Chapter 16 – Uncertain Future
As the next part of the video showed Doc and Clara conversing and stargazing outside the latter's cabin, the scene reminded George and Lorraine of their own romantic nights out, particularly when they went for drives through the countryside just to enjoy the scenery or walked through the local park like a couple of teenagers. The McFly couple felt some sympathy when Clara revealed to Doc that she had diphtheria at eleven years old and was quarantined for three months. During that time, her father had brought Clara a telescope and placed it next to her bed so she could see everything out the window.
As Clara wondered if humans would ever be able to travel to the moon the way they traveled across the country on trains, Doc responded, "Definitely, although not for another eighty-four years and not on trains. We'll have space vehicles, capsules sent aloft on rockets, devices that create giant explosions, explosions so powerful that they..."
"That they break the pull of the Earth's gravity and send the projectile through outer space," Clara finished, to Doc's astonishment.
"Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon," George recognized.
Amazed that Clara adored Jules Verne as much as he did, Doc eagerly told her that Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was his absolute favorite book and he'd wanted to meet Captain Nemo the first time he read it as a little boy. Giggling, Clara pointed out that Doc couldn't have read the book when he was a little boy since it was only first published ten years ago. 'Correcting' himself, Doc told Clara that it made him feel like a boy. While Doc stated he'd never met a woman who liked Jules Verne before, Clara responded she'd never met a man like him before.
As the scientist and the schoolteacher kissed, George and Lorraine were amazed by the timing of the shooting star that briefly appeared across the night sky in the background. While the scene was undoubtedly beautiful and Doc seemed to have found a kindred spirit in Clara, the McFly couple strongly suspected that he would reconsider returning to the future with Marty, who would most likely not be pleased with that decision. As George and Lorraine knew firsthand, love was an extremely powerful emotion that often affected people's decision-making.
"On the other hand, if Doc does go back to the future with Marty, poor Clara will miss him dearly and never know where he disappeared to," Lorraine mused.
The video shifted to the next morning in the blacksmith shop, showing a scene that reminded George and Lorraine of what they had seen in Doc's garage at the very beginning of the video. As Marty woke up, the McFly couple couldn't bring themselves to feel amusement upon seeing the hole in the back of their son's pants. Most people who weren't Marty's parents would've certainly found the scene funny.
Picking up his gun and pointing it at the mirror, Marty sneered, "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me, Tannen? Well, I'm the only one here. Go ahead, make my day."
"I have no doubt Marty would actually make a good Clint Eastwood," George thought proudly.
"I would rather Marty not have to go through with Buford Tannen's deadly game," Lorraine mused uneasily.
The video shifted to a fully dressed Marty walking outside as a man greeted him with "good morning, Mr. Eastwood", another man offered him a cigar and asked if there was anything he could do for Marty, a man passing by in a carriage wished him good luck and promised to pray for him, and an undertaker asked him if he was interested in a new suit. The scene made George and Lorraine quite uncomfortable, since those people were treating their son as if it was certain he would get killed.
Marty approached Doc, who was sniffing a small purple flower that he pinned to his jacket. Marty wondered what Doc was doing and the scientist responded he was simply enjoying the fresh morning air. Based on Doc's jovial mood, George and Lorraine suspected that he and Clara had done quite more than merely stargazing and kissing last night.
Upon noticing an all-too-familiar tombstone at a nearby shop, Doc took another look at the photograph of it and saw that his name 'Emmett Brown' had vanished from the tombstone.
"It's because Marty saved him from Tannen's bullet at the festival," George realized.
"Does this mean Doc is in the clear and won't be killed for sure?" Lorraine wondered.
Marty optimistically assumed that Doc's name had been erased from the tombstone because it meant they were going back to the future tomorrow. Doc, however, pointed that only his name had been erased, while the tombstone itself and the date still remained in the photo.
That was quite odd and worrying, George and Lorraine had to admit. Did it mean Doc wasn't a hundred percent out of danger from Buford Tannen after all?
"We know that this photograph represents what will happen if the events of today continue to run their course into tomorrow," Doc stated, right before the undertaker from earlier appeared and measured Marty.
George and Lorraine felt a pang of uneasiness as the undertaker revealed to Marty that the measurement was for his coffin and wanted to be prepared since "the odds are running two-to-one against" the teenager. The McFly couple's feelings shifted to outright horror as Doc said to Marty, "So, it may not be my name that's supposed to end up on this tombstone. It may be yours."
"No! No! No! Please, no! That can't happen!" Lorraine mentally cried out.
"Great Scott," Marty muttered worriedly, while Doc responded, "I know. This is heavy."
George picked up on the irony of Doc and Marty swapping catchphrases, while Lorraine was too perturbed by the possibility of Marty dying to react to it.
Doc noticed Marty wearing the gun belt and hoped the teenager wasn't actually considering going up against Tannen tomorrow. "Doc, tomorrow morning I'm going back to the future with you. But if Buford Tannen comes looking for trouble, I'm gonna be ready for him. You heard what that son of a bitch called me last night," the teenager told the scientist in a firm tone, while that mindset did nothing to alleviate the worry that Marty's parents felt for their son's life.
"Marty, you can't go losing your judgment every time someone calls you a name. That's exactly what causes you to get into that accident in the future," Doc stated.
So the scientist did know about the Rolls Royce accident, George and Lorraine realized. Not that they were entirely surprised about that fact. But was Doc ever planning on warning Marty about the accident, just as Marty had warned Doc about the terrorists?
Marty inquired about his future, wondering what was wrong, but Doc refused to tell him, not wanting to risk making things worse for the teenager. Although they understood Doc's concerns for both Marty's well-being and the space-time continuum, George and Lorraine hoped that Doc, if he didn't want to outright tell him about the accident, would at least give their son certain hints that could guide him into making better decisions from now on.
"Marty, we all have to make decisions that affect the course of our lives. You've gotta do what you've gotta do, and I've gotta do what I've gotta do," Doc said before walking away.
At the very least, the McFly couple hoped their son would remember the story about Martin McFly that Seamus had told him.
The video shifted to night time, showing the DeLorean on the railroad tracks as Doc told Marty about his decision to stay in 1885 instead of returning to the future with the teenager. George and Lorraine immediately knew the reason for Doc's decision and, therefore, weren't the least bit surprised when the scientist admitted to their son that he was in love with Clara. It had become quite obvious shortly after Doc had saved Clara's life.
Taken aback, Marty reminded Doc that neither one of them belonged in 1885. "You know, it could still be you that gets shot tomorrow," Marty said as he pulled out the photograph. "This tombstone could still be in your future."
Their son raised a valid point, George and Lorraine figured. Even though Doc's name had vanished from it, the fact that the tombstone and date of death remained in the photo seemed to indicate that the change wasn't entirely set in stone. Besides, as the video had shown throughout Marty and Doc's adventures, changes in the timeline could be quite unpredictable.
"Marty, the future isn't written. It can be changed, you know that," Doc reminded the teenager.
Not always for the better, the McFly couple mused.
"Anyone can make their future whatever they want it to be. I can't let this one little photograph determine my entire future. I have to lead my life according to what I believe is right, in my heart," Doc stated, while George and Lorraine figured that the scientist and their son both had good points.
"And to think, just a few days ago, Doc was concerned with disrupting the timeline by getting involved with Clara in the first place," George mused on the irony.
"Doc, you're a scientist. So you tell me: what's the right thing to do, up here?" Marty asked, pointing to his forehead. After a long pause, Doc conceded that Marty was right.
George and Lorraine were proud to hear their son being the one to talk some sense into Doc for a change, though the McFly couple could clearly see it on the scientist's face that the change of heart wasn't easy for him. George and Lorraine would feel the same way if faced with the painful prospect of losing each other forever. Even the mere thought of it hurt considerably more than the worst pain they'd ever felt.
Doc stated that he had to at least tell Clara goodbye, but Marty wasn't sure that was a good idea, since Clara wouldn't understand it if Doc were to tell her "I gotta go back to the future".
"He doesn't have to mention time travel to her. Just that some business has come up and he needs to go back to where he came from," George mused, though he had a feeling that Clara would become suspicious regardless of whatever excuse that Doc could give her.
"I think there's a possibility she would want to go with Doc Brown," Lorraine considered, since she would feel the same way if George was in Doc's position. Also, as uncomfortable as the thought was, she would've even felt that way about Marty back in 1955 during her intense infatuation with him.
"Doc, listen. Maybe we... I don't know, maybe we could just take Clara with us," Marty suggested, to Doc's surprise.
The McFly couple considered what their son had just said. Could that be a good idea? Would Clara be willing to go with Doc and Marty to what will, for her, be a hundred years in the future? Would she be willing to abandon her life in 1885 for one man's sake? One thing for sure was that leaving 1885 to live in 1985 would be one massive adjustment for Clara or anyone from her time period. The late twentieth century world would practically look like a different planet to the eyes of someone from the Old West.
"You reminded me, Marty. I'm a scientist, so I must be scientific about this. I cautioned you about disrupting the continuum for your own personal benefit. Therefore, I must do no less," Doc stated. "We shall proceed as planned, and as soon as we return to 1985, we'll destroy this infernal machine. Traveling through time has become much too painful."
"Wait a minute, as I recall, Clara was supposed to die in the ravine until Doc saved her life," George recalled. "Hasn't the continuum already been disrupted just by her being alive? In that case, maybe bringing her to our time wouldn't be that much of an issue. She does strike me as a rather open-minded and adjustable person."
"Whether or not Doc tells her goodbye, Clara will be absolutely heartbroken considering how she feels about him," Lorraine thought with a pang of sympathy for the schoolteacher.
The video shifted to Marty sleeping next to a campfire, while Doc was sitting, deep in thought. With another shift, the video showed Doc visiting Clara at her cabin to tell her goodbye. As Clara wondered where he was going, Doc responded with "I'm going away, and, well, I'm afraid I'll never see you again".
"They've only met a couple of days ago, yet their love if as though they've been together for months," Lorraine mused.
"Even if Clara makes it to old age, she'll be dead long before 1985," George mentally pointed out. "She might even be gone by 1955, unfortunately."
Doc assured Clara that he cared about her deeply, but he didn't belong in Hill Valley and had to go back where he'd come from. As George and Lorraine had suspected, Clara wanted Doc to take her with him to wherever he was going. Doc responded that he couldn't do that and wished it didn't have to be that way. "Just believe me when I tell you that I'll never forget you and that I love you," Doc pleaded, but Clara didn't quite understand what he was trying to say.
"What if Marty is right? Maybe she would be willing to move with Doc Brown to the future if he told her the truth," Lorraine thought.
"Please, Emmett, please, I have to know. If you sincerely do love me, then tell me the truth," Clara demanded pleadingly. Giving in, Doc responded, "All right then. I'm from the future. I came here in a time machine that I invented, and tomorrow I have to go back to the year 1985."
"She's not gonna believe him without proof," Lorraine thought.
"It's better he shows Clara the DeLorean first, then tell her the truth afterwards," George mused, not having a good feeling about the scene.
"Yes, Emmett. I do understand," Clara told the scientist.
For a brief moment, George and Lorraine wondered if the schoolteacher had actually taken Doc's word right away, but that possibility instantly died the moment Clara's expression hardened into one of anger.
"I understand that, because you know I'm partial to the writings of Jules Verne, you concocted those mendacities in order to take advantage of me!" Clara exclaimed, before she slapped Doc across the face.
The scene took George and Lorraine by surprise, causing them to flinch inwardly.
"Oh, I've heard some whoppers in my day, but the fact that you'd expect me to entertain a notion like that is so insulting and degrading!" Clara's glare intensified. "All you had to say is 'I don't love you and I don't want to see you anymore'. That at least would've been respectful!"
Clara angrily shut the door, leaving Doc completely heartbroken.
"I understand where Clara's coming from. From her perspective, what Doc Brown told her does sound very unbelievable, but at the same time... I feel bad for both of them," Lorraine mused with great sympathy for the schoolteacher and the scientist.
The McFly couple's sympathy for Clara increased as she was shown through her cabin's window crying her heart out on the bed.
The next part of the video showed Doc entering the Palace Saloon and ordering a bottle of whiskey. George and Lorraine were concerned by that, hoping Doc wouldn't let his emotional state cloud his judgment and ruin his and Marty's plan to return to the future. The scientist and the teenager still had a train to catch by eight o'clock in the morning.
"It's a woman... right?" an older salesman with a piece of barbed wire in his hand said to Doc. "I knew it. I have seen that look on a man's face a thousand times all across the country. All I can tell you, friend, is you'll get over her."
"Love is never really that simple," Lorraine mused. The McFly matriarch's world would be shattered if something were to happen to George.
"Losing someone you deeply care about isn't something one could just get over," George thought. The pain of something happening to Lorraine would be much worse than a bullet to the chest or being burned alive.
"Clara is one in a million... one in a billion... one in a googolplex," Doc muttered with despair. "The woman of my dreams and I lost her for all time."
"They did have so much in common with each other," Lorraine noted. She understood why Doc viewed Clara as such a rarity.
"I imagine that it's quite rare for Doc to meet people who truly understand him and would care so much about him solely for who he is," George figured.
"Well, I can assure you, sir, there are other women. If peddling this barbed wire all across the country has taught me one thing for certain, it's that you never know what the future might bring," the salesman said to the scientist, who responded with "Oh, I can tell you about the future".
At that point, it was clear to George and Lorraine that Doc wasn't thinking rationally. The McFly couple was concerned not only for Doc's well-being, but how his actions may affect Marty when he woke up. Currently, he wasn't Dr. Emmett Brown, the eccentric and brilliant scientist who had invented a working time machine. Instead, he was simply Emmett Brown, a man who was facing heartbreak not unlike any other person who had lost their romantic partner.
The video shifted to morning time, showing Marty waking up at the campsite near where the DeLorean was sitting on the tracks. The sight of Marty's head having rested on his gun belt made Lorraine feel uncomfortable. Noticing that Doc was nowhere to be seen, Marty took another look at the photograph. George and Lorraine were alarmed upon seeing that a name was beginning to very faintly appear, though they couldn't make out any of the letters.
"Wake up!" Buford Tannen roared as the video shifted to him kicking his gang members awake and declaring "I got me a runt to kill". The gang members complained that it was still early, but Buford insisted he was "hungry".
The mere presence of the murderous outlaw made George and Lorraine feel nothing but uneasiness and anger.
Back at the Palace Saloon, Doc was talking to the three old-timers. "And in the future, we don't need horses. We have motorized carriages called automobiles."
The fact that Doc was outright revealing information about the future to the locals reinforced the fact that the scientist wasn't in his right state of mind, especially given all the times he'd told Marty "no one should know too much about their own destiny". It was as though Doc was on the verge of giving up on life altogether, George and Lorraine noted as their hearts went out to the inventor.
The old-timers laughed at Doc's statement as one of them asked "If everybody's got one of these auto-whatsits, does anybody walk or run anymore". Doc responded with "of course we run, but for recreation, for fun". The old-timers laughed at him again, finding the idea of running 'for fun' absurd.
George and Lorraine couldn't help but admit that the old-timers' responses were quite hilarious. On the other hand, not one person in the saloon was believing a word that came out of Doc's mouth, except Doc himself. Therefore, they would likely question Doc's sanity and wonder if he'd gone mad.
As the video shifted to Marty looking for Doc at the blacksmith shop before heading to the Palace Saloon, George and Lorraine prayed that their son would get him and Doc away from that area before Buford Tannen and his men showed up. Perhaps, if anyone could knock some sense back into Doc Brown, it was Marty.
The teenager rushed into the saloon, wondering what Doc was doing. Doc told Marty that he'd lost Clara and there was nothing left for him in 1885.
"All the more reason to go back to the future with Marty," George thought.
"Even when Doc returns to the present, the pain of losing Clara will continue to linger for a while," Lorraine mused sympathetically.
"All right, that's why you gotta come back with me," Marty said. As Doc asked "where", Marty looked at his scientist friend as if he was stupid and responded, "Back to the future!".
To George and Lorraine's relief, and that of Marty in the video, Doc seemed to come to his senses. "All right, let's get going! Gentlemen, excuse me, but my friend and I have to catch a train."
The three old-timers each responded with "Here's to ya, blacksmith!", "And to the future", and "Amen!".
"Emmett, no!" Chester, the bartender, cried out as Doc downed his shot of whiskey.
A wave of surprise and concern quickly took over the McFly couple as Doc passed out, falling onto a table before hitting the floor. Marty immediately tended to Doc, trying to wake him up. As Doc remained unconscious, Marty requested black coffee from the bartender.
"So this is what happened to Doc when the bartender mentioned a 'fourth of July' incident," George put two and two together as he and Lorraine hoped that their son would be able to wake Doc up in time for them to catch the train or, worse, before a certain outlaw showed up.
George and Lorraine's concern for Doc's well-being suddenly gave way to dread as the video shifted to Buford and his gang riding towards Hill Valley. The video then shifted to a gloomy-faced Clara purchasing a ticket at the train station as the McFly couple once again felt a pang of sympathy for the schoolteacher. From the looks of it, Clara no longer wanted to remain in Hill Valley. If only Doc had actually shown her the DeLorean and explained how the time machine worked instead of merely telling Clara that he was from the future without a shred of proof... the morning could've turned out a lot better for them.
The video shifted back to the saloon, where Marty was pouring coffee into the unconscious Doc's mouth. The bartender advised Marty to use something a lot stronger than coffee if he wanted to wake Doc up sooner. After Marty asked for a suggestion, the bartender and his assistant whipped up a concoction (which included a variety of spicy ingredients) called 'wake-up juice'. "In about ten minutes, he's gonna be as sober as a priest on Sunday," the bartender announced, while an alarmed Marty saw that the Courthouse clock outside read 7:50 and he muttered "why do we have to cut these things so damn close".
"It's gonna be eight o'clock in ten minutes. How on Earth are they gonna make it to the train on time?" Lorraine wondered uneasily.
"Let's hope this 'wake-up juice' does its job faster than ten minutes," George thought.
After Marty poured the glass of 'wake-up juice' into Doc's mouth via metal funnel, George and Lorraine were startled as Doc suddenly jumped up and bolted out of the saloon with a loud wail, throwing his head into the water-filled horse trough.
"Did it work?" George and Lorraine wondered in unison.
Marty and the bartender rushed outside, pulling Doc out of the horse trough.
Doc Brown was still unconscious, George and Lorraine, as well as their son in the video, noted, while the bartender told Marty that Doc's action was merely a reflex and it would take quite a few more minutes for the concoction to really clear up his head.
As the video shifted to the train arriving at the station, with Clara and other civilians preparing to board it, George and Lorraine were inclined to have some doubts that Marty and Doc would make it to the train as planned. Yet, the McFly couple knew that at least their son had obviously made it back to 1985 somehow, since they'd seen him over the last two weeks. Perhaps some kind of miracle would lead to things working out in their favor, even if the current odds weren't looking that great?
Back at the saloon, Seamus McFly entered, while Marty and the bartender were still trying to wake Doc up. The bartender was surprised by Seamus' presence in the saloon and the latter responded, "Something inside me told me I should be here. As if my future had something to do with it."
"His future does have something to do with it, though not in the way that he'll ever guess," George thought in response to Seamus' comment.
"I think he knows there's some kind of connection between him and Marty," Lorraine suspected.
A wave of dread suddenly dominated George and Lorraine's minds as Buford Tannen and his gang arrived outside the saloon.
"Oh, no, it's Buford and his men... and Doc Brown still hasn't woken up yet," Lorraine thought with increasing worry. "If he hurts Marty, I'll..."
"I strongly believe that Marty will survive through this, but in spite of that, the sheer intensity of this scene makes it quite difficult to relax," George mused.
Getting off his horse, Buford yelled towards the main window of the saloon. "Are you in there, Eastwood?! It's eight o'clock, and I'm calling you out!"
It was most definitely not eight o'clock yet! The Courthouse clock read 7:55, meaning there was still five minutes left. George and Lorraine noticed that fact, just like their son in the video did.
"It's not eight o'clock yet!" Marty yelled back. An undeterred Buford responded, "It is by my watch! Let's settle this once and for all, runt! Or ain't you got the gumption?"
Pure terror flooded through George and Lorraine as Marty took another look at the photo and saw that the name 'Clint Eastwood' suddenly faded onto the tombstone.
"No, no, no... oh, please, no... but Marty doesn't die! He survives! That's not gonna come true!" Lorraine mentally cried out.
"The future isn't written, the future isn't written, the future isn't written... until it actually happens," George reminded himself of what Doc had told Marty.
"Listen... I'm not really feeling up to this today... so I'm gonna have to forfeit," Marty said to Buford, who was puzzled by the word.
George and Lorraine just knew that Buford wasn't going to allow Marty to walk away without a violent confrontation.
Buford asked his gang members what 'forfeit' meant and one of them replied that it meant he won without a fight. "Without shootin'?" Buford questioned as though it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. "He can't do th..." The outlaw turned back to Marty. "Hey, you can't do that! You know what I think?! I think you ain't nothin' but a gutless, yellow turd, and I'm givin' you to the count of ten to come out here and prove I'm wrong! One!"
George and Lorraine's intense anger towards Buford flared up to white-hot levels for what he'd called their son.
While Marty desperately tried to wake Doc up, Buford shouted "Two!" and one of the old-timers told Marty "you better get out there, son... I got twenty dollars' gold bet on you, so don't let me down".
"Don't listen to him, Marty," Lorraine thought.
After Buford's shout of "Three!", another old-timer told Marty "I got thirty dollars' gold bet agin ya, so don't let me down".
"How dare him?" Lorraine thought angrily. She was absolutely not okay without anyone betting for her son to get murdered in cold-blood by that monster!
"Telling my son that you're betting against him is not helping matters here!" George mentally exclaimed. If the science fiction author was present at the saloon, he would've very likely decked that man in the face.
"Four!" Buford shouted, while the third old-timer told Marty "you better face up to it, son, 'cause if you don't go out there..."
"If he doesn't go out there, he lives," Lorraine thought with annoyance.
After Buford's "Five!", Marty demanded "what if I don't go out there" and a man with an eyepatch told the teenager "you're a coward". Following Buford's "Six!", a man with long hair and a beard told Marty "and you'll be branded a coward for the rest of your days" and the third old-timer added "everybody everywhere will say Clint Eastwood is the biggest yellow-belly in the West".
"That's not what local history says about 'Clint Eastwood', and I doubt the ravine would've been renamed in his memory if that were the case," George mused with utter pride.
"Does not one of those men feel an ounce of sympathy or concern for poor Marty? He's still just a teenager, for goodness sake!" Lorraine thought with frustration.
Buford turned to one of his gang members, who held up seven fingers. "Seven!" Buford yelled.
Neither George nor Lorraine were surprised that someone like Buford Tannen would forget what number came next. If anything, that made them realize that, while Buford was a highly dangerous and unstable individual, Marty or any other unfortunate opponent could use the outlaw's lack of intelligence against him.
At the bar, a man slid a gun to Marty, who picked it up as Buford shouted "Eight!".
George and Lorraine remained on edge during the moment of silence as everyone in the saloon eyed Marty, wondering what he was going to do. The McFly couple could see the concern written on Seamus' face. Apparently, Marty's great-great-grandfather was the only one in the saloon who actually cared about his well-being and wouldn't want the teenager to basically walk into his death by confronting Buford directly.
Marty's declaration that he "already got a gun" caused Lorraine to worry that her son was actually considering going through with Buford Tannen's deadly game after all. "Don't do it, Marty. Please don't go out there, honey..." the McFly matriarch thought pleadingly.
"When the heck is Doc gonna wake up so that he and Marty could get out of there?" George wondered uneasily.
"Nine!" Buford bellowed, while everyone in the saloon continued staring at Marty.
"Don't go, honey, regardless of what people may think of you," Lorraine mentally pleaded.
"Ten!" Buford concluded.
"Come on, Doc Brown, wake up. Wake up. Marty need you to," Lorraine mentally begged.
"Did you hear me, runt?!" Buford roared. "I said that's ten, you gutless, yellow pie-slinger!"
"Don't lose your judgement, son. This isn't worth your life," George thought.
"Remember what Seamus and Maggie told you at the festival, honey, and what could happen if you continue to lose all self-control because of what people call you," Lorraine mentally encouraged.
"He's an asshole!" Marty said about Buford to everyone in the saloon. "I don't care what Tannen says! And I don't care what anybody else says either!"
"Way to go, son, that's the spirit!" George thought proudly.
"Great job, honey. Your life is far more important than trying to prove a point," Lorraine highly approved of her son's defiant response.
As Doc suddenly came to, Marty rushed to him, asking the scientist if he was okay. "Whoa! What a headache," Doc muttered, clutching his head.
"Good he's awake now," George thought with great relief.
"Thank goodness," Lorraine thought with equal relief.
"Are you comin' out here, or do I have to come in there after ya?" Buford demanded, while Marty and Doc tried to escape out the back of the saloon, only to be spotted by two of Buford's gang members.
"Darn it!" George thought with frustration as he and Lorraine were startled by the gunshots that Buford's men fired at Doc and Marty.
Marty's parents were relieved that neither Doc nor their son had been hit by the bullets, though Doc was forced to raise his hands up in surrender when one of the gang members said "Reach, blacksmith!".
As the video shifted to the train leaving the station, George and Lorraine were starting to truly believe that Marty and Doc wouldn't make it there on time after all. At the same time, the McFly couple continued holding on to the hope that things would ultimately turn out fine somehow.
"Yes, sir, that poor fella last night had the worst case of broken heart I have ever seen. When he said he didn't know how he could live the rest of his life knowing how much hurt he'd caused that little girl, well, I really felt for him. I did, right here," the barbed wire salesman who had spoken to Doc in the saloon earlier said to the man next to him. Seated in front of the two men was Clara, who had a miserable look on her face.
What were the chances that Clara would end up sitting right in front of the same man that Doc had spoken to about her at the saloon? In any case, George and Lorraine wondered if Clara would put two and two together and realize who exactly the barbed wire salesman was referring to. If so, how would she react? Would that make Clara have a change of heart regarding her anger towards Doc? Even if she wanted to give him a second chance, would it be too late, since she was already on the train? That would possibly lead the schoolteacher to regret leaving Hill Valley.
The video shifted back to Marty, who was watching outside through a window as Buford's men restrained Doc. "Listen up, Eastwood!" Buford shouted. "I aim to shoot somebody today, and I'd prefer it'd be you. But if you're just too damn yellow, I guess it'll just have to be your blacksmith friend."
George and Lorraine once again felt deep admiration for Doc as the scientist defiantly yelled, "Forget about me, Marty, and save yourself!"
"You got one minute to decide. You hear me, runt? One minute!" Buford shouted.
George and Lorraine's minds were restless. While they certainly didn't want their son to get murdered in cold-blood by that monster, Doc Brown definitely didn't deserve to die either. Also, even if Buford were to shoot one of them dead, the McFly couple had no doubt that a notorious and dishonorable outlaw like him would eventually kill the other one too.
"I've never been as terrified as I am right now," Lorraine shivered.
"One gosh darn minute? I'm absolutely tempted to take out the son of a bitch myself if only I was there!" George thought with boiling hot rage.
Back on the train, the barbed wire salesman told the man sitting beside him "I've never seen a man so broken up over a woman". Upon hearing her name mentioned, Clara turned to the salesman and asked, "Was this man tall, with big, brown, puppy-dog eyes and long, silvery, flowing hair?"
"She's gonna want to give him another chance. I know it, since I'd do the same if I were in her situation," Lorraine predicted.
Realizing that Doc still loved her, Clara pulled on a string and the train slowed to a halt before she rushed off and started running back in the opposite direction. Given Doc's current situation, George and Lorraine strongly hoped that Clara wouldn't get caught up in the Buford Tannen mess.
Speaking of whom, the video shifted back to the outlaw, who announced "time's up, runt!" to Marty and pointed his gun at Doc's head. "Prepare to meet your maker, blacksmith," Buford growled, while George and Lorraine felt a surge of panic as they prepared for what would likely be a graphic and tragic scene.
"Right here, Tannen!" Marty shouted confidently as he appeared, while Buford turned to him and the two stood in a position that was clearly reminiscent of typical shootout scenes in Western films.
"Marty! Oh, honey, what have you gotten into because of that horrible monster?" Lorraine mentally cried out as she was overwhelmed by another surge of fear for her youngest child's life.
George was filled with a mix of concern, curiosity, and nervousness. Even with the knowledge that Marty had been the very 'Clint Eastwood' who defeated Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen in a battle, the worry and dread he felt for his son's life persisted. On the other hand, he was absolutely looking forward to witnessing just how exactly Tannen had received a well-deserved comeuppance at the hands of a seventeen-year-old kid from the future.