‘Hell on Wheels’ season 3, episode 8 review: Is a major character dead?

For the second straight week on “Hell on Wheels,” there was a shooting. However, this one could have even greater implications on the rest of the series than anything that we saw last week.

Right before he was about to unveil a valuable secret, we saw a single shot of gunfire kill Sean just as he was about to make a key confession … and we mean this in more ways than one. Clearly, this was both an act of premeditation and self-defense. Mickey was the one who pulled the trigger, and the implication here is that this helps to tie together multiple murders tracing all the way back to Boston. There is no doubt whatsoever that Sean has some psychotic behavior, but Mickey really pulled the trigger for his own self-interest, and as a way to gain favor with Durant and take control of his own future.

What Mickey did is clearly going to have huge ramifications on the rest of the season, and even the series. He was a huge part of the show and a series regular, so to take him out at a time when the finale was not even upon us was truly shocking. Then, we had the heartbreaking between Bohannon and Ruth at the very end. This entire sequence was so shocking that it almost outweighs Elam’s meltdown earlier in the episode at the news that his “child” had been shipped off to New York in order to live a better life.

Ultimately, what made this episode somewhat interesting is that it was yet another example of how almost no character on this show is the absolute good, just as most people (save for Durant) are not absolutely evil. Everyone operates with their own agenda, and while this does sometimes make the story a wee bit too complicated, the added layer of richness makes it stand out amidst everything else in the genre. Easily, this was the best episode of the entire season … but you know that the story with Mickey is not going to end here. (We’ll have a preview up later on tonight.)

Overall, what did you think about this “Hell on Wheels” episode? If you want to read more news in regards to the series, just be sure to head on over to the link here.

Photo: AMC