Two grifters visit Boonesborough looking for their next mark, and target elderly and blind clockmaker Sam Jaffe. Complications ensue when the younger one sets his cap for Jemima.
Around the fort time again, and this one mainly notable for marking out roads the series will not take. Villain duties are handled by Westerns heavy specialist Myron Healey and more notably by pre-Woodstock 1960's teen heartthrob Fabian ("The Longest Day"), who cut a large swath through the pop music and film scenes during the decade. He provides the requisite romantic foil here, all the while dueling with Robert Logan for the affections of Daniel's daughter. Sam Jaffe provides his usual genial geriatric, though as a clockmaker he can expect some pretty lean years in frontier Kentucky. He's given a rather annoying cane with a bell just to demonstrate yes, he is blind.
And just when Veronica Cartwright seems likely to graduate her character into the fertile plain of young-adult angst, the series thrown axe from the intro severs them forever. This is the first episode where she explores relationships, but, as amply discussed online elsewhere, at this point Patricia Blair did not want to compete for screen time with a younger actress. So, Jemima will have scattered appearances a few more episodes and be gone before Season 3.
Cartwright would do all right, appearing in "Alien" and numerous other productions, and Blair (who passed in 2013) would see her character fall prey to typecasting anyway. She would rarely be seen without a broom or market bag the remainder of the DB run, and would largely see only minimal roles after 1970. But, the DB series was the poorer for not having the maturing Jemima as a counter to Israel's hype and antics Fess Parker might have been aware of the series politics easing Cartwright out, and given her this episode
(he's absent for most of it) as a farewell showcase. We might know more if Cartwright or Darby Hinton ever write a series memoir.
The glacial and predictable plot is familiar to anyone who has seen a "Bonanza" hour where a significant other makes a doomed attempt to join the Cartwright clan. But don't worry, no damage to Fabian's face. A farewell to Jemima is managed here, but that's about it for the week.