Hell on Wheels (TV Series)

Chicken Hill (2014)

Jennifer Ferrin: Louise Ellison

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Louise Ellison : [in her newspaper article]  To build the Transcontinental Railroad, Thomas 'Doc' Durant once said, "A man must face his demons and destroy them, or become undone by them." The Hell on Wheels of 1868 is no place for bashful men, the deluded, or unassured. No place for sloppy men, drunk and disorderly in their heavenly vestments, on their way to an early grave. The railroad has contained the West these last three years, with its iron horse and rails pinned to the ground. Each passing day brings with it civilization, if not civility. And men in suits, who do now with their pens what earlier rougher men did with their guns.

  Louise Ellison : Cullen Bohannan, late of the Union Pacific, is more gunman than suit. His return to Cheyenne, these days referred to as the Magic City of the Plains, after months lost to the prairie and presumed dead, with a Mormon wife and child in tow, might be just the grease we need to turn the wheels of our national obsession. Buried these long winter months in snow, and now up to his wheel wells in mud. Or, might he be the match-strike of self-emolation, for Mr. Bohannan has always worn his integrity like a millstone around his neck.

• Louise Ellison : I'm interested in your story, Mr. Bohannan. My readers will be, as well.

  Cullen Bohannan : [chuckles]  Ain't a story, Miss Ellison, just a life. It's mine to live. Nobody's to read about.

• [last lines] 

  Louise Ellison : [in her newspaper article]  The defrocked Chief Engineer's return to Cheyenne means another actor has entered the play, already half finished. With the bombastic dreamer, his legacy depending on completing this road. And the carpetbagging bureaucrat, tasked with bringing civilization to a land that, just yesterday, boasted wild and free. Cullen Bohannon, for reasons this reporter has yet to divine, seems determined to see this road through. Whether he does it as laborer or boss, alive or dead, only time will tell, dear reader. Only time will tell.