Summary of Episode 3 of ‘American Primeval’: Men on the Hills

The third episode of American Primeval takes an unexpected twist into the realm of horror, as our protagonists come face to face with a group of deformed and menacing wilderness dwellers reminiscent of a horror movie. From the eerie old woman using a child as bait to lure Sara, to the sinister-looking goon who meets a grim fate after crossing paths with Sara, the episode unfolds like a terrifying tale from the depths of a horror section in an old video store.

In line with the classic elements of this genre, the episode doesn’t shy away from the grave dangers that women often encounter in such narratives. Sara is swiftly separated from her son Devin and subjected to a horrifying ordeal at the hands of the group’s leader. While the show doesn’t explicitly show the assault, the aftermath paints a vivid picture of the trauma Sara endures.

Isaac, who had cautioned Sara against aiding the child, finds himself powerless to protect her during this harrowing experience. His failure to voice his suspicions leaves Sara vulnerable and ultimately at the mercy of her tormentors. However, Two Moons, whom Isaac had previously helped, intervenes to save Sara from further harm, allowing her to turn the tables on her assailants and escape the perilous situation.

This little rape-revenge movie saga provides a stark contrast to what’s going on with Abish over in Wolf Clan headquarters. Though Red Feather steals her locket as a punishment for yet another escape attempt, he’s made no move to assault her or even just romance her, however that would work between a prisoner and her captor. She’s mostly left to spend time with the other women in the clan. And when the Wolves have to move back to the main Shoshone village to hide from the Army — Captain Dellinger got a bum tip from the Mormons that Wolf Clan was responsible for the big massacre, and his scouting party got slaughtered by the Wolves as a result — Abish is treated like a visiting superstar. 

Red Feather, of course, is no prince. This is the guy who presided over the murder of every other Mormon woman who survived the initial attack, after all. But the sexual predation of the French illustrates that savagery is not the sole province of people with dark skin. I mean, duh.

There’s another horror-movie monster waiting to emerge here, I suspect. Jacob Pratt, the partially scalped massacre survivor, lost more than a chunk of his hairline in that attack — he lost his mind. He’s now out looking for Abish, accompanied by a team of searchers led by Brother Cook, one of the members of the Mormon’s Nauvoo Legion who secretly conducted the raid, and Virgil, the Fort Bridger thug out to collect the bounty on Sara. The thinking is that the survivors may have stuck together, and finding Sara may lead to Abish or vice versa. Needless to say, if you care about either woman, you gotta hope this murderous search-and-rescue team falls flat on its ass.

Which it may well do. Right at the end of the episode, Jacob recognizes Cook’s timepiece as having belonged to a friend and fellow Mormon who was killed during the massacre. Now he knows Mormons were involved…Mormons upon whom his life, and the search for his wife, now depends. I’d be worried for him, if it weren’t so clear he’s about to go full Gollum and start strangling people for crossing him. I’m much more worried for Tilly (Kyle Davis), Virgil’s associate, who keeps taunting Jacob for being annoying. (Fair — he really is annoying.) Taunt at your own risk, pal.

The episode’s other big development takes place back at Fort Bridger. No less a personage than Brigham Young himself comes to pay Jim Bridger a visit, after last week’s hostile “negotiations” with Nauvoo Legion commander Wild Bill Hickman (Alex Breaux) went south. Young leaves Bridger with the impression that he can probably get a tremendously good price if he sells the fort…but the Mormons are gonna have the fort, whether he sells it to them or not. Will he make a stand or take the money and run?

American Primeval is taking an open-world video game approach to its brand of revisionist Western. As our characters wander around, they encounter all kinds: friendly Mormons and murderous ones, friendly indigenous people and murderous ones, friendly settlers and murderous ones. You just never quite know which one is which when you stumble into them, until the shooting starts. 

This approach can be a little, well, video-gamey. As a horror guy, I was certainly tickled when a blind cackling hillbilly witch showed up to lure our heroes into Consanguinity Corner, but you can only take a show that otherwise self-evidently prides itself on gritty realism when Leatherface and Grandpa from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre show up. 

Yet at the end of the episode, Captain Dellinger writes a lovely and heartfelt letter or journal entry in which he laments the way he feels he’s losing his essential character in the ceaselessly violent world he’s entered. “Hatred” and “brutality” are everywhere, driving out “compassion and basic tenderness.” 

“I am overcome at this time by a deep pain from a tremendous and always present lack of love,” he writes. “So few in these lands know of grace. There is only brutality here.” He’s painting things with an awfully broad brush, as the concurrent shots of Abish being treated with care and kindness by the Shoshone women demonstrate. But he’s not wrong overall. American Primeval may have a kind of shopworn way of showing it, but it really is exhausting to think about how many people in this land of ours like it better when they know others are suffering.  

Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about TV for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Times, and anyplace that will have him, really. He and his family live on Long Island.