Harold J. Stone, who appeared on Gunsmoke seven times, plays a marshal who is visiting Dodge City after he retires. Along comes drunken slimeball Serpa, played by Scott Marlowe. Scott Marlowe appeared on Gunsmoke four times. Marlowe shoots Stone in the back, because he wants to kill a cop. Serpa gets caught by Dillon the very next day.
Serpa is tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang. Why they did not execute criminals in Dodge City is something I never understood. Considering the crime rate in Dodge, it would have been easier to hang convicts there, than to take the two day ride to Hays City.
On the way to Hays City, Dillon runs into Robert Culp. Culp had played a Texas Ranger on the TV series Trackdown (1957-1959). This is his only appearance on Gunsmoke, a few years before he co-starred on I Spy (1965-1968).
Culp has Michael Conrad with him, who is best known as Sgt. Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues from 1981-1984. Conrad died in 1983. George Lindsay, who is best known as Goober, on the Andy Griffith Show, was also on board as a member of the gang.
The three of them catch Dillon by surprise, knock him out, and pour whiskey all over him. Then they hang Serpa, who was part of their gang, for creating so much trouble for the gang. They want Dillon to get blamed for lynching Serpa, when the cavalry finds him.
Along comes sullen Ed Asner, the drunken Sergeant that Matt Dillon had arrested at the very beginning of this episode. Now he is on patrol with his cavalry detail, and he immediately sees his chance to get revenge.
Dillon is arrested, and Asner's goal is to find a way to kill Dillon on the way back to Fort Dodge. From the first scene, until the end, mean Ed Asner is asking for some bullets in his fat guts.
Everything is going wrong, but Matt Dillon never gives up. Dillon escapes during the night, and Asner tells his squad of soldiers to shoot Dillon on sight. He is to be killed as a common fugitive.
Dillon gets to a local town, and finds an ally in the town bum, played by Elisha Cook, Jr. At that point, things seemed to go from bad to worse. Can the town drunk help Dillon against the U. S. Army and a gang of outlaws? This episode has some creative twists, and some good gun-fights too.