Derailed (Hell on Wheels)

"Derailed" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American television drama series Hell On Wheels, which aired on January 1, 2012 on AMC.

In the episode, a train is derailed by the Cheyenne and Durant (Colm Meaney) orders Cullen (Anson Mount) to lead a team to track them; Lily (Dominique McElligott) moves out of Durant's coach and into her own tent beside the brothel, which allows her to become fast friends with Eva (Robin McLeavy); and tension mounts for Cullen's team in the pursuit of the renegade Indian tribe.

Cullen smacks The Swede's face with his gun, then whips him with a leather strap until Lily and Durant intervene.

In his coach car, Durant orders Cullen and Lieutenant Griggs (Ty Olsson), the lead U.S. cavalry officer, to track down the Cheyenne attackers.

The next morning, the men awake to a Union soldier's screams and discover him hanging, mutilated, from a nearby tree.

After Joseph leaves, Ruth confronts Reverend Cole in his tent reminding him about his past alcoholism and how he used to brutally her mother in his drunken fits.

Back at Hell on Wheels, after previously being asked by Cullen if she was a "kept woman," Lily informs Durant that she's moving out of his train car and into the encampment, using the tent she and Robert shared.

Eva appears and tells Lily to hire a carpenter to lay floorboards to avoid getting trench foot.

At the outdoor mess kitchen, Eva reveals to Lily that Indians killed her family but spared her because she had smallpox.

Cullen tells Elam that if the villagers don't escape before Griggs arrives, there will likely be bloodshed and the two of them may have to battle the Union soldiers.

As Cullen, Elam, and Joseph aim weapons at Griggs, an arrow pierces his shoulder, and a large Cheyenne war party, led by Pawnee Killer (Gerald Auger), begins to attack.

TV Fanatic's Sean McKenna rated the episode with 3 out of 5 stars, saying "Hell On Wheels has created a cast of entertaining characters and while 'Revelations' continued to lay out the groundwork for their developing backgrounds, it seems as if the show isn't entirely sure what to do with them.