Note: My rating for this episode considers both parts as a single story, although I created a separate review entry for each part. This episode is officially listed as "Women for Sale: Part 2" but in the episode, the title shown is "Women for Sale: The Conclusion."
As the second part of this two-part, season-opening episode begins, Matt Dillon, Stella Silks, and a young girl named Marcy McCloud face a group of Comanches. Fortunately, when the Comanches learn that Marshal Dillon has killed the renegade known as Blue Jacket, they consider him a friend, as Blue Jacket and his band of renegades gave the tribe a bad name.
As this story progresses, the Comancheros led by Irishman Timothy Fitzpatrick are making their way to Mexico with their collection of captive, would-be slaves they gained in trades with Blue Jacket. Once they are in Mexico, they will sell the captives, which are primarily women, as slaves. Many will be forced into a life of prostitution.
Matt Dillon is pursuing the Comancheros with the aim of catching them before they reach the border. However, trying to care for Stella and Marcy along the way proves to significantly slow the Marshal's pursuit.
This episode features another strong cast, and the subject matter is extraordinary. However, the story drags in several places with multiple long scenes of dialog where people revisit their respective pasts and motivations. Some characters shift between being almost sympathetic to various levels of depravity on a whim. And then the story abruptly ends and leaves several loose ends.
Furthermore, the historical accuracy of this episode is quite dubious. Yes, there were so-called Comancheros in the 18th and 19th centuries that were involved in a black market for assorted items primarily along the U. S.-Mexico border, but there is not much evidence of widespread white slave trade or human trafficking among the activities. That is not to say there were no occurrences of such activity, but historical records do not indicate it was anything that happened with any frequency. For that matter, most of the Comanchero activity ceased in the 1875 when the U. S. Army eliminated Comanche camps in the Texas panhandle, which significantly disrupted trade between the Comanche and the Comancheros.
As with the two-part "The River" episode that kicked off Season 18, it is clear there were significant resources invested in this episode. It is unfortunate the story content does not live up to the acting and the production values.