20 Things You Somehow Missed In There Will Be Blood
15. Plainview Has Bandy And Eli Right Where He Wants Them
We have seen how Plainview lies and deceives masterfully to get what he wants. In one of the most famous scenes from the film - the Baptism scene - we see Plainview at his best. Bandy's tract is the only piece of land that Plainview needs to make his pipeline dream a reality. Once he gets the pipeline, all his hard work will pay off.
Bandy asks him to go to the church and leaves him at Eli's mercy. Not because he is conniving with him but because of his staunch faith in absolution. The start is rough when he is accused of fabricated lies engineered to turn the people against him. Abandoning his son, though, is a true confrontation he faces at the moment. Day-Lewis acts it out perfectly. But after that, it is all a Plainview show.
He has Eli right where he wants him. By completing this scene, he not only wins the approval of the community - including Bandy - but also uses Eli's own perversity against him. Eli clearly wanted his revenge for all the humiliation and pain Plainview has given him. But the oil magnate emerges victorious in the end.
He ends the scene with "there is going to be a pipeline" and that is all he ever wanted.