User Reviews

Themes in which people may/may not be a famous/notorious person are always fascinating to watch.

This is a presentation of someone who is hired by the Barkleys and he may or may not be Joaquin Marietta! A well-done version of the theme as it is subtle and not too obvious in letting the audience know the truth.

A most well-done and interesting topical - in the show's era - episode.

The atmosphere is authentic and the acting is above par.

I grew up in Stockton, California, but alas - it's not nearly as fun nor colorful as the Stockton ABC presented us with!

A pity: "The Big Valley" made life so colorful and just downright fun - not necessarily 'easy' mind you. But never boring.

In this story we have a Mexican male, Juan Molino, that comes onto the Barkley Ranch asking for a job. After seeing his ability Nick hires the man to break in some of his wild horses. But there is this older man, Benito, that believes that Juan is actually a famous Mexican bandit named Joaquin. It is not long before Benito dies in a mysterious horse accident only pointing out that Juan may be the bandit thought to be killed by lawmen some time back. So as you can tell the rest of the episode is going to determine if Juan is the bandit/hero or if he is just a wrangler wanting a job. The Barkley's are placed right in the middle.

Even though this was an interesting story, there was times that it was difficult following the character. At times he denied he was the bandit while other times he claimed to be the bandit. I would guess if he really was the so-called, hero to Mexican/villains to Gringos, I would feel sure he would know. But it was like the main character of the show did not even know his identity until he read the last few lines of the script.

Even with Heath getting into a useless fight scene, that had nothing to do with the plot, this episode was troubling. It will be the final ending when the writers let a woman wrap up the closure that we learn the truth about the wrangler. I was not sure it was worth the entire ordeal.

The script was great until the end, great acting and great scenes until near the end, a show has to have a good ending or it is a waste of time. All the work they did filming this story but the ending made no sense, it contradicted the main plotline.