East of Eden: The Miniseries, Part Two

For Part One, this is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/10/east-of-eden-miniseries-part-one.html


Samuel Hamilton, using a divining rod, tells Adam there is plenty of water on the land Adam wants to buy and that he and his sons will dig the wells and build the windmills for Adam's new place. Adam then spins off into idealism, as he tells Samuel how Cathy has brought a light into his life. He says he wants to make a beautiful garden that is fitting for her light to shine on. Samuel sits silently on his horse listening to Adam, but his expression seems to tell us he's concerned that Adam is a man just asking to be hurt, emotionally. Finally Samuel tells Adam again that he'll get him water and that "you'll have your Eden."

Adam buys the land and the development all starts, as the house begins to rise, along with other structures for the new place, and Samuel and his sons begin to drill for water. The ever resourceful Will Hamilton is owed money by his brother Tom, so he makes a deal to forgive Tom's debt in exchange for Tom taking on Will's workload too. When the house is finished, Adam hires a Chinese servant named Lee, a man who dresses in Chinese clothing and who speaks in pidgin. Cathy is uneasy with Lee and she treats him rudely. She is also upset with her distended abdomen, since she long ago learned how to use her looks to get what she wanted from boys and men. When Cathy goes into labor, Lee rides to get Samuel Hamilton at the drilling site, as Samuel has delivered at least four of his own children, and likely all nine, as well as some children of neighbors. When Samuel arrives at the house, Cathy has had Adam put blankets over the bedroom windows and Samuel tells Adam to take the blankets down so he can have natural light in the room. Adam declines, saying that "the light hurts her eyes." When Samuel insists that the windows be uncovered and that Adam leave the room, Adam balks, but Samuel threatens to leave, and Adam agrees. Cathy tells Samuel, "Get that lousy Chink out of here too." Samuel tells her he will need Lee's help, then, when Samuel goes to her bedside and asks if the water has broken, Cathy hisses like a serpent and snarls at him. Samuel again threatens to walk out, and Cathy sees that she needs him, so she settles down. Samuel takes out a large rope, fixes the ends to the lower bedposts and hands the middle of the now extended rope to Cathy to pull on when she is delivering. Samuel again moves close to Cathy and when one of his hands gets close, Cathy grabs the side of his hand with her teeth and won't let go. Samuel has to begin to choke her to get her to loosen her bite. Lee tells Samuel, "The woman is a demon," and Samuel tells Lee to get some whiskey to pour over the wound, and Lee says, "I'll get it and a clean rag to wrap it up in." Even with the tense situation, Samuel notices that Lee has spoken in clear English, and when he asks Lee to repeat what he said, Lee does so, but in pidgin. Just then Cathy screams and within moments she delivers a baby, a boy. Samuel goes out of the room to tell Adam he has a son, and Adam starts to enter the bedroom, but retreats with a sickly look on his face, as Samuel tells him he hasn't had a chance to clean up everything yet. Cathy screams again and Samuel goes back into the bedroom only to see another baby, also a boy, is being born. As Samuel prepares to leave a while later, he tells Cathy she has two sons, but that they are not alike, as each was born separately in his own sack. He offers to show the babies to Cathy, but she refuses, even saying, "I don't want them." Samuel tells her, "I don't like you Mrs. Trask," and this brings the faintest smile to Cathy's face. She asks for Adam and she has him cover the windows again, telling him, "I want to be in the dark."

Outside, Lee tries talking to Samuel in pidgin, but Samuel tells him it's too late, that he knows Lee is likely an educated man and probably a Christian. Lee says he spent "a couple of years at the University of California; nothing to shoot off rockets about." He then tells Samuel that he was a Presbyterian for a time, but that, "I've gone back to dragons and demons. They don't make any less sense." Samuel asks Lee why he used pidgin, to which Lee replies, "It's what's expected." (NOTE: Chinese immigrants were greatly discriminated against in the era of the 1800s and the early 1900s.) Lee and Samuel begin a little discussion, which shows the beginnings of their friendship, and their common curiosity and interest in learning, as contrasted to Cathy's, "I want to be in the dark." Lee tells Samuel that he's a good servant, but Samuel then asks what kind of a wet nurse he'll be, since Mrs. Trask has no milk, and she wouldn't nurse the babies even if she had it. He tells Lee of how as a boy in Ulster (Ireland) his father had taken him into town, where a murderer was about to be hanged. The condemned man looked right down at little Samuel from the platform, and Samuel says the man had the strangest eyes, that his eyes weren't human, but rather like the eyes of a goat. Samuel tells Lee that he had never seen such eyes again until he saw Cathy. He finishes by saying that he fears for the boys.

About a week passes and Cathy arranges for Lee to go into town on a Friday and not return until Monday. The workers still putting up other buildings take their leave for the weekend and Adam goes to Cathy, who is dressed to go out. She bluntly tells Adam she is leaving him. She also tells him, "I'm not what you think I am. I tried to be, I really tried, but I just can't do it." She tells Adam that everybody will be better off without her and she even mentions that there are things about her that Adam and the others don't know about. Adam panics and shoves Cathy into the room and locks the door, but now Cathy turns on the charm and begs Adam to open the door, which he does. There stands Cathy with a gun pointed right at Adam, and she fires, causing Adam to fall to the floor as the two babies cry and Cathy goes out the door. Later, we learn that Lee came home early and found Adam, but Adam tells the sheriff (played by American actor Emmet Walsh) he wounded himself by accident. The sheriff knows he's lying, but Samuel, who is present, gets the sheriff to ease up, because Adam just doesn't care. By the way, the sheriff calls Lee, "Ching Chang," so Lee speaks in pidgin to him. Adam tells Samuel he'll pay him for his work, but he doesn't want the work on the wells completed. Samuel tells Adam to act out being alive and that eventually it will be true.

The scene shifts into the town of Monterey, to "Whorehouse Row" there. The sheriff finds Cathy working at one of the whorehouses. She now goes by "Kate Albey," and she has dyed her hair. The sheriff sets down the conditions for Kate to continue at the whorehouse: don't steal from the customers, don't shoot anybody else and don't go anywhere near her sons, because he doesn't want the boys to grow up and find out their mother was a whore. In walks Faye, the madam of the whorehouse, and a person who is already well on her way to being played by Kate. Faye relies on Kate to manage much of the business, and she tells Kate that she no longer wants her to have "clients," because she is like a daughter to her, so she'll still pay her the same amount of money. Faye also goes to her attorney and has a will drawn up making Kate her sole heir. Faye gives Kate a glass of wine to celebrate the occasion. Faye tells Kate that she has plenty of money and that she is thinking of selling the house and then the two of them will go to Europe. Kate rebels a bit at the thought, telling Kate that they can even make more money. As Kate drinks, Faye notes that she looks different, and Kate says, "I'm going to really show you how to run a whorehouse." Faye is now fearful of how Kate is acting. Kate then tells her she hasn't given up her regular "clients" as she promised Faye, but she in fact charges these clients far more than the going price at the house, because, "no one else is good enough for them." She tells Faye that the house will now be run like that, but Faye tells her to leave. Kate forces Faye to down a bottle of paregoric,*  as she holds a broken wine glass to Faye's throat. We next see Kate giving orders to the piano player at the house,** and the implication is, Faye is dead.***

More than a year passes and Samuel Hamilton rides over to the Trask place, where he sees everything more or less as it was left the day Cathy shot Adam. Even the buggy that Adam had bought upon their arrival in California still sits partially covered by grass and weeds grown high. He calls in a firm voice for Adam, who finally comes out onto the porch with one child waddling behind and Lee carrying the other boy another step or two behind him. This sets up one of the most memorable scenes of the miniseries. Samuel raises his voice as he tries to get through to Adam, who is still a broken man. He tells Adam he has heard that Adam has not even named his sons. Samuel yells at Adam, "What do you call them, 'This' and 'That,' 'Thing' and 'Thong,' or do you just whistle for them like a couple of puppies?" When Adam admits he hasn't named the boys, Samuel hits him, knocking him to the ground, although the exertion causes Samuel to gasp for breath, which is a hint that Samuel is not well. Adam says, "Their mother left them motherless," but Samuel yells back, "And you have left them fatherless! Get up so as I can knock you down again." This brings Adam to say, "I wouldn't try it old man... and you ARE an old man," but Samuel replies with one of the great lines I've always remembered, "Not so old as you, if it's measured by meanness and self pity." When Samuel tells Adam he'll hit him again, Adam has reawakened to life and he tells Samuel that there's no need to hit him again, and he admits he has been wrong. Lee smiles as he stands nearby. Samuel says that Adam should name the boys now, and he tells Adam he has brought along his family Bible to find the names.

As Adam and Samuel sit and sip some wine, before naming the boys, Adam asks him if Cathy was beautiful. Samuel answers, "To you she was, because she was your creation, but I don't believe you ever really saw her." Samuel asks why Adam now has the sudden curiosity about Cathy, and Adam says he wants to know what kind of blood is in his boys. This brings Samuel to tell him not to put things about blood onto them. Lee joins in and the three discuss some possible names for the boys, including some biblical names, like Adam's own name, Joshua and Cain or Abel, with the latter two names leading them into a discussion about the biblical story and its meaning. Lee's feeling is that God simply had a preference for lamb over vegetables, the products offered to God from the labors of Abel and of Cain, individually. It brings Adam to wonder in a muttering to himself if the Lord may have had a preference for a puppy over a pearl handled pocketknife. Samuel reads the story aloud from his Bible, then says how dreadful the story really is, as it is without any encouragement. This brings Lee to inject, "I'm not so sure." He goes on to explain that God protected Cain, even though he had murdered his brother. "God must have seen something worthwhile in Cain." Samuel then says how this is true, since Cain lived and had children, while Abel only lives in the story. Adam sits by thoughtfully listening, obviously thinking of his brother Charles and their father, but he finally asks Samuel if we share in Cain's guilt, which Samuel answers affirmatively, noting that we are all descendants of Cain. This gives Adam the opening to ask an uncomfortable Samuel how this then plays into his feeling that blood doesn't matter. Samuel can't answer and he diverts the conversation back to the naming of the boys. When the name "Caleb" is mentioned, one of the nearby sleeping boys awakens, and so he has chosen his own name. Samuel says Caleb made it to the promised land. He then suggests Aaron, a name he says he has always liked, but that Aaron didn't make it to the promised land, but Adam agrees anyhow. (Note: The Trasks use the spelling "Aron.") Samuel prepares to leave and he shakes Adam's hand, and he gives a hug to Lee, who now gives a concerned expression with Samuel's action. As Samuel puts his Bible into the saddlebag on his horse, he tells Adam he has heard about Cathy. He tells him about Monterey and the whorehouse, with Lee nodding in agreement, but now Adam reverts to the old Adam and to his mind's own Cathy creation. Adam blurts out, "That's a lie!" Samuel assures him that it is true, because he's heard it from numerous people. Adam stomps off.  Samuel leaves.

Later inside the house, Adam tells Lee that he didn't need to hear that kind of news of Cathy, but Lee tells him that Samuel needed to say it, because he's dying. At first, Adam is shocked, but then he recalls Samuel hitting him and notes that it wasn't a very strong punch, even though Samuel was furious at him. The scene shifts to Samuel's funeral, where Adam removes the flower from his lapel and places it into Samuel's hand. Lee then stoops down and utters a word, "timshel," toward Samuel's ear. He later explains to Adam that it all went back to their discussion of Cain and Abel and about various biblical translations of the Hebrew word "timshel." He says the translation is important, because it has been translated as "thou shalt rule over sin," a promise, and also as, "thou must rule over sin," a command. Lee says he discussed the translation of "timshel" with four old Chinese scholars and a learned rabbi over a period of two years (which now tells us how much time has passed since the naming of the boys), so that the six of them finally came to the conclusion that the best English translation is, "thou mayest;" that is, it offers people a choice between good and evil, but it is that, "a choice, free will." Lee says he wanted to tell Samuel all of this, but he was too late, and Samuel died, but Adam assures him that Samuel likely heard it.

As they drive off in a buggy, Lee is troubled to hear from Adam that he is going to go to Monterey. Lee tells him to leave Cathy alone and move on with his life, comparing such things to a moth flying into a candle's flame until it is destroyed, but Adam firmly tells Lee to stay out of it, and that if he doesn't like it, he can seek employment elsewhere. Lee tells Adam he would, except that Samuel's ghost would haunt him for leaving the still young boys at this time in their lives. Adam goes to Monterey and goes to the whorehouse, now called "Kate's." He asks Kate (he still calls her Cathy) if she wants to know about the two boys, but she says "no." He tells her he heard about her and the house, but that he didn't believe it and he needed to see for himself. He asks if she actually "works" in the house, or if she just runs it. Kate can see how Adam still wants to believe in her and says such, implying in her words how untrue Adam's image of her really is. He finally admits to her that Charles had been right about her, so he says he'll now go. Up to this point, Kate has been rather subdued, but now, sensing Adam's need of her, she turns to her manipulative self and tries to lure him into having sex with her, but the spell is broken, and Adam forcibly removes Kate's hands from him, prompting Kate to cry out, which brings her bodyguard/bouncer charging into the room. He and Adam fight and the man knocks Adam to the floor, where he lies motionless. Kate orders him to "Give him the boots," but the man tells her there is no fight left in Adam. She orders the man from the room and then she tells Adam that she always thought he was a fool, but that now, she hates him. Adam tells Kate he had really loved her, so much that, "it took quite a killing." Adam struggles to his feet and begins to leave, while Kate tells him how he'll come back, begging for her, but Adam is silent. Sensing that's she's lost her hold on Adam, she angrily tells Adam, "They're not your sons." Adam stops, and now sensing that she has regained the initiative, she gives off an evil smirk. When Adam mentions how hurt she had been back then, she quickly says, "I wasn't too hurt for Charles." She quickly recounts some of the events from back in Connecticut, leaving Adam with the thought, "Now that you know me a little better, maybe you'll wonder in whose bed I spent my wedding night." Adam leaves....

More in the final part, Part 3...

* Paregoric is a medicine with opium as one of its ingredients. I don't really hear about it in recent times, although that doesn't mean it isn't still in use, but when I was a kid and into adulthood, it was a common drug for treating diarrhea.                

** The piano player at the whorehouse is played by Stymie Beard, famous for having played in the popular "Our Gang" short film series in the 1930s (the series itself ran far longer than Stymie's stint in the shows, and there were numerous cast changes as the kids outgrew their roles). The series was released to television in the 1950s and became popular fare for decades. I wouldn't be surprised if the films are still shown on television somewhere.

*** The miniseries is very faithful to Steinbeck's book, with few exceptions, but I've always found Faye's gradual death in the book, due to poisoning by Kate, to be one of the weakest parts of the book. The scene in the miniseries is even less believable, in my opinion, although later on we hear a bartender tell Adam that Faye was ill for two months before she died and that her cause of death was given as food poisoning, which ties it more closely to the book, but my question is, after Kate's nasty performance with Faye in the miniseries, how did Kate let her live two months without Faye telling others about what Kate was really like? Anyone for a shot of paregoric? 

Photo is of the back of the case for the 2009 Acorn Media DVD for Volume 2 

 WORD HISTORY:
Eden-For such an important term in religious belief and symbolism, this word's ancient history is uncertain, although it seems to go back to transliterated Semitic "edhen," meaning, "a pleasure, something delightful," but whether the word originated in Semitic or in another language family is unknown. The idea of "a delightful place," thus also meant, "garden," or perhaps, "oasis," as many places where Semitic was (and is) spoken were often hot, desert or barren land. Some speculate that the original idea was a "plain with flowing water;" thus, the land had lots of vegetation, making it a garden, which then was used in Hebrew for the biblical "Garden of Eden," a paradise, because its water provided plants and animals with the means to easily thrive and survive. "Eden" is thought by some, perhaps many, to be the same word as "Aden," which is a city in modern Yemen. There is also the "Gulf of Aden," the water area around the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea and their connection into the larger Indian Ocean.