Well, that was an interesting episode, wasn't it? Mei Mei saw Cullen battling with translation problems in regards to his Chinese workers whilst he struggled to find a solution to getting a locomotive over the Sierra Nevada mountains, which allowed the show to pull off a twist reveal concerning Tao's son, who actually happens to be Tao's daughter, as Cullen found out when Fong was injured. It certainly made for a good twist as a result, and should prove for a nice new dynamic going forward, as Cullen seems to be content for now in keeping Fong's hidden gender secret. How long the secret lasts and what the consequences of its revelation will be remains to be seen, and there's plenty of potential for further material down the line as we learn more about Fong's character. This episode didn't bother with the inclusion of Durant and company at all, instead allowing more time to be spent fleshing out not only the Chinese cast but also the Swede and his men, who remained ever present in this episode.
Flashing forward to the most interesting part of the episode is always a problem because if that is the most interesting part of the episode, you know that chances are, you're going to be let down by the stuff that comes in the middle before you get to the scene highlighted in the flashforward. To use as an example, Falling Skies did this in Season 4, and it's the same trap that most shows fall into when trying to accomplish this method. However, Hell on Wheels is not "most shows", so as a result not only did we get a a different perspective on the scene that we saw earlier, as the woman who we see Cullen talking to at the beginning after they fall down the cliff edge in the snow's identity is kept hidden from us and we don't know that it's Fong until we've been shown the second scene again. The suspense makes the scene all the more impactful when we do get there, when she's shouting that she's a soldier and not just a girl. I loved how it was done and this proved to be a fantastic way to start and end the episode, especially with the build up being handled strongly as well. And the aftermath was pretty awesome on top of that, with Cullen returning Mei to Tao and addressing her as Tao's son made it clear that he doesn't care what gender she is, as long as she gets the work done. However, it's almost certain that the secret will be revealed to more later down the line (pun not intended), and as mentioned above, the consequences could be devastating. Something else that's happened as a result of this twist is that I now want to go back and rewatch the previous episode to see if there were any hints and teasers dropped about Fong's gender there. I don't think I saw any the first time around, but then, I wasn't really looking.
The Swede and his group of Mormons also were some of the consequences of the new setting of the snow, as Hell on Wheels is utilising its scenery to the utmost effect. When one of the Mormons gets frostbitten, it makes for an interesting dent in relations between him and The Swede, however like any good manipulator, The Swede uses that situation to his own advantage by keeping the men happy with new boots. As a result of the fortune twisting in his favour, The self titled Prophet may start to be gaining new followers, and when he and Cullen encounter each other in the episodes to come, he'll no doubt be returning with more than just one dog by his side. It's a promising start to The Swede's character arc this season, and continues to be an improvement on how he was handled before.
Meanwhile, Cullen is still faced with the translation problems that come with his foreign workers. More than once in this episode we saw what would happen when people misinterpreted orders, such as moving the locomotive closer to the trees rather than further away, and it's become clear that this is the struggle in Truckee that Cullen didn't face in Hell on Wheels. His decision to switch sides to further the search for his wife and son has given the show a fresh new dynamic, essentially a reboot, but if he spends too much time trying to worry about the workers' rights then the search may be a casualty of that approach. Regardless of what comes in the future, we've got a while to go yet, so there's plenty of experiences for Cullen to go through during this period.
The show itself is taking a lot of risks in the final season, as not many others would take the main character and leave behind a cast that we've known for the previous four seasons and give him a new group of characters for the final season. I can only speculate that they're going to come head to head at some point (After all, Durant's still incredibly annoyed about the turncoat Cullen), but it's made for a nice change of pace that keeps this season fresh and exciting. The rebooted, retooled Hell on Wheels could have faced a struggle with us getting to actually care about these characters, but the decision to include a character focused episode this early in the season made it work pretty well and I've quickly grown invested in what happens to the new cast. It helps that we've been given a formidable villain in Chang as well, even if we didn't see much of him in this episode. We got enough in "Mei Mei" for us not to mind too much about the characters who we left behind (not just Chang but also Durant and company, as my speculation that they'd come to the forefront in this episode was proven incorrect), with the interactions particularly between Fong/Mei and Cullen being handled very well indeed.
What did you think of this episode's big reveal? Are you enjoying the new location and new characters so far? Let me know in the comments below.
Overall Episode Verdict: A
Positives:
+Flashforward handled well.
+The Twist with Fong/Mei. Awesome stuff.
+Making use of the new scenery and cast.
+The Swede's story this season has been awesome.
+There may have been no Durant and the others, but this episode didn't make us miss them that much.
Hell on Wheels continues next Saturday, July 18, at 9/8c.
