Marshal Dillon is doing his rounds late one windy night, shaking door knobs in various alleys. Such a thing COULD get you shot by whoever is on the other side of that doorknob, but I digress. Then a figure comes out of the darkness and fires four shots at Dillon. He falls into some boxes but is OK and unwounded. Who was this shadowy figure? We find out it is Cleed, one of two drifters planning a bank robbery who figure said robbery will be easier if Dillon is dead. Cleed and Lucas go into town the next day to rob the bank, believing that Dillon is dead. Before they get to the bank, they see Dillon walking around alive and well. They go into a nearby bar that is more like a dive and try to replan their heist. A man who has seen better days (Milton Selzer as Painter) overhears them and offers to kill Dillon for them for 200 dollars upfront. They pay him, and he agrees to do the job the next day. But Painter appears to be a drunk not a gunfighter. Our two criminal masterminds are not Rhodes scholars, but still, this is pretty desperate on their part. In the meantime Painter does some things that make you realize that he believes that this is his last night on earth.
What was good in this episode to me was a revealing scene between Kitty and Matt. The day after Matt is shot at she marches angrily toward Matt's office and tells him "You make me sick!". What transpires is a conversation in which Matt admits something that has only been on the tip of his tongue. That they have a relationship- "this thing" he calls it - and mentions that she has always known the danger of his profession.