Have you ever watched a show that stretched credibility on occasion but you largely believed it anyway? Then one episode there was a plot turn that just had zero credibility, and suddenly every plot turn seemed unbelievable? (Call it jumping the shark.) Something like that happens in the fourth season of Hell on Wheels.
The show is now set in the town of Cheyenne and a new territorial governor has arrived. He's a carpetbagger out to take control of the rackets, but he also believes in law and order and is out to end the chaos in the streets. (He hangs a man for shooting a cheating gambler.) Then this gunfighter comes to town, along with his deadly enemy. The result is a gunfight in which the first gunfighter shoots his enemy, and accidentally shoots a kid, then he shoots an innocent resident in cold blood to remove a witness. He's about to kill a lady before he gets caught.
In the following episode the governor decides to make this gunfighter his marshal! I could believe it if he'd just killed the other gunfighter, or even if he'd killed the kid too. But the third killing puts him beyond the pale, and appointing him lawman is a slap in the face to the whole community. Even a carpetbagging governor should have better sense than that!
This is the first in a long line of developments that aren't credible, but are required for the plot to reach a climactic event near the end of the season. I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it, but I will say that attention-grabbing clearly trumped credibility.
In addition, the lesbian newspaper lady goes over to the other side and starts a sexual relationship with the governor, for reasons that weren't clear to me. I think it's so they can go from lovers to enemies at the end of the season.
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