User Reviews

The title is an allusion to the use of wormwood in the Bible where wormwood always means bitter. So, the title is from the phrase: "to drink of the bitter cup".

This is a serious episode and tackles the subject of how Little Joe feels after he kills a man in a fair fight. Little Joe has to deal with his neighbor, Mr. Crenshaw's feelings after Little Joe killed his son, Zack, in a fight his son started. The story line spends some time with Joe's survivor's guilt and Mr. Crenshaw's loneliness. Mr. Crenshaw is talking to Zack as if he were still alive.

Little Joe also has to deal with Linda Roberts, from Carson City, who has come into town to post $1,000 reward posters for someone who kills Little Joe in a fair fight. She read about Little Joe killing Zack Crenshaw in a newspaper and decided that all the witnesses in the trial over her brother's death were paid to lie because Little Joe is clearly a killer.

Good acting, implausible story, but, more likely than many other stories, kept me entertained throughout.

SPOILER: Deputy Clem Foster finds out that the real man who killed Linda's brother was Zack Crenshaw as later identified by an eye witness. But, Linda has already hired an unidentifiable man to kill Little Joe.

SPOILER: Meanwhile, Joe is helping Mr. Crenshaw dig a well, after Mr. Crenshaw tells Joe he was wrong and has forgiven him. Little Joe takes the wire from Carson City telling about Zack killing LInda Robert's brother to show it to Mr. Crenshaw. Mr. Crenshaw doesn't take it well and pulls a gun on Little Joe, he is the unidentifiable man and only saved Little Joe from others because he wanted to kill Little Joe. Crenshaw is clearly dealing with mental issues as he goes hot and cold with killing Joe.

This was the last performance by Frank Overton who plays Mr. Amos Crenshaw as he died of a heart attack the day after this aired, at age 49.

This episode has a strong sense of deja vu. In a previous season, Frank Overton played a widower with an only child that dies, same here. Again the makeup people have liberally coated his hair with whitener to make him appear older, although in his natural state he was clearly old enough to be a parent of an adult. Must wonder if they were trying to make him look as old as Lorne Greene, who was actually older than him. In both episodes his anger and conflict is directed at Joe. In the first he punches Joe out, here he nearly shoots him. Frank Overton is mostly remembered for just a few performances like StarTrek,12 O'clock High and the 2 Twilight Zone episodes, but he played a wide variety of roles, even playing a killer as often as a cop-9. What is striking is that he had just as many roles like this-death of child (6) or spouse(2) Brothers(2) in which he excelled at exhibiting sorrow and grief, pure anguish. The first and extremely moving one was in "The Remarkable Incident at Carson Corners"_ available online and DVD.

This Bonanza performance is its equal. I suspect he was the master of anguish because of the untimely death of his own father when Frank was just 14.

I share that anguish whenever I watch this episode It aired April 23, and his last words were "God help me!" He died April 24, and April 25 was the anniversary of his fathers death. Consider his mothers anguish, who outlived him by 3 years.