PHENOMENALITY: (1) *uncanny* (2) *naturalistic,* (3) *naturalistic*
MYTHICITY: (1) *poor,* (2) *fair*, (3) *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological, metaphysical*
“Nine Lives,” season one’s seventh
episode (according to the order on the DVD set), virtually reprises the same plot-structure as the first, “King of the
Mountain,” in which wanderer Caine gets enmeshed in the troubles of some
unfortunate just long enough to help, before the relentless pursuit of bounty
hunters forces him to depart for new horizons.
“Lives” is the first episode to
have a substantial degree of comedy, as Caine finds himself obliged to help a
man find a cat. Mulhare, member of a
mining-camp, sets off an ill-timed explosion that inadvertently kills the
camp’s pet cat. The camp exiles Mulhare
until the Irish miner can find a replacement feline, and Caine elects to follow
him in his quest. Mulhare desperately
wants to get back to the camp because he’s found a nugget that will yield him a
rich strike, and he frequently runs off at the mouth about his dream of riches
to the indifferent priest. The duo
stumble across a ranch run by a lone widow-woman, who happens to own a cat. She’ll trade the cat if the two of them will
dig her a well, which keeps Mulhare around long enough for a romantic interest
to spark between the miner and the widow.
However, a family of bounty
hunters follow Caine’s trail to the ranch.
They take Caine captive and search Mulhare. One of them laughingly dismisses the miner’s
nugget as iron pyrite, dashing the Irishman’s dreams. In an amusing moment Caine manages to trick
one of the hunters, who has bragged about his wrestling prowess, to engage
Caine in a match. Following a decent
fight, which Caine naturally wins, the bounty hunters take flight. Mulhare
loses interest in prospecting. He
briefly considers trapping Caine for the reward, but gives up his dreams of
wealth for a new life with the widow.
One of the better
flashback-meditations deals with the double-sided nature of “pain and
pleasure.” Caine’s only uncanny feat
takes place in a medical context: the widow’s mare is foaling, but the foal is
turned around in the womb. Caine’s
animal empathy allows him to calm the horse while Mulhare extracts the foal,
making possible the survival of both mother and offspring.
“Sun and Cloud Shadow,” a wholly
naturalistic episode, centers upon the theme of xenophobia once more. Caine happens upon an old man named Ying on
the outskirts of a mining-town. Ying is
one of a community of Chinese miners who moved into a played-out mine in a
neighboring mountain, though the mountain technically belongs to the town’s
richest man, Colonel Binns. Ying invites
Caine to stay with him, but first he must go into town to pay off a bill at the
local saloon. In the saloon Binns’ son
Douglas makes trouble, insisting that the two teetotaling Orientals must drink
his whiskey. In the fight they ensures,
Douglas shoots Ying dead.
Caine meets the late Ying’s
daughter Cloud Shadow and his son as they claim their father’s body, and then
follows them to their mountain-hideaway.
Ying's son, remembering how his people were treated as slaves before they
started making money from the mine, wants to start a war with the whites. Colonel Binns shows up at the funeral, taking
no responsibility for the death and ordering the Chinese families to
leave. Ying's son persuades the others to
buy guns for protection.
In addition, Cloud Shadow reveals
her history to Caine. She was an unwanted child sold into slavery in China
(just to remind audiences that China had its own set of evil practices), and shipped to
America to be sold as a prostitute. An
American priest intervened and raised Cloud to be a nurse, but she was unable to find
any work but that of a maid, which led her to Colonel Binns’s household. Benz’s younger son David fell in love with
her, and she with him. The Colonel
forbade any marriage, and David lacked the gumption to challenge his father.
The Chinese community appeals to
Caine to be a go-between, to make peace with the Colonel in exchange for a
tributary payment. Binns is much like Ed Rankin
of “The Soul is the Warrior,” a self-made man who holds his property with a
gun, but he also claims to be a man of peace, perhaps because he values his position in the community.
After a dialogue that functions as an exchange of cultural views, Caine and
the Colonel make a deal. In an ironic
note, hearkening back to the saloon-scene, Benz offers Caine champagne, which
Caine declines in favor of tea.
However, that same night Ying's son
kills Douglas. The Colonel isn’t content to bring the killer alone to justice. Binns brings a formidable weapon—a
mortar-shell cannon—to the mountain, demanding that the miners must either
leave or yield up Cloud Shadow to be his son’s “pillow-girl.” In addition, he reveals Caine’s presence to a
pair of bounty hunters, one of whom is another martially trained “Manchu
agent.” Caine fights and kills the
murderous agent as he did his opponent in the pilot movie. David finally defies his father and swears to
marry Cloud Shadow. The Colonel retreats
in fury, but it’s implied that whether or not he’ll accept his son’s marriage,
he’ll cease menacing the miners for the sake of their profitable business
arrangement.
“Chains,” another naturalistic
story, begins with Caine once more on the trail of his half-brother. Having somehow heard that his brother was
working a claim with a man named Hantoon, and that Hantoon is being held in
prison at a fort, Caine ventures into the fort to interview the prisoner. He meets Sergeant Bedford, a greedy officer
who recognizes Caine from his wanted poster.
The sergeant allows Caine to speak with Hantoon, a hulking, slow-witted
fellow accused of murder. Hantoon barely
understands Caine’s desire to find his brother.
Bedford traps Caine in the jail and then forces him to be chained to
Hantoon (hence the title).
Caine breaks them free in exchange
for the befuddled giant’s promise to lead Caine to his brother. Bedford follows, intent on claiming the
reward. During their travels Caine teaches the slow-minded man a sense of his own
worth, despite the way so many normal people have called him an “animal.” When Hantoon boasts that he can whip anyone
who gives him insults, Caine remonstrates, “If you plant rice, you will grow rice. If you plant fear, you will grow fear.”
The area is menaced by hostile Ute
Indians, and the duo’s progress is further complicated when Hantoon takes Caine
to the home of his brother-in-law, whom Hantoon believes guilty of murdering
his sister. Caine deduces that this
accusation is a delusion born of his grief and takes him away again. Eventually they arrive at the cabin Danny
Caine once occupied, but Danny has disappeared.
Bedford overtakes them. Caine
subdues him, but then leaves to scout for the Indians. The sergeant, greedy to claim the gold
uncovered by the prospectors, persuades Hantoon to betray Caine by telling him
that Caine’s a killer. Once again Caine manages to gain the upper hand. Knowing that the hostiles are close, he takes
Hantoon with him after fruitlessly trying to convince Bedford to come along.
Bedford, busy trying to gather up the gold, is overtaken by the Utes,
Caine takes Hantoon to a nearby
town, giving him the chance to seek a new life.
Instead, having somewhat absorbed Caine’s lessons on natural harmony,
the “animal” elects to become a forest-dwelling “wild man,” devoted himself to
caring for the beasts. The story thus
merges the images of the American savage—either an Indian, or a white man who
lives like an Indian—with the image of the Asian in quest of natural harmony.
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