DOC HOLLIDAY: “Even with that badge of yours, there is absolutely no good that can come from power absolute.”
WYATT EARP: “I wear this badge with great pride. The law is the law for a reason, laid out in black and white.”
DOC HOLLIDAY: “Yet, there are so many other wonderful colours in the rainbow.”
I love these lines of dialogue between Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. It’s so true. Lawmen only think and believe in black and white (or I guess blue and white now) and don’t think about what is beyond their own colours and how that affects the rest of the world to have such a diversionary mindset motivating their heroic actions.
Such is the Western way of the world believing that colour, race and culture makes any difference to truth. But power corruption is something that can take and break anyone. Good or bad. There’s been many a hero that has fell to its claws and clutches. It’s a great theme to use and tell in TV art/entertainment because it really teaches something important to whomever watches it.
What strikes me most is how Doc Holliday still believes this way before Constance Clootie throws him down the well. Vengeance occupies his mind so much that he just forgets all about who he really is and what he really believes in. Which is all the colours of the rainbow. Everyone and anyone - no matter how different in colour or creed. No matter if they be good or evil.
In a sense,… Earp is also exactly what restores that when Wynonna comes into his life and liberates him. So it is like saying that love and friendship mitigates vengeance and power corruption. I really like that.
That’s a story I love to engage in over and over again because it’s a story worth telling over and over again. As Doc said in ‘Vengeance’, Vengeance is a ghastly fuel. You can be running on those fumes for your whole life and never feel satisfied. It’s absolutely no way to live.
