User Reviews

When Katerine Hite writes a screenplay I know it will have less killing and more story line. Sympathtic female lead. Believable in her lonliness and it really is okay for a man to be kind .guys. Ive known it to happen! Good tale with strong ending.

This was an interesting episode to me. Most reviewers are criticizing Chester because he helps the girl and the Indian calling Chester a man who always gets used or is stupid. Chester has a good heart that comes through in every episode he's in. A lot of good men with a good heart would have done exactly what Chester did, so I don't understand the criticism. I really like Chester and he is my favorite character of this show adding comedy, compassion, and humility. Give him a little slack..

Chester is going to visit his cousin in a town somewhat distant from Dodge for a long-planned, two-week vacation of fishing. Meanwhile, in a town that lies between Dodge and the cousin's place, plain but friendly Callie, daughter of the general storekeeper, longs for a husband but is kept a virtual prisoner by her father. A young Indian man is brought to the store, tethered like a dog, and he and Callie lock glances. The Indian escapes and takes refuge at Callie's house, where she hides him from her father and brother. Just as Chester rides up, seeking to water his horse, the Indian runs out of hiding and tries to vault onto one of Callie's family's horses. Chester shoots him in the shoulder, to stop the theft of the horse, and Callie insists that Chester take the Indian away with him to nurse him back to health. Chester protests, but, being Chester, gives in. Is Callie's feeling for the Indian something more than Samaritanism, and, if it is, will they ride off into the sunset together? Will poor Chester ever get to his fishin' hole? I thought the episode did a fairly honest job of depicting a white woman's love for an Indian at a time (the early 1960s) when television was far more comfortable dealing with a white man's love for an Indian woman. There were some plot holes: Callie has been ordered confined to the house even before Chester shoots the Indian, and her father discovers her gone from home one day when she is out tending him, yet she is still left free to slip away to see him on the succeeding days, with no explanation as to how her absences have been dealt with at home. At the end of the episode, Chester is without a horse, a matter he dismisses as of little consequence, when of course it was a big deal to be left without transportation on the prairie, and horses were expensive, and Chester was unable to save money. Like all the hapless-Chester episodes, this one left me wondering how "Gunsmoke" was able to hold onto Dennis Weaver for nine seasons. I enjoy the show, but "Gunsmoke" left his abilities all but unused. He must have been paid well.

Chester is set to make a trip to his cousin's house about four days ride from Dodge. He happens up the Dell farm house asking for water and some grain. The only person home is a teenage girl named Callie.

Callie's father is a strict disciplinarian that happens to be away from the house with his son. They had heard about a run-away Indian in the area and was possibly looking for signs of his whereabouts. What they did not know was that the Indian was being hidden by Callie. So when Chester comes riding to the farm, the Indian comes out of hiding and jumps on a horse. Chester shoots him wounding him in the shoulder.

Callie makes Chester feel so bad that he agrees to take the Indian into the woods and care for his wounds. He must get the Indian out of the quick since Callie's father would be returning and they would surely kill the run-away Indian.

We have come to learn that Chester can be manipulated into doing almost anything when a woman is around. This situation is no different. Chester will find out that he should have kept on riding to his cousin's house than to help Callie with her attraction to the Indian brave.

This really is not a bad story but one that the viewer felt would end differently than how the show played out. I am sure no character got what they were wanting or expecting- especially Chester.

Chester rides off on a two week vacation to visit his cousin and go fishing, but he manages to cause trouble on the way there. Chester stops off at a farm to drink some water, and as he is saying hello to Callie Dell (Jena Engstrom), he sees and Indian (Eddie Little Sky), and shoots him in the back. Eddie Little Sky could have been working on the farm, or he could have been a Mexican worker or visitor.

Callie immediately gets hysterical, because she had been trying to help Eddie escape from the local Indian Reservation, and their tracker, Simeon (Gary Walberg, who later worked as the Police Lieutenant on Quincy, M.E.). Callie is also afraid that her father (Karl Swenson) and brother (Lew Brown) will kill Eddie if they find out Callie is in love with him.

Callie is supposed to be a teenager, and Lew Brown is supposed to be her slightly older brother, but Brown is 38 years old at the time of filming. Meanwhile, Karl Swenson is at his best playing small-minded selfish jerks, racists, and psychopaths, and here he is all three. He hates Indians, he has Callie locked up in the house because he does not want her to meet any men (and leave her home-servitude as the family maid), and he is riding the prairie hoping to kill the Indian.

Chester is forced to take Eddie out into the woods and care for his gunshot for several days. There goes his vacation. As Chester cares for Eddie, he becomes his friend. Meanwhile Callie is visiting Eddie every day, in spite of her father stalking her all the time. Eddie finally gets better, and Chester lets him ride away with his horse, his saddle, and his rifle. It seems like Chester felt guilty that he shot Eddie, and wanted to help him escape too. Callie is broken hearted, because she wanted to go with Eddie, and he rejected her.

Overall, this is another example of a story for the 30 minute format that was stretched out by adding a lot of dialogue and no action. Nothing happened. Eddie does not really become friends with Chester or Callie. As he rides off, he just looks at them and shrugs. He is never going to see them again, and he has just wants to get the hell away from them and all the other white people.

Kathleen Hite wrote this story, and so while there is no happy ending, at least everyone did not die, as is usually the case when John Meston is the writer.

Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver), who never carries a gun or rifle when Marshal Dillon is facing gunslingers, manages to shoot a passing Indian in the back in this episode.

Chester is on vacation to visit his cousin. He stops for a drink of water at a farm, and as soon as he sees Eddie Little Sky, he shoots him in the back. Sky was not even armed.

What makes this even more craven is that Chester always forgets his rifle when Matt Dillon is facing down bad guys. Chester will be standing meekly near Dillon, always unarmed. Just there to call Doc Adams when the gun-fighting is over.

Because Chester shot Little Sky in front of Callie (Jena Engstrom), who was trying to help Little Sky, she forces Chester to take Little Sky into the woods and tend to his gunshot.

Now the odds of anyone just healing up without medical attention are slim and none. Since this is fantasy, Chester takes out the bullet with a pocket knife, and makes it all better.

In spite of Callie fawning all over Little Sky, there is no interest from Little Sky. He also has no interest in befriending Chester. When Little Sky is well enough to ride a horse, he takes Chester's horse, saddle, and rifle, and rides like hell away from Chester.

The horse, saddle, and rifle represent everything Chester owns. The Indian only needed a horse. They usually rode without any saddles. He also did not need a rifle. Giving a rifle to an Indian who was a renegade off his reservation was a federal crime in those days.