- A former confederate soldier journeys to the transcontinental railroad to seek vengeance.
- The year is 1865. President Abraham Lincoln is dead. His legacy remains. The Civil War has ended. Slavery has been abolished. The country has begun to heal. One of Lincoln's last approved congressional acts was the Pacific Railroad Act. It provides for the construction of railroads as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. The Union Pacific railroad has prepared its trek westward, out of Iowa, to meet with the Central Pacific line, coming out of the San Francisco bay. The nation's first great war was over, but its ethical battles remain.
"Tell me about Meridian."- Cullen Bohannon. Union soldiers have killed Cullen Bohannon's wife at Sherman's March and his revenge begins - first at a church in Washington, D.C. then to Council Bluffs, Iowa and its Hell on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time. Hired by Daniel Johnson (Ted Levine), the railroad foreman, Cullen (Anson Mount) supervises an all-black "cut crew" preparing the terrain for track laying. Elam Ferguson (Common), one of the freedmen on the crew, is already indignant, learning Cullen owned slaves before the Civil War. One of Elam's fellow workers, Willie becomes so dehydrated that he hobbles over while working, so Elam takes him to the water fountain to give him water. Johnson soon pulls up on his horse and chastises Elam and Willie for taking a break, and Johnson's horse then rears up and kicks Willie in the head twice, killing him. Although Johnson did not intend for this to happen, he is callous about the death and tells his workers, "This is what happens when you break my rules."
Soon after this, Cullen and Elam take a break in a tent where Elam sharpens a knife, ranting about the poor treatment of blacks and holding up a newspaper which has printed the Emancipation Proclamation, which he says has changed nothing and "might as well wipe my ass with it." Cullen cautions Elam that, if he kills Johnson, he will be hung. Elam implies that he will kill Cullen as well, to prevent having any witnesses. Cullen warns Elam against this, and Elam decides not to. Cullen leaves the tent, advising Elam to let go of the past. Elam asks Cullen if he has, to which Cullen does not reply.
While presuming to drink with Johnson, Cullen listens to him explain that the Civil War caused him to cross moral boundaries he did not think he could. As this is similar to what the man he killed in D.C. said, Cullen instantly suspects Johnson was a member of the group. He asks Johnson if he has ever been to Meridian, Mississippi (where his wife's murder took place). Johnson then leads Cullen at gunpoint outside, telling him he had read news reports of the other murders Cullen committed and had suspected he had come to Hell on Wheels for further revenge. He reveals to Cullen that a sergeant had strangled Cullen's wife and hung her. When Cullen asks what sergeant, Johnson is surprised and tells him the sergeant is at the camp, saying he thought Cullen knew and was planning on killing him last. Cullen demands to know who the sergeant is, and Johnson replies, "Well, it hardly matters now." Elam then comes up behind Johnson and slits his throat. Panicked, Cullen begs Johnson to tell him the sergeant's name, but Johnson dies before he can.
Thomas "Doc" Durant (Colm Meaney) begins his "mad, noble quest" to expand his Union Pacific Railroad westward in order to complete the transcontinental railroad, which he compares to the pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China. He bribes state senators with shares in Crédit Mobilier, the company Durant established to siphon off government railroad subsidies. Durant threatens to reroute his railroad around their states, if they don't invest in his company. After noticing his railroad map designer draws the tracks in straight lines, Durant fires him, since the company gets paid by the government per railroad mile.
Lily Bell (Dominique McElligott), accompanies her ailing husband Robert (Robert Moloney) as he surveys the landscape for the Union Pacific. Lily refuses to leave her husband's side while he's sick. Coughing intermittently (possibly from tuberculosis), Robert reminds Lily that she agreed to return to Chicago before they entered hostile Cheyenne territory. The Cheyenne natives are angered by the expansion and attack the camp, killing several of the workers. Robert and Lily escape with his maps into the woods, but Robert's cough gives them away. A Cheyenne brave shoots Lily in the shoulder with an arrow. Robert then attacks the Indian brave, who stabs him with a knife. Enraged, Lily pulls the arrow out of her own shoulder and drives it into the brave's neck, killing him. Lily then sees that Robert has died from the knife wound, and kisses him farewell before fleeing with the railroad maps.
Reverend Nathaniel Cole (Tom Noonan) baptizes Joseph Black Moon (Eddie Spears), a Cheyenne, in the Missouri River. The two later arrive at Hell on Wheels. Cole observes the assembled prostitutes and drunkards and instructs Joseph to raise the church tent next to them. A prostitute mocks Cole, telling him that "we do our own share of converting around here".
"What is a drama without a villain? What is the building of this grand road if not a drama?" - Thomas "Doc" Durant. In his Pullman car, Durant receives a telegraph informing him about the Cheyenne attack. Concerned about the maps, Durant reroutes to Hell on Wheels. He then rants to what is revealed to be an empty car: "One hundred years hence, when this railroad spans the continent, and America rises to be the greatest power the world has seen, I will be remembered as a caitiff, a malefactor, who only operated out of greed for pure personal gain. All true, all true, but remember this: without me and men like me, your glorious railroad would never be built."
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Pilot (2011) in Brazil?
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