Ben (to Adam regarding Little Joe): He is a boy, son. Not a man like you. The only thing wrong with him, he's young.
A silver mining tycoon hires the actress Lotta Crabtree to use her charms to lure Joe Cartwright to town in order to hold him hostage in exchange for Ponderosa timber rights.
Tropes associated with this episode:
- Anger Born of Worry: After spending all night thinking that Little Joe was in mortal danger, Ben is furious to find him dancing with Lotta without a care in the world. This is one of the few times Ben threatens to physically discipline one of his sons, and one of the few times Ben was as angry with any of them.
- Burn Baby Burn: To smoke Joe out of a hut where they think he is hiding, the tycoon's mooks throw a lantern inside, engulfing it in flame almost instantly. (And it indeed goes up in a puff of smoke, given that the cloth used to cover the hut's frame had no flame retardant, which even in the 1950s was a rarity.)
- Chinese Launderer: Hop Sing's cousin, Hop Ling, is one, and he helps Joe hide from his would-be captors late in the episode. Ling barely avoids being burned to death shortly afterwards when the bad guys — thinking Joe is inside a tent — toss a lantern inside, causing it to go up in a plume of flame.
- Chop Sockey: The fight scene toward the end of the episode involves several Chinese launderers fighting with mining tycoon Alpheus Troy's hired muscle. And a bit-overeager 17-year-old Joe Cartwright gets right into the middle of it.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Ben — becoming furious upon finding Joe safe and sound with Lotta Crabtree — threatens to "skin (him) alive" if he doesn't come home immediately. He then slaps Joe on the behind ... a scene that likely was never repeated again.
- High-Heel–Face Turn: The mining tycoon and his cronies, who use actress Lotta Crabtree to seduce Little Joe so they can take him hostage, using him as a bargaining chip to blackmail the Cartwrights into allowing them to strip the Ponderosa of all its timber. Averted in the end: She gains genuine feelings for Joe, turns against her employers and is seen dancing with him in the final scene.
- Welcome Episode: The first shot of the series opens with a full-color shot of the Ponderosa, Ben and eldest son Adam riding up to the edge of a ridge and Ben declaring — as if to viewers — to "feast thine eyes" on the beauty of the scene. For viewers watching this episode for the first time (in 1959) on what was then a novelty — a color television set — it was indeed a breathtaking scene.
