Blood Tie

Ben Cartwright finds himself in a fight for his life when he acts too late on his suspicion that there is more than meets the eye to an amiable, young drifter called Tracy that Little Joe brought home to the Ponderosa after Tracy saved his life during a scuffle. Tracy gets along with the Cartwright's, does his work and strumming his guitar and singing.

Then a bounty hunter Leo Gordon shows up, claiming that Tracy is wanted in Tucson. Tracy denies this - a scuffle occurs and Leo shoots Ben in the leg, which incapacitates him.

When the sheriff and Little Joe and Hoss ride out to trace the bounty Hunter tracks, Ben is left alone with Tracy and is very much suspicious of him. Soon he realises that Joe scuffle with the thug in the saloon and Tracy helping Joe was part of a scheme to rob the money on the premises...

Nice tension in the finale rounds up a well-plotted tale and Robert Drivas as Tracy is quite good, amiable and strumming his guitar happily and a criminal under the surface. But it's Leo Gordon who is the real mean hombre... a good episode with fine plot twists.

Great show, plot with many twists. Tracy was excellent actor. Sweet and gentle, then turning hostile, nice acting, good dialogs. The Bonanza gang was mostly out of sight, until little Joe in two inch heels trotted in at the last moment to save the day, as always. If it was not for little Joe, I would have given 10 stars.

In a rather unexpected but very entertaining episode that begins when Joe brings to the Ponderosa a young man, Tracy Blaine, that had actually saved Joe's life. But the young man seems all to perfect which always brings up red flags to Ben.

When Ben is shot in the leg by a stranger, played by Leo Gordon, before leaving the stranger hints around that he knows Tracy and that he is a wanted man. Tracy denies that he knows the stranger and actually overly hams-it-up trying to convince others that he is not a wanted man nor knows the stranger. But when others are out riding with a posse, Tracy is left alone with the injured Ben and the stranger returns.

Robert Drivas, that played Tracy Blaine, did an outstanding job of playing the two-faced character and makes the show more interesting. And always nice to see Leo Gordon play the tough. This was different, and enjoyable, from the normal stories that we seem to get from the ninth season of the Cartwrights. But the change made for an entertaining watch for the viewer.