Might I add one more character that's been neglected in fanfic -- Harry Bright! Sure, he never physically appeared in this episode, but he played a crucial role. We know he and Harry Briscoe have been acquainted for 20 years, and it hasn't been a friendly relationship. Does he really have "a stomach ailment", or was Harry just trying to test Heyes? And notice the clever way Heyes refused to answer that question.
How about a prequel? If Jeremiah Daly was one of Bannerman's best agents, how did Sarah Blaine make him a criminal? Did she draw him into a web of deceit and dishonesty? Or was he a rotten apple already, ripe for the plucking? She does seem to be the mastermind of this plot to rob the train.
Daly and Blaine were caught red-handed, of course. What if they went to trial and Sarah portrayed herself as the victim of an older man? Juries were more sympathetic to women, especially if they were pretty and young. What if Sarah was out of jail quickly? Would she return to crime? Would she encounter H & C again? She'd only know them as Bannerman men, not by their real names. That could be interesting.
Wonder what the mood was like at Devil's Hole, after they returned from an unsuccessful robbery in which two members of the gang were killed? Were any other gang members wounded? Did Wheat get blamed for this, and compared to Heyes' successful tenure? Wheat wanted to be leader for so long -- was this failure the impetus for the return of Big Jim? Something had to happen for Wheat to lose his position as leader and be exiled from Devil's Hole.
I'm loving these episode discussions.
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"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly."
"The failure in doing something is stopping too soon."