User Reviews

When the writer has the viewer unable to comprehend if they are suppose to feel sorrow or happiness when the show ends, then you know that you have a nice script. This is one of those where the ending makes you torn between two different emotions and the viewer is left to decide the feeling.

This episode begins when Matt and Festus find a dead body along a creek. They ride to the closest house which was suppose to be vacant. However a woman named Nora Brand advised that her husband had died and she move into the house. She has not seen or heard from anyone for months. After Matt and Festus leave a person comes out from the bedroom and they start kissing. Matt keeps searching for the identity of the dead man.

Later back in Dodge, Millie Scott comes riding into town with her six small boys. She asks Matt if he has seen her husband Roy. Roy has been gone over a month leaving the family nearly starving. Matt advises Millie that he will look for him.

Roy Scott was known as a woman's man and Matt goes to the Long Branch to talk with a saloon girl, that was sweet on Roy, named Gert. Gert does not want to tell about Roy in front of her new and jealous cowboy so later, at night, she tells Matt that Roy is with another woman but she does not know who or where.

Matt gets a lead on Roy when Harper Pruitt comes to town and advises that Roy had worked for him and had stolen money and an appaloosa horse. Matt remembers seeing an horse at Norma Brand's house.

Before Matt arrives at Norma's house, she had already told Roy to leave. Roy rides into town and goes to the Long Branch. Gert thinks Roy has come back to her but the jealous husband has other intentions for Roy. ---And all the time the viewer can do nothing but think of the wife home along with six small boys.

A very good show with mix results. When the closing credit roll you are not sure how to feel. But you know you where entertained.

Matt Dillon and Festus Haggen find a dead man on the prairie. It looks as though the man has been robbed. There are no clues as to the man's identity.

When Matt and Festus ride to a nearby farm Matt thought was unoccupied, they find a woman named Nora Brand living there. Nora tells Matt her husband is dead, and a hired hand helps her tend the farm. As Matt and Festus ride away, Festus makes some remarks about an Appaloosa in the corral, as well as some relationship opinions regarding Nora. After Matt and Festus leave, we learn there is a man in the house. He and Nora begin kissing.

After Matt and Festus are back in Dodge City, a woman named Millie Scot rides into town with her children. Millie tells Matt that Rob, her husband, has disappeared. This isn't the first time Rob has done this. Without Rob, Millie and the kids are left in need of basic necessities. Matt promises Millie to do what he can to find Rob.

The story to this point has established three primary mysteries: Who was the dead man? Why was Nora so vague with the Marshal and Festus, and who is the man that was kissing her? Where is Rob Scot, and why has he abandoned his family? Of course, the answers to these mysteries are intermingled. There is a final mystery that will curiously remain a mystery at the end of this story.

In a very brief scene, this episode features one of the first meaningful exchanges between Doc Adams and Festus. As any Gunsmoke fan knows, this will become a steadfast friendship over the years to come. It is fun getting a glimpse at the genesis of this friendship here.

Patricia Owens plays the role of the devious Nora in this episode. She is best known for her role in the 1958 horror/sci-fi classic film The Fly, where she played the wife of the scientist that accidentally mixes his cells with the cells of a fly in a laboratory experiment gone horribly wrong.

Jay Lanin, who also appeared in the Season 8 episode "The Ditch" is Rob Scot in this story. Harry Bartell, a frequent Gunsmoke guest who also appeared in the first episode of Season 9, "Kate Heller," has a small part here as a rancher named Harper.

This episode features the first appearance of Julie Sommars on Gunsmoke. Here she plays a saloon girl named Gert. She would go on to appear in several more episodes of the series, including the iconic Season 12 episode, "The Jailer."

In the end, this is an intriguing story, but it left me wanting to find out more about the Nora Brand character. It is interesting to see a female character seemingly objectify the men around her, as it is much more common for male characters to objectify women.