Mon, Jan 6, 1969
On her way back to Dodge after a short trip, Kitty shares a stagecoach ride with Blaine Copperton, a gentlemanly but uncertain man who seems to be far less mature than his age. Suddenly, two armed bandits attack the stage, killing the driver and seriously wounding Copperton. Copperton manages to grab a shotgun and kill the bandits, but then collapses unconscious. Kitty drives the stage to Copperton's ranch, where she finds a family of squatters living in a shack. The squatters, who have a long-running feud with the powerful Copperton family, refuse to give any help. When Kitty gets to the ranch headquarters and finds Copperton's mother, she finds a powerful matriarch who treats her son like a child, her granddaughter (Copperton's daughter) as barely legitimate and everyone else like so many servants. The mother soon finds out about the squatters. She goes to their shack, burns it to the ground, and shoots a squatter in the leg. Kitty calls for help before things get way out of hand, but before Matt can get there, the squatters kidnap Kitty and demand that Copperton show up to rescue her and get shot in the leg himself. Copperton defies his mother and shows up at an old mine where the squatters have hidden out, but will the feud turn deadly?
Mon, Jan 13, 1969
Matt and Festus shoot it out with an outlaw who was a member of the infamous Jess Trevor gang, particularly notorious for murder and mayhem. Matt finally kicks in the outlaw's door and shoots him. The outlaw lives for a few minutes, and Matt asks him why he deserted the Trevor gang. The dying outlaw reveals that he left at the request of Trevor's girlfriend, who was also shocked by his cruelty and wishes to leave. The woman is then shown lying in a corner, having accidentally been shot by Matt. To his horror, Matt recognizes the woman as Leona, a woman he knew and loved before he came to Dodge City. Guilt-ridden, he brings Leona back to Dodge and learns her story: she had drifted after leaving Matt, turning to prostitution and hooking up with various gang members, closing with Trevor himself. Trevor has learned of Leona's defection and puts out a murder contract on her. While Matt searches for Trevor (and Trevor orders a hit on Matt), Kitty (who is nursing Leona) struggles with her feelings toward her boyfriend's past girlfriend, finally making an uneasy alliance with Leona. When Matt gets to Trevor first and takes him in, Trevor warns "there will be twenty shotguns pointed at your head" when Matt sends Trevor off to court for trial. Matt warns Trevor that "there's going to be one aimed at yours" in return. The extradition trip to the train station begins in an atmosphere of the highest tension, as Leona watches from a sidewalk.
Mon, Feb 10, 1969
A young wife miscarries when Doc Adams must tend to a wounded killer instead of making a house call. The killer will probably hang, because Doc's witness to his murdering a local card-player celebrating winning a big pot. As the only physician in the area, Doc's over-committed, but the young woman's husband, a short-sighted farmer with a bad temper, can't accept the loss.
Mon, Feb 17, 1969
After surviving (barely) a bounty hunter's attempt to assassinate him, an outlaw tries to turn himself in to Matt Dillon. But Matt's out of town, and the bounty hunter's companions get to the outlaw first. They aren't so much interested in the outlaw as they are in killing Matt, so they take over the Long Branch and hold everyone hostage. They also get word out to a land baron whose wife the outlaw accidentally killed: come here and pick up the prisoner in return for your gunmen to waste the marshal. The land baron accepts the deal, but the outlaw's girlfriend shoots him as he's about to take the outlaw away. While Doc performs an emergency operation, the land baron's hirelings are torn between their promise to punish the outlaw and their revulsion at the bounty hunters' sadistic leader, who forces town drunk Louie Pheeters to crawl on his hands and knees the length of the saloon to get a drink (which he then refuses in a dramatic sequence). This episode's production number indicates it was actually filmed at the end of the previous season and held up for reasons unknown (it's shown in broadcast order in syndication).
Mon, Nov 3, 1969
Matt Dillon is escorting his prisoner Charlie Noon back to Dodge City when he encounters a runaway Indian bride being pursued by the braves of her tribe. The Indians have mistaken Charlie Noon as the man who stole her and are seeking revenge. The suspense builds in this episode as all parties are seen to match wits and maneuver for strategic advantage rather than employ violence. "Charlie Noon" is thus noted more for intrigue than the activity one would expect of a typical western.