I never liked the first half of this episode, because it made no sense. Festus runs away from Dodge, where he has the most friends, and Matt Dillon, Kitty, and Doc Adams backing his play. Unfortunately, over the years, Festus and later Newly were used without any consideration for the character history, in order to put them into odd stories and situations.
The second part is where this should have started, with Festus going out of town to buy a mule or some other logical reason, and meeting the widow Harris and her family at the stagecoach way station. Instead, Festus meets the widow Harris because he is injured due to a gunshot wound, and he lost his horse when it throwed him. Festus had traded in his mule, Ruth, which was totally against his character. It seemed like who ever wrote this story had no love for Festus and his long history on Gunsmoke.
Almost as soon as Festus meets the widow, her son, and her father, the villains show up. They want to force her to sell the station, and Jonathan Goldsmith (who went by Lippe at this time) tries to grab her and threatens to sexually assault her. Festus comes out ready to fight, and Goldsmith and his sidekick henchman leave. About 40 years later, Goldsmith became "The Most Interesting Man in The World" advertising Dos Equis beer.
Soon after Goldsmith roughs up Mrs. Harris, there is the crucial scene of Festus being beaten up and tortured by several baddies (with Goldsmith leading the way) when he goes into town with Mrs. Harris to buy supplies. Later that night the villains burn down the widow's barn (also Goldsmith leading the way). Finally all hell breaks loose when Festus returns to town, ready to right some wrongs. Matt Dillon and Thad show up in the last 30 seconds.
I liked this episode a lot, but it would have been better if the first part had been written to make sense with the character of Festus, and perhaps more time could have been spent with the widow Harris and that set of problems. An extra minute or two of Matt Dillon would have been nice, such as joining Festus and having a big shoot-out with the whole gang. A higher body count would have been nice, considering how vile the villains were.