray Dog". Truckee, translating for Roy, says she is calling him "Wandering Star".
• That Man Is Dead: Whitey says there is no way "Ward" is the same man on Roy Goode's wanted poster, because Ward stopped Whitey from doing something hurtful and Goode was "one to do the hurting." Roy had apparently been thinking the same thing, as the final episode reveals that he had literally buried his pistol and gunbelt, along with his loot from the Griffin gang, in his father's grave.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Maggie McNue is the pants-wearing, gun-toting, semi-mayor of the town, while Callie Dunne is the refined, sweet schoolmarm.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • A.T. Grigg goes back to La Belle when he knows the Griffin gang is on the way so that he can get the story for his newspaper. Though he is shot several times, he is actually one of the survivors of the battle.
  • For no explicable reason, no men barricade themselves in the hotel along with the women. Several blunder out into the street when Griffin's men arrive and are promptly shot and/or killed. This is especially noticeable in the case of the Pinkerton (who could have been of help in the shootout), who Whitey outright asks after to merely a shrug of Martha. He ends up wandering the streets with his guns calling for Martha and gets shot in the shoulder.
• Too Happy to Live: The penultimate episode ends with a flashback of the day everybody went to work before the mining accident happened, consisting of a montage of both men and women being happy, many of them in love/married, and walking together as the latter follow the former to the mine. Suffice to say this display of happiness is used to highlight the tragedy the viewers knows happens shortly afterward.
• The Unreveal: We never do get to hear what way Frank Griffin had "seen" he'd die since he's, against his disbelief, ultimately killed by a shot to the chest and then head from Roy Goode.
• Vomiting Cop: Not the act of vomiting itself, but when Marshall Cook walks through the carnage at Creede he manages to hold himself together until he comes across a young child hung from a tower. At that sight he drops to his knees.
• Wealthy Philanthropist: In a role reversal, Callie Dunne — the former prostitute — offers to take town-running Maggie McNue away from the hard life in La Belle. After her successful time in the town brothel before it closed down, Callie is now the richest person left in La Belle, and she would like Maggie to leave town with her and put their tragedies behind them.
• The World's Expert (on Getting Killed):
  • Marshall Cook is hot in the trail of Frank Griffin's gang, but Frank gets the drop on him and he's killed in an early episode, leaving the rest of the characters to contend with the gang themselves.
  • Whitey is the most skilled gunfighter living in La Belle, but he's killed before the final gunfight even begins.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • When Sheriff McNue manages to track down Frank Griffin and his gang, Frank compliments him on his "ginger" for not only catching up to them, but having the courage to do so all by himself. Frank briefly holds him at gunpoint before letting him go and wishing him good luck.
  • The only people that Frank Griffin deliberately does not want to antagonize are the residents at Blackdom, many of whom were Buffalo Soldiers who ran his gang all over — and out of — the territory. He views them as a larger threat than any of the lawmen he encounters, and he visits them personally in the hopes of persuading them to stand aside when he attacks La Belle.