According to a book on "Gunsmoke"'s history, Amanda Blake saw a draft of the script during the 1973-74 season and refused point-blank to do this episode, which has Kitty getting raped, beaten, exposed in the desert and getting into a cat fight with another woman. Producer John Mantley dug in his heels and planned the episode for the following season - without Blake, who left "by mutual consent." The role was not rewritten and the character was Kitty in all but name.
When Evans is riding the stage with Doc and Lyla, he says that in his "checkered" life he has "seen the elephant." To "see the elephant" was a euphemism among Civil War soldiers for experiencing battle for the first time. In the mid-1800s most Americans had never seen an elephant, so to see one in a traveling circus was a big thing, which entered the vernacular for any novel and memorable experience.