‘Hell on Wheels’ season 5, episode 4 preview: Cullen struggles with aftermath of ‘White Justice’

Saturday night’s new episode of “Hell on Wheels” is entitled “Struck,” and what we are personally very struck by at the moment is the sense of quiet and of confusion that carries through many of the characters in the sneak peek below.

There are a few effective things about this scene, which features Chang seemingly instructed the Chinese workers to not board the train to continue work on the railroad following the events of “White Justice,” where they feel like white murders are not ultimately being given their proper sentence for some of their actions. In not giving us any subtitles, we rightfully feel right in the shoes of Cullen Bohannon trying to figure out what is being said around him.

If we were to get inside of Cullen’s head, we don’t think he is happy about what happened last week; however, he also wants to avoid further conflict and potential bloodshed, and one of the ways to do that could be getting the workers back at it.

For him, the true sign that his words are falling on deaf ears is seeing Tao, one of the few workers who can communicate in English, crouch to the ground alongside Fong. Without their assistance, the language barrier is ultimately too much to bear.

While we cannot speculate too much as to what happens beyond this season, we can at least commend the power that is packed into this three-minute clip. We’ll be back tomorrow with a full review of what happens next.