It's been said in Deadwood of E.B. Farnum that his "needing to rub against his betters" must have "cost him sleep" because of how much the pandering practice drove off guests and deprived him of "chances of thievin' and bilkin'". The accurate description of the groveling opportunist implied that no citizen of Deadwood wasn't aware of how his actions were perceived, and that he was nowhere near as clever as he made himself out to be.
Too greedy and too short-sighted to be in the same league as Al Swearengen, Cy Tolliver, and George Hearst, E.B. survived how he could in a camp town where "titans gathered." Fans quickly became repulsed by his schemes and willingness to play the toady for authoritative figures, but displayed some empathy for him when those same entities made him wallow in self-doubt and despair. Whether he made fans angry or sad, E.B.'s character perfectly captured the complexities for which Deadwood was known.
FELT BAD FOR HIM: WHEN AL OR CY BELITTLED HIM
While E.B. aspired to be on the same level as Al Swearengen and Cy Tolliver, his constant need for approval and unwillingness to form any firm convictions from his schemes ensured that he would never be their equal.
He took their abuse repeatedly, sometimes for situations that were his fault, and sometimes for circumstances outside of his control. He helped secure Cy the Bella Union and yet was met with barely contained malevolence for his trouble.
HATED HIM: WHEN HE HARASSED ALMA GARRET ABOUT HER CLAIM
Following his blundering interference with the Garret claim to begin with, E.B. tried to make amends with Al by pursuing Brom Garret's widow and offering her twenty thousand dollars for her husband's claim.
It wasn't bad enough that E.B. was trying to skim off the top with Al, nor that he would constantly lowball the worth of the claim. His greatest and most detestable grievance was trying to press the subject while Alma was attending her husband's funeral.
FELT BAD FOR HIM: WHEN HE WAS LEFT OUT OF IMPORTANT MEETINGS
Most of the power players in Deadwood knew that to invite E.B. to meetings over matters of consequence, in which stealth was imperative to their success, was to invite a turncoat and a double-crosser into their midst.
Still, viewers felt a little twinge of sympathy for E.B. being left out of Al's meeting about Hearst. When E.B. asked why he wasn't invited, Al summed up the reasoning of the group with his usual erudite logic, "Why, E.B.? Because being present at that meeting and made as you are, blackmail would have proved irresistible and pursuing it would have gotten you murdered."
HATED HIM: WHEN HE WAS MEAN TO RICHARDSON
The only person lower than E.B. on the social totem pole in Deadwood was Richardson, the cook at the Grand Central Hotel. In order to make himself feel superior in a land of successful entrepreneurs, E.B. had to insult him at every turn.
“I imagine the pool that spawned you!" he exclaimed once of Richardson, "I see myself filling it with rocks!”. At Jack Langrishe's talent night in the third season, E.B.'s need for Richardson to be his inferior drives him to pull Richardson off the stage simply for getting applause for his juggling.
FELT BAD FOR HIM: WHEN SETH BULLOCK BEAT HIM
George Hearst knew exactly what he was doing when he said the words that would get under Sheriff Bullock's skin. He intimated just enough about Seth's intimate relations with Alma Garret to send him into a fugue state.
So convinced was Bullock that E.B. Farnum must have been the one to inform Hearst of his private proceedings that he lunged across the front desk of the Grand Central and pummeled its shifty proprietor half to death. Viewers couldn't help but pity the poor fool who had for once kept his mouth shut.
HATED HIM: WHEN HE USED HIS MAYORAL SPEECH TO INSULT SOL
As one of the most hard-working and compassionate members of the Deadwood business community, Sol Star should have been beyond reproach, but his heritage became a character flaw when E.B. gave his speech at the mayoral debate in Season 3.
Instead of outlining his stance on various matters of the camp, E.B. wasted his entire speech by lambasting Sol and insulting his Jewish faith, as well as hurling antisemitic slurs in a very unsporting show of ill will.
FELT BAD FOR HIM: WHEN HE HAD TO CLEAN UP AFTER AL'S MESSES
Al would just as soon cut E.B.'s throat than lend him a helping hand. After E.B. blundered the handling of Alma Garret's claim, Al resisted rewarding him.
Instead, he killed a man in one of E.B.'s rooms over the affair, ensuring that once again E.B. would have to spend every "free moment of his life" scrubbing blood stains of the floor of the Grand Central "to keep from having to lower his rates."
HATED HIM: WHEN HE HELPED CY BUY THE BELLA UNION
From the moment E.B. saw Cy Tolliver, he knew he was a man in whose good graces he should remain. Unfortunately, E.B.'s quest for influence was so short-sighted that he failed to realize that by ingratiating himself to Tolliver he was prematurely truncating his relationship with Al.
E.B. acted as the go-between for Tolliver to purchase the Bella Union from Artie Simpson, thus allowing a rival in games of chance and prostitution to invade Al's turf.
FELT BAD FOR HIM: WHEN HEARST HUMILIATED HIM
In many ways E.B. should have known that fraternizing with a ruthless industrial titan like George Hearst was never going to get him the power he so desperately craved. Hearst viewed E.B. as a "rodent" and reminded him of his station in one particularly gruesome way.
He spit in E.B.'s face and ordered him to remain in the same spot for hours, with the command that E.B. couldn't clean his himself or a greater punishment would follow. Seeing E.B. remain transfixed with his head bowed and covered in filth elicited a surprising amount of sympathy from fans.
HATED HIM: WHEN HE SOLD HIS HOTEL TO HEARST
The Grand Central Hotel was the crowning achievement on an otherwise lackluster existence for E.B., and by selling it to Hearst not only allowed robbed E.B. of his identity as an entrepreneur, but also gave Hearst more power over the camp.
E.B. knew that without proprietorship of his hotel he would become "mad" because the hotel was in many ways like a "hospital" to him. He often speculated if he didn't have access to it he would wander the streets aimless and neglected. While the rest of the town was fighting Hearst's invasion tooth and nail, fans were sad to see E.B. Farnum roll over so easily.