"Eminent Domain" is the second episode of the third season of the American television drama series Hell on Wheels, which aired on August 10, 2013, on AMC.
The twenty-second episode of the series is written by showrunner John Wirth and directed by Adam Davidson.
When a family member kills Dick Barlow (Matthew Glave), the railroad's chief engineer, Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) seeks justice.
Louise Ellison (Jennifer Ferrin), a New-York Tribune reporter, arrives in town to witness it all.
He claims he doesn't need Thomas C. Durant's (Colm Meaney) help in the race against the Central Pacific Railroad.
Cullen rides to a nearby farm and meets Aaron Hatch (James Shanklin), a Mormon, and his family.
Cullen spends the night and, in the barn, he and the eldest daughter, Naomi (Siobhan Williams), begin to kiss.
Back in town, Sean McGinnes (Ben Esler), the railroad's new bookkeeper, tells Cullen that Durant has cancelled the livestock contracts and cornered the market.
In Omaha, Nebraska, Durant dines with some ranchers, one of which is a woman whom he proposes building a commercial railroad terminus on her land.
At the bar, he is joined by Sean, who slips him an envelope stuffed with money and the Union Pacific telegraph routing code.
Hatch grabs his eldest son, Jeb (Ben Sullivan), and says the boy killed Dick.
Later, Louise composes her newspaper story, writing that the railroad business has always involved unscrupulous and corrupt people, neither of which Cullen Bohannon seems to be.
He added, "The reason the sex is so important in that scene is that he has to hang her brother the next day and he doesn't even question it.