Mix: So Darkness I Became
Jul. 17th, 2013 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
potentiality_26Subject: Episode #4.19, “The Night of the Pistoleros”
Title: So Darkness I Became
Warnings/Notes: Spoilers for the episode; explicit language in one song; made for
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waywardmixes challenge #16 (One Episode).
The Wild Wild West is set in the American West during Grant’s presidency, and is essentially early steampunk: two secret agents duke it out with various amusingly over-the-top mad scientists and cult leaders with the aid of anachronistic gadgets of every flavor.
While both main characters- James West and Artemus Gordon- fought in the war, Jim is career military while Artie is… complicated. Theoretically, he used to be an actor- but actor here seems to be code for con artist because most of what Artie brings to the table list toward the criminal and/or morally questionable (lying his way out of every situation, impersonating people, identifying fake paintings or gems, making bombs, and disappearing corpses) while, what few times he does act, he doesn’t seem all that good at it. Meanwhile, Jim is the consummate straight arrow. The backbone of the series is their friendship.
Jim and Artie’s initial assignment is to visit a border outpost called Fort Challenge, where tensions between the American in charge of the outpost- Colonel Roper- and the Mexican leader over the border in Sonora- Colonel Vega- are being exacerbated by the actions of a group known as Los Pistoleros, who are coming over the border and killing people without any discernible rhyme or reason.
Fairly early in the episode, Artie gets shot and killed. Most viewers remain fairly confident that he’ll be okay in the end, and they’re right, but Jim spends most of the episode legitimately under the impression that Artie is dead.
There are three things that Jim West does in almost every episode of the series: he charms some girl; he only kills people in straight-up clear-cut defense of himself or his friends; and he out-smarts the bad guy in the end by having some trick up his sleeve or the cavalry at his back. But with Artie gone, all the things that make Jim who he is seem to go out the window. He couldn’t care less about the girl who drapes herself all over him at the bar where he goes to get information about Artie’s killer; he spends most of episode tracking down and killing this man; he alienates everyone at Fort Challenge; and he goes after the leader of the pistoleros- a man called Galiano, who wants the Americans to kill Vega's troops so he can take over the Sonora garrison- at his base of operations, which is crawling with bad guys, with no back up whatsoever or much of a plan at all.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the man who was killed was actually a pistolero made to look like Artie. Colonel Roper has also been replaced by a double- said double is about to attack the Sonora garrison on fake marching orders from the president- and the two of them are being kept in a cellar. They manage to escape and save Jim at the last minute.
This is theoretically a gen mix about Jim’s arc in the episode, and I wanted what few Artie songs I put on here to be instrumental to reflect how little presence he has in the episode except through Jim’s eyes- but thing about Jim/Artie slash is that you either don’t see it, or you can’t see anything else. But if you take a metaphorical view of the ‘love’ songs on this list, it should work either way.
1. Cosmic Love- Florence + the Machine
And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat
I tried to find the sound
But then it stopped, and I was in the darkness,
So darkness I became
2. Leave Out All the Rest- Vitamin String Quartet (Instrumental)
Colonel Roper: There’s never anything to be said at a time like this, the loss of a comrade after so many years.
But if it’s of any comfort to you, West, remind yourself that he was a soldier and he died like one.
Jim: The comfort will come, Colonel, from finding the man that shot him in the back.
3. Borracho- Mark Lanegan
Jim: I’m looking for someone, that’s why.
Girl: A man or a woman?
Jim: A man.
Girl: Me too.
Jim: This man’s named Sanchez- you know him?
Girl: No.
Jim: Why don’t you ask your friends?
Here come the devil, buy the round
One whiskey for every ghost
And I'm sorry for what I done
Lord it's me who knows what it costs
4. Silent Boulevard- Tom McRae
Colonel Vega: Meanwhile, you will continue the search for this man Sanchez?
Jim: With your permission.
Colonel Vega: Yes. Since he killed your friend, I suspect you will you continue with or without my permission. Therefore, I grant it.
No I'm not anybody's good son
Shoot the lights out all over this town
'Til we're out on the silent boulevard
With our way lit only by stars
5. As Cold As It Gets- Patty Griffin
Jim: Take a good look at the man who’s gonna kill you.
Sanchez: No, wait- I’m not prepared to die.
Jim: Neither was the man you shot in the back.
I know a cold as cold as it gets
I fight a war I may never see won
I live only to see you live to regret
Everything that you done
6. Deus Ex Machina- If These Trees Could Talk (Instrumental)
Colonel Roper: What’s going on? Who was that?
Artie: It’s a little too complicated to explain right now, Colonel.
But what it boils down to is that a pistolero is now commanding officer of Fort Challenge.
Colonel, would you mind getting down to the end of that pipe and seeing if you can help me turn this?
7. Golden and Green- The Builders and the Butchers
Colonel Roper’s Double: When you question the commander in chief, I begin to doubt your patriotism, sir.
Jim: You being to doubt my what?
Colonel Roper’s Double: Lock him up.
And I was born to wind in the cradle
And I ride on the hot southern breeze
and I twist in the green and the gold
and you see and there is blood on my elbows and knees
8. Seven Devils- Florence + the Machine
Galiano: With the help of my able Lieutenants, today the province of Sonora, tomorrow, all of Mexico.
Jim: Or the firing squad at dawn.
Holy water cannot help you now
See I've come to burn your kingdom down
And no rivers and no lakes can put the fire out
I'm gonna raise the stakes, I'm gonna smoke you out
9. Your Hand in Mine (with strings)- Explosions in the Sky (Instrumental)
Jim: Thanks, Artie.
Artie: Thanks, Artie? Is that all you can say to me? I’ve just come back from the grave, risen like Lazarus,
And that’s what you say? Thanks, Artie?
Jim: Thanks, Artie.
Artie: It’s a pleasure.
10. Crush- The Horrible Crowes
If you should go there before I do
God's gonna trouble the water
Tell all my friends that I'm coming too
And God's gonna trouble the water
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Date: 2013-06-20 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-07-27 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-27 05:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-17 07:49 pm (UTC)And this lyric from "Crush":
Tell all my friends that I'm coming too
And God's gonna trouble the water
reminds me irresistibly of that memorable moment in "Tombstone" when Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, puts his boot on a baddie and yells, "Tell all your friends that I'm comin' for them, and Hell's comin' with me! HELL'S COMIN' WITH ME!" Yeah. A fav. scene of mine...
And I do love how Jim behaves so totally uncharacteristically in so many ways in "Pistoleros", after he thinks Artie's been killed. It's like the sun has disappeared from his sky. : )
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Date: 2013-12-18 04:47 am (UTC)My whole thought process re: this episode has always been amazing. I love, love, love how Jim acts in it (I've never met a 'character A goes crazy when character B dies or seems to have died' plot line that I didn't like. Ever), and I spent a while musing that it was a shame he couldn't have stayed that way a little longer. And then I remembered that if Artie hadn't turned up when he did, Jim wouldn't have made it. And then I thought, Jim's smart- he knew that. And then I thought, "Wow."
So when waywardmixes prompted "An episode that gives you massive feels" it had to be this one.
Is this really a Fanmix, or just some songs that would go with episode
Date: 2015-12-11 02:15 pm (UTC)Re: Is this really a Fanmix, or just some songs that would go with episode
Date: 2015-12-12 02:32 am (UTC)