Excellent cast with a screenplay by Sam Peckinpah should add up to a memorable episode. But in my book, unfortunately, it doesn't. Card sharp Sissel (Vinton Hayworth) cheats cowboy (Robert Vaughn) who draws on the gambler but is shot by third person at the table, a cowboy named Pate (Brett King, looking a lot like Roy Rodgers). Matt smells a set-up. Meanwhile, all this has been witnessed by the feeble-minded Cooter (Strother Martin) who performs simple tasks around town, including tasks for Sissel.
Vaughn makes impression as lip-curling cowboy, while Martin gives another of his patented quirky turns as a boyish simpleton. However, Hayworth, a veteran of movies and TV, steals the show as the tricky slickster. He was always adept at crooked authority figures of one type or another. Here, his convincing steely-eyed stare is a real attention-getter. And that's the trouble. The script has him acting very foolishly on two occasions. First, in the hotel room when he blows his cover needlessly by ordering Pate to shoot Matt. And second, with the riled-up Cooter, when he refuses to lie to the unpredictable slow-thinker who is now wielding a six-shooter. Sissel is obviously too clever to make mistakes like these. As a result, Peckinpah's script errs seriously, undercutting the episode as a whole. Still, the show remains quite watchable for the character interest and fine performances.