Series: East of Eden
Episode: 3, “In the Valley”
Based on: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Setting: Connecticut and California’s Salinas Valley, around 1900–1901
Main characters: Adam Trask, Cathy Ames, Charles Trask, Samuel Hamilton and Lee
Spoilers ahead
Adam takes Cathy to California, convinced that a beautiful home will make their marriage happy. She has already told him she does not want the future he has planned. As he builds his imagined paradise, her determination to escape brings devastating consequences.
Leaving Charles and finding a home
Adam and Cathy pose for a wedding photograph, then Charles joins them for a keepsake portrait. Adam discusses furniture and clothes for their new life. Privately, Charles warns Cathy that she will break his brother’s heart. She points out that Adam refuses to hear her objections and suggests marriage might be escaped like a badly tied knot.
After they leave, Charles visits a brothel but cannot perform sexually. He angrily sends the woman away and breaks down crying. Adam and Cathy celebrate the arrival of 1900 before continuing west. In Salinas, she reminds him that he has already chosen where they will live.
Adam hires Samuel Hamilton, a respected Irishman, to find land. Samuel shows him a 900-acre property near King City, formerly part of the Sanchez Ranch. It needs repairs, but there is good soil and underground water. Adam is unconcerned about expense: he wants a home worthy of Cathy, whom he credits with transforming his colourless life. He sees an innocent who needs a paradise rather than a woman asking for something else.
An unwanted pregnancy
Returning to their lodgings, Adam finds Cathy unresponsive. Alone with her, the doctor recognises an attempted abortion. She has nearly killed herself, but the pregnancy survives. He lectures her and threatens legal punishment if she tries again.
Cathy claims she fears passing inherited epilepsy to a child. This softens his manner, and he tells Adam only that she is pregnant. Delighted and unaware of her attempt, Adam writes to Charles about their surroundings and the baby, inviting him to join them.
Lee and Samuel recognise the danger
At the ranch, Adam employs Lee to manage the household. Samuel returns to locate water, but supper with Cathy unsettles him. Afterwards, he questions Lee’s broken English. Lee reveals that he was born in California and speaks fluently: white people expect a Chinese servant to behave a certain way, and fail to hear him when he speaks normally.
Samuel compares this with his performance as a cheerful Irishman. Lee explains that Samuel can blend into white society, while he cannot. Discussing Cathy, Lee describes her withdrawal as though she has left an unresponsive substitute in her place. Samuel gives him directions to his farm in case he needs help. Cathy meanwhile explicitly tells Adam she intends to leave, but he brushes past the warning.
The twins arrive and Cathy escapes
Samuel assists when Cathy goes into labour; she bites him during delivery. She gives birth to two healthy boys but refuses to see them. Adam and Samuel attribute this to exhaustion, although she insists she will not change her mind. Samuel brings Liza to help. She teaches Lee to care for the babies and notices that Adam hovers around Cathy while barely attending to his sons.
Cathy then acts more affectionately, invites Adam outside and sends Lee to King City for glass feeding bottles with rubber nipples, suggesting an overnight stay. With the workers also absent, she announces she is leaving. When Adam says the babies need her, she responds brutally.
Adam locks her in their room. She apologises and begs him to open the door, then shoots him and escapes. Lee returns to find Adam wounded. Sheriff Quinn rejects his implausible claim that the gun discharged during cleaning. Adam continues protecting Cathy, admitting she had a secret he promised not to question.
Caleb and Aron receive their names
A year later, Adam remains consumed by Cathy’s departure, and the twins are unnamed. Samuel confronts him and punches him in the stomach to break through his withdrawal. With Lee, they discuss biblical names and Cain and Abel’s story of rejection. Adam rejects Joshua because he was a soldier; they choose Caleb and Aron.
Samuel urges him to participate in life: whatever he does, or fails to do, becomes his children’s inheritance. Yet Adam’s final concern remains whether Samuel will tell him if he hears news of Cathy.
Historical and literary details
Samuel Hamilton draws on Steinbeck’s maternal grandfather, an Irish immigrant who settled in California. Source: National Steinbeck Center
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended immigration by Chinese labourers for ten years; later legislation extended the restrictions. This contextualises the prejudice Lee describes, although he was born in California. Source: US National Archives.
Where to watch
East of Eden is streaming on Netflix.
