Lonesome Dove

The next morning July watches Clara and Cholo geld horses. He helps them. That afternoon, she puts Martin in his arms. She asks July to stay on as a hand. He hums to the baby, and she shows him how to hold Martin. He starts to think that he should leave Elmira alone.

As they near Ogallala, the men are overcome with talk of the brothel. Po Campo encourages them all to get haircuts instead of soliciting sex workers. Deets is sad, and Call doesn’t understand why he doesn’t like the North. He reminds Call of an old animal before it dies. Gus thinks Deets senses something bad.

Lorena is worried that Clara will judge her. Gus misses his independence, even though he loves Lorena. He asks Deets if he’s ever wanted something he can’t have. Deets only says he wishes they were back at the river.

They meet a large group of soldiers, led by the drunken Captain Weaver. They argue, and he is insolent. He says they’re tracking warriors that killed a woman and two buffalo hunters. They refuse when he says he’s taking their horses. He threatens them and glares at Call when he tells Weaver’s men to leave their horses alone. Then Call refuses when the man demands that they leave Deets with him to scout.

Gus goes into Ogallala. He misses Jake and then thinks about Clara. When she married Bob, she told Gus she would always want his friendship for the sake of her girls. He buys Lorena a dress, combs, brushes, and a mirror.

In a saloon, he turns down a game with a man named Shaw since there are only two of them. A woman named Nellie comes, and Shaw hits her when she says that two isn’t enough for a game. Gus invites her to sit with him. He hits Shaw in the chest and knocks the wind out of him when Shaw calls Nellie names. Nellie says that Shaw is the husband of the woman she works for, Rosie. Gus buys a bottle of whiskey and goes back to Lorena. She cries and says she’s afraid that Clara will take him. If she is going to lose him, she would prefer that they just die together.

As Newt and Dish talk outside of a brothel, a man named Dixon and some soldiers pass by. Dixon demands to buy Dish’s new horse. He spits on Dish and then clubs him with a pistol when Dish tries to grab him off his horse. Newt worries that he’s dead and holds the reins of Dish’s horse when Dixon tries to leave. Dixon starts hitting Newt with a quirt.

Call hears the commotion and rides over. When he sees what is happening, he rides into Dixon’s horse with his horse. Call dismounts and kicks Dixon in the face. Call then drags him to the smith’s shop and begins pounding his face against an anvil. Gus jumps on Call’s horse, lassos his friend, and drags him away from Dixon. When Call sees that everyone is watching he says that he won’t tolerate rude talk from anyone.

Newt and Dish are shocked by Call’s rage. Newt asks Gus if it was about him, and Gus agrees that Newt is part of the reason; he says Call doesn’t know where the rest of the anger comes from.