In the episode, Thomas C. Durant (Colm Meaney) and Lily Bell (Dominique McElligott) conspire to gain arriving investors' interests, after she pleads for Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) to not let his vengeful path ruin him; Sean and Mickey McGinnes (Ben Esler, Phil Burke) exact their own revenge on The Swede (Christopher Heyerdahl); and Elam (Common) and Eva (Robin McLeavy) each begin to see the future differently.
In the present, Durant continues to celebrate his railroad's reaching the 40-mile goal by hosting a dance, to which senators, investors, and other dignitaries may attend.
Sean and Mickey McGinnes inform Cullen that The Swede left town with two bottles of whisky, possibly to get drunk.
The Swede tells him that he may not have been present, but Harper can still testify to federal marshals about Cullen's motivation to kill Johnson and the other soldiers.
After Cullen leaves, Durant visits her, presenting her with a new dress, and asks her to come to the dance to help lure potential investors.
Cole stuns Cullen by lamenting over God's failures in the face of evil, and telling him to choose hate, because "it's so much easier."
Eva watches as men erect a permanent town for the people staying behind after the railroad workers move on.
While he has agreed that he asked her to be "his", he explains that he has just received a taste of freedom, has been well paid by Durant for his labor, and isn't ready for marriage.
TV Fanatic's Sean McKenna rated the episode with 4 out of 5 stars, saying, "Overall, 'God of Chaos' didn't end with the same bang that the show first started out with, but it left the door wide open for plenty of strong possibilities for the future.
Club rated the episode a C, saying that the season finale was "livelier" than episodes before it, adding, "Anyone who's ever made a dollar as a storyteller ought to have some ideas about how to get an audience's attention at the start of things, and how to bring things to a boil at the close, especially if the close is also meant to get them to come back in a year.
"[2] The season one finale was watched by 2.84 million viewers, marking the highest viewership since the fourth episode, and kept its steady 0.7 rating with the 18-49 age range.