‘Hell on Wheels’ season 5, episode 2 preview: How Anson Mount, cast press onward in ‘Mei Mei’

Tonight’s season 5 premiere of “Hell on Wheels” certainly was a fish-out-of-water story at times for Cullen Bohannon. Anson Mount’s character saw himself with a new team in the Central Pacific, a man in Chang who was taking money away from the Chinese laborers, and also a continuing mission to find his wife and child. He has visions of a brighter future, but at the same time no idea if he will make it there.

Next week’s new episode is entitled “Mei Mei,” and through our research, the most common translation for that is “younger sister.” That may not be the translation here, but we have to go with at least the most common theory for the time being. You can get some other details of what to expect in the episode, courtesy of the TV Guide synopsis below:

“Cullen and Fong find themselves in peril as they transport a locomotive over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Meanwhile, the Swede gains Phineas’ trust.”

Before this season began, showrunner John Wirth told us that this episode is going to have one of the coolest sequences of the entire season. You can read a little bit more on that over at this link. The construction of the railroad is going to continue to move east as we start to get ever closer to the golden spike. Just don’t anticipate arriving there for a while.

The promo that aired after tonight’s episode showed a brief glimpse of what this sequence will involving: Getting an extremely heavy engine potentially near the top of a mountain. It is extremely dangerous, and there’s always a possibility someone (including Cullen) slips over the edge.