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Bonanza episode
“Bitter Water”
Season 1, Episode 29
#29 in Series
BW4
Air date April 9, 1960
Production code
Guest starring:
Written by Harold Jack Bloom
Directed by George Blair
Episode Guide
Previous Episode:
San Francisco
Next Episode:
Feet of Clay
External links
IMDb IMDb
Bitter Water on IMDb

Summary[]

A neighboring rancher, Andy, is good friends with Ben. Buy his son, Todd, wants to sell their land for mining operations which will spoil the water rights agreement that Andy and Ben made years ago.

Plot[]

Ben and Adam find their neighbor Todd McCarren surveying the property line. Todd says a new owner might be interested in the line. Ben's surprised to hear that Todd's father is thinking of selling. They've had an agreement on water rights ever since Todd's family arrived. Todd doesn't care. He's the one selling the land, not his father. What the new owner, Len Keith, does to Ben's down stream property isn't Todd's problem.

Ben goes to talk to Todd's father Andy. Andy's a friendly man and admits that he did turn the ranch over to Todd since he physically can't keep up, but he assures Ben that Todd won't really sell the land he was raised on. Ben's glad because he always thought the water rights would out last both of them. Todd comes in and accuses Ben of going behind his back. He thinks Ben's there reminding Andy of all their old favors so that Todd won't sell. Andy is upset with Todd's behavior and actually slaps him, causing him to storm out. Andy apologizes and says that Todd's future father-in-law, a wealthy silver mine owner named Len Keith, has Todd thinking there might be silver on the land. Ben doesn't think there's silver there and neither does Andy.

Todd goes to Len's house, and it's revealed he's engaged to Len's daughter, Virginia. She greets him, but Todd is anxious to speak to her father. Len isn't overly concerned about Ben's involvement, but Todd says Ben is doing Andy's thinking for him. Virginia finds that hard to believe. The Cartwrights have always been decent people. Though Todd says that's socially, not business.

Later that evening, Len goes to visit Ben and tries to convince him to talk Andy into selling the land, for Todd's sake. Ben says Andy's perfectly capable of making up his own mind and he doesn't see how keeping the land will hurt Todd. He's seen Len ruin men before and he doesn't want to see Len hurt Todd too. Len says he always tries reason first, but if that doesn't work there are other ways.

At the dance that night, Todd picks a fight with Adam out of anger for his belief that he's meddling in his affairs. Adam tries to walk away, but Todd grabs him and the fight starts. Virginia calls for help and the Cartwrights break it up. Virginia asks her father to take her home and they go outside. Adam follows shortly after to apologize, but Len rushes her off.

At their ranch, Len's foreman, Tucker, is waiting for them and takes Len over to the bunkhouse. Roy is beating another man, blaming him for bringing in a herd that is infected with Texas Fever, a highly contagious cattle disease. The only way to keep it from spreading is to kill off the infected cattle and burn them. Len tells Roy to take the man out and see that he doesn't come back, but he tells Tucker not to kill any of the herd yet. He's going to make a gift of them to the Cartwrights.

It doesn't take the Cartwrights long to discover the infected cattle. But rather than killing and burning the cattle, Ben thinks a bath in sulfur soap will rid them of the ticks that spread the disease and maybe they can keep it from spreading further. He tells Hoss to go get as much sulfur as he can. Joe will cut out the cattle that look sick, while he and Adam dig pits to push the cattle through.

Virginia goes to town and finds Todd in a saloon. He comes out to talk to her and accuses her of siding with the Cartwrights. She doesn't see it that way, but doesn't like the man Todd is becoming; although Todd knows she loves him like he loves her, he believes he has to do this to become the man be wants to be for her, and to be as wealthy and successful as her father. She goes to see Andy. She says she thought Todd wanted to treat the land as their future, for themselves and their children. Andy tells her to keep her faith in Todd.

Todd and Roy have followed Hoss and learned about the sulfur bath idea. They don't know what good it'll do, but figure they should stop it. As Hoss pulls a wagonload of sulfur, they shoot at him. Hoss takes cover and fires back, but Joe comes to the rescue and shoots Roy, while Tucker takes off. Neither Hoss nor Joe knows who Roy is, but they find an envelope on him with his name. But since more cattle are getting infected, their first priority is to get the sulfur to the Ponderosa.

Len goes to town and tells Todd, acting innocent and ignorant, there's a plague on the Ponderosa cattle and that two of his men went to offer help and the Cartwrights shot one, obviously to keep things quiet. Todd is legitimately worried and knows the Cartwrights should kill their herd. He also knows they won't and that only way to protect the other herds is to do what the Cartwrights won't. He says he'll rally the other ranchers to do what must be done.

The Cartwrights are pushing cattle through the sulfur bath when Hoss rides up with Roy's horse. It's covered with ticks too. Adam goes to town to discover who Roy is. The bartender doesn't really know Roy, but he was always with Tucker.

Adam goes to Len's bunkhouse and finds Tucker. He says he suspects Tucker of being with Roy when Hoss was shot at. Tucker pulls a rifle and Adam shoots him. Adam's shot is only a wound, but a second shot rings out and Tucker is killed. Len shot him and Virginia saw the whole thing. Adam said he wanted Tucker alive to talk. As Adam leaves, Virginia accuses her father of intentionally killing Tucker, but Len claims he was protecting Adam.

Todd has a meeting with ranchers and many are upset about the plague, but a few refuse to go against the Cartwrights. Those that will say they'll meet in the morning with rifles, determined to stop them. Virginia arrives as the meeting is breaking up, and asks Todd if he knows how it started. Todd says it doesn't matter, it just can't be allowed to spread. She says she believes, and Adam agrees, that her father brought the plague to the Ponderosa cattle. He says it doesn't matter how it started, he has to protect the other herds. She won't believe that, as The Cartwrights have always been their friends and what the Cartwrights need is help, not threats. She accuses Todd of doing this to make a big name for himself, not to help the ranchers, and once again try to make himself look big and important.

The next morning, the ranchers, Todd, and Len ride up to the Ponderosa where the Cartwrights are running cattle through the sulfur bath. Ben tells them that the sulfur is working, but if his cattle do become infected, he'll kill them himself. Todd is ready for a fight and pulls his gun, determined to kill them . Adam stops him by pulling him off his horse. Len encourages Todd to shoot and the two square off. Virginia and Andy ride up in a wagon and place themselves between the two. The latter refuses to move, and Andy says if Todd's about to become a killer he can start by killing him too.

He tells the ranchers that they passed some herds and some of their cattle have gotten the fever. He tells Todd that they have to go take care of their own herd. Len attempts to lay blame on Ben's and some of the ranchers want to start killing Cartwright cattle. Ben tells them again that the sulfur dip is working and they're more than welcome to use it for their own cattle. Virginia accuses Len of starting the plague so he could take all their land, including the Cartwrights, and strip mine it for silver. Adam backs her and Len goes for his gun. Adam is faster and kills Len.

The Cartwrights run all the local cattle through the sulfur bath, including Todd's herd; Todd sees the error of his ways and makes amends with Virginia and the Cartwrights.

Cast[]

The Cartwrights

Other[]

Notes[]

Did you know?[]

  • Michael Landon met his future wife Lynn Noe when she appeared as an extra on this episode. (She's the blond saloon girl who sits down at a table on the left as Adam walks through the door.) They were married from 1963-1982 and had four children together before divorcing.

Quotes[]

"It'll take more than soap and water to get me clean."
Little Joe Cartwright[src]

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Bitter_Water_(1960)_Bonanza.,_Lorne_Greene,_Pernell_Roberts,_Dan_Blocker,_FULL_EPISODE

Bitter Water (1960) Bonanza., Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, FULL EPISODE

Bonanza_Bitter_Water_S01-E29

See also[]

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