As Swearengen surveys the deserted thoroughfare from the Gem balcony, Dority warns him things are headed toward a bloody outcome. "Absenting myself don't change your f**kin' instruction," Swearengen counters.
Swearengen spends a sleepless night as a drunk wanders the deserted streets. Preparing for the day, Martha and Seth Bullock discuss whether the speeches will take place that night.
Trixie busts in on Al, accusing him of turning recluse. She's enraged that Alma is set to meet with Hearst, "the Lady's bright idea." Furthermore, she can't understand why Al seems to be caving to Hearst.
Early morning in Deadwood. The tubercular Doc Cochran checks on Cy Tolliver. Blazanov delivers a telegram to Jane from "Nigger General"; frightened by what it might contain, she runs off to Utter to have it read.
Tolliver interrupts Stapleton, playing 'Captain' with the breasts of a voluptuous Bella Union whore. Cy is looking for an underling to represent him in his dealings with Hearst, mimicking Swearengen's approach.
Hearst, having spent the night in jail, demands of Utter if Bullock actually thinks he's accomplished something. Utter feigns discovering the dead Cornish in the cell adjacent, and wonders aloud if it's Hearst's knife.
Aunt Lou worries while Hearst meets with Odell, who seeks assistance with a gold find in Liberia. Odell shows Hearst an assay report and a sample of the ore, explaining he's authorized to seek partnership as first deacon of his congregation.
Merrick and Blazanov deliver the day's edition of 'The Pioneer' to eagerly awaiting readers at the Grand Central and the Gem. Seth and Martha quarrel over her willingness to accept the theater troupe's delays for moving her school to a new location. "It seems you waked intent we quarrel," she accuses him, suggesting his mood may have had something to do with the previous night's meeting.
As Deadwood is overrun by Hearst's men, Bullock issues contingency plans to Martha. Wu, caught in a Pinkerton stampede, delivers a cryptic message to Swearengen; it takes Burns, of all people, to decipher it.
Doc Cochran chastises Cy for abrading his healing wound, as he attends to him. Hearst has breakfast with Jarry. The Langrishe troupe rehashes the Amatuer Night talent.
Trixie, Utter, Sol and Bullock gather pre-dawn in the Hardware store, while Tolliver and Swearengen independently wonder what they are up to. Al heads over to find out, running into Merrick who's come to show Al his article about Mrs.
Voting day dawns in Deadwood. Utter wakes Hearst to tell him a casket's arrived with his name on it - with a body inside. "Evidently not mine," Hearst retorts.