‪[Esau] These badges we wear on our chests,
‪made from different materials.
‪Mine a star cut from a ‪cinco‪ peso piece.
‪[Bass] My prisoner a good man.
‪I trust you'll see he get a fair trial.
‪My prisoners always get what they deserve.
‪I see you got yourself into some trouble.
‪All in a day's work.
‪Marry me, Calista.
‪You can't afford the ring ‪it'll take to hitch me.
‪This the one who done Webb.
‪[gunshot]
‪Good work, Billy Crow.
‪I'm leavin'. I can't stay here-- ‪they'll have my neck.
‪You got nothing to worry about.
‪Maybe you don't, ‪but my last name ain't Reeves.
‪Well, you must have heard the stories
‪about Black men disappearing.
‪Slavery is supposed to be dead,
‪but it is only wounded.
‪Texas Rangers received the boots
‪of prisoner Jackson Cole.
‪Who makin' Black men disappear?
‪Bass Reeves. Mr. Sundown.
‪The ‪cinco‪ peso.
‪Don't you see? Heaven is ‪full of killers, Bass Reeves.
‪[slow, dramatic music]
‪You was good to me.
‪Be good to them now.
‪[sighs]
‪Know why I'm here?
‪Want to say your goodbyes?
‪[indistinct chatter]
‪[clamoring]
‪[shouting]
‪[ragged whooping]
‪[Parker] ‪‪When you've sat on this bench,
‪for as long as I have,
‪you come to regard misfortune
‪with a certain dispassion.
‪This is no different.
‪In the case of Bass Reeves,
‪a deputy marshal assigned to this court,
‪who has been tried for the murder…
‪[Parker's voice echoes indistinctly]
‪At this date,
‪the jury has determined…
‪[soaring, triumphant music]
‪[Mary] ‪Jennie, you've mastered ‪what I've spent
‪46 years of matrimony wrestling.
‪-How's that? ‪-[chuckles]
‪-My husband's sitting still. ‪-[Parker chuckles]
‪[Parker] Being on that bench ‪all day, day in and day out…
‪[continues indistinctly]
‪[Esau] ‪I always said ‪we weren't so different,
‪except that one thing.
‪[dialogue inaudible]
‪[Esau] ‪Heaven is full ‪of killers, Bass Reeves.
‪And by His grace, they'll welcome me
‪as they will welcome you.
‪But all this blood on your hands…
‪I was thinking a little time ‪at home could do Bass well.
‪[Jennie] Now there's an idea.
‪That don't seem necessary to me.
‪There he is.
‪[all chuckling]
‪[quiet music]
‪Judge Parker suggested ‪a spell of lighter fare.
‪I've got us a fine cook here, Bass.
‪Came recommended by Heck Thomas.
‪Word is his beans? ‪Even better than his biscuits.
‪Mm.
‪Come on.
‪[echoing] ‪We know our own.
‪I saw you.
‪You are a wolf, Bass.
‪We know our own.
‪Nah, you a monster.
‪What the hell you say?
‪Nothin'.
‪[tense music]
‪[quiet, melancholy music]
‪[knock at door]
‪You left him?
‪Our visit with you and Bass made ‪an impression on both of us.
‪I asked him how he could build a new world
‪when his own home wasn't even in order.
‪He asked me if that mattered. [sniffles]
‪Esme, dear.
‪Truth is,
‪I always knew Edwin's dreams were pure,
‪but his heart couldn't follow.
‪Let's get you inside.
‪[sobs, sniffles]
‪[Jennie] ‪I kept waiting on Bass for this,
‪I might get to play at my own funeral.
‪That your way of saying thank you?
‪-A way. ‪-[chuckles]
‪None of my business, but…
‪how do you two handle it?
‪What?
‪The miles between.
‪[chuckles]
‪[sighs] I've grown stronger, I suppose.
‪But Bass?
‪His children hardly ‪even notice him anymore.
‪Even when he around here,
‪he like a shadow on the floorboards.
‪Still.
‪He tries to do right by them.
‪Trying is different than being.
‪He's dedicated to you.
‪Bass is dedicated to justice.
‪To some kind of fancy ideal ‪he keep buried in his heart.
‪Right there under that badge.
‪Seems sometimes there's hardly much room
‪for anything or anyone else.
‪Duty and law. Just like blood and bone.
‪Forgive me, Lord,
‪but that man has been baptized ‪in your name, Jennie.
‪I should be so lucky.
‪This piano is gonna be finer
‪than any Mistress Reeves ‪ever dreamt of owning.
‪[chuckles softly]
‪Who would've imagined that.
‪[chuckling]
‪[knock at door]
‪Hello.
‪Is this the Reeves household?
‪It is.
‪Is Bass home?
‪Mister Reeves is away.
‪Was there something I could help you with?
‪How about Sally?
‪Would you like to come inside ‪while I fetch her?
‪I have to leave now.
‪[gentle, dramatic music]
‪Sally Sharon Reeves!
‪I just told that girl to mind her manners.
‪To a white girl?
‪You know better.
‪Does Daddy know better?
‪Cause I did exactly what he would've done.
‪She ain't wrong.
‪You want to check back into the Railhead?
‪I'll accompany you.
‪And you.
‪Don't act like ‪you're too old for a whupping.
‪Yes, ma'am.
‪Ma'am.
‪How do?
‪[Bass] Hot as a pepper dipped in fire.
‪[woman] Don't I know.
‪Seems like ol' Scratch ‪got the upper hand of late.
‪Looking for a' Moody O'Neil.
‪Got a writ in my pocket ‪with his name on it.
‪Happen to know where he is?
‪Sitting on this porch.
‪[Billy chuckles]
‪Afternoon, Missus O'Neil.
‪I put on my prettiest hanging dress.
‪Just didn't know ‪if it would be you or a mob.
‪That ain't gonna be necessary.
‪Will it, ma'am?
‪Well, I'm told I entered ‪this world quiet as the night.
‪No squalling or fussing.
‪I intend to leave it the same way.
‪No personal effects, sorry to tell you.
‪Well…
‪you gonna want to take this.
‪It's what I kilt him with.
‪[melancholy music]
‪[crickets chirping]
‪Your daddy learnt with turkeys.
‪It was William Reeves,
‪George's father, that taught him,
‪but…
‪I think he was born knowing ‪how to squeeze a trigger.
‪They'd travel to contests, ‪and Bass always won.
‪And then, they'd come back ‪with a whole wagon chock-full.
‪Master William kept the money, ‪of course, but Bass,
‪he got all them big old birds, ‪round as pumpkins.
‪And Pearlalee would cook 'em up,
‪and all of us would eat and eat ‪until our bellies about burst,
‪-round as pumpkins, too. ‪-[children giggle]
‪I've been told ‪your daddy never missed a shot.
‪Not once.
‪Mama!
‪[gasps]
‪Get upstairs.
‪Now. Go to your room.
‪Go. Get upstairs.
‪Sally.
‪-Don't come out till I say. ‪-[child crying]
‪[slow, tense music]
‪[insects trilling]
‪[melancholy music]
‪She ain't eating.
‪I don't care much ‪for what is cooking neither,
‪but you got to eat.
‪I don't know that I do.
‪Given what I'm headed for.
‪You don't know your fate.
‪That's what the court's for.
‪I deserve to hang.
‪And I don't regret nothing.
‪[insects buzzing]
‪[tense music]
‪[Willy laughs]
‪That granny had you thinking ‪she was ready to hang, huh?
‪Should've seen how fast she run, ‪once freed of your chains.
‪Where's the old crow?
‪Your cook turned her loose.
‪Shit.
‪[grunts]
‪I'll saddle us up, ‪she can't have gone far.
‪[Willy] Oh, she took off hours ‪before first light.
‪You cowardly son of a bitch.
‪You set out to hang an old Black woman
‪in a white man's noose.
‪But I'm cowardly?
‪You shut your damn mouth already.
‪We can catch her.
‪[Willy] Your man want to do me harm.
‪Now, you should remind him,
‪my name ain't on ‪one of your master's writs.
‪Huh?
‪My hide won't feed Mrs. Bass.
‪Or them little coons that ‪nigger sow pushed out of her.
‪Ah… [chuckles]
‪But…
‪Ah, these will set you at ease.
‪Go on, collect your blood bounty!
‪Up-jumped slave catcher.
‪Because no matter what you say,
‪that's all you is.
‪[laughs]
‪[tense, dark music]
‪[wheezing]
‪What'd you do?
‪[Willy sputtering]
‪[Billy] Bass, we got to fix ‪our story here.
‪[Willy choking]
‪Say you were just cleaning ‪your rifle or some such, else…
‪Parker won't take no mercy.
‪[Willy gasping]
‪-[insects chirring] ‪-[birds singing]
‪[children chatter quietly]
‪[door opens]
‪[door creaks, closes]
‪[footsteps approach]
‪[wind whistling]
‪[Esau] ‪I saw you.
‪You are a wolf, Bass.
‪I know a monster when I see one, ‪Bass Reeves.
‪You listen to your daddy, now.
‪[Bass] Curtis!
‪[screams] No!
‪[Esau] ‪Bass, you must know…
‪I had no desire to shoot the boy.
‪I wonder how much blood
‪you left in your wake ‪on your path to freedom.
‪No more than I had to.
‪-No child. ‪-You are a killer, just like me.
‪[crickets chirping]
‪[slow, dramatic music]
‪[wind whistling]
‪[hoofbeats approaching]
‪[sighs]
‪[Parker] And one summer,
‪probably six or seven years old,
‪we had a drought.
‪The Biblical kind.
‪My daddy lost a lot of sleep.
‪Scared to death he was gonna ‪lose all that he had.
‪Watching his boy grow thinner
‪than he already was.
‪I used to wander down to the root cellar
‪and once, after church, ‪I hit the second step
‪and I heard Mama and Daddy below,
‪a lot of big…
‪unkind words I didn't understand.
‪They were scared.
‪About tomorrow, and the day after.
‪Now, I've always felt compelled ‪to help folks.
‪No different then from now.
‪Except when I was a boy,
‪I'd go treasure hunting.
‪Thinking that if I found something,
‪Mama and Daddy would be okay.
‪[chuckles] And wouldn't you know it?
‪In the creek, down past the farm,
‪I found gold.
‪Shining and winking at me.
‪So I scooped up what I could ‪and ran to the house,
‪believing I'd saved
‪what they had lost all that sleep over.
‪I burst inside,
‪dumped all the treasure on Mama's table.
‪I couldn't hear what Daddy said,
‪but he picked up a mallet ‪and started hitting it.
‪I cried when I saw it break up and…
‪crumble…
‪and then shatter, like glass.
‪It was naught but pyrite.
‪That's called fool's gold.
‪I carried that lesson with me.
‪Used it to keep my expectations in check.
‪So, why don't I just ask you, Bass,
‪what are you?
‪Are you gold?
‪Or pyrite?
‪I didn't know my own father.
‪They sold him off before I was born.
‪Come Christmastime,
‪they'd let him visit.
‪A sit, a meal…
‪then gone all over again.
‪My mama would plait verbena in her hair.
‪Pretty herself up for his coming.
‪Remember that clearer ‪than my daddy's face itself.
‪No…
‪The man whose name and brand I carry,
‪the one who taught me to ride,
‪to shoot,
‪was William Reeves.
‪Everyone told me how fortunate I was
‪to have his good favor.
‪"You got the big man's interest, Bass."
‪"Mind him good, Bass."
‪He wasn't a cruel man.
‪At least not on the surface.
‪But then he gifted me to his son.
‪George.
‪And when that man's cruel came ‪too much to bear…
‪I didn't go treasure hunting,
‪collecting loose rocks,
‪fool's gold.
‪No, sir.
‪For you, knowing who's who a simple thing.
‪Gold or pyrite.
‪But justice…
‪Ain't nothing more costly.
‪Now I'm ready to pay for mine ‪in Hell on the Border.
‪You paid yours, Judge Parker?
‪'Cause I reckon you about to,
‪'cause I ain't gonna be ‪down there alone, am I?
‪You gonna be sitting right next to me.
‪So I'll go ahead and ask.
‪How much time we doin'…
‪sir?
‪[tense, dramatic music]
‪[chair creaks]
‪[door opens]
‪[prisoners shouting and whooping]
‪You are a killer, just like me.
‪[echoing] ‪You are, you are a killer.
‪[gunshot]
‪[Parker] ‪When you've sat on this bench
‪for as long as I have,
‪you come to regard misfortune
‪with a certain dispassion.
‪This is no different.
‪In the case of Bass Reeves,
‪a deputy marshal assigned to this court,
‪who has been tried for ‪the murder of Willy Leach…
‪Upon careful review of the evidence
‪presented by the defendant's attorney,
‪and the state,
‪I pronounce you…
‪not guilty.
‪[quiet music]
‪[Jennie exhales]
‪[gentle music]
‪[Esau] ‪These badges we wear on our chests,
‪made from different materials.
‪Yours a tin star, mine a star ‪cut from a ‪cinco‪ peso piece.
‪But the power they give…
‪You honor the badge, Bass.
‪But even with it, a man like you ‪couldn't arrest a man like me
‪once we cross that river.
‪I had no mind to arrest you.
‪No. By those angry eyes,
‪I reckon you'd just as soon kill me.
‪[Curtis screaming]
‪[Esau] ‪Bass, you must know…
‪I had no desire to shoot the boy.
‪[dark, mournful music]
‪When I was gone from you…
‪there was a boy that I loved like a son.
‪His name was Curtis.
‪He was murdered.
‪I'm going after the man who killed him.
‪[intense, dramatic music]
‪[dark, low music]
‪[boy] You a lawman or an outlaw?
‪Today, a bit of both, I reckon.
‪[grunting]
‪[dramatic music]
‪[Pete] ‪Ranger Pierce ‪don't accept armed company.
‪[Esau] ‪Now, the myth of Mr. Sundown,
‪that's taken a fanciful flourish ‪from reality.
‪Not that I mind.
‪-[gunshot] ‪-Goddamn, kid!
‪[wolf snarls]
‪[gunshot]
‪[Esau] Careful, now.
‪Curiosity killed the deputy.
‪[gunshot]
‪[gentle, melancholy music]