User Reviews

In this episode, directed by Dennis Weaver, a young married couple, Andy and Millie Cole, ride into Dodge almost broke. Andy is trying to sell their wagon to Moss Grimmick when another wagon's horses, driven by Ed Fallon, gets spooked and crashes into the Cole's wagon knocking off the wheel. Andy, being a hot-headed person, knocks Ed in the jaw thinking the accident was on purpose. But Millie tells the Marshal that it was solely an accident and she is upset with her husband.

Ed, trying to make the situation right, not only pays for the wagon but also gives Andy a job at the freight office. But Ed's reasoning for giving Andy a job may be more sinister than it appears.

There really is nothing remarkable about the episode that stands out to the viewer. Perhaps if the writer had not made Andy such a unlikable person then the show would have seemed better. The show appeared to be an average program with average results.

(*Ed Fallon quote*) - "I didn't mean to scare you none."

Andy and Millie Cole have just arrived in Dodge and already trouble is coming their way when Ed Fallon's wagon crashes into theirs.

It doesn't take Fallon long to become seriously infatuated with Millie. But Andy is very suspicious of Fallon's activities, believing that he is trying to romance his wife.

There were a few episodes featuring insanely jealous jerks on Gunsmoke. In this one, Andy Coe is the loudmouth who is always presuming that his wife is being chased by other men. Coe is played by Lew Brown, who is usually the third string thug on Gunsmoke. This time he gets to yell at his wife a lot.

His hapless wife Millie Coe is played by Leah Waggner, in her only appearance on Gunsmoke. Her acting career was active from 1951 to 1966. Here she plays the virtuous wife who is trying to help her hot-headed husband get a job, and who is also afraid of her volatile and violent husband.

The villain in this story is played by Robert Karnes, a veteran actor who had 203 acting credits, and appeared on Gunsmoke eleven times. He starts out as a nice guy, trying to help out the Coes after he accidentally side-swiped and smoked their old beater wagon with his commercial freight wagon. He gives Andy a job at the freight office.

Andy resents Karnes because Karnes is successful, and Andy is a total loser. He is immediately suspicious of Karnes, and starts bad-mouthing his boss. This episode makes you wonder, was the reason Karnes went after Millie Coe is because Andy was such a jerk, as payback for Andy's own expectations? Did Karnes originally help out Andy so he could chase Millie? Did Karnes have bad intentions, or was Karnes reacting to Andy's jealousy and low expectations of his own wife?

The action is pretty predictable if not outright dumb. In a small town, would any prominent business man risk it all over a married woman with plain looks and a dim personality? Millie Coe is no Miss Kitty. The end is typical of a John Meston story. Nobody wins. Somebody was beat up and assaulted, somebody got killed, and the only bright spot is that Andy Coe declares in shock that his wife was not a tramp after all. I was really hoping Marshal Dillon would have shot his nuts off at the very end.