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The Virginian Season 8 Episodes
Season 8 Episode Guide
24 Episodes 1969 - 1970
Episode 1
Long Ride Home
Wed, Sep 17, 196975 mins
James Joseph (Jim) Horn and his mentor Ben Stratton, two saddle tramps, meet Holly when Ben rescues her from a runaway team in Medicine Bow. He and Jim along with a group of ex-buffalo hunters were taking shots at the church bell. She suggests they work at Shiloh which needs temporary hands to help bring the herds down from the mountains. They impress The Virginian with their work ethic and horse wrangling even though they have a carefree attitude. Jim upset with the teasing decides they should leave early but a warning about an early snow is enough to convince him and Ben to stay to help. Although they took the job as temporary hands, they are asked to stay permanently but Ben is unable to settle down. At Ben's urging he and Jim go into town to party. Jim returns on time to work but Ben is beat up by the buffalo hunters who besides stealing Ben's money are under suspicion for rustling. Ben goes after them for his money but receives an offer to help rustle cattle. In the end he realizes young Jim Horn needs the security and stability Shiloh provides.
Episode 2
A Flash of Darkness
Wed, Sep 24, 196975 mins
The Virginian is ramrodding a horse drive to Shiloh short handed and is particularly critical of the two Kabe boys Tom and George and especially the crusty father Carl. Carl and his sons quit after a disagreement over their work habits and receive no pay. The Virginian chases two strays away from the herd into a river bed where he receives a head injury which blinds him when his horses stumbles. He wanders blind across the river and along its shore forced to shoot a rattlesnake by sound. He climbs out the river basin into the surrounding hills onto a lone cabin where seventeen year old Ginny Kabe is waiting for the return of her father and brothers. After realizing he is really blind, she tends to The Virginian who needs medical attention and is hungry. When the men return, The Virginian recognizes who they are and that they stole Shiloh horses. Ginny implores them to take The Virginian to Spanish Wells for help. Carl sends George supposedly with The Virginian to Spanish Wells to satisfy Ginny but The Virginian realizes the truth.
Episode 3
Halfway Back from Hell
Wed, Oct 1, 196975 mins
Trampas in Arizona is returning to Shiloh when he encounters a group of men in a fight with a Mescalero hunting party ending with the death of one of the men. For safety Trampas rides with the men only one of whom is armed. He learns the group is the first Arizona prisoners released on probation who are to convert a ranch bought by the prison system into a training facility for prisoners. The convict killed in the fight was supposed to be the foreman of the ranch and train the men. The man in charge tricks the local US Marshal into thinking Trampas is the convict who was killed as he needs an experienced foreman. This forces Trampas to stay and puts him in the middle of the feud between the prisoners and the town. The Marshal follows the law but has no love for the rehabilitation program. The only person helpful to the convicts is the eastern educated daughter of the Marshal. Although Trampas wants to return to Shiloh, he sees a future for the men as he helps them.
Episode 4
The Power Seekers
Wed, Oct 8, 196975 mins
At the fourth of July celebration the local representative to the territorial legislature John Springfield announces he is resigning his job due to being tired of the politics involved. Immediately a shout goes up for Tobe Larkin to run from the lawyer Lou White. Later, at Shiloh rancher Bennett Poole asks Clay Grainger to run against Larkin saying he has the support of many in Medicine bow including Sheriff Abbott. Clay agrees since he disagrees with Larkin on a proposal for land near Medicine Bow. Clay goes to Springfield for advice only to learn the truth about Poole and why he was selected to run. Realizing Clay is a strong candidate, Larkin and White decide to turn the farm vote against Clay using the old issues between homesteaders and ranchers. When Clay learns he was deceived when asked to run, he moves to win the campaign with honesty. Seeing a strong surge for Clay, White suggests stronger action to dirty Clay's name to clinch the vote for Larkin to which Larkin agrees.
Episode 5
Family Man
Wed, Oct 15, 196975 mins
Trampas and Jim Horn meet the pregnant Anna York while she awaits her husband Obie who is buying a horse from The Virginian. They have rented a farm near Medicine Bow. As they leave Jim states that they both look younger than him and he is nineteen. Later, in Medicine Bow Jim runs into Obie outside a store as Nathan Rigby comes by just arriving on the train. He accuses Obie York of being Obie Moore who stole $8000 from his brother in another state. Obie runs for home where he quickly packs and leaves just ahead of the Sheriff and a posse. Jim decides to go by their farm to check on Anna where he finds himself taking over for Obie including delivering the baby by himself. Jim takes it on himself to help Anna with the farm while working at Shiloh but he drops from exhaustion causing The Virginian to decide to have the Shiloh hands take turns helping Anna. Jim forced to rest at Anna's place finds himself falling for Anna but not feeling right about it. Jim has to decide whether to stay with Anna or return to Shiloh as news arrives about Obie.
Episode 6
The Runaway
Wed, Oct 22, 196975 mins
Young Hoot Callahan escapes a home for wayward boys in Colorado and heads for Wyoming looking for his father. He is discovered at Shiloh when he picks a food basket clean. Hoot refuses to cooperate with the Graingers as he won't eat or talk as he continues to try to runaway. Slowly, he opens up first giving his first name followed by telling The Virginian the name of the Sills family in Colorado with whom he lived. While asleep in bed Holly spots the welts on his back where he has been severely beaten. The Virginian visits the Sills where he learns the truth about Hoot. The last they heard of his widowed dad Luke Callahan was a letter from Medicine Bow. The owner of the home he escaped from tracks Hoot to Shiloh and tries to force the Graingers to return him. There is a chance meeting between Hoot and his father when the Graingers take Hoot to Medicine Bow for clothes but Hoot doesn't recognize Luke. Meanwhile, The Virginian tracks down his father who is the Medicine Bow drunk and saloon swamper. He lives in a boarding house run by Claire who has a strong interest in Luke who refuses to stop drinking.
Episode 7
A Love to Remember
Wed, Oct 29, 196973 mins
Reporter/artist, Julie Oakes, from Boston arrives in Medicine Bow with an introduction for Clay Grainger to do a story on the west. The Virginian drives her to Shiloh where the Graingers ask her to stay during her visit. There is an immediate attraction between her and The Virginian who spend considerable time together with Julie telling him she is falling in love with him. Clay Grainger suggest she meet Ord Glover a businessman in Medicine Bow for his perspective. She notices a stickpin Ord is wearing which attracts her interest. She continues to spend time with Ord who is also from Boston much to the dislike of The Virginian. Julie and Elizabeth join the ranch hands as they work and spend a special evening over the campfire as the men entertain themselves with music and tall tales. Her continued flashbacks to Boston and her husband and son's deaths result in tragic events which neither the Graingers or The Virginian understand.
Episode 8
The Substitute
Wed, Nov 5, 196975 mins
Trampas has built up a couple weeks of vacation which he is ready to take. He leaves for a town to renew a good time with a saloon girl named Mary Lou. However, he finds she is now married to the bar owner who knocks out Trampas. A bounty hunter in the bar decides Trampas is his target taking the unconscious Trampas back to the small town of Calumet. He turns Trampas and a gold watch he says he found on Trampas over to the Sheriff. He collects the reward and a little extra from Ezra Gates, a wealthy rancher who controls Calumet. Saloon girl Abby Clayton swears to the Sheriff she saw Trampas kill the local doctor. The town is upset over the murder of their beloved doctor who was killed for the gold watch the city gave him. Trampas declares he is innocent asking that the Sheriff send a telegram to Shiloh to prove he couldn't have killed the doctor. When the bar owner won't send food to the jail, the Sheriff takes Trampas there to eat and where he confronts Abby. Abby is the girlfriend of Josh Gates, Ezra's son. Josh is manipulating Abby, the deputy and eventually his father to ensure Trampas is hung.
Episode 9
The Bugler
Wed, Nov 19, 196975 mins
The Virginian finds a man dead from a Kiowa arrow and an Army canteen by him. He runs into an Army patrol who identify the man as Lt. Ben Carver for whom they are looking. At Carver's funeral Private Toby Hamilton refuses to play taps. For that he is sentenced to18 lashes, once for each year of his life by his commanding officer who does the whipping. Toby deserts from the army due to what he considers unfair treatment by the commanding officer who happens to be his father. He is found injured on Shiloh and the Graingers take him in to recover. He is a well-trained bugler and attracts Elizabeth's attention because she is trying to learn to play a cornet. Toby and Elizabeth become close friends as they keep an eye on her mare Patches ready to foal. Toby plans on taking an east bound train from Medicine Bow until Clay is told by an Army patrol lead by Lt. Mike Buehl that Toby deserted and that he is Mark Hamilton's son. Clay wants to determine the truth when he learns Toby is a deserter as Toby's father is an old friend from Texas who he trusts.
Episode 10
Home to Methuselah
Wed, Nov 26, 196975 mins
Seth James is a lawman on the trail of a gang of six who robbed and killed in his town. He catches one of the three remaining men in a saloon but is forced to kill him when he becomes careless but not before learning where the other two outlaws are headed. When their trail goes near Shiloh, he stops there to see his old friend, The Virginian. He tells the Shiloh people he is retiring and on a hunting trip and asks The Virginian to go with him for old times sake. After being on the trail for a while, The Virginian realizes the quarry is human instead of animal. He forces Seth to slow down and Seth's age is catching up with him plus he wants to preserve the horses. When they catch up with the two outlaws at a cabin one gets away and after the other is shot after being captured The Virginian realizes what Seth has become. They trail the remaining outlaw to a small remote mountain town where they capture him as he is about to ride away. The Virginian's eyes are opened wider when he learns who the outlaw is and he escapes.
Episode 11
A Touch of Hands
Wed, Dec 3, 196975 mins
Peg Halstead returns from finishing school back east after five years to her dad's ranch at Medicine Bow for a two week vacation. She had a young girl crush on Trampas who teased her when she was younger hanging out at Shiloh. When they meet again, the relationship blossoms into more than a crush on both sides. Peg has romantic memories of home believing she never wants to leave it. As Peg and Trampas see each other discussion turns to starting a life together on a new ranch in remote Dove Canyon. However, her dad, John Halstead, wants her to return east and stay away from the west as he feels the west killed her mother. He confides to Clay that Dr. Spaulding has told him he has limited time due to a previous heart attack. Peg is determined to stay home and marry Trampas but learns life in the west is more complicated and remote than she remembers as she helps Holly and Elizabeth and her and Trampas encounter Indians at Dove Canyon. Her father determined to end her staying decides to sell his ranch to take Peg east but when he confronts Trampas about it fortune takes a turn for the worse.
Episode 12
Journey to Scathelock
Wed, Dec 10, 196975 mins
While on the way to Wellington, North Dakota to purchase horses The Virginian is called back on other business for Grainger. Jim Horn asks to be allowed to go by himself to complete the purchase. The Virginian agrees to give him the $4000 along with the instructions on what to do. At Wellington he checks into the hotel while he awaits the arrival of Captain Cornish from Port Arthur, Canada. Jim is frustrated when the people he must deal with do not accord him respect due to his young age and looks especially at the railroad depot. He decides to ease his hurt feelings with a drink at the hotel bar where beautiful Karen Mallory decides to join him because of his niceness. She and partner Orrey Hills spot Jim as a mark when the champagne he orders for Karen loosens his tongue. They take him for the money in a bait and switch routine. The next morning Jim finds the money missing when Captain Cornish arrives showing his own disapproval. Jim learns from the Sheriff that the couple is likely headed to Scathelock, Canada for the protection of the Frenchman. Jim is forced to handle the issue and prove his worthiness as a Shiloh hand.
Episode 13
A Woman of Stone
Wed, Dec 17, 196975 mins
Mrs. Cloud's Shoshone husband passes away and as a white woman by law she is forced to leave their reservation. Her son Wolf and her are found near Shiloh by The Virginain and Jim Horn with her suffering from the same disease that killed her husband. They take her to Shiloh where she recovers. Her son Wolf raised in the Shoshone life style finds he must adapt to the white lifestyle when he gets into trouble stealing horses as a gift to Shiloh. She discovers that her first husband is a successful store owner in Medicine Bow living with their daughter Laurie who has become engaged. Mrs. Cloud was told Laurie was dead by the Shoshones. When she confronts her husband, he asks her to not reveal the truth to Laurie about him abandoning them during the Indian raid. She learns that many of the residents of Medicine Bow are still hostile to the Shoshone as well as her and her son forcing her to decide their future.
Episode 14
Black Jade
Wed, Dec 31, 196975 mins
The Virginian during a cattle drive takes a silver watch in trade for a dead steer from a black man Cobey Jade after Jade accidentally caused a stampede. The musically talented Jade claims to own a nearby town. Trampas recognizing the watch as belonging to an old friend buys the watch and takes time off to track down Cobey to learn where he got the watch. Trampas finds Cobey living in an abandoned mining town he is trying to slowing rebuild. The beef he bought was for a tribe of nearby Arapaho Indian children who he is helping and teaching to sing. The pair find themselves prisoners of an outlaw group led by a wounded ex-Southner Henry Swann who takes his anger out on Cobey when they don't find the gold expected in the town. Cobey and Trampas are treated as slaves while the outlaws fight among themselves. Swann's girlfriend Roseanna is fed up with Swann while the other three men complain as well.
Episode 15
You Can Lead a Horse to Water
Wed, Jan 7, 197075 mins
While having a drink in a Medicine Bow saloon, Trampas meets horse trader Luther Watson who has interesting perspectives on life. He tells Trampas widow Krebs in Clearwater is trying to force him to marry her. Sheriff Abbott enters to ask Trampas accompany a prisoner to Clearwater for him as he appoints Trampas a temporary deputy. When Trampas asks about the prisoner, Abbott shackles Trampas to Luther wanted for stealing horses. The two of them are on the stage with Mary Marshall who is a very talkative and stuffy southern belle. After the stage is robbed, she forces Trampas and Luther at gunpoint to trail the thieves one of whom is the stagecoach driver. Meanwhile, in Clearwater widow Krebs frustrated with the local Sheriff is worried about the missing Luther. She tells Tom Kendrick about Mary, to whom he is engaged, being missing. During the search for the thieves, Mary matures and Luther's knowledge of horses plays a key role in recovering Mary's dowry.
Episode 16
Nightmare
Wed, Jan 21, 197075 mins
Stephanie marries John White who owns a successful freight and stagecoach business in Medicine Bow he inherited. His brother Billy works as a driver but is considered too reckless and interested in gambling to own the business by John. With John marrying, the business will go to Stephanie if John dies. However, Stephanie is beset with a crippling injury to her new husband during a stagecoach accident. The paralyzed John is killed by a fire. Stephanie suffers from nightmares as John is her second husband to die in a fire and accident. Frank is John's key employee who keeps the company running but he also knew Stephanie in the past. Stephanie receives a note to meet Frank but Frank never sent a note. During the meeting someone shoots Frank who dies as he names Stephanie to The Virginian. Stephanie is arrested for killing Frank with only The Virginian and a few friends to help her prove her innocence but the evidence is strong against her.
Episode 17
Holocaust
Wed, Jan 28, 197075 mins
Kordick managing an eastern combine wants to take over control of the Wyoming cattle ranches without regard to the future of the owners. Clay Grainger is the main obstacle keeping them out via the Cattlemen's Association. Cattle prices are declining but The Virginian returns from Cheyenne with a contract for $15 per head if they make Cheyenne on a tight deadline. At $15 a head the ranches can make enough to break even. To prevent their success, someone stampedes the cattle and burns the Shiloh ranch house. The Sheriff is unable to catch the culprits but Trampas has a strong hunch that a man he knew named Muirhead did it. When the drive is late, the ranchers only receive $9 per head putting most including Shiloh in financial peril. The bank refuses Clay a loan due to the shaky cattle business so Clay is forced to lay all the hands off due to a lack of money and a similar fate awaits the other ranches in the area. With no job The Virginian and Trampas hit the trail to find Muirhead who headed back to Montana. Meanwhile, Jim leads the Shiloh hands to make a fateful decision.
Episode 18
Train of Darkness
Wed, Feb 4, 197075 mins
Clay, Elizabeth, and Jim Horn are on a night train back to Medicine Bow from Cheyenne. There are few passengers on the train at that hour. One is rancher Jed Haines and his new bride Lottie, a drunk mustang buster, an actress with her husband/manager and a single young man. During the trip the personalities of the various passengers are exposed. The actress and her husband are on the outs over a bad performance in Cheyenne while Lottie confides to Elizabeth she is nervous about being a good wife. Clay quickly discerns that Jed is no rancher during a conversation while the young man strikes up a card game with Jim. Meanwhile, Luke Dormer and his family are chasing the train wanting to hang Jed Haines aka Judge Harker, a gun for hire, for killing a family member. Harker hired out to the Wyoming ranchers to catch and kill cattle rustlers. Rumors say he killed dozens but he says he only killed seven men. People's scruples are fully exposed as they decide on the train how to handle the problem as Clay convinces the Dormers to hear Harker's side.
Episode 19
A Time of Terror
Wed, Feb 11, 197075 mins
Clay, Holly, and Elizabeth visit Judge Will McMasters and his wife Mary for dinner when the McMasters house is hit by gunfire. No one is hurt as they learn this is not the first attempt. McMasters was a Judge for 20 years so someone could be after him for a variety of reasons. The next day the Graingers leave stopping in Medicine Bow on the way home. Clay learns The Virginian successfully sold a herd and should be back with the hands in a few days. Only Jim Horn who was sick is left at Shiloh. On the road they hear gunfire. They then find an empty buggy as a man on a horse rides off. After yelling at whoever is in the bushes a young woman comes out. She says she is looking for the Judge for whom she had been a typist. They take her to their the home where the Graingers are taken hostage by her and her two brothers. The Thurman siblings believe Clay may have been involved with Judge Will McMasters in stealing their parents homestead for a railroad spur and eventually the death of their parents. There is a clash as well between the two hotheaded brothers and their sister on how to handle the Graingers.
Episode 20
No War for the Warrior
Wed, Feb 18, 197075 mins
The Virginaian taking a herd of cattle to the Army signs on the hand John Woods while on the trail. Woods and Jim Horn become good friends and Jim learns that John is an escaped half Kiowa Indian on the way to Canada. Within a day's ride of the Fort, The Virginian allows all but two of the men to go to 3 Corners for a rest. There John realizes the lone female survivor of a nearby Indian village Kgoy-Ma works for the bar owner who mistreats her. When the Army sutler Ned Cochran recognizes him as an Indian wanted by the Army for the murder of four soldiers, he captures Woods. Jim jumps Cochran which helps John escape when he sees John being mistreated. Cochran is found dead after the escape by Jim. When John Woods is not found the sheriff jails Jim Horn and the town decides to lynch him in place of John Woods the next day if Woods is not captured. It is up to Trampas and The Virginian to find John Woods to save Jim Horn.
Episode 21
A King's Ransom
Wed, Feb 25, 197075 mins
During a church social dance in Medicine Bow Clay Grainger makes a deal to buy a pair of geldings from Ben Thomas who uses Mr. Connor to drive up the price. After buying the horses, Clay decides to ride one home. Along the way he is kidnapped for a $20,000 ransom and a threat of burning Medicine Bow by three men from the San Francisco Hounds gang. The gang originated in Australia but were expelled from the country. They hold Clay in a pit inside an abandoned mine. The gang leader's wife Mag from Louisville, Kentucky tries to leave them and eventually makes her way to Shiloh to help Holly but the leader of the gang, Connor, wants her back. Due to the danger to Clay and Medicine Bow The Virginian and the Sheriff decide it is too dangerous to send out a posse. The Virginian and Jim Horn try searching as if they were herding cattle. During the search Connor contacts The Virginian with a note from Clay to which Connor adds the requirement to send his wife with the ransom. Holly is forced to follow the gang's instructions and pay the ransom.
Episode 22
The Sins of the Fathers
Wed, Mar 4, 197075 mins
The Virginian is chased by three men as he returns to Shiloh with $40,000 in cattle money. As they prepare to hang him upside down over a fire Indian style, he is rescued by Adam Randall from being killed and having the Shiloh cattle money stolen. He and Clay Grainger offer Adam a job at Shiloh which he accepts but refuses a $100 bonus. He starts off on the wrong foot by taking Jim Horn's bunk upsetting the men. At the Medicine Bow saloon he runs into his friend John Wesley Hardin who wants to return Adam to Dodge City for a $500 reward but Adam shoots Hardin's gun from his hand. Trampas comes up with a suspect who he thinks informed on The Virginian and the Shiloh money but Adam quickly tells him he is wrong. Adam knows not only the men but who the informer is. The Virginian tells Sam Burns the bank messenger and informer to leave the area. Clay is concerned about Adam who is an obvious gunman and has the other ranch hands scared to work with him. Over time Clay realizes Adam is the son of a man he killed on a cattle drive 25 years ago and he is the target of Adam's gun.
Episode 23
Rich Man, Poor Man
Wed, Mar 11, 197075 mins
Harve Yost is an always 'down on his luck' farmer along with his son Whit and daughter Ellie living on a farm that The Virginian helped him buy from Clay Grainger. Harve and his family rescued The Virginian during a winter blizzard in Nebraska years before. Harve has come to Shiloh to pick up a bee swarm and Whit needs to borrow a horse. Jim Horn takes him out to the swarm where Harve confronts a dying outlaw who takes a couple shot at Harve. Harve finds the man's saddlebags with over $58,000 in them. Harve receives a $10,280 reward for the recovery of the stolen money and the capture of the outlaw. After throwing a lavish champagne party, he takes The Virginian's advice to buy a ranch as an investment. Harve always complains everyone tries to keep him down so he buys the second biggest ranch in the valley next to Shiloh but it is run down needing a lot of work. The Virginian offered Trampas to help who is forced to work full time for Harve but Harve has his own views on how to grow the ranch. Harve has no money management ability and soon finds himself going against The Virginian over land rights.
Episode 24
The Gift
Wed, Mar 18, 197075 mins
Cart Banner and Billy Neal rob the railroad station killing the clerk and stealing $4000. Cart flees the scene while Billy hangs onto the money but is also fatally shot. Before Billy dies, he makes it to Sally Anne's room in the saloon. When the authorities learn Billy died in her room, the railroad investigator believes she is involved and has the money which has not been found. She is a popular singer at the saloon and an old flame of Trampas. Three years earlier he had hoped to settle down with her when she left him without explanation. Jim Horn develops a strong relationship with Sally while Trampas tries to warn him she is unreliable. Trampas goes so far as to trying to separate them by sending Jim away to a line shack for a few weeks. Cart returns to Medicine Bow looking for the money and concludes she has it as well. After Cart rips her room apart searching for the money she decides it is time to leave but Jim wants her to stay with him.
