Like so often happens, Marshal Dillon allows endless mayhem because he wants to be fair. As soon as Dillon is told who the suspected killer is, he tells Asa (Sam Wanamaker, playing the murder victim's vengeful brother) a whole litany of reasons why the killer cannot be arrested, bothered, or subjected to harassment. Wow. 1960s civil rights back in the 1870s.
The story starts off with Asa riding into town like he is the big cheese. I never understood why anyone in town cared that a parson was riding into town. Dodge City was a TV series where I cannot remember ever seeing any Dodge City church except when an outlaw holds the minister as a hostage in one episode (Sanctuary 1966), and when an elderly missionary wants to build a church for the Native Americans (I Have Promises to Keep 1975).
Dodge was usually depicted as a lawless and godless town. So why would anyone be impressed that some parson rode into town? Asa makes a couple of pronouncements about somebody dying, and the small crowd of drunks acts like it was the Pope giving them communion wafers. It made no sense to me.
Soon after Asa arrives in search of the surviving drifter who killed his brother, Lonny Chapman creeps into the scene, and the mystery was over. Asa is in Dodge to find the killer of his brother, and so he wears the same parson outfit as his brother, and walks as if in his brother's shoes, seeking Justice.
The last ten minutes or so really go off the rails, as Lonny Chapman is not going down easy. The action is quite surprising, and a welcome change from many other episodes. Chapman had a great ability to play a sleazy lowlife criminal very convincingly, and he is in top form in this episode.
