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Bonanza Season 2 Episodes
Season 2 Episode Guide
34 Episodes 1960 - 1961
Episode 1
Showdown
Sat, Sep 10, 196049 mins
An outlaw gang robs Virginia City's bank and makes off with almost all of its money. The youngest member of the gang manages to get a job on the Ponderosa as a bronc-buster with the intention of informing the bank robbers of any posses that may threaten their hideout. While Ben, Adam and Hoss welcome the newcomer, Little Joe becomes suspicious of his activities.
Episode 2
The Mission
Sat, Sep 17, 196060 mins
Charlie Trent used to be an Army scout. Now he's the town drunk. Hoss helps him regain his self-esteem when he has him volunteer to lead a gold-bearing troop through the desert where there's very little water.
Episode 3
Badge Without Honor
Sat, Sep 24, 196060 mins
After a U.S. deputy marshal apparently saves Adam's life by gunning down two men who shot at him, he eventually reveals that he's in town to bring a close friend of the Cartwrights to Sacramento to testify in a statewide racketeering trial, but the deputy marshal's motives soon become suspect as to what he really wants to do with the reluctant witness.
Episode 4
The Mill
Sat, Oct 1, 196060 mins
The Cartwrights' neighbor Tom Edwards has lived as a paraplegic, ever since an accident involving Ben Cartwright and a gun. His ranch is going to waste. His wife Joyce is a longtime friend of Ben, and Ben decides to help the Edwards couple by making Tom a business proposition: the Cartwrights will build a grain mill on Edwards' land. In return, Ben only wants his investment money back, plus fifteen percent. Tom and his hired hand Ezekiel are suspicious of Ben, but Tom agrees to the deal. The Cartwright men build the mill, but tension begins to rise when Ezekiel makes comments which rekindle Tom's suspicion.
Episode 5
The Hopefuls
Sat, Oct 8, 196060 mins
Jacob Darien is leading his family of Quakers through Virginia City. When he is accosted by town roughnecks, Adam Cartwright steps in with the help of his new traveling companion, Sam Bord. Adam offers to escort the wagon train across the Ponderosa, unaware that Sam is planning a robbery.
Episode 6
Denver McKee
Sat, Oct 15, 196060 mins
Ranchers are being killed, cattle stolen, and even after former U.S. Deputy Marshal Denver McKee sends posses after the suspects, they are never found. Meanwhile, McKee suspiciously has plenty of money to take care of his daughter and her schooling back East.
Episode 7
Day of Reckoning
Sat, Oct 22, 196060 mins
Prejudice erupts on both sides when Ben gives an Indian named Matsou and his wife some of his land, after saving Ben's life from a renegade Indian who almost killed him on the Ponderosa.
Episode 8
The Abduction
Sat, Oct 29, 196060 mins
Jennifer Beale is abducted in the hopes her rich father, Joshua, the richest silver baron on the Comstock, will pay a $1M ransom. The plan unravels when the beautiful Della is killed and Hercules, who loves her, finds out who did it.
Episode 9
Breed of Violence
Sat, Nov 5, 196060 mins
Dolly Kincaid is so fed up with her extremely dominant, controlling, sheriff father, that she runs away with her boyfriend. She later finds out he is the leader of some murderous bank robbers and when they kidnap Hoss and Joe, she still sticks with him.
Episode 10
The Last Viking
Sat, Nov 12, 196049 mins
Gunnar is a long-lost relative of the Cartwright family. When Gunnar arrives at the Ponderosa, the family takes him in for the evening. Gunnar is the brother to one of Ben Cartwright's late wives, Inger. Unbeknownst to the Cartwright family, Gunnar is also the leader of a band of criminals called The Comancheros. Little Joe is visiting his girlfriend away from the ranch. When Little Joe and his girlfriend are kidnapped by The Comancheros, the Cartwrights and Gunnar are forced into a difficult situation.
Episode 11
The Trail Gang
Sat, Nov 26, 196060 mins
About to set out on a cattle drive, Ben hires a young drifter named Sam Jackson as one of his drovers. What he doesn't know is that Jackson is really outlaw Johnny Logan, who signed on to the drive because he knew it was going to pass near the town of Waycross, and Logan is determined to kill the Waycross sheriff--who is his father.
Episode 12
The Savage
Sat, Dec 3, 196060 mins
Adam rides up on some Indians wanting to harm a white woman they believed was a mountain spirit. He kills them but not before they wound him. The woman nurses him back to health but the rest of the tribe is still out there looking for her.
Episode 13
Silent Thunder
Sat, Dec 10, 196049 mins
Angry with the way a beautiful deaf-mute girl is treated by her father, a sheepherder living in a remote mountain cabin, Little Joe takes it upon himself to teach her sign language so they can communicate better. His plan backfires when the young woman falls in love with him and the girl's brutish neighbor resents her lavishing attention on the youngest Cartwright.
Episode 14
The Ape
Sat, Dec 17, 196049 mins
Arnie is a lonely man with big muscles, a little brain and an ugly face. He is friendly by nature, but when somebody jeers at him and calls him an ape, he becomes mad. Then he is very dangerous. Most people avoid Arnie, but Hoss recognizes something of his own nature in Arnie and wants to help him.
Episode 15
The Blood Line
Sat, Dec 31, 196049 mins
When 16-year-old Todd Grayson arrives from Boston to Virginia City, he is told that his father has been killed by Ben Cartwright. Ben shot Luke Grayson in self-defense, but Todd won't listen to this. The boy has only one thing in his head: to avenge his father by killing Ben Cartwright.
Episode 16
The Courtship
Sat, Jan 7, 196149 mins
Hoss and Little Joe travel to Sacramento to help the widow of an old friend of the Cartwrights. Hoss discovers that the widow is a beautiful young woman and immediately falls in love with her. He brings her back to the Ponderosa where Adam and Little Joe soon discover that the woman is in love with Hoss's money, not him, which she needs to fund her gambling addiction. When Hoss refuses to believe his brothers, Adam is forced to provide demonstrable proof in Virginia City casino.
Episode 17
The Spitfire
Sat, Jan 14, 196160 mins
After Little Joe kills a man in self-defense who had been trying to set fire to the Ponderosa to clear himself some land, he has to then take his lively, feisty, wild daughter to his home, and she and her relatives are now determined to kill Joe.
Episode 18
The Bride
Sat, Jan 21, 196160 mins
The Cartwright boys are shocked by the unexpected arrival of a beautiful young woman who claims to be Mrs. Ben Cartwright. But when Ben comes home to the Ponderosa that night, the new bride declares that he is not the man she married and the Cartwrights soon find themselves involved in what could become a fatal case of mistaken identity.
Episode 19
Bank Run
Sat, Jan 28, 196160 mins
When Ben and Adam have to leave town, Ben leaves Little Joe in charge. A series of events causes Joe and Hoss to "rob" the bank, and they are pursued by their own father who is plenty mad. But things only get worse for the two bank "robbers" when Ben gets a hold of them.
Episode 20
The Fugitive
Sat, Feb 4, 196160 mins
When Will Reagan receives news that his son Carl is dead in Mexico, he convinces Adam to go to Mexico to collect his body. But Adam is shocked when he rides into town, only to be told that Carl was a bad guy and he had a wife. Adam soon learns that his life is in danger if he keeps trying to get to the truth. A surprise awaits him.
Episode 21
Vengeance
Sat, Feb 11, 196160 mins
Hoss accidentally kills Willie the town drunk. His remorse may not be enough to stop Willie's hate-filled brother who only wants revenge even though the townspeople know it wasn't Hoss' fault.
Episode 22
The Tax Collector
Sat, Feb 18, 196160 mins
Jock Henry is a very likeable fellow. Ask anyone. When he's given the job of collecting taxes, his peculiar methods of figuring out what people owe causes everyone to reconsider.
Episode 23
The Rescue
Sat, Feb 25, 196160 mins
Ben comes home after a fight and refuses to tell his sons who he fought with. Worried that he's getting too old to hunt rustlers, the boys suggest he stay home and take it easy while they go hunt for the rustlers themselves. But soon, they are being shot at by the rustlers and can do nothing but wait for Ben to come rescue them.
Episode 24
The Dark Gate
Sat, Mar 4, 196160 mins
Ross Marquette's behavior over the past few months can't be easily explained -- beating his wife, rustling cattle, robbing a stage, killing a man. Adam is determined to find out why his friend is acting so strangely before it's too late.
Episode 25
The Duke
Sat, Mar 11, 196160 mins
*SPOILERS* The Cartwrights challenge an arrogant and cruel British prizefighter, the Duke, and his alcoholic manager to a bout with John Heenan (the Benicia Boy), after the Cartwrights' meek friend J.D. gets pulverized by the Duke in a bar-fight. J.D. is adored by saloon girl Marge, but he has been too shy to return her affections. While the Cartwrights wait to see if Heenan will actually take the bout and come from San Francisco, the Duke pursues Marge and assaults her when she rebuffs him. When the manager comes to Marge's rescue, he too is beaten up by the Duke (who, it turns out, is the manager's brother). Infuriated by all this, Hoss Cartwright himself challenges the Duke, and knocks him out in the fourth round of a bare-knuckle fight refereed by Sheriff Roy Coffee. The Duke and his brother-manager reconcile in the humility of defeat, then learn that the Benicia Boy will accept the proposed bout, but only the Duke comes to San Francisco. The Duke apologizes to all he has offended while in Virginia City and heads west to fight Heenan.
Episode 26
Cutthroat Junction
Sat, Mar 18, 196160 mins
Jed Trask has been with the Sierra Mail & Stage Lines for many years. When a group of gunmen in the town of Latigo cuts off delivery of the goods and mail, he goes after those responsible with the help of some on the Virginia City council - the Cartwrights.
Episode 27
The Gift
Sat, Apr 1, 196160 mins
Little Joe is off to buy a gift for his pa's birthday. He's unaware that where he is heading the local Indians are on the war path and they've got him in their gun sights.
Episode 28
The Rival
Sat, Apr 15, 196160 mins
Hoss is riding back from his sweetheart Cameo's house when he comes up on a group of men that have just killed a young couple. Hoss recognizes one of the men as his friend Jim Applegate. Hoss is torn between his friend and the law.
Episode 29
The Infernal Machine
Sat, Apr 22, 196160 mins
Hoss helps out a shy inventor who needs financial backing to build a horseless carriage. Things do not go well until a slick promoter sells shares into the new automobile. But things turn sour when the promoter skips town.
Episode 30
The Thunderhead Swindle
Sat, Apr 29, 196160 mins
The mines in the Comstock Lode seem tapped out. With the sharp rise in unemployment, the promise of silver found in the thunderhead could mean boom or bust to everyone in Virginia City. Can the Cartwrights make sure that it's kept?
Episode 31
The Secret
Sat, May 6, 196160 mins
A woman turns up missing then is found dead after falling off a cliff. Her father automatically assumes that Little Joe is guilty of her death and is determined to kill him. Even after he's arrested for her murder, the father goes looking for the truth, but the truth may be closer than they think.
Episode 32
The Dream Riders
Sat, May 20, 196160 mins
Hoss gets diverted by a hydrogen-filled balloon while a family friend robs the Virginia City bank.
Episode 33
Elizabeth, My Love
Sat, May 27, 196160 mins
At the bedside of a seriously ill Adam, Ben thinks back to his days as a first mate on a sailing ship and his marriage to Adam's mother, Elizabeth Stoddard.
Episode 34
Sam Hill
Sat, Jun 3, 196160 mins
The Cartwrights join to help mystical blacksmith Sam Hill save the land his drunk, sea-dog father signed away to an old enemy, discover the circumstances behind his mother's death, and solve the mystery of why a tropical tree flourishes in spite of cold Nevada winters.