The cattle herd drives further north in this second installment of the series, with some side stories coming into play with the characters of July Johnson (Chris Cooper), Roscoe Brown (Barry Corbin) and the vicious Kiowa Indian they call Blue Duck (Frederic Forrest).
Gus McCrae (Robert Duvall) gets a little misty eyed here recalling lost love Clara who we'll meet in the third episode. For now, Gus has to content himself with thinking of her by the little creek they used to visit for romantic interludes. It's also here that one gains perspective on what's important in life, as Gus explains that it's learning how to like all the every day little things. Gus expresses in words what Jack Palance was describing as the 'one thing' in the off beat Western "City Slickers". His character Curly was just a little more mysterious about it.
It's also here where Gus declares his partner Call (Tommy Lee Jones) as the father of Newt Dobbs (Ricky Schroder). As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that others in their circle believed it too, so it's left to one's own interpretation as to whether Call instinctively knew it as well or kept it hanging out there for reasons of his own.
And finally we get to meet the notorious Comanchero butcher Blue Duck, viciously portrayed by Frederic Forrest. Blue Duck holds the lives of others in low esteem, and as this episode closes, we learn that he's taken the lives of the three individuals in July Johnson's party, two of them just kids. Johnson's conflicted journey to arrest Jake Spoon (Robert Urich) for accidentally killing a man, now becomes a desperate search for the wife who left him, though as we find out before he does, it's for selfish reasons of her own.
Gus McCrae (Robert Duvall) gets a little misty eyed here recalling lost love Clara who we'll meet in the third episode. For now, Gus has to content himself with thinking of her by the little creek they used to visit for romantic interludes. It's also here that one gains perspective on what's important in life, as Gus explains that it's learning how to like all the every day little things. Gus expresses in words what Jack Palance was describing as the 'one thing' in the off beat Western "City Slickers". His character Curly was just a little more mysterious about it.
It's also here where Gus declares his partner Call (Tommy Lee Jones) as the father of Newt Dobbs (Ricky Schroder). As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that others in their circle believed it too, so it's left to one's own interpretation as to whether Call instinctively knew it as well or kept it hanging out there for reasons of his own.
And finally we get to meet the notorious Comanchero butcher Blue Duck, viciously portrayed by Frederic Forrest. Blue Duck holds the lives of others in low esteem, and as this episode closes, we learn that he's taken the lives of the three individuals in July Johnson's party, two of them just kids. Johnson's conflicted journey to arrest Jake Spoon (Robert Urich) for accidentally killing a man, now becomes a desperate search for the wife who left him, though as we find out before he does, it's for selfish reasons of her own.
