Bonanza: 'The Avenger.'

This is Anna and Irene's entry into the Vic Morrow Blogathon hosted by Hamlette of Hamlette's Soliloquy and DKoren of Sidewalk Crossings. This review (written mostly by Irene, but with Anna's input and editing -incredibly skilled editing at that ;)- here and there) will be a review of a very special episode of Bonanza called 'The Avenger.'
WARNING: Literally tells everything that happens in the episode and is rather long =D =D =D

       

The episode begins with a group of unsavory looking gentlemen riding into fair Virginia City, like many a Bonanza episode. 

They dismount and the top segundo of the group sends out his cronies to 'find out things.' Seems there's gonna be a hangin'! *Cue dramatic music*

Folks 'round town are taking around a petition to be signed by everyone they can find. It seems the more names they have the more likely it is that the poor fellows who are being hanged will, um, not be hanged. And it seems that these poor aforementioned fellows are none other than Ben and Adam Cartwright! They can't hang them! That's gotta be illegal or something! But it doesn't matter what we think. It looks like the Cartwrights are in for it! It's two hours until the scheduled hour of their hanging.

                       
Mr. Cartwright seems pretty chill about his impending fate, but Adam is far from chill. He's un-chill.

   
      Suddenly, two riders come tearing into town. It's the other Cartwright boys, Hoss and Little Joe! The Sheriff makes a comment about how it's good that they're not wearing guns. Mr. Cartwright makes a comment back that if his boys were told not to take guns into town, they aren't going to take guns into town.

You sure about that Pa?

    

                  Enter the rest of the Cartwright family.

They have come to tell Pa and Adam that they found this guy they were looking for called Duce Martin. Dead. He apparently 'fell' off a cliff. Little Joe thinks he was pushed. Of course. Although, he may be right this time, so let's not be too harsh with our Little Joe.
Apparently, this man was a witness to a murder that Mr. Cartwright and Adam committed. Yeah right. Of course he left before the trial was commenced, but that doesn't mean anything. A little lady called Sally Byrnes (she showed up earlier in the episode) testified against the Cartwrights. Little Joe (and everybody else) does not think she is quite trustworthy. Pa tells Hoss and Little Joe that Adam and himself still have a sporting chance to get out of this thing alive. Ed Baxter (the newspaper man) is printing a special edition of the newspaper for the Cartwrights. I'm not sure what it's about, but I'm sure it's good. There's also the town petition. Apparently, if the citizens of Virginia City can wire the Governor fifty names in favor of the Cartwrights not getting executed he will call it off. Little Joe and Hoss still leave the jail looking rather glum, understandably. There's also this guy called Hawkins, along with his men, that they're not supposed to tangle with.

Just had to add this ominous and epic shot.

This is one of Hawkins' top cronies. Charming, is he not?

 As the bad guys laugh and joke about the hanging whilst in the saloon, someone riding down the street outside captures their attention.

A mysterious silhouette.

He's a stranger. No one's ever seen him before.

The infamous Sally Byrnes. She seems very interested, doesn't she? And who wouldn't be, for the strange rider is none other than Vic Morrow himself. But that's not his name in the show, so moving on...

The mysterious stranger stops at the livery stable. It's evident that he loves his horse, so that's just adorable. The stable manager is really talkative. He manages to get out of the guy that he comes from Lassiter, Kansas. Apparently some raiders had recently sacked the town of Lassiter and burned it to the ground. The stable guy tries to get the man to say more, but he's done chatting.

Stable guy looks a little frazzled, doesn't he?

While Vic - Oops, I mean the stranger, is puttering around with his saddle, who should come along but Hoss and Little Joe? Little Joe mistakes the Man From Kansas for one of Hawkins' men so he belligerently bumps into him while walking by. Man From Kansas tells him to watch where he's going while looking at him like this:

Since Man From Kansas called Little Joe 'Kid' Little Joe retaliates and has to be held back by Hoss. What he would do without his older brother, I shudder to think.

Man From Kansas coolly fixes his collar and saunters out of the building while Hoss tells Little Joe that he needs to keep that temper of his in check. Yeah Joe, get it together! 

After this little scuffle the brothers begin to open their blankets, but first they look around the stable to make sure no one is watching. Now guess what they take out of these little innocent bundles? Why guns of course! Adam was right, it would seem (he always is).

They assemble their shotguns to make sure they're in perfect working order and ready for use...

And then hide them behind some grain sacks.

They leave the barn and we cut to a certain little cafe, run by Miss Sally Byrnes. Cool Man From Kansas has just entered the room.

Sally greets him rather unfriendly like, but he doesn't mind much. All he wants is some food. She goes off to fetch him some and while snooping around just a bit, he notices a calendar on her desk with the days marked up until the current.

Man From Kansas comments on this fact after Sally brings him his food and tells him that everyone's afraid to watch the Cartwrights die. She doesn't answer him.

After this little exchange, Hoss and Little Joe come walking into the Cafe. They tell Sally that Duce Martin is dead and that she is now the only witness against their Pa. They ask her if there's nothing they could do to change her mind. Sally says she's not gonna lie for them. Sally's a real jerk right now, but isn't her accent wonderful?

Joe gets a little angry when Sally doesn't want to cooperate, and grabs her roughly. Cool Man From Kansas interposes. What must he think of Little Joe? But Joe does apologize to Sally, and he just looks so sad that you gotta feel for him. After Hoss and Little Joe depart Sally mentions that Cool Man From Kansas (when will they tell us his name?) and this Hawkins fellow are the only people she's seen stand up to the Cartwrights. Man From Kansas asks who they (Ben and Adam) killed. It was Sally's father.

Sally goes on to say that she heard them arguing over some stolen cattle that the Cartwrights accused her father of having bought. She heard the shooting happen. She is very flustered by this point and says: 'Well if you knew what it was like to have someone killed in such a crazy way like that!'
Cool, Cool Man From Kansas answers her:
'I do know. I know very well.'
His tone of voice at this point is sooooo awesome!
Later on, a boy comes into the cafe asking for some food to give to the prisoners. He sees this stranger eating and he thinks this stranger is very cool. Smart boy. He tries mimicking whatever the Man From Kansas does. They quickly become friends.

Note: So we just remembered that we're pretty sure that Vic Morrow's characters' name in this episode is never divulged to the audience. Well, dang it. I guess we'll just call him Vic or Cool Guy from now on.

So anyway, Vic saunters over into the kitchen and begins to question Sally. He asks her if she knows anyone connected with Lassiter, Kansas. She doesn't. He asks her who the biggest rancher is and she tells him it's Ben Cartwright. Cool Man's apparently looking for someone, but is not aware of what this fellow is called. But he assures Sally that he'll know him when he sees him.

While in prison, Mr. Cartwright and Adam are visited by the Hangman and his helper. 

The Hangman suggest that they make sure they're clean-shaven so that the new ropes don't catch at any whiskers, because that would hurt, and that they make sure their boots are on snug, so's they don't fall off. Ben and Adam are touched by this thoughtful gesture... Not. 

BTDubs, Adam is pretty darn sarcastic at this moment, and it's amazing.

Vic comes to visit the Cartwrights in prison. He is visibly disappointed when he sees that Ben is not the man he's looking for. He's about to leave when Hoss comes storming inside. He tells his Pa and brother that Sally Byrnes isn't going to change her story. Little Joe is at the moment looking for Barney Ogden, the petition-signer-go-getter, who is supposed to be down in the mines searchin' for signatures. Most everybody in town is holed up inside 'cause they're afraid of Hawkins and they're  cowards. Okay, that's kind of harsh, but it's also kinda true!

\

I'll just pop in this picture of Vic.

Meanwhile, it's only one hour 'til the execution! All the baddies (excluding Hawkins) are loafing around in the saloon.

Cool Guy comes sauntering in like there's no tomorrow.

And here comes one of the best parts in the whole episode. The two main bad guys get all pushy and kind of seriously annoying, making fun of the way he carries his gun in his britches, calling him 'Little Fella' (oh no they didn't!), and generally acting like the jerks they are.

They then ask him if he's a friend of the Cartwrights. Vic calmly, coolly, and awesomely says 'Yeah,' like he just then decided to become their friends (because he did). He knows the whole saloon is full of the Cartwrights' enemies, but he doesn't give a hoot. Be still my beating heart.

One of the baddies ask him if he's known the formerly mentioned family long. Wonderful Man From Kansas says, while drinking his whiskey, 'Ten, maybe fifteen minutes.' The bad guys continue to harass him a bit, but he pays them no heed. Mr. Chubby (on the left of the last picture. No, not Vic, the other guy on the left!) is eventually told to go cool off outside by baddie on the right. As he walks angrily out of the saloon he runs into the boy whom Cool Guy befriended earlier.

Since his dander's already up from his encounter in the saloon, and he was raised by a pack of evil coyotes, Bert (yes, we do learn his name) decides to have some fun when he learns that the boy is taking some stew to the prisoners for their last supper. He calls out his evil buddy and they begin ruining the food with relish.

It's kind of hard to see, but that's a cigarette butt that the man on the right is
putting into the stew.

Hearing the boy yelling in protest from inside, Vic runs out to help him, taking down those bad guys in grand style. He knocks out one of them then holds the rest at gun point.

Hoss sees the trouble from across the street and comes rushing in to help.

I'd recognize that boot and leg anywhere.

Seeing that they can't do anything for the moment, the bad guys trickle back into the saloon, but not before the top segundo tells Hoss and Cool Guy that they'll be taken care of for sure after the hangin'.

Vic and Hoss looking epic.

After all the baddies have left Vic turns to help the little boy pic up the pot of stew. The boy says rather glumly that he'll have to go get a new pot. Vic tells him to 'Just finish what you started, son.' (That sounds like a fortune cookie)

The kid leaves and Hoss turns to Cool Guy and asks him in a puzzled voice just what side is he on? Vic says that it seems to him that the wrong kind of people are in jail 'round here. You can say that again. They talk a little bit more about the case and Hoss tells Vic why it just couldn't of happened like Sally Byrnes said it happened. Mr. Byrnes was shot from out of the dark. Adam and his Pa shot back into the dark, but they couldn't see anyone. Hoss doesn't think Sally lied, he just thinks she didn't see things right. Maybe she just saw what she wanted to see, eh? Anyhow, Little Joe soon comes running up and looks suspiciously at Vic, but Hoss assures him that he's a good guy. Joe goes on to say that Barney wasn't down at the mines and that they better find that petition, otherwise they might just have to start a small revolution. As the Cartwrights go lookin' for Barney, Cool Guy wanders back to the cafe where Sally is talking to the little boy and cleaning his pot. She says that when Hawkins come to town he'll punish his men for acting the way they did. The boy thinks otherwise. Again, smart boy. Sally says that Hawkins was forced to hire those rough men so he could stand up to the Cartwrights. Cool Guy says that, as a rule, you can usually judge a man by the men around him. Preach, brother, preach.

Meanwhile, the two main baddies have just walked into the newspaper press and Bert casually pulls the blinds down. They bandy a few words with the editor and printer telling him he shouldn't print the newspaper, 'cause it might set people in town thinking the wrong way about the Cartwrights' execution. As the newspaperman doesn't say much, top segundo takes some boiling lead and walks over to the old man. He raises it threateningly and we're left off to guess what happened.

Hoss and Little Joe's search for Barney and the petition leads them to Barney's house, where they find him huddled over a table in the dark with his wife and daughter. He managed to get five names on the petition before Hawkins' men frightened him into stopping. Barney's name was not one of them.

Disgusted, Hoss and Joe decide to take the petition-signing duty on themselves, and leave Barney to wish he had more guts. Geez, Barney.

They go out to get some names on the paper, but lo and behold, no one will sign it. They're all too scared.

They enter the saloon in an attempt to get the barkeeper to sign the petition. As he won't, Bert (yeah, he's around again) decides to make some crass comment about the signing of the petition. Cool Guy hears the talking from outside. 

Hoss doesn't like what Bert said so he promptly shoves him over. It's about time. As the Cartwrights turn to go Bert attempts to shoot them in the back. But he didn't know Vic was around.

Vic saving the day yet again.

After they cautiously leave the saloon Little Joe thanks Cool Guy and calls him 'Lassiter.' Now what the heck is that? Apparently he does have a name in this episode! Man alive, I guess we'll be calling Vic 'Lassiter' from now on. Back to the episode.

Hoss says that Mr. Baxter should have his newspaper edition out by now. The two brothers go over to  Mr. Baxter's to check it out, only to find the place wrecked and the newspaperman scared half to death. Literally.

Hoss and Little Joe decide now is the time to start that miniature revolution. It's nighttime by now and the the infamous Mr. Hawkins finally rides into town. Twenty minutes to go until the hanging.

He enters the saloon and his cronies bring him up to date on the matters at hand.

Mr. Hawkins with his trusty minion Bert.

After the briefing Hawkins tells some of his men to build a big fire by the scaffolding so everyone can see.  Now nothing will go wrong with that plan, will it?

Meanwhile at the barn, Hoss and Little Joe are taking out those revolution starters. Unfortunately for the stable guy, he sees them with their guns, and he has to be taken care of.

Lassiter has taken up residence in the cafe again. He really likes that place, doesn't he? The little boy comes in looking very downhearted because he wasn't in time to give Mr. Cartwright and Adam their last meal. He sits down to tell his woes to Lassiter, because no matter how hard he tries, Vic Morrow will always have that Saunders quality of having people tell him their problems, even when he doesn't ask them to (or want them to).

Sally walks in and sees them talking.

She tries to tell Joey (that was his name!), and I think also herself, that although it's tough that the Cartwright are going to die, that's the way it's gotta be, 'cause they're killers. It's especially hard to continue with this frame of mind when Joey tells both her and Lassiter about the time his parents were deathly ill and Ben Cartwright came over and gave Joey a horse. Said it was a Christmas horse, but it was the middle of the year!

Sally trying hard to stay as tough as nails... And failing miserably.

Joey feels bad that he wasn't able to repay Mr. Cartwright. Lassiter says with conviction that he did pay him back, and that both Mr. Cartwright and he, Lassiter, know it.

Lassiter then takes Joey to the door and sends him off home.

And now here comes the next best part of the episode. Sally putters around, saying that it's just like the Cartwrights to give some kid a little present and get a lifetime of loyalty for it, as if they were kings or something. But she doesn't seems very convinced about it. Lassiter opens the door and looks outside. He tells Sally that she'll have a real good view of the hanging from where she is.

Sally asks Lassiter why he thinks she would want to see it. He says she's been marking the days up until the hanging on her calendar, so of course she wants to see it.

Sally replies that she just wants this execution to happen, but she wouldn't like to see it. She then says she has things to do and hurries into the kitchen. Lassiter pursues her doggedly.

I do love the leaning.

As Lassiter tells her about why hearing a hanging is just as good (or bad) as seeing it, he saunters over to the window that Sally apparently saw the killing from. Except he can't see through the window because it hasn't been cleaned in ages. Lassiter comments on the fact.

Sally asks him why he won't leave her alone. She is very uneasy at this point.

Lassiter tells her he won't leave because she didn't see the killing happen. Duce Martin said he saw it and she assumed the Cartwrights were guilty. Sally says (without very much conviction) that the Cartwrights deserve to hang. Lassiter just says again that she didn't see it. Sally squirms around and then pulls the dead dad card. She says she's been through enough. Apparently Hawkins told her that the Cartwrights would get off of a charge of murder just because they were rich and powerful. Then Lassiter says:

'So you lied?'

Ouch. Guess she did. Lassiter tells her that HE knows the Cartwrights didn't kill her pa, and somewhere, deep down, she knows they didn't too.

Sally asks him one more time to leave her be and runs out of the kitchen. Again, Lassiter follows her like a bloodhound. He goes to the door and throws it wide open. Ben and Adam are being led to the gallows.

  

Little Joe and Hoss are watching from the barn, ready to save their Pa and brother. Joe is eager to start, but Hoss tells him to wait just a second more.

Lassiter begins to tell Sally step by step what is happening outside. He asks her if she can hear them. He is being very psychological at this point. It's awesome.

The Cartwrights ascend the scaffold and have the nooses placed around their necks. They face death like the real men they are.

Sally walks to the open door. As she sees these two brave men about to die, she realizes she can't let this happen!!! She turns to Lassiter and tells him he's right, that she couldn't have seen the Cartwrights kill her pa.

Lassiter tells her to go out and tell them.

Sally runs out into the street, Lassiter not far behind, and tells the sheriff that she lied. She didn't see the Cartwrights kill her pa.

Hawkins sees that she's ruining all of his plans and tells her to stay out of this. Saying that was his fatal mistake, as it draws him to Lassiter's attention. Lassiter says:

'Haven't we met before, Mister? In Lassiter, Kansas. Remember? At another hanging party, remember? '

Oh, Hawkins remembers all right.

He pulls a gun and Lassiter shoots him down like a sack of potatoes.

A miniature shootout erupts, with Hoss and Little Joe chipping in. In the end there are about three men dead, I believe.

Just had to add this picture.

Pa and Adam Cartwright quickly come down from the scaffold to be reunited with the rest of the fam.

Lassiter looks at Hawkins, his search over for the moment.

As the sheriff and his helpers clean up a bit, Lassiter departs to the livery stable. As he hears a banging in a man-sized box, he investigates. And who should be in there but chatty livery guy! Lassiter pays him and heads out of the stable.

He finds Sally waiting for him.

She thanks him for everything. Especially for keeping her from killing innocent men. He tells her that she did what she thought she had to do. Ha! Everybody knows that if it weren't for Lassiter all the Cartwrights would be dead by now! But still, it was a nice gesture.

He says goodbye and leaves her watching him ride away. On his way out of town, he stops to talk to the Cartwrights.

Hoss says they can't thank him for all he's done. Lassiter tells them that his pa was hanged wrongly and he knows how they feel. Mr. Cartwright asks him why he doesn't stay in Virginia City. Lassiter informs them that there are a lot more men that were involved in the hanging of his pa. He's off to find them.

The Cartwrights watch Lassiter ride away into the darkness. A driven man, as Hoss says. 

'I sure would hate to be him.'

Ben says there's somebody he'd like to be even less. Any one of the men that The Avenger is looking for.

 -The End-

And there you have it folks. A very, very long episode review in honor of that wonderful actor, Vic Morrow. His character in this episode of Bonanza is one of my very favorites ever, and I only hope I did him and it a bit of justice. Thanks for reading and may you see this episode sometime soon.

And here's one last picture of The Stranger Cool Man From Kansas Vic Cool Guy Lassiter.