Daniel is back this week, and while en route to Richmond by stage is robbed of his tax money by by the outlaw team of James Daris and Lois Nettleton. After being tied to the runaway stage, he sets off in cross-country pursuit of the pair.
Possibly devised to ride the bamdwagon of 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde," the script seems a recycle of a "Bonanza" or "Big Valley" draft. Nothing much period-specific here except the flintlocks. The hour showcases Nettleton, most noted for 1980's and 90's series work. The hour starts strong by making her a female protagonist broken free of the cabin-and-crinoline trope, but its still 1968 and a bit early for that. So, she is rapidly reduced to little girl wall-pounding and of course suffers the fate of many hotheaded women in 1960's Westerns - namely getting tossed into a lake. She is allowed to wear pants, a real breakthrough for women in the series. And while her coquette act would probably overwhelm a younger male lead, its refreshing to see an actor of Parker's maturity shut down her character's manipulations.
For a budget chase episode, the action is off and on; for a B story Westerns character actor Kelly Thordsen plays a constable assisting Dan, but he is obviously too out of shape to engage in a wilderness pursuit.
A sharper script might have set up real battle of wits between Parker and Nettleton, and female villains are rare enough on DB to be interesting, but Parker here is isolated from most of the usual series supports - Boonesborough, tribal warfare, redcoats, etc, - that have made the series engaging. We are left mainly with another "Taming of the Shrew"
retelling.
