Lawman: "Cornered"

                      A Lawman Episode Review: Cornered

One of my favorite (and my sisters' favorite) western t.v. shows to ever come out of the more-than-plentiful slew of western t.v. shows in the 50's and 60's is Lawman. The show starred John Russell as a seriously serious and stalwart marshal and Peter Brown as his young but more than stupid deputy, Johnny McKay. They work in Laramie, Wyoming Territory, when the city is still young and wild, and they encounter all kinds of problems, because otherwise the show would be boring. Duh.

 In season two, after two other women had been added to the show and then promptly removed because of their lack of chemistry with the rest of the cast, Peggie Castle joined the show as Lily Merrill, the beautiful owner of the saloon nearest the marshal's office, once again proving that three times really is the charm. She added what the show needed to have a 'gang feel' and rounded up the cast nicely. 
Both Anna and I (not to mention our older sister Xenia) like Dan Tropp and Lily well enough, but our hearts undoubtedly lie with Johnny McKay. He's impossible to dislike... in fact, he's impossible to not love. I mean, maybe you won't, to each his own and all that, but really, he's sweet and wholesome, great with guns, and pretty good looking. Pretty perfect.
The episode I want to talk about today is called 'Cornered' and it takes place in season three and is one of the best episodes of the show. Unfortunately, I can't get my usual t.v. show review screenshots cause the episode is not online, but I will share some pictures of the show in general to help quell the grief in my heart.

 

Now onto the plot: It's late at night and Johnny McKay, falling asleep on Marshal Troop's chair, shakes himself awake to complete his duties for the day by taking one more walk around town. Side note: Johnny is really cute when he's falling asleep ^-^ Moving on...

 Throughout the show this is a consistent thing that the Marshal and Johnny do. Every night, they take a walk around town to make sure nobody's shooting anybody else. Usually there is somebody shooting somebody else. This particular night, all seems to be calm, until Johnny walks into the Birdcage, the local saloon owned by Lily Merrill. Jake the bartender quietly informs Johnny that the guy drinking heavily at the bar is in a dangerous mood... big surprise there. Johnny, being smarter than I am, doesn't confront the old codger immediately. He just takes his cup of coffee (another recurring detail in the show: The Gang absolutely loves coffee), and talks a bit to Lily. But, like so many other annoying bad guys in westerns, the man sitting at the bar won't let Johnny be. He starts prodding him, obviously in an attempt to get Johnny to draw. Johnny doesn't realize at first that the man he's now confronting is a man famous for his fast draw. Three town busy-bodies do know this, and watch the exchange in the saloon with great relish.

Are we really gonna do this?

The situation escalates, despite Johnny's attempts to cool things down. I don't know why this particular episode was so well-directed, but the suspense is incredible! Everybody's lines are fire, and the acting is splendid. Anyway, despite his best efforts, the exchange between Johnny and the mean old gunslinger turns into a showdown. They both draw, but only Johnny fires and the drunk gunslinger falls down dead before him. Marshal Troop hears the shots and comes running, and the three busy-bodies I mentioned earlier coming running in as well to congratulate Johnny on the fact that he killed old Jeb Barker, only one of the fastest guns in the west! The young deputy is shaken, more so than any other time we've seen him shoot a baddie. It was a fair fight and the man had it coming, so what's bothering Johnny? Dan Troop congratulates his prodigy as well, only to have Johnny tell him, quite aggravated, that he did not in fact shoot faster than Jeb Barker. He leans downs, picks up the gun, and shows the marshal what the problem is: Mr. Barker's gun jammed and he would've had the time to shoot Johnny several times over if it weren't for the malfunction. No wonder our boy is so shook up! But it gets worse.

The three annoying townsmen who saw the entire altercation take place and think Johnny merely bested Barker because of his own speed, inform the deputy that it's a good thing he's fast, as Jeb Barker's son, Jim Barker, will sure as heck be coming gunnin' for Johnny, now that his father has been killed! And Jim Barker is rumored to be even faster than his father. Oh man, do things get tense fast. Marshal Troop, Lily, and Johnny himself are the only three people in the whole territory who know Johnny only survived that night because of a miraculous gun mishap. Johnny's self confidence is shaken to the core, for good reason, and as the days start ticking by, the tension builds to unbearable heights. Dan tries helping Johnny, who is like a son to him, but there's nothing he can do. He tries to tell Johnny not to sweat, not to panic, but it's not exactly working. As the day when Jim Barker will inevitably appear, seeking revenge for his father, draws closer, Johnny practices his draw almost every minute of every day and his nerves stretch thinner and thinner.

 

I love me some good drama, and this episode is packed full of the best kind. Johnny needs help, desperately, but there's literally nothing his friends can do. It's up to him to saddle this bronc and it's no easy task. There's nothing he can do through the better part of the episode but wait for death to come. It's soooooo good!
Eventually, the day every single citizen of Laramie has been waiting for comes. Jim Barker comes riding into town on an old and dusty horse, looking meaner than heck. He stops at the saloon, swings down from his horse, and enters the building. Johnny, despite the urging of Marshal Troop to ignore Barker, straps on his gun and heads to the saloon, ready for what may be his last few minutes on earth.
And here is where the moment that sets this episode above almost any other western t.v. show I've ever seen comes.
Johnny walks into the saloon. He sees Barker at the bar and immediately joins him. He's not in the mood for dilly-dallying. He straight up tells him he's the guy that shot his father. Jim turns around, looking kind of sad and sullen. He looks at Johnny and Johnny looks at him, ready to die. I believe Johnny also told Jim that he didn't want to kill his father but he was mean as a coyote and looking for trouble. The moment is tense. Everybody is watching the two of them, and then something unexpected happens. I can't remember the lines exactly, but Jim says something to the effect of "I'm glad my father's dead. He had it coming."
And Johnny's like "Whaaaaahhhh???"
Jim tells him he hated his father 'cause he was a terrible and nasty father. Fair point.
He also tells him that he only came into town because everybody expected him to do the whole revenge thing.
There's a lovely bit of exchange here between the two of them. It's absolutely hilarious, and the relief in both of them when they find out that neither of them wants to kill the other is so thick in the air, you could cut it with a knife.
Soon the two of them are laughing together. They discover that they're both twenty-one. Johnny raises a glass of whisky and says something to the effect of: "Here's to maybe making it to twenty-two!"
By this point, Lily and Marshal Troop are practically crying with relief, and everybody's laughing, including me. It's so wonderful! Gosh, I love this episode.
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That's all I have to say about that. If you're in the mood for a juicy, well-acted, family-oriented, but without an actual family, t.v. show, I highly recommend watching Lawman! Thanks for taking the time to spend this week of western appreciation with Anna and me! Have a great weekend, and may the deck be always stacked in your favor!

 

This has been Anna and Irene's final contribution to the 2021 Legends of Western Cinema Week. Ride on over to the link I left and check out all the other wonderful posts that have been written this week.