Home / Shows / The Rifleman

The Rifleman

Monday-Saturday at 3 PM & 3:30 PM

eastern (on most MeTV stations)
Dispatching the bad guys with a souped-up, rapid-fire Winchester rifle, Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) is The Rifleman, a widower, homesteader and peacekeeper in North Fork, New Mexico Territory. A Union veteran of the Civil War, McCain helps maintain order in the rough Old West town while striving to raise his son, Mark (Johnny Crawford), into an honorable and strong man, promoting such values as fair play, neighborliness and the use of violence only as a last resort.

Stories

The Rifleman cast wanted to make sure that ''death'' on TV never became casual
Spooky Westerns quiz!
Chuck Connors said there was more room for emotion on TV
View More 
The Rifleman cast wanted to make sure that ''death'' on TV never became casual
Spooky Westerns quiz!
Chuck Connors said there was more room for emotion on TV
The Rifleman's Joan Taylor said family came first over the series
Which Western has the best theme song?
Chuck Connors wrote about the ''hazardous'' task of casting a new female lead on The Rifleman
Johnny Crawford was scared to work with Chuck Connors because he idolized him
Chuck Connors gave us the sensitive Western hero in ''The Rifleman.'' Here's what the critics had to say
Who said this fatherly advice: Ward Cleaver or Lucas McCain?
As a child actor, Johnny Crawford loved working with adults on the set of The Rifleman
Johnny Crawford at a crossroads: How the teen star navigated the end of The Rifleman
Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford had a ''Rifleman'' reunion by hanging out and herding cattle together
The Rifleman's Paul Fix preferred acting in the old days
''Rifleman'' fans used to write Chuck Connors letters asking for parenting advice
Chuck Connors was told that he ''didn't have a chance'' of winning the role of Lucas McCain in ''The Rifleman''
Johnny Crawford's father-son relationship with Chuck Connors was more than just acting
Here's what Paul Fix thought about the transition from silent films to television
This ''Rifleman'' director said that one of the hardest parts of directing the series was creating an affectionate father-son relationship
Chuck Connors said that he was almost the ''Boris Karloff of TV Westerns'' before he starred in ''The Rifleman''
Johnny Crawford played Chuck Connors' son on The Rifleman, but was he happy?

Episode Guide

Episode Guide

Season 1
  • Season 1
  • Season 2
  • Season 3
  • Season 4
  • Season 5

Ep 1: The Sharpshooter

Lucas McCain and his son, Mark, arrive in North Fork, New Mexico. Looking to start a new life, they come across a ranch that is to their liking, which is for sale. Lucas enters a Turkey Shoot in hopes of winning the down payment for the ranch.

Ep 2: Home Ranch

Two hired hands of a wealthy cattleman, who has been using the ranch for grazing his cattle, demand that Lucas move out. When Lucas refuses, he is beaten and dragged and then the ranch house is burned down.

Ep 3: End of a Young Gun

Lucas is forced to give refuge to Will Fulton, a young bank robber who was injured while saving Mark's life.

Ep 8: The Safe Guard

Floyd Doniger comes to North Fork, looking to start a new life. He's got a steady job as the guard at the new bank and he's entertaining ideas of settling down on a spread of his own.

Ep 4: The Marshal

Micah Torrance, a once famous lawman, is introduced as a drunken derelict who stumbles into North Fork. Micah, nursing an arm crippled in a gunfight, is hired by Lucas to help out at the ranch. Three outlaws ride into town looking for revenge against Micah.

Ep 5: The Brother-in-Law

Mark's uncle, Johnny Gibb, a big-time rodeo rider, comes to visit. While Mark idolizes his uncle, Lucas discovers that Johnny is on the run from the law for an Express Office robbery.

Ep 6: Eight Hours to Die

Judge Burton seeks "justice" against the hangman who hanged his son; the judge who sentenced his son; and Lucas, the man who caught his son. When Judge Burton discovers that Lucas has a son, he decides that the best way to serve justice is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a son for a son.

Ep 7: Duel of Honor

When an Italian count arrives in North Fork, his strange attire attracts the attention of Groder, a town bully. Groder, trying to have fun with this stranger, destroys some of the count's currency, mocks him and tries to humiliate him. Eventually the count challenges Groder to a duel.

Ep 9: The Sister

Rebecca Snipe is returning to North Fork after a long visit away. Upon her arrival, Mark is smitten with her and gets it in his head to play matchmaker between her and his pa.

Ep 11: The Apprentice Sheriff

Dan Willard is filling in as temporary marshal while Micah is away. Some Texas cowhands are in North Fork looking for some fun and relaxation, but Dan keeps coming down hard on them.

Ep 12: Young Englishman

Lucas gets in trouble when he accuses the foreman of a neighboring ranch of rustling some of his cattle.

Ep 13: The Angry Gun

Lucas and Mark, returning from selling their herd, share the stagecoach trip with a Marshal and his prisoner, Johnny Cotton. Johnny's gang arrives to free their partner and steal the contents of the stage's strongbox, as well as Lucas' money and rifle.

Ep 10: New Orleans Menace

Tiffauges, a wealthy and sadistic Frenchman who is used to getting whatever he wants, decides he wishes to purchase the McCain Ranch. Tiffauges' lead man, Xavier, proclaims Lucas to be muy macho, and does not believe Lucas will give in so easily.

Ep 14: The Gaucho

Rumson, without even saying to whom he had sold his property, left the bill of sale with the bank and moved away from North Fork. Curge, who's highest offer was upped by $1,000, is upset because Rumson sold out to a "peppergut."

Ep 15: The Pet

Ward Haskins guns down Joe Flecker, who has evidence that could be used to blackmail him. Haskins thinks the information was given to Lucas because he brought Flecker to the doctor before he died. Stirred up by Haskins behavior, Lucas goes through Flecker's things, finding a wanted poster for Haskins in the sole of Flecker's boot.

Ep 16: The Sheridan Story

Frank Blandon, a man with only one good arm, wanders onto the ranch. Lucas gives Blandon a job to "hire him and Mark a clear conscience." General Sheridan and his patrol wander by and Lucas offers to let them stay the night at the ranch. Blandon once pulled a gun on General Sheridan; as it turns out, Blandon was a Confederate soldier who once had General Sheridan in his gun sight during the war.

Ep 17: The Retired Gun

Wes Carney and his wife, Clair, want to settle down and they figure North Fork might do fine. Wes is a well known gunfighter, who has promised Clair that he would hang up his guns for good. The Carney's want to live a simple, honest life and the Feed and Grain Store, which is up for sale, seems like it might work for them.

Ep 18: The Photographer

Abel Goss, the photographer who took Lucas' wedding photograph, is in North Fork doing a portrait of Mark standing in the street. When Goss sees Col. Whiteside and his sidekick, Jamison, he recognizes them as the butchers who tortured him and others while he was captive in a Civil War prison camp.

Ep 19: Shivaree

Aaron Pelser's wagon train comes across a pair of young boys on a buck board heading west, so he invites them to join the train. When he finds out that one of the boys is actually a girl and the two claim to be headed to Yuma to get married, Pelser and his crowd force them to be married in North Fork.

Ep 20: The Deadeye Kid

McCain befriends Donnel O'Mahoney, a tough kid from Brooklyn, and arranges with two men for the young man to continue his travels on their wagon. Things go wrong, however, when one of them is murdered, and the other accuses the boy.

Ep 21: The Indian

U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart arrives in North Fork in search of renegade indians suspected of the brutal killing of a Texas Ranger and his family. The townspeople are suspicious of him, however, when they discover that he, too, is an indian.

Ep 22: The Boarding House

Reformed card shark Julia Massini now runs a respectable boarding house in North Fork, but Sid Fallon is threatening to reveal her sordid past unless she lets him turn the establishment into a saloon and gambling hall.

Ep 24: The Trade

Outlaw Sam Morley falls in love with a young woman who has a serious illness. He asks Lucas to turn him in for the reward and then use the money to pay for her medical care.

Ep 25: One Went to Denver

Lucas welcomes his old friend, Tom Birch, who once saved his life, unaware that the man is now a bank robber who is on the run with his gang.

Ep 26: The Deadly Wait

Dan Maury, released from Yuma prison, arrives in North Fork intent on getting even with Marshal Torrance, who helped send him to jail.

Ep 23: The Second Witness

Lucas puts his life in jeopardy when he agrees to testify in a murder case involving a witness killed before he could testify and a killer still at large.

Ep 27: The Wrong Man

Young Mark McCain is eager to help lawman Jay Jefferson, who has arrived in North Fork intent on killing an outlaw for the reward, whether he is the right man or not.

Ep 28: The Challenge

When escaped convicts hold up the general store in North Fork and take Marshal Torrance hostage, Lucas comes to the rescue.

Ep 29: The Hawk

Young Mark manages to capture a hawk, but then falls into danger from a rattlesnake. When a stranger comes to his rescue, the grateful Mark invites the man home, unaware that he is on the run from the law.

Ep 30: The Three-Legged Terror

When a rambunctious teenager wrecks a schoolroom, Lucas McCain, as a member of the North Fork school board, asks the boy's reluctant uncle to pay for the damages.

Ep 31: The Angry Man

The McCains try to be tolerant of their embittered neighbor, Abel MacDonald, who tells Lucas to keep off his land and won't allow his son to become friends with Mark. However, McCain decides he's gone too far when he won't allow his injured boy to get medical treatment.

Ep 32: The Woman

An unfounded rumor causes North Fork's outspoken feminist schoolteacher to be attacked by a mob of angry townspeople.

Ep 33: The Money Gun

When his employer begins to suspect him of embezzlement, bookkeeper Asa Manning decides to hire a professional gunman to take care of the problem.

Ep 34: A Matter of Faith

Although a drought has forced local cowhands to seek work on a railroad construction project, railroad executives are afraid that their workers will desert them if they believe an old man's claim that he has found a way to make rain.

Ep 35: Blood Brothers

Lucas McCain gives blood to save a dying man and is surprised by Marshal Torrance's odd behavior toward the man. Then three men arrive from a nearby town and demand custody of the stranger.

Ep 37: The Raid

When renegade Apaches wound Lucas and kidnap Mark, Marshal Torrance joins with U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart to form a rescue posse.

Ep 38: Outlaw's Inheritance

Lucas is the town's representative to the railroad commission until an infamous train robber dies and leaves his ill-gotten wealth to him. Lucas must clear his name and stop the reckless ambition of his replacement.

Ep 36: Stranger at Night

Mark's finding the body of a murder victim starts Lucas, his friend, Artemus, and Marshal Torrance on a search for the killer.

Ep 39: Boomerang

When a rancher dies after the bank forecloses the mortgage on his property, his son blames the banker for his father's death.

Ep 40: The Mind Reader

When a wealthy rancher is killed, Mark suggests that they seek the aid of a mind reader to identify the murderer.

Ep 1: The Patsy

A group of outlaws devise a plan to get rid of Lucas so they can take over the town of North Fork.

Ep 2: Bloodlines

After Lucas kills a mountain man in a barroom brawl, his father arrives in North Fork determined to take revenge on Lucas and Marshal Torrance.

Ep 3: The Blowout

Newly arrived gunslinger Al Walker throws a mammoth party at the saloon, keeping acting Marshal Ben Waller busy until Lucas is forced to intervene.

Ep 4: Obituary

Newspaperman Byron Claremont specializes in profiles of famous gunmen. One of his stories was responsible for an old-time marshal's death; and his next subject is Lucas.

Ep 5: Tension

Gavin and Ezra Martin think that Lucas killed their son, Clemmie, while taking part in a train robbery. Lucas refuses to tell them what really happened.

Ep 6: Eddie's Daughter

After the daughter of Lucas' friend arrives in North Fork, two strangers threaten her life.

Ep 7: Panic

Town character Brett Conway blackmails Lucas with the knowledge that a young couple Lucas rescued are suffering from yellow fever.

Ep 8: Ordeal

When their wagon breaks down, Mark and an injured Lucas are stranded in the desert.

Ep 9: The Spiked Rifle

Mark is kidnapped as he and Lucas try to protect Banker Hamilton's gold.

Ep 10: Letter of the Law

Lucas makes a life-or-death decision when Micah is held hostage and the kidnappers demand the release of a notorious outlaw.

Ep 11: The Legacy

Lucas tries to do a good deed for the old town drunk but it backfires when the drunk's son believes he inherited Lucas' ranch.

Ep 12: The Baby Sitter

A dance hall singer asks Lucas to care for her daughter in an effort to hide the baby from her self-righteous, bigoted father.

Ep 13: The Coward

Lucas becomes involved in a battle between an aspiring writer and a cocky, bragging trail boss.

Ep 14: Surveyors

Mark runs away from home after his father questions his story about overhearing a plot to rob the bank.

Ep 15: Day of the Hunter

A famous buffalo hunter tries to goad Lucas into a shooting match.

Ep 16: Mail Order Groom

When a stranger arrives to marry the town spinster, two brothers who want her land try to discourage him with threats and a beating.

Ep 17: A Case of Identity

Mark finds himself in grave danger when two unscrupulous detectives searching for a man's long-lost son claim that it is Mark.

Ep 18: The Visitor

Lucas is drawn to a young widow passing through town on her way to claim an inheritance, but others who covet it are trying to kill her.

Ep 19: The Hero

After a young stablehand kills a notorious gunslinger, he is baffled by the hostility of the townspeople.

Ep 20: The Horse Traders

When a horse dealer transporting a prize stallion stops in North Fork, two saddle tramps try to use trickery to obtain it.

Ep 21: The Spoiler

An elderly couple moves to North Fork under an assumed name to hide the fact that they are the parents of a vicious killer. The plan backfires when the son shows up at their home.

Ep 22: Heller

After foiling a girl's attempt to rob the general store, Lucas finds that she and her brother are plotting the murder of their abusive stepfather.

Ep 23: The Grasshopper

A condemned killer being transported by train murders a marshal and takes Mark hostage.

Ep 24: A Time for Singing

Mark discovers that the new preacher and his wife are impostors planning a robbery.

Ep 25: The Deserter

Lucas and Marshal Torrance get into trouble with the Army when they try to help a wounded young soldier who deserted.

Ep 26: The Vision

After Mark contracts typhoid fever and has a vision of his dead mother, he no longer seems interested in getting well.

Ep 27: The Lariat

An old friend of Lucas's returns to town in the company of a shady gambler and is accused of cheating at cards.

Ep 28: Smoke Screen

Several men are vying for a rancher's daughter's affections. When she is found dead, one of them becomes the prime suspect in her murder.

Ep 29: Shotgun Man

Shotgun man John Beaumont, who Lucas sent to prison, returns with vengeance on his mind.

Ep 30: Sins of the Father

After shooting a man in self-defense, Andy Moon turns to Lucas for protection from his vengeful brothers.

Ep 31: The Prodigal

To keep his invalid mother happy, an outlaw forces Lucas and Mark to go along with a masquerade that he is the owner of Lucas' ranch.

Ep 32: The Fourflusher

A sharecropper enters his colt in a horse race, hoping to win enough money to buy his farm from the owner, who has bet on Mark McCain's entry.

Ep 33: The Jailbird

When Lucas hires an ex-con as a ranch hand, the man is the first one under suspicion when a robbery and murder occur in the area.

Ep 34: Meeting at Midnight

Lucas helps his former Army captain, now an undercover federal agent, infiltrate a gang of bank robbers.

Ep 35: Nora

Lucas finds himself involved in murder when he gallantly steps to the aid of a beautiful woman.

Ep 36: The Hangman

An ex-convict is blamed for a brutal crime despite his claims of rehabilitation.

Ep 4: The Pitchman

When Mark finds gold on their property, a fast-talking salesman who tried to sell Lucas a new lightning rod offers instead to buy the ranch's mineral rights.

Ep 1: Trail of Hate

Lucas is out for vengeance when Mark is used as a pawn in a bank robbery scheme.

Ep 2: Woman From Hog Ridge

Lucas shoots a horse thief who turns out to be a member of the Boyle clan, and now Ma Boyle is after him.

Ep 3: Seven

Seven condemned murderers escape and take over the town of North Fork.

Ep 5: Strange Town

When Micah is badly injured by an escaping prisoner, Lucas tracks the prisoner back to his home town.

Ep 6: Baranca

When an outlaw leader lures Marshal Torrance out of town, Lucas is the only one who can stop him from lynching a local man who killed one of the members of his gang.

Ep 7: The Martinet

A former army captain comes to North Fork to kill the man who shot down his son in a gunfight—Lucas McCain.

Ep 8: Miss Milly

A new store owner upsets the town by demanding that all credit accounts be paid off.

Ep 9: Dead Cold Cash

The widow of a bandit killed by Lucas plots a grotesque revenge.

Ep 10: The Schoolmaster

Mark and his friend become trapped in an old mine.

Ep 11: The Promoter

Lucas and Mark attempt to reform a con man.

Ep 12: The Illustrator

Lucas encourages a drunken artist charged with murder to use his talents to identify the true killer.

Ep 13: The Silent Knife

Lucas and Mark try to persuade a persecuted young mute to return stolen money.

Ep 14: Miss Bertie

A lively old lady arrives in town hot on the trail of a notorious bandit—and the reward money for capturing him.

Ep 16: Flowers by the Door

Lucas unmasks a killer posing as a door-to-door seed salesman.

Ep 17: Long Trek

Lucas and Marshal Torrance run into trouble transporting a captured killer back to face trial.

Ep 18: The Actress

A deathbed request from an old friend sends Lucas to a neighboring town in search of the man's long-lost sweetheart.

Ep 15: Six Years and a Day

A doctor seeks revenge on the man he blames for ruining his practice.

Ep 19: Face of Yesterday

Lucas thinks he has seen a ghost when a young man, eerily similar to a man he killed in the Civil War, challenges him to a gunfight.

Ep 20: The Wyoming Story: Part 1

Lucas agrees to take a job as a federal undercover agent and goes to Wyoming to investigate rumors of sales of arms to renegade indians. His life is endangered by the town drunk, who stumbles onto his true identity.

Ep 21: The Wyoming Story: Part 2

Mark stays with Miss Milly, while Lucas is in Wyoming on the trail of a gang illegally selling weapons to the Indians. Mark suffers from loneliness and doubt while his father is away for two months.

Ep 22: Closer than a Brother

Lucas looks for answers when recovering alcoholic Micah Torrence returns to the bottle—and turns in his badge.

Ep 23: The Lost Treasure of Canyon Town

In a ghost town, Lucas, Mark and Micah tangle with the Newman family and learn the secret of the town's 20-year-old mystery of a lost gold mine.

Ep 24: Dark Day at North Fork

Blinded in an explosion, Lucas fights despair as he prepares for a meeting with a gun-toting enemy.

Ep 25: The Prisoner

Two ex-Confederate officers seek revenge on Lucas. McCain was a lieutenant in the 8th Indiana, which defeated the 12th Cavalry 15 years earlier at the Battle of Fort Donaldson.

Ep 26: Assault

A salesman can't talk his way out of an assault charge.

Ep 27: Short Rope for a Tall Man

Lucas and Mark are in another town to sell a bull to Joe Lovering. While there, Mark buys two horses from Mr. Schneider. Neither Mark nor his father knows that the horses have been illegally bought and resold to them.

Ep 28: The Clarence Bibs Story

A janitor-turned-gunfighter's reputation hangs on one lucky shot—and a lot of gall.

Ep 29: The Score is Even

Lucas looks for help when he is shot after witnessing a murder.

Ep 30: The Mescalaro Curse

Lucas is marked for death: he was foreman of a jury that convicted an Apache.

Ep 31: Stopover

Trouble brews at Lucas' when a whisky salesman and a gunfighter fall for the same woman.

Ep 32: The Lonesome Bride

Two pranksters write away for a mail-order bride, using Lucas's name.

Ep 33: Death Trap

Lucas recognizes Dr. Simon Battle as an ex-gunslinger with whom he once traded shots.

Ep 34: The Queue

A Chinese man and his son fight prejudice as they try to open a laundry in North Fork.

Ep 3: Sheer Terror

Mark and Milly are held prisoner in her general store when two gunmen attempt a daring robbery.

Ep 1: The Vaqueros

While Lucas and Mark are traveling across the Mexican desert they encounter a trio of Mexican bandits. They demand payment from Lucas for crossing "their" desert. Lucas refuses. In retaliation, the three slam Lucas in the throat with his rifle, strip him of all his possessions (including Mark), tie him to a tree and leave him to die of thirst and exposure.

Ep 2: First Wages

Lucas tries to find out why Mark has taken a job as a stableboy.

Ep 4: The Stand-In

Two prison wagon drivers stop at the McCain ranch looking for whiskey. Lucas turns them down because they are escorting Rudy Croft, a murderer who is to be hanged in Yuma.

Ep 5: The Journey Back

Mark goes to work for Will Temple, a badly scarred and very mysterious rancher.

Ep 6: The Decision

Corey Hazlett insists he's innocent of murder, despite Lucas's eyewitness testimony.

Ep 7: Knight Errant

Lucas tries to dissuade a latter-day knight from rushing into battle.

Ep 8: Honest Abe

Able Lincoln's claim that he's the Great Emancipator himself amuses everyone except Matt Yorty.

Ep 9: The Long Goodbye

Stubborn Grandpa Fogarty is Lucas's main roadblock as he tries to get young Woody Fogarty to attend school.

Ep 10: The Shattered Idol

Lucas and Mark meet Mark Twain and find out that he hides a sad secret.

Ep 11: Long Gun From Tucson

Lucas tries to stop embittered John Holliver from venting his wrath on the people who expelled him from town years before.

Ep 12: The High Country

Lucas becomes the target of a vengeful mountaineer.

Ep 13: A Friend in Need

Mark finds himself the unwilling companion of gunman Carl Avery.

Ep 14: Skull

Lucas looks for escape after he's captured by outlaws while seeking help for an injured Mark.

Ep 15: The Princess

The Queen-to-be of France hides out in North Fork.

Ep 16: Gunfire

Micah has an infamous outlaw, Charlie Gordo, in his jail waiting for the U.S. marshal from Denver to take Gordo to the Yuma prison for hanging. With the arrival of the stage, Micah finds that the lawman has been killed, and he has to look to his friends to defend the jail from Gordo's gang.

Ep 17: The Quiet Fear

Lucas' old Army pal settles in North Fork with his deaf daughter.

Ep 18: Sporting Chance

An Englishman arrives with a custom-made rifle—and a plan to kill Lucas.

Ep 19: A Young Man's Fancy

The pangs of first love are painful for Mark: the object of his affections has eyes for another.

Ep 20: The Man from Salinas

Banker Hamilton is closing up for the day when Rudy Gray persuades him to stay open for one more transaction—a withdrawal at gunpoint.

Ep 21: Two Ounces of Tin

Sammy Davis Jr. stars as Tip Corey, son of a man allegedly murdered in North Fork.

Ep 22: Deadly Image

On the trail Len Richards and his brother, Ab, confront a Lucas McCain look-alike, Earl Bantry and his sidekick K.C. Peters, for slaughtering one of Richards' steers. Bantry kills Ab Richards, and Len wants Micah to arrest Lucas for the murder. More problems ensue because of this "evil twin."

Ep 23: The Debt

Lucas and Mark stop on the way to the county fair to deliver a message to Micah, who is on the trail escorting a prisoner scheduled to be hanged. Mark and Lucas recognize the prisoner, Mr. Renolds, as someone who saved Mark's life from a snake bite a few years back.

Ep 24: The Tinhorn

A professional card player, John Keeler, has set up business in North Fork, but local Jesse Phillips claims that this tinhorn is a cheat. Lucas starts playing poker with Keeler to draw him out.

Ep 25: None So Blind

Mark befriends singer-banjoist Lafayette Bly, a blind man with an acute sense of hearing—and a very strong grip.

Ep 26: Jealous Man

Jake and Fay Owens, old friends of Micah, are the McCain's new neighbors. Jake quickly develops an unreasoning jealousy of Lucas with Fay.

Ep 27: Guilty Conscience

No one's more surprised than Micah when newcomer Leota Carraway claims he's her long-lost husband and the father of her child.

Ep 28: Day of Reckoning

Lucas is torn by conflicting emotions when he meets the town's new preacher—a former outlaw whom he vowed to kill.

Ep 29: The Day the Town Slept

The town of North Fork becomes a haven for outlaws when suave Ben Judson smooth-talks his way into the marshal's job.

Ep 30: Milly's Brother

A veteran returns with tales of heroism and the fate of Milly's brother in the Civil War.

Ep 31: Outlaw's Shoes

A head wound wipes out Lucas' memory, leaving him with only one clue: he's wearing an outlaw's gun.

Ep 32: The Executioner

A former neighbor of the McCain's is released from jail after serving his sentence for stage coach robbery, but the money was never found. Lucas agrees to let the man work for him, but the new work hand holds a secret.

Ep 17: The Sixteenth Cousin

A Japanese nobleman seeks revenge when his servant is insulted.

Ep 1: Waste: Part 1

Marshal Torrance is heading home from a cattle sale with Lucas and Mark when the old lawman mysteriously disappears. They trace him to a nearby Mexican ghost town.

Ep 2: Waste: Part 2

After Alphonso's wife gives birth, the bandits holding Marshal Torrance relax their guard, enabling Lucas and Mark to rescue the old man.

Ep 3: Lou Mallory

Lou Mallory has arrived in North Fork and quickly purchases land, which includes the hotel and Milly Scott's store. She pays higher prices than the sellers feel their properties are worth. Everyone is happy until they find out that Lou really is an astute businesswoman.

Ep 4: Quiet Night, Deadly Night

Townspeople brace for the worst when a new girl arrives—with symptoms of smallpox.

Ep 5: Death Never Rides Alone

A gunslinger rides into North Fork for a meeting with Lucas.

Ep 6: I Take This Woman

Lou looks for a way out when the man her dying father promised her to arrives.

Ep 7: The Assailants

An assassination plot unfolds as four gunmen disguised as cavalrymen enter North Fork. Their target: Sen. Jim Borden. Their weapon: a Gatling gun.

Ep 8: Mark's Rifle

Sharpshooter Marty Blair tries to persuade Lucas to buy Mark a rifle.

Ep 9: The Most Amazing Man

Fast-draw artist Wade Randall is less than anxious to display his prowess.

Ep 10: Squeeze Play

A speculator will stop at nothing to grab Lucas's land.

Ep 11: Gun Shy

Mark blames himself for a friend's accidental death.

Ep 12: The Anvil Chorus

Nils Swenson, North Fork's blacksmith, volunteers to take the marshal's place for a few days while Micah attends a wedding in another town. To help maintain peace, Nils institutes a policy that anyone coming into town must turn in their weapons, getting them back when they leave. This plan backfires on Nils when some dishonest men come to town.

Ep 13: Conflict

Lucas's self-confidence begins to slip away when he misses an easy shot.

Ep 14: Incident at Line Shack Six

Railroad gang boss John Gangling kills one of his crew to rob him of his savings. To cover his tracks, Gangling puts the blame on Johnny Wing, an Apache worker.

Ep 15: Suspicion

On the road Lucas and Mark come upon Winslow Quince, a peddler whose wagon has broken down, and help him get his wagon into North Fork for repair. While in North Fork Quince barters several items that implicate him in a series of murders.

Ep 16: The Sidewinder

Gridley Mau is gunning for Lucas, who killed his father during an attempted robbery.

Ep 18: Hostages to Fortune

At Halloween, rustlers take advantage of the seasonal disguises to raid a cattle ranch.

Ep 19: And the Devil Makes Five

A snake crawls into Lucas' bed, and Mark must lure it away before it strikes.

Ep 20: End of the Hunt

Lucas is thrown into jail to stop him from murdering an old enemy.

Ep 21: The Bullet

Lucas is baffled when the marshal of a neighboring town refuses to hold a gambler who just attempted murder.

Ep 22: Requiem at Mission Springs

When Mark is paralyzed, Lucas attempts to cure him at the mission.

Ep 23: The Guest

New arrival Mario Arsatti becomes very friendly with Lucas, but this turns out to be merely pleasure before business: he's been hired to kill Lucas.

Ep 24: Old Man Running (aka The Wanted Man)

Lucas, who blames his wife's death on his father-in-law, refuses to help the old man elude gunmen.

Ep 25: Which Way'd They Go?

The notoriously lazy Jackman brothers discover their mortgage has been foreclosed.

Ep 26: Old Tony

Mark and his girlfriend, Laurie, discover that an old hermit is very lonely.