A dangerous trip forces settlers to face their internal problems while Cheyenne battles with a gunslinger and a Comanche chief.
Episode Notes[]
- Dennis Hopper guest stars in this episode as the Utah Kid. He also guest stars in the season two episode The Iron Trail as the bandit leader Abe Larson.
Continuity Nitpicks[]
- In the scene before the Utah Kid joins the pioneer party, the Endicott buckboard suffers a broken axle and is abandoned on the side of the road. Then it appears perfectly fine in the next scene with Frank and Ella riding in it. Oops.
Real World References[]
- Notice any? Add them here.
Plot[]
Comanche force the settlers into an abandoned way station with no supplies
Cheyenne meets with a new employer, the Englishman immigrant Jeffry Billings, who has hired him as a guide to the Owl River valley. They are joined by a young Owl Valley resident named Frank Endicott who is in town to meet his new fiancé, Ella McIntyre, for a marriage arranged by his mother. Frank is less than thrilled when he sees that his friendly and eager bride-to-be appears to be 10 years his senior.
After four days of travel Bodie expresses concern over the frail Mrs. Billings' fitness for frontier life, but Jeffry dismisses his concerns. On the seventh day, the group runs into a stranded young man who has run his horse to death. Cheyenne has obvious misgivings about the man, but doesn't object when Billings welcomes him.
Yellow Knife taunts the settlers with water and food.
Scouting ahead, Cheyenne comes across ominous tracks. No sooner does he return to the group when they're chased by a party of Comanche indians. In their haste, their wagon tips and crashes, forcing them to abandon their supplies. The settlers run into an abandoned way station to hold off the attacking Comanche. Cheyenne asks the men to start a guard rotation, but the young man who they picked up isn't happy about Bodie giving him orders. Cheyenne recognizes him as an upstart gunslinger known as the Utah Kid.
The settlers take stock of their grim situation. They have no food and very little water. That night, Billings considers riding away solo and leaving his wife behind. Meanwhile, Frank is running hot and cold with Ella, so she turns to the friendly wagon driver, Beef Simpkins, for companionship.
The men pick cards to see who rides out for help.
The next day, Cheyenne and the others decide that sending out a rider for help is their only option. The men all draw cards to see who's the one to go. Kevin draws the ace high and heads out that night on his horse. The standoff at the way station continues the next day, with tempers flaring. Frank loudly blames Ella for their problems, declares there are no indians, rushes outside and has to be dragged back behind cover. Later, he apologizes but Ella calls off their engagement and gives him the ring.
The next morning they see that Kevin has been captured and staked out. Cheyenne raises a white flag and goes out to negotiate with Chief Yellow Knife, leader of the Comanche. The tall cowboy calls Yellow Knife a coward and challenges him to a fight: the winner and his people get to go free. Knowing he's not much of a physical match for the strapping Cheyenne, Yellow Knife proposes a test of courage instead in the quicksand pit nearby. The first man to call out for help is the loser. Cheyenne agrees.
Cheyenne heads for a showdown to the death with the Comanche to save Billings and the other settlers.
Faced with imminent death, the settlers reconcile with each other: Jeffry admits to his wife that the harshness of the American frontier has weakened his resolve, but not his love; Frank gives Ella the ring back as a gift and says he plans on making his own instead of letting his mother make his decisions.
Cheyenne returns and orders everyone outside without their guns. The Utah Kid refuses and forces Cheyenne into a showdown. Cheyenne shoots the Kid's gun and hat away, and the Kid marvels at Cheyenne's skills. But he hasn't learned his lesson yet and goes after his gun again. Bodie is forced to kill him.
Outside, Cheyenne leads the settlers to the quicksand pit. He and Yellow Knife step into the muck and sink down until they both are chin deep, but neither one quits. Yellow Knife's people pull him out first, and the settlers pull Bodie out, too. Cheyenne acknowledges Yellow Knife's courage and the chief leads his people away peacefully.
Quotes[]
The Utah Kid disagrees with Cheyenne's surrender plan.
"You don't realize what you've got here. While the whole world's going to Hades in a bucket, here a man can live the way men were intended to live. This is the last frontier."
- - Jeffry Billings describes his romantic view of the American West.
"I know what it takes to pioneer this country. A woman's got to be as strong as a man to survive out here."
"I suggest you let me worry about that."
- - Cheyenne's warning to Jeffry Billings goes unheeded.
Cheyenne: "Anybody like to say anything?"
Frank: "Uh, I guess he was the closest thing to a father I ever had. I'm sorry, John."
Utah Kid: "Hey, cut it short, will you?"
Mrs. Billings: "Amen."
- - The settlers hold the world's shortest funeral for John Pike.
"I've never had much luck when it comes to finding somebody. You know, a man gets said 'No' to just so often. Then it hits him. He ain't exactly catnip to the ladies."
- - Poor, lonely Beef
"I plugged the canteen. I'd be willing to take a chance at the waterhole."
"Nope. You wouldn't look too good without your hair."
- - Beef's idea to go for water during the Comanche siege is overruled by Cheyenne.
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