Poor Dane Shaw is shot on the streets of Dodge City, and Matt Dillon, the townspeople, and Shaw himself are perplexed. Everyone likes Shaw and cannot imagine who would want to shoot him. The only clue Shaw can provide is the shooter uttered the word "Stone."
One of the men of the town brings Shaw's hat to Matt, and Matt realizes Shaw wore the same type of hat the Marshal wears. Matt remembers a cattle rustler named Stone that was found hung one day. Stone's partner was named Danch, and he was convinced Marshal Dillon hung Stone. Danch swore he would avenge Stone's death by killing Matt. The Marshal is convinced Danch shot Shaw thinking Shaw was Matt Dillon.
Sometime later, Matt catches a stranger named Bill Lee following him with a gun. Matt questions Lee, but the mysterious man denies any involvement in shooting Shaw or attempting to kill the Marshal.
Doc delivers the news to Matt that Shaw has died. Marshal Dillon is incensed and acts as though he is going to release the cocky Lee. Matt threatens to kill Lee, and the scoundrel admits Danch hired him to kill the Marshal. Lee tells the Marshal where Danch is located.
Matt and Chester ride to the town where Danch lives for the inevitable showdown.
Harry Townes portrays Bill Lee in this story. Townes would appear in six more Gunsmoke episodes, usually in prominent guest starring roles. This part is a bit subdued compared to the performances Townes would provide later in his career.
Stanley Adams makes the second of three Gunsmoke appearances. In this episode, he plays the slimy bartender in the town where Danch lives. Adams often played this kind of person of highly dubious character.
This episode marks the second and final Gunsmoke appearance for actor Paul Newlan. He had previously appeared in Season 1's "Reward for Matt" episode. He plays the extraordinarily ornery Danch in this story.
There is nothing especially thought provoking about this story. Over the twenty-year run of Gunsmoke episodes, there would be many other episodes that dealt with someone seeking revenge against Marshal Dillon, just as there would be numerous episodes where Matt must track down a criminal.
However, this story features a unique, unsettling series of mistakes that lead to the events that take place. Danch mistakenly thinks Matt killed Stone. Danch hires an incompetent, cowardly gunfighter after waiting so long to seek revenge. (This is the main head-scratching element of this story. Why would Danch wait so long to seek revenge and then hire a bumbling idiot like Lee to do the job?) Lee mistakenly shoots Dane Shaw when he means to shoot the Marshal. Lee wanders around the streets of Dodge with his pistol in his hand until he is caught and arrested. Doc Adams errs in his diagnoses of Shaw's injury. (Doc thinks Shaw will recover.) The bartender foolishly tells Matt he has never been to Dodge when the Marshal saw him there recently. The bartender then exacerbates his stupidity by leading Matt to Danch's residence where Danch is trapped by the single point of access to the house.
The juxtaposition of this episode with the previous "No Indians" is noteworthy. In both, the Matt Dillon character is strongly guided by his anger. In "No Indians," he is furious over the brutal mass murder by the thieves who make the murders look like rampaging American Indians. In this story, he is livid that an innocent man was killed because the murderer mistakenly thought the victim was Matt. In both stories, Marshal Dillon reacts to the circumstances with an uncharacteristically violent (and illegal in the case of "No Indians") response. The two stories are dark and heavy with nothing in the way of the usual lighter moments.
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