Rather out of the blue, Gunnar (Neville Brand), Ben Cartwright's (Lorne
Green) long lost brother in law, visits the Ponderosa ranch, and he makes
an especially strong impression on Hoss (Dan Blocker), especially because
Gunnar is the brother of his mother he never knew.
However, Gunnar is not just the careless vagabond he claims to be, he
is the leader of the Comancheros, a group of bandits who rob white people
to trade with the Comanches - which the Cartwrights of course don't know.
Gunnar's leadership of the Comancheros is not undisputed though as Vaca
(Al Ruscio), his treacherous second in command, claims he has gone soft -
so Gunnar, once he rejoins his gang, orders his gang to raid a nearby
ranch, just to strengthen his position. However, during the raid, the
Comancheros take Little Joe Cartwright (Michale Landon), who doesn't know
his uncle since he was out during his visit, and his sweetheart Carrie
(Sonya Wilde) captive, and when Vaca finds out Joe is Gunnar's relative,
he teases him for hours on end - until Gunnar gives him a sound beating.
However, Vaca actually is right, Gunnar has gone soft, as he soon secretly
gives Joe a knife to free himself and his girlfriend and get away. Vaca
though has seen all of this, and when Joe and Carrie make a run for it, he
follows them and shoots Joe down.
Meanwhile, the Cartwrights have found out who Gunnar really is and have
decided to track down the Comancheros and free Joe and Carrie.
Eventually, Hoss runs into Carrie and she tells him Jo9e has just been
killed. Only moments after this, Hoss runs into Gunnar, and believing he
has killed Joe, he beats him up but good, then prepares to shoot him - but
just can't. which is when a b arely alive Joe stumbles into the picture
and Hoss learns it was actually Gunnar who saved him - which is when Vaca
shows up, shoots Gunnar and is then shot by Hoss. With his dieing breath,
Gunnar asks Hoss for forgiveness ...
An incredibly cheesy episode that treats topics like guilt, remorse and
forgiveness in an incredibly clichéd way and tries to hammer its message
home in an utterly unsubtle fashion that at times you even tend to forget
this is actually supposed to be a Western. Not even veteran actor Neville
Brand can save much in this one, and his fake Scandinavian accent that
seems to constantly come and go during the episode, is actually quite
ridiculous.
A bad episode of the series, and unfortunately, the longer Bonanza
ran (from 1959 to 1973 in all) the more message episodes just like
this one would take over.
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