Bonanza/The Blood Line

The Blood Line
Season 2, Episode 15
Airdate	December 31, 1960
Written by	William Raynor and Myles Wilder
Directed by	Lewis Allen
Produced by	David Dortort
← 2x14 The Ape	2x16 → The Courtship
Bonanza — Season Two

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The Blood Line is the fifteenth episode of the second season of Bonanza, and the forty-seventh episode overall.

Starring: Lorne Greene (Ben Cartwright), Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright) (credit only), Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright), Michael Landon (Little Joe Cartwright) (credit only)

Special Guest Star: Jan Sterling (Dianne Jordan)

Featuring: David Macklin (Todd Grayson), Lee Van Cleef (Appling), Ray Teal (Sheriff Roy Coffee), Norman Leavitt (Bert), Allan Lane (Luke Grayson), Thomas B. Henry (Mr. Jenkins), Ed Prentiss (Minister), Dan Riss (Charlie)

Plot Overview

When 16-year-old Todd Grayson arrives from Boston to Virginia City, he is told that his father, town drunk Luke Grayson, has been killed by Ben in a general store in town. Ben shot Luke in self-defense after the drunken Luke self-righteously denounced the Cartwrights and threatened to shoot Ben, but Todd refuses to listen to witness testimony and accuses Ben of murdering his father. The boy has only one thing in his head: to avenge his father by killing Ben Cartwright, which lands Todd briefly in jail after publicly threatening to do so in front of Sheriff Coffee. Saloon girl Diane Jordan, Luke's second wife and Todd's stepmother, takes a self-righteous attitude toward the Cartwrights like Luke and Todd and hypocritically accuses Ben of murder as well, ignoring that Luke shot first and would have surely killed Ben had the Cartwright patriarch not reacted to defend himself, Hoss and the store owner. While Ben and Hoss take a bitter and resentful Todd to stay at the Ponderosa to set him straight, Diane hires a visiting gunslinger named Appling to exact revenge on her behalf. Todd later escapes from the Ponderosa after pulling a gun (which is later found to already be empty) on Ben and flees to Virginia City, where he steals a gun from the general store after blindsiding the owner and gets encouragement from the vindictive Diane in his vendetta against Ben. At the saloon where Diane works, Appling confronts Ben and draws on him, forcing Ben to shoot the gunslinger, after which he heads upstairs to question Diane about the $500 bank draft she gave Appling and forces her to face the truth about Luke. Todd, who had been hiding outside, then pops through the window and pulls the stolen gun on Ben, but Diane, having had a change of heart, convinces the boy to put the gun away after telling him the truth about his father.

Notes

• This episode is one of a number of Bonanza episodes from late-Season One and early-Season Two that have fallen into the public domain

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Allan Lane, who played Luke Grayson in this episode, is best known as the voice of the title character, a talking horse, on Mister Ed