Twilia

Maverick was basically a comedy-western. When it first aired, adults called it “a western with a dark sense of humor”, and for a reason. It did have a dark humor about it, but it wasn’t always funny. I’ve seen three season so far(like most people, but for a different reason), and there are some episodes that stand out with a “wow”. Warning! Spoilers ahead! Here are the most emotional episodes of the funny, light-hearted western starring Jim Garner and Jack Kelly: 1. Trail West to Fury: This is the backstory episode. Season 1, episode 21, it shows Bret and Bart, with their friend, Dandy Jim, stuck in a flood. Out of boredom, Dandy Jim gets them to tell the story of how they were kicked out of their home state, Texas. In the flash-back, they had just returned from the war(which was naturally rough on both of them), but then they’re refused even starting life anew on the Maverick Ranch. It doesn’t seem all that traumatic, but when you think about it, Bret and Bart would have really tried to become normal, hard-working men if they hadn’t been banned from the state. Instead, they turned to the only other thing they knew: Drifting and gambling.

2. Diamond in the Rough: The only thing that makes this episode worth mentioning is Jack Kelly’s acting. It’s really just another normal episode, but at the end give a surprising little emotional kick. Bart, in the episode, became good friends with a French countess, whom he nicknamed Hank(cute, right?) She had asked him to marry her, but being a Maverick, he pulled a Pappy quote: “Hank, when I left home, my Pappy make me promise me never to marry until I turned 39.” At the end, after all had been won, Bart suddenly realizes that he had made a mistake, and he rushes to Hank’s room to tell her that he was ready to settle down with her... Only to find out she was getting married, ironically, to a wealthy man from Texas. His face of disappointment, and the sad way he congratulates the two... Good job, Kelly.

3. High Card Hangs: Another Kelly episode, this one focuses in on Bart and long-time-frienemy, Dandy Jim Buckley, who decide to give mining a try. They fail, of course, only knowing a darn thing about gambling and playing cards. But when a man shows up at the mining camp and is later murdered, the camp suspects Bart, and two others. For once, Dandy Jim shows a true love for the Mavericks, and does all he can to save Bart from hanging. This episode also deals with a bit of heavy American Indian racism, and how Bart, even though the Indian Woman tried to have him killed, had mercy on her and got the camp to give her a fair trial, stating, “It was her people’s land, first.”

4. Prey of the Cat/Rage for Vengeance: I lied. This is a list of four because the last two episode are too much to put one above the other. Both of these episodes left me with a wide mouth. Rage for Vengeance starts off showing Bret seemingly running from a sheriff. He give up, as the viewers find out his leg had been badly injured(and don’t get me started on that sad face). The sheriff catches him, and the Bret commences to telling his long story of woe: He had been hired to protect a woman traveling to start a business, meanwhile, he feel deeply in love with her(and a real love. Not just that sappy, filler romance these old shows did all the time). When she gets to the town to start to business, Bret finds out the money she had to get started was fake, and somebody wanted her killed... In a tragic turn of events, that somebody is successful, and causes her to ride off a cliff in her buggy. Bret finds out and is determined to get revenge. Let’s just say he does. The episode closes with the sheriff decided to let him go, which all seems well and good, until you remember the horrible crash Bret’s loved one was in(and how they actually showed the gruesome remains), and the fact that his leg was badly enough wounded that he couldn’t ride any longer. The sheriff leaves him, and, I mean, we know Bret makes it out okay, because he’s in episodes later, but as a stand-alone episode, we wouldn’t know. It ends with him riding away, and for all we know, had this been in season 3, that was why Bret wasn’t in season 4 and 5. Had it been his last episode(and what a last episode it would have been), we could assume he died on the trail from a bad leg wound, and his brother Bart likely never even knew about it.