She's a GREAT Samaritan
Chris: You'd better git before I do something you'll regret.
Buck and JD show up at a camp of whores for a good time. Chris is already there. Turns out the camp owner is a sadistic tyrant who beats up a girl named Nora while the boys are there. This doesn't sit well with Buck or Chris, who take the girl with them. Mary is livid that Chris has brought working girls into town. She's even more furious when several other whores show up on the run from their owner. Lydia, the one with her eye on Chris, clashes with Mary right away. Ezra schemes to get husbands for the ladies (with a finders fee of course). They hide the girls for a while then try to trick the girls' owner into thinking the girls are dead. That doesn't work long and Mary is kidnapped. Ezra ends up in a dress causing a diversion while Chris saves Mary. Ezra's mail order bride scheme falls through in the end when the girls all decide to go to Frisco.
This is probably my least favorite episode ever. There are a lot of reasons for that, mainly because the writing for this episode is sloppy and confusing.
First off, the confusion. The whole "Chris in the whore camp" bit is confusing. I don't fault the man for wanting to blow off a little steam, but it's never clear that that's what he's doing there. Sure he seems familiar with Lydia, but the way she talks about him and around him it seems like he certainly hasn't been around her in an intimate way. It's like the writers didn't want to come out and smear Chris by saying he was sleeping with prostitutes, yet they keep it so vague you wonder what the heck Chris was doing in the camp then. There's also a double shot of the camp owner dropping his gun. Then there's the ridiculous issue with Vin pulling the pin that hooked the harness to the wagon. That NEVER would have worked, because that pin would have had the pressure of the horses pulling the wagons on it and even if Vin were he-man, he wouldn't have been able to pull the pin out without the wagon stopping. Also, how the heck did Ezra get into the camp in that dress? He couldn't have changed there, which means he either rode side saddle out there or walked, because there was no carriage to be seen.
Then there's the out of character. Mary is ridiculously out of character. Her snotty insistance that the girls have to go is not at all like her generally very accepting self. Even if she was disapproving, it was very out of character that she was so aggressively rude about it. She's a charitable soul and generally pretty sensible so you'd think she'd be a little more forgiving of women down on their luck, especially when she isn't the highest example of feminine gentility. A woman running a paper? Very unusual for the time, even if she was a widow. She's also no model mother and has very little room to talk.
Then there are the historical errors. As a history teacher, these bug me. Ezra's plan of providing for the women, mercenary as it is, probably would have been much more accepted by the girls. The way they talk they're headed off to Frisco to try their whorin' there because they like it so much and they want to be independent women. I'm sorry, but that's a modern idea seeping in there. In truth, a real woman at that time and in that situation would have jumped at Ezra's opportunity. Prostitutes died young and very few "liked it". They seem to think back water whore and high class courtesan are the same thing, and they weren't at this point in time. For these girls to be at this podunk town, they would have been the bottom of the barrel and never been able to make a respectable brothel in a big town. No one seems to remember that there were classes of prostitutes at this point.
Then there was the fact that all the character were rather unlikable, save Josiah who was fairly awesome. Chris is either sleeping around or very confused about things, I still can't quite condone Buck and JD paying for sex especially knowing what I do about prostitution at this time, Mary is a self righteous snot, Nathan gets all up in Ezra's grill for "selling" the women and while that sentiment might be nice it really wasn't what Nathan made it out to be, Ezra was far smarmier than usual. Everyone was just sort of unpleasant.
I did love Josiah though and his comment about what was underneath being the nicest. I also loved his hell fire and brimstone speech while the women were hiding. I liked Buck's back story. It makes complete sense that he worships at the cult of women if his mother was a prostitute and he was raised in a brothel. That wasn't uncommon at all for the time. I give mad props to Anthony Starke being able to sing rather competently in a high falsetto, also Ezra adjusting his boobs before he goes in the tent is priceless as is his very manly walk out of the brawl in the dress at the end. Gah he makes an ugly woman.
I liked Chris carrying Nora away. This was such a classic hero saving the damsel in distress pose and it hit every kink for me.
Chris is less than impressed by Mary's hostility towards the working girls.
Ezra hams it up with the "consumption" as they try to hide the girls from the pimps. Melodrama thy name is Ezra.
And sometimes Ezra is just flat out pretty.
He's incredulous about your ideas.
Another great shot and DANG is Ezra short.
That stupid lynch pin.
Ezra wishes everyone would take him a little more seriously.
And Ezra has some very hurt feelings when Nathan lights into him. He hides it pretty quick, but he really does care about Nathan's opinion of him. And honestly I really don't see how this plan was really that bad, especially when Buck and Josiah were obviously going along with it.
Ezra can't figure out why everyone is staring at him.
Ezra is less than thrilled to be playing a lady.
I sort of love Chris when he was so adament about knowing whether Mary was okay. I do love Chris, even though his emo cowboy act gets a little old.
And Chris gets between Mary and the gun. Good man.
All caps from strangevisitor7
Buck and JD show up at a camp of whores for a good time. Chris is already there. Turns out the camp owner is a sadistic tyrant who beats up a girl named Nora while the boys are there. This doesn't sit well with Buck or Chris, who take the girl with them. Mary is livid that Chris has brought working girls into town. She's even more furious when several other whores show up on the run from their owner. Lydia, the one with her eye on Chris, clashes with Mary right away. Ezra schemes to get husbands for the ladies (with a finders fee of course). They hide the girls for a while then try to trick the girls' owner into thinking the girls are dead. That doesn't work long and Mary is kidnapped. Ezra ends up in a dress causing a diversion while Chris saves Mary. Ezra's mail order bride scheme falls through in the end when the girls all decide to go to Frisco.
This is probably my least favorite episode ever. There are a lot of reasons for that, mainly because the writing for this episode is sloppy and confusing.
First off, the confusion. The whole "Chris in the whore camp" bit is confusing. I don't fault the man for wanting to blow off a little steam, but it's never clear that that's what he's doing there. Sure he seems familiar with Lydia, but the way she talks about him and around him it seems like he certainly hasn't been around her in an intimate way. It's like the writers didn't want to come out and smear Chris by saying he was sleeping with prostitutes, yet they keep it so vague you wonder what the heck Chris was doing in the camp then. There's also a double shot of the camp owner dropping his gun. Then there's the ridiculous issue with Vin pulling the pin that hooked the harness to the wagon. That NEVER would have worked, because that pin would have had the pressure of the horses pulling the wagons on it and even if Vin were he-man, he wouldn't have been able to pull the pin out without the wagon stopping. Also, how the heck did Ezra get into the camp in that dress? He couldn't have changed there, which means he either rode side saddle out there or walked, because there was no carriage to be seen.
Then there's the out of character. Mary is ridiculously out of character. Her snotty insistance that the girls have to go is not at all like her generally very accepting self. Even if she was disapproving, it was very out of character that she was so aggressively rude about it. She's a charitable soul and generally pretty sensible so you'd think she'd be a little more forgiving of women down on their luck, especially when she isn't the highest example of feminine gentility. A woman running a paper? Very unusual for the time, even if she was a widow. She's also no model mother and has very little room to talk.
Then there are the historical errors. As a history teacher, these bug me. Ezra's plan of providing for the women, mercenary as it is, probably would have been much more accepted by the girls. The way they talk they're headed off to Frisco to try their whorin' there because they like it so much and they want to be independent women. I'm sorry, but that's a modern idea seeping in there. In truth, a real woman at that time and in that situation would have jumped at Ezra's opportunity. Prostitutes died young and very few "liked it". They seem to think back water whore and high class courtesan are the same thing, and they weren't at this point in time. For these girls to be at this podunk town, they would have been the bottom of the barrel and never been able to make a respectable brothel in a big town. No one seems to remember that there were classes of prostitutes at this point.
Then there was the fact that all the character were rather unlikable, save Josiah who was fairly awesome. Chris is either sleeping around or very confused about things, I still can't quite condone Buck and JD paying for sex especially knowing what I do about prostitution at this time, Mary is a self righteous snot, Nathan gets all up in Ezra's grill for "selling" the women and while that sentiment might be nice it really wasn't what Nathan made it out to be, Ezra was far smarmier than usual. Everyone was just sort of unpleasant.
I did love Josiah though and his comment about what was underneath being the nicest. I also loved his hell fire and brimstone speech while the women were hiding. I liked Buck's back story. It makes complete sense that he worships at the cult of women if his mother was a prostitute and he was raised in a brothel. That wasn't uncommon at all for the time. I give mad props to Anthony Starke being able to sing rather competently in a high falsetto, also Ezra adjusting his boobs before he goes in the tent is priceless as is his very manly walk out of the brawl in the dress at the end. Gah he makes an ugly woman.
I liked Chris carrying Nora away. This was such a classic hero saving the damsel in distress pose and it hit every kink for me.
Chris is less than impressed by Mary's hostility towards the working girls.
Ezra hams it up with the "consumption" as they try to hide the girls from the pimps. Melodrama thy name is Ezra.
And sometimes Ezra is just flat out pretty.
He's incredulous about your ideas.
Another great shot and DANG is Ezra short.
That stupid lynch pin.
Ezra wishes everyone would take him a little more seriously.
And Ezra has some very hurt feelings when Nathan lights into him. He hides it pretty quick, but he really does care about Nathan's opinion of him. And honestly I really don't see how this plan was really that bad, especially when Buck and Josiah were obviously going along with it.
Ezra can't figure out why everyone is staring at him.
Ezra is less than thrilled to be playing a lady.
I sort of love Chris when he was so adament about knowing whether Mary was okay. I do love Chris, even though his emo cowboy act gets a little old.
And Chris gets between Mary and the gun. Good man.
All caps from strangevisitor7