An overused plot device on Bonanza involved one of the Cartwights being put in harm's way and needing the help of the rest of the family. Typically these plots involved a kidnapping or hostage situation, or else a shooting.
Just a few episodes earlier this season, in 'The Single Pilgrim,' Hoss was shot by a Virginia native (John Schuck) and nursed back to health by the wife (Beth Brickell). Only the husband's father (Jeff Corey) wouldn't let Hoss ago, which required Ben and Joe to track Hoss down and rescue him.
In this episode, Hoss is in trouble again. He is shot at by a black man (Lou Gossett Jr.) who then takes him hostage, with help from the man's wife (Marlene Clark). Unlike the wife in 'The Single Pilgrim' who was more outwardly sympathetic, the wife in this story is less kind at first and more in agreement with Hoss remaining their captive. In fact, she tries to encourage her husband to kill Hoss.
For some reason, Gossett's character takes an ironic liking to Hoss and keeps him alive-- as "insurance" supposedly-- but he claims that he will still probably end up killing Hoss. Of course, we have Ben and Joe riding to the rescue once more, desperately trying to locate Hoss before it's too late.
Though we know Hoss won't die, and that he will be saved in the nick of time, this story does have a few new angles. Mostly because the couple that Hoss interacts with are a different race, and the situation forces him to try and understand why they behave as they do. The script refrains from too much lecturing, though some salient points are made about how whites treat blacks and why Gossett and Clark have turned out this way.
I wasn't very keen on the ending. I don't think Gossett's character should have been martyred and shot dead in the final sequence. Yes, the wife lives, and Hoss will return to the Ponderosa with his father and brother...but I think the story would have been more powerful if Gossett had been captured, so that he basically traded places with Hoss. And then later these characters could have been seen again, either because Hoss advocated that Gossett not be hanged or that Gossett somehow had a jury acquit him, which brought him and his wife to the family spread looking for a new start. There was much more that could have been done with these guest characters and the relationship they had with Hoss.
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