Jack Elam has to be high on anyone's list of favorite character actors. Though he made a career of (mostly) playing bad guys, he did it with style, delivering consistently high-quality performances. He was not merely a good actor, but a /fine/ actor who could hold his own.
I'd normally give this episode only 6 stars, but it's got Jack Elam in what appears to be an early TV appearance. (I don't remember him receiving special billing in the credits.) He's so slender and (yes!) danged handsome, I had trouble recognizing him -- until the camera came in for a closeup of his wayward left eye. It's the only time I've seen Elam's injury exploited for dramatic effect.
The story itself is another "bad guys show up and cause trouble", with another sado-masochistic "Lucas-gets-beaten-up-and-hog-tied" sequence (Elam delivering the sadism). But the plot is a bit different; the bad guys are interesting; and Lucas has to decide whether to keep the background of a reformed bad'un secret. Elam is the main attraction, though.