This is kind of a bad episode all around, a rare clunker for the series. Paladin is summoned by Ike Brennan (Robert Gist) to help him no questions asked. Of course, Paladin passes, until Brennan confesses a tribe of Piyoutte Indians are holding his wife hostage and will kill her (or worse) unless he delivers a wagon load of goods to them. Paladin signs on. On the way there, he insists they stop to help some travelers change a broken wagon wheel (yes, giving them their spare which is WAY to big for their rig, but fits perfectly on the one that has a broken wheel!). Paladin discovers that among the goods Brennan is bringing to the Indians is a Gattling Gun, complete with ammunition. Now where and how a civilian like Brennan would have been able to acquire such a weapon, no questions asked is not answered. But Paladin manages to rescue the woman (Susan Davis) and keep the Indians from getting the gun and slaughtering the cavalry.
This is a combination of a bad script (the incredibly dumb ending where Paladin asks the Indians to "stand over there" while he fixes the Gattling Gun is just unworthy of this usually smart series), bad acting (Brad Weston as the Indian Estebahn is particularly unconvincing) and bad producing (that wagon wheel really is too obviously large for their rig. It's only purpose is to be there for when the strangers' rig breaks down).
There is a nice scene between Paladin and Brennan on the ride there where Brennan reminisces about fighting the father and brothers of his bride to be, and a nice visual gag with the aged Cyril Delevanti as a "Speedy" deliveryman in San Francisco, but that's about it.
This is a combination of a bad script (the incredibly dumb ending where Paladin asks the Indians to "stand over there" while he fixes the Gattling Gun is just unworthy of this usually smart series), bad acting (Brad Weston as the Indian Estebahn is particularly unconvincing) and bad producing (that wagon wheel really is too obviously large for their rig. It's only purpose is to be there for when the strangers' rig breaks down).
There is a nice scene between Paladin and Brennan on the ride there where Brennan reminisces about fighting the father and brothers of his bride to be, and a nice visual gag with the aged Cyril Delevanti as a "Speedy" deliveryman in San Francisco, but that's about it.
