Teaser
We open on a column of soldiers, shot through the spring buds of a manzanita, Confederate soldiers, worn and weary. 40-odd men riding in a column of two, with wagons and a cannon.
Cut to a Native American woman in labor. The child is born and presented to the spirits by the chief. It is a man-child, to be called Osceola. The chief is wearing a ceremonial mask that shows of gold.
The soldiers ride into the Indian village and the Captain asks what the place is, and the chief tells him they're Seminole. One of the soldiers makes a remark about renegade Indians and escaped slaves and half breed trash. The Colonel tells the troop they know what to do, and that the villagers can ask the Yankee carpetbagger government for compensation and that the ghosts of the Confederacy will not die. The men are to take food and supplies and nothing else. One soldier who goes after a woman is killed by the colonel. The other soldiers take food and chickens and pigs and generally trash the place.
Our first hint that the colonel is a bit off-kilter is when he demands that a small organ he sees in one of the huts be brought out and played for him. One of his men finds the Chief's ceremonial mask and brings it to him. The Colonel wants gold to buy guns and ammunition to continue his fighting against the north. He has his cannon brought to bear on the village and shoots a couple of rounds while demanding to know where the gold is. One soldier, Captain Corcoran, questions the Colonel, doubting that there is more gold, but the Colonel is adamant.
Rather than risk lives, the village chief agrees to provide them gold. The colonel leaves a trunk, saying that in seven days they'll be back and expect the trunk to be filled with gold. The soldiers form up and ride away.
As we watch them leave, the Seminole chief and one of the senior villagers, a large black man, talk about how the mine has no more gold, that it caved in years ago, but this is their village and they will stay and fight. They will find help.
Roll credits. Pretty credits. Nice music. Actor credits in alphabetical order.
We open on a generic western street crowded with drunken rowdy cowboys and horses, lots of aimless shooting and shouting, townspeople running for shelter. Bullets shoot into the saloon where one takes the top off a bottle labeled "Red Eye". A man, all in black, pours a drink from the broken bottle and downs it, heedless of the broken glass in the whiskey, then makes his way through the saloon toward the street.
Some of the cowboys are on an upper floor porch, dragging a black man down the stairs, bound hand and foot.
The man in black chats with an old timer, learning that it's a trail herd in from Texas, liquored up and in the mood for a lynching, and that the law in town has ridden out, not even taking their own horses.
Across the street, another man watches the cowboys dragging off the black man. He's dressed in beige pants and a brown calico shirt, long hair loose. He's in an apron and holding a broom, obviously a clerk in the hardware store he's standing in front of.
A gutsy blonde woman walks into the street in front of the cowboys and points a double barreled shotgun at them, saying that they don't hang men for nothing in that town. That Nathan didn't kill their boss, gangrene did. They kick her out of the way. She yells at the townspeople for letting it happen, that none of them have any guts.
The man with the broom goes into the hardware, comes out without apron and broom but with a rifle and wearing a beige hat. As he's loading the rifle, he makes eye contact with the man in black across the street, who questions with a single nod if the man in beige is heading toward the cowboys and the lynching. Man in beige nods once in answer. Store owner tells the man in beige if he goes off with the rifle, he's fired. The two men meet in the middle of the street and walk, shoulder to shoulder, after the cowboys.
We cut to the stage driving in, a young man in eastern clothes and a bowler hat asks where this is. Driver tells him to get his damn head back inside, but kid jumps out, carrying an odd English saddle with western horn on the cantle. Driver says it's not his stop, but kid says it is, this is why he came west.
The cowboys have brought the dead boss in his coffin to watch Nathan hang. They have Nathan standing in the back of a wagon with a rope around his neck. Black and beige stand and say nothing until the cowboys notice them. Black says to cut him loose. Beige says they'd be happier if they just rode away. Black asks if anyone reloaded after shooting all the holes in the clouds. Guns are drawn, bullets fly, men dive for cover. The horses spook and Nathan ends up hanging from the tree. Beige shoots the rope, but it takes two tries, the rifle sight is a bit off. Townspeople are all lined up behind the cemetery fence watching as the two men either kill or run off all the cowboys. As one cowboy runs off, the kid from the stage runs up with a gun bared yelling that he'll get him, but black says we don't shoot men in the back.
Beige and black finally exchange words. Black is Chris, beige is Vin Tanner, former buffalo hunter. Nathan, who got a knife off one of the cowboys, throws it into the back of the last cowboy around, who had raised his gun to shoot Chris and Vin. Then he suggests they get that knife out of the man and cut him loose. They do, and give him a hand to stand up.
Gutsy, now pushy blonde comes up to Chris and Vin, says she runs the Clarion News and wants talk to them and to know where they came from. Saloon, Chris says. As they start away, she asks where they're going. Saloon, they tell her.
As all the towns folks walk away, we see that the black man and the chief from the Seminole village are there, looking around at the carnage and how Chris and Vin saved Nathan.
Vin goes to give the rifle back to the store keeper (Virgil) who tells him he can keep it. Virgil also tells the blonde that the stranger, the one in black, is Chris Larabee.
Inside the saloon, Chris, Vin and Nathan are having a drink, we find out that Nathan was a stretcher bearer in the Union Army and that's where he learned what he could about healing. The saloon is noisy and there's a piano in the background. All the noise stops as everyone notices the two men from the Seminole village. When they have everyone's attention, they look at Chris and Vin and tell them they want to hire them, holding out a small gold mask figure as incentive.
The bartender weighs the gold figure and says it's worth about $35. The Seminole say it's all they have, and Chris asks how many Ghosts there are. Chief asks if 20 men would scare him. Vin comments that he was making $5 a week at the hardware store without anyone shooting at him. Chris figures if they pay $5 a head that gets them seven men. Nathan tells us that the Seminole put themselves on the line for many escaped slaves and they can have a week of his life. Vin quips 'or all of it'. He goes on to say he wasn't planning to die with a broom in his hand anyway. The deal agreed, they say they'll be at the village the next afternoon.
As they leave, the Seminole say they can't trust the white men. At the bar, Vin says if the Seminole are asking help of the white man, they must be desperate.
They need more men. Nathan knows one who might help. So does Chris. If they can get him out of bed.
We cut to a fist pounding on a door, yelling about someone in with his wife. Man and woman in the room panic, he's in only his union suit, she's in her bloomers and corset. He grabs his clothes, gives her one last kiss and goes out the window. Vin, who was pounding on the door, opens it, and at the woman's surprised look, winks at her. The man who went out the window has only managed to hobble himself in his pants and rolls off the roof to the ground. Chris is leaning against a post below and greets this man. Obviously, these two are old friends, as Chris is greeted with a big bear hug.
Chris asks if Buck is interested in a job, and Buck asks how much. Nope, not $5 a day, just $5. Buck asks what the odds are, and Chris tells him 3 or 4 to one. Buck says that's just their kind of fight and asks how Chris knew he was there. Chris says he makes a point of knowing who's in town. Vin comes up behind Chris and asks if Buck is in. Buck asks if Vin is with Chris. Chris nods. Buck asks if there'll be ladies where they're going and Chris says he reckons so. Buck says he reckons he's in.
Vin, Chris and Buck ride out to where Nathan is talking to a man who is piling stones to rebuild the wreckage of an old church. Nathan says the man won't come along, that he's doing his penance. For what, they don't know, but word is he killed a lot of men. Nathan appeals to Josiah's conscience that the Seminole are the dispossessed of the earth, but Josiah wants to get his own house in order first. They decide they can ride by the next day to see if he's changed his mind.
As the four ride back to town, Vin is chewing something (tobacco, bubble gum?) and gunfire is heard in the saloon. In the interior, we see a shooting contest. The first shooter is one of the towns people, who puts a bullet dead center through the queen of hearts card pinned up on the dart board. The second is a very drunk appearing dandy dressed in red coat, brocade vest and with a generic southern accent. His first shot goes far astray, shooting down a stuffed bird that was decorating the bar. Drunk dandy offers double or nothing, and that his aim was encumbered by the debris on the floor. For his second try, dandy takes a different gun out of a shoulder rig, aims up and shoots six steady shots at the ace of spades, all apparently dead center. When he goes to claim the money, the mark thinks he's been set up and dandy has sobered up awful fast. Dandy says it must be the desert air. A fight breaks out over the money, but dandy gets the upper hand without killing anyone. He gathers up the cash, and as he's leaving, the mark draws one last time, and we see dandy pop out a derringer sleeve rig and shoot by aiming in the saloon mirror.
As dandy is heading out, Chris mentions to him that he knows that the shoulder rig was loaded with 5 blanks and one real bullet, asks if he's interested in helping the village. He shows dandy the gold piece. Dandy is interested in the gold piece, but $5 isn't enough. He also isn't interested in going if Nathan is going along with them. Vin suggests that dandy probably ought to leave town anyway, dandy says he'll sleep on it. Chris smiles, knows he's got the man, tells him to meet them at the livery at dawn if he lives that long. Dandy leaves the saloon, and Nathan asks why he'd want to use a cheater. Chris tells him they might need one.
At the livery at dawn the next morning, Chris says they could have used a few more men, Vin says it's fewer ways to split that huge pot, Buck tells Chris he'll have to shoot straight for once. As they're talking, the kid from the stagecoach shows up on a cute little anglo-arab gelding in English tack, announces himself as J.D. Dunne, that he can ride and he can shoot (which spooks the horse, throwing him). Dandy rides up and says J.D. can fly, too (the throw from the horse), and as the horse runs by, J.D. is pushed into the water trough, whereupon Buck says he can swim, too. J.D. is pissed and dismissed as he goes off to catch his horse and dry out.
Chris greets dandy (who we will discover is called Ezra) and Ezra says he couldn't stay away when he learned he'd be riding with a genuine celebrity. He has the morning paper, which has a very skewed version of the previous day's events on the front page. Chris takes the paper and goes off to have a chat with the newspaper lady.
Confronted in her office, the blonde woman admits she skewed her article (bend the facts a little) to keep the drunken scum out of town at the expense of Chris's less than stellar reputation. She's researched him in her late husband's file, don'tcha know. He says she doesn't know him, not from reading some second hand trash. She says she's just trying to keep the bad element out of town. He says he is the bad element, turns and leaves.
The five mount up and ride out, side by side. Stopping out at the old church, they find Josiah ready and waiting for them. Nathan asks what changed his mind. Josiah says crows. A sign. Of death. Probably his. Ezra is greatly amused and looks forward to lively conversations with Josiah. Josiah says his stones will be there if he gets back. Vin says they can use another good man, Josiah says not so good, but he can fight.
So, now they are six, and they head off to the Seminole village, across lovely countryside in southern New Mexico, followed at a distance by J.D., who now appears dry.
As they ride down into the village, J.D. is above them watching, holding a rifle on the trail. However, he's caught by Buck, who tells him if he's trying to stay hid, best to remove his hat.
Down in the village, the chief meets them, saying he greets them with hostility. Chris says he thinks they mean hospitality. Vin says no, he thinks they mean hostility.
Vin notices the holes in the adobe buildings and says they never told them they (the ghosts) had a cannon. Chief says they didn't ask.
Buck rides into the village trailing J.D. on a rope, J.D.'s horse walking along behind. Buck is wearing J.D.'s hat. Buck is not impressed with J.D., wonders if he didn't get his ideas of the west from reading dime-store novels after growing up in prep school in the east. Chris tells J.D. to go back the same way he came. J.D. wants to stay, pleads his case that he came to a man he respected and offered to help. Chris is unyielding and tells him to go home, that he's not the type. J.D. leaves. The chief says he's young and proud. Chris says to carve that on his tombstone. Josiah says he's an expert on prayers for the dying. Ezra is amused, says he likes this guy (Josiah) and that he's in this for the laughs if nothing else.
A bit later, the chief is showing them how the Ghosts came into the village the previous time and their strategy at positioning their troops. They decide to take the high ground to force them through the choke hold at the entrance to the village.
Much work is being done to set up the defenses of the village. Vin is teaching the men how to shoot, Ebon is his most determined student. Ezra is working with the kids -- he's made a deal with them that if they work, he'll show them tricks.
Josiah is building a rock wall at the front, high enough to make a sensible horse think twice before jumping. Nathan is gathering firewood to keep water hot for caring for the wounded.
As Vin is teaching shooting, Ezra is showing the kids a card trick. One of the bullets ricochets off rocks and into the center of the card that Ezra is holding inches from his head.
Nathan is gathering herbs and things, and hears a noise. He follows it, only to end up in a snare, hanging upside down by his feet. Out come the village's women, one of whom teases him before cutting him down.
As the women follow Nathan back to the village, Buck is thrilled. The clouds have parted and out comes the sun. Ebon says that if Buck touches his daughter, he'll kill him for sure. Buck wants to know which one is Ebon's daughter. Chris stands in front of Buck and swears that no harm will come to the women.
Ezra's kid brigade are stuffing clothes with straw to make dummies, and painting faces on them for reality.
Buck, while tending his horse, takes a try at flirting with one of the women, only to get a glare from Ebon. He backs off immediately.
Nathan is boiling bandages, and the woman who teased him (who is not named during the ep, but gets a name in the end credits -- Rain) brings him forceps for taking them out of the hot water and a bowl to put them in, clearly flirting with him.
Buck is wandering the edge of the village and sees a horse with no rider, just standing there. As he walks closer to the horse, he's jumped by an Indian armed with a big knife. They fight, Buck says he's one of the good guys, but the Indian says he's in the wrong skin. Suddenly, from nowhere, there's J.D., who takes a shot close to the two fighting on the ground, then comes in closer and belts the Indian on the head with the butt of his gun. Buck is furious with J.D. and punches him in the nose for shooting that close to him.
Buck walks back to the village, leading Imala (the Indian) and J.D. Imala is the chief's son, father of the baby who was born in the teaser. He has just escaped from prison, his crime only that of not being white, and here he comes home and his village is full of white men. His tirade is interrupted by a call from his wife to see their new baby. Buck is vocal in his objection to fighting to help someone who is that ungrateful about it. In his anger, he turns on J.D., telling him never to use the butt of his gun as a weapon, if he does that, eventually it'll misfire. He also hates J.D.'s hat, which he grabs and throws on the ground and stomps on. As Buck rants on, Vin and Chris and Ezra are laughing at them, and Vin says that what Buck means is thanks. J.D. asks again if he can stay, Chris says to save it, if he wants to die young, then stay. J.D. is excited about being allowed to stay and ends up wrestling with Buck.
Chris and Vin are on watch on the high rocks, looking out over the plain as the sun sets. Vin asks if Chris knows a little town in the panhandle of Texas called Tascosa. Chris says he's heard of it. Vin tells him if he gets killed, to take his body back there and he'll collect $500. Chris asks what makes him so valuable. Vin tells how when the buffalo ran out, he took up bounty hunting and was after Eli Joe for the $200 reward, alive or dead. Found him dead, took the body back, but it wasn't Eli Joe. Framed for murder, he decided not to stay for the hanging, which earned him a price on his own head. He figures if a friend collects he gets the last laugh.
Ezra is cleaning his derringer sleeve rig, Josiah is shaking out some blankets, Ezra asks why Josiah signed on, what he expects to gain. Josiah says he saw the birds of darkness in a dream, and when he woke up there was a crow sitting on his windowsill. Ezra asks why come here. Josiah says if death is coming, might as well meet it head on. Ezra says won't he get his reward in the hereafter. Josiah says no, he was a priest once but he had a little trouble turning the other cheek. Ezra says he took a turn preaching the word himself. Best swindle he ever knew. Just stand up under the tent and terrify the congregation with visions of hellfire and pass the collection plate. Did fine till he attempted to save the soul of a man's daughter. Josiah says, yup, saving souls has its hazards.
Come morning, one of the villagers keeping watch sees the Ghosts riding in and sounds the alert. Everybody runs to take their positions and wait. The seven men take the high ground with rifles at the ready, leaving the village to appear as unprotected as before.
The colonel rides to the head of the troop, the captain gets down to check the chest, but it's full of sand. The colonel is quite sure his instructions were explicit and says he's shot his own men for less. Chris and each of the seven stand in turn. Chris says there's no gold here. Colonel Anderson says, no, of course not, they're here for their health. Vin says they're here to ask them to leave. The colonel says, yes, out of the goodness of your hearts, and asks how many humanitarians there are.
Col. Anderson orders his men to shoot them down where they stand. The Ghosts open fire, as do the seven and those of the villagers who have guns. AS the battle progresses, the kids that were working with Ezra spring their trap, which is a series of dummies to draw fire away from the people. As we watch the battle, we see Josiah take a hit in the side, Ezra falls and hurts his shoulder. The Indians use bow and arrow and throw rocks. Nathan throws a knife to save Rain from being shot. One of the ghosts turns to run away, but is shot in the back by Anderson. Finally, retreat is sounded, but as they try to ride out, the women pull up the net they spun from rough fiber, trapping the soldiers inside. J.D. gets stupid and stands in front of the retreating soldiers and fans his gun, but is saved from death.
Buck thinks the Ghosts will keep running, Vin and Chris think they'll be back. Vin takes first watch.
With the Ghosts gone, the villagers and the seven regroup to assess casualties. There are few dead villagers, some wounded, and Nathan is tending to them. Ezra helps carry up some wounded, but refuses to let Nathan look at his shoulder. As he turns away, Nathan grabs him anyway and jerks his shoulder back into joint. It was dislocated. Ezra swings on him as if to punch, but realizes his shoulder is better and stops. Nathan tells him it'll be sore for a while, but he'll have two hands to cheat at cards with again. Ezra flexes his shoulder and looks at Nathan as he goes off to help the next person.
They discover that Josiah hasn't told them he was hurt. When they ask why, he says they didn't ask. Chris tells him his birds lied, and Josiah grins and says they'll see.
The village is happy, music is playing, food abundant. J.D., Buck and Chris are sitting against one of the adobes drinking. J.D. didn't expect to see their (the enemy's) eyes. Buck tells him if he can see their eyes, he's too close. Chris tells him to take it easy on the bottle, J.D. explodes in anger that Chris has no right telling him what to do. Chris gets up and leaves, and Buck looks at J.D., telling him that Chris had a son once, didn't get to see him grow up, lost him and his wife in a fire that burnt half the soul out of him.
Josiah joins Buck and J.D. and takes the bottle, saying he's a spiritual man but sometimes turns to the wrong kind of spirits.
Ezra is reading cards for the kids, telling their fortune. He tells the one boy that he'll grow up to be a great warrior, big, strong and fearless. Kid says, like Ezra. Ezra pauses, then says there are two kinds of people in this life, those who seek battle and seem not to fear death, and those avoid battle but will stand and fight to the death if their loved ones are threatened. That is true courage. Now, time has come to pay their debts. The kids have lost at poker and had their fortunes told. Ezra has heard of a gold mine around and wants to know where it is. He does manage to get the information out of the kids.
The chief and Chris are sitting together, the chief holding the baby. Chris says that home and family are things worth fighting for.
Early morning finds Ezra riding along a ridge, looking for and finding the mine entrance.
Chris and Buck are going to head out and have a look around, Buck says Ezra's on watch, having replaced him a couple of hours previously.
Ezra, however, is in the mine entrance with a torch, gets in far enough to see that the mine has been caved in for years.
Vin sees something on the cliff -- the cannon! The Ghosts start shooting at the village. Another few rounds and they'll have the range. Ezra is on the opposite ridge, over the village, seeing the cannon fire.
The colonel is furious at how many men he lost in the first engagement, will not listen to reason, swears to shoot rocks at the village if he has to to destroy it completely. Villagers run for the bluffs, getting under cover. Chris wants to know what happened to Ezra, Buck doesn't know.
Ezra is riding away, flinching as the cannon fires. Then there is a third kind...
The cannon is tearing the town apart. There's no way to stop it. Can't ride up there, they'd be killed. They could ride out and leave. Or, at Imala's suggestion, they could climb up. Imala climbs up and throws down a rope for the others.
Anderson is in his tent, undoing the brace on his left knee. He's got his leg up and is liberally dosing himself with laudanum. The Captain again tries to get him to stop shooting at the village, but Anderson won't listen.
As they get close to the top of the climb, they're caught flat out by the Captain and the sergeant and Imala is killed.
When the cannon stops firing, Ezra stops and turns back to the village.
Anderson has the seven chained together. He's telling his captain how he was at Shiloh. How the Union army counterattacked with cannon, raised the Union flag and left them all for dead, and he lay there surrounded by his fellows. He's going to raise the stars and bars over that village, and it'll be the last thing this seven will see.
Buck asks J.D. how he likes the west now. J.D. tells his tale, his momma was a chambermaid, he was a stable-boy and taught himself to ride, she died last year, had left money for him to go to college, but it wasn't enough. Buck isn't too sympathetic. Says life is tough, then you die. Josiah, who is sitting between the two, asks if Buck wouldn't mind not leaning on his bad leg.
Corcoran asks if the men are to be executed. Anderson says yes, they'll be given a merciful death, not like he was left. Corcoran says it'll be murder, that he can't do it. Anderson says his refusal is treason, Corcoran says against what, the war is over. Anderson is incensed and strips Corcoran of rank and puts him with the other seven prisoners. The sergeant is made captain. Anderson orders that when the flag is raised that the prisoners be executed.
When one of the Ghosts has to go rid himself of some coffee, he's bushwhacked by Ezra.
Anderson goes down for the flag-raising and tells the chief that he's going to find the gold and hit back at the Yankees. Chief says there's no gold in the mine. Anderson doesn't believe anyone would fight so hard if there wasn't any gold.
All through this time, Chris has been working the handcuff off his left hand.
Ezra comes back to the camp wearing the man's coat and hat, bringing his rifle to bear on the new Captain. Says he'll shoot the captain if anyone moves. Capt says he'll only get one shot off before they take him. Ezra threatens to shoot a powder keg, which the Capt says is empty. Suddenly, guns are in all the Ghosts hands. Ezra puts down his rifle, but releases his derringer and shoots Darcy. Chris has freed himself and gets a gun, there's a rifle near Vin and he starts shooting. Ezra gets the keys to the cuffs and hands them all back their gun-belts. Chris stops him and with a hard stare tells him never to run out on him again.
Corcoran begs to go with them, to help stop Anderson, he knows the man's methods.
As the flag reaches the top of the pole, no cannon fire is heard. Anderson looks up to the cliff and tells his men to go check the cannon. The Ghosts ride up to find Ezra in charge of the hill top with the drop on them. He gets their guns and chains them up, then shoots one round down at the village, toppling the flagpole, giving a jaunty salute to the other six down in the village after the Colonel.
Battle ensues, Chris shouts orders to get Anderson, no matter what. Corcoran is wounded, Anderson seems immune to lead. He's swigging laudanum as he fights, shouting that he's a ghost of the confederacy and will not die. Nathan says he's so full of laudanum that you could chop his head off and he wouldn't feel it. Vin gets a shot in Anderson, as do Buck and Josiah. J.D. runs out in front of Anderson on foot, shooting at him. Anderson raises his sword and gallops at J.D., but Buck runs in front of him, taking the sword cut across his abdomen. Josiah goes out to pull Buck out of the way and gets shot again. A knife in Anderson's bad leg has him falling off his horse, but he's still fighting. Faces off against Corcoran, who can't shoot him, but Chris does, finally killing Anderson.
Chris calls to the rest of the ghosts that the war is over, that they should go home to their families, and the men, disheartened at the death of Anderson, turn and ride away.
Buck looks really bad. Wants J.D. to take his hat, regrets not spending time with the ladies. Nathan said he'd have time, but needs to be stitched up first.
Chris gives the chief Imala's knife. The chief is grateful that Chris fought with Imala, not against him, and thanks him for that.
The next morning the villagers are starting to clean things up, the seven are packing up. Chris asks Vin where he's going, Vin says Tascosa, says you never know how much time there'll be to set things right. Chris asks if there's a saloon there. Vin says he reckons.
As the chief comes to say goodbye, Chris gives him back the gold figurine, Vin says they never could figure how to split it seven ways, Chris says to keep it for the next time they need help. Chief says next time they'll greet their enemies with hospitality. Chris says he thinks they mean hostility. Chief says no, hospitality, and at his signal, the doors of one of the houses opens and there's the cannon pointing down at them. Chief tells them (sincerely) that they'll always be welcome in the village.
Buck comes riding up, tells J.D. if he's not going to wear the hat, he'll take it back. J.D. says he looks awful. Buck says that's damn near impossible, asks if J.D. is riding with them. J.D. leaps on his horse with a yell.
Ezra is having a final moment with his kid friend, who asks if he can come along. Ezra tells him that as a brave warrior, he must stay and protect the village. Asks the kid if he remembers what Ezra taught him. Kid says yes, never draw to an inside straight. Ezra mounts his horse, then asks Nathan if he was willing to ride with an old southern boy. Nathan says he's going to stay around for a while and help the folks set things straight. Ezra touches his hat to Nathan, who nods back with a smile.
Vin catches up with Ezra as they ride out, grabbing the last of the flag from where it's caught in a tree. Says Ezra shoots a cannon pretty well. Ezra says it was dreadful, he was aiming at the colonel.
Nathan tries to stop Josiah from riding out, but Josiah won't listen. Rain tells Nathan to go ahead, follow the others, that she'll wait for him. They kiss. He mounts up and leaves.
The seven line up abreast and ride off, Vin in the center, Chris and Buck on either side of him as we...
fade to black and roll closing credits.