Netflix's new historical epic, called American Primeval, came out on Thursday, January 9. It's a violent show; even before the first scene a title card tells us just how brutal the conflict of its setting is.
Set in Wyoming and Utah in 1857, the show follows a few different individuals all battling to survive, make some money or protect their family in the lead-up to the Utah War.
Since the show jumps around its characters quite a bit — and with the fashion and facial hair choices of the time lacking quite a bit of diversity, making characters easy to confuse — you'd be forgiven for needing a guide to take you through the story.
So here's what happened in American Primeval episode 1.
Welcome to the West
At dinner, we learn that Pratt was meant to marry Abish's sister who died just before the wedding. Abish doesn't want to be there. However then, the group is attacked by a group of Mormons, who dress like Paiutes (and bring a few with them).
Most of the group members get shot; Pratt is scalped by one person, and Sara and Devin run away into the bush. They're almost caught but Reed, who's been following them steps in to save them. They run away.
Later, the Nauvoo are executing injured survivors, send Paiutes to track the escapees (as they're witnesses to what happened) and send Abish and her three sisters to Brigham Young, the Mormon leader.
Back in Fort Bridger, Virgil approaches the bounty hunter to offer information on Sara. However when he lures him out of the saloon, he kills the man and takes the bounty poster. Virgil and a group of companions set off to hunt down Sara.
Last, we see Pratt wake up with his scalp half cut off. He's the only remaining survivor of the attack and he screams Abish's name.
The expedition
We're first introduced to an anxious-looking mother Sara (Betty Gilpin) and her leg brace-toting son Devin (Preston Mota), who are at a Missouri railway station waiting for guide to take them to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, where they'll meet the boy's father and then proceed to Utah. The guide is hours late but eventually arrives.
In Fort Bridger, we see a Shoshone girl called Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier) steal a knife and run away. Then, Sara and Devin arrive with their guide, however they're promptly told by owner Jim Bridger (Shea Whigham) that her husband left three weeks ago. Their guide gets into a quarrel with a French man and is shot dead.
Sara wants to be guided to where her husband has gone, Crook Springs, but Bridger warns her that the mountain pass has closed and the land between the fort and there is full of raiding parties, bandits, and Mormon militias looking for blood. Still, she insists she wants to go.
First Bridger takes her to the gruff Isaac Reed (Taylor Kitsch) who refuses to take them, even for the high fee. Next she approaches a family of Mormons heading to start a new life in Salt Lake City: Jacob Pratt (Dane DeHaan) and Abish (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) and the latter eventually talks the former into letting Sara and Devin join them.
The attack
That night Two Moons uses her stolen knife to kill a man who assaults her, whom it's implied does so regularly. She runs away from her tribe.
The next morning the expedition leaves Fort Bridger. As Reed watches them go, he remarks to Bridger that it's just more for him to trade with Walter Higgins, but Bridger doesn't want to know about it. Later a bounty hunter comes to the fort, and we learn that Sara is on the run for murder with a $1,500 bounty. Bridger tells the bounty hunter that he hasn't seen her, which is a lie, but a gambling man named Virgil (Jai Courney) overhears.
On the trip, Devin finds that Two Moons has stowed away in their caravan, but he doesn't tell his mother. They meet a larger group, which the Pratts had scheduled to travel with.
Some time later this group is approached by a group of riders. They're the Nauvoo Legion, a militia of Mormon raiders led by James Wolsey (Joe Tippett) who are there to shake down the travellers. The leader of the travellers turns them down, though. We also learn that he harbors anti-Mormon sentiment, and only accepted the Pratts to dissuade the Mormons from attacking them. It evidently didn't work.
Later that day the camp is attacked by the Mormons, dressed up as Paiutes (with a few of them who accompany them). Most people are killed but Sara and Devin escape with the help of Isaac Reed, who was watching. Pratt is scalped but later wakes up.
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