Episode Guide - My Brother's Keeper
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Title: My Brother's Keeper
Episode No: 128 Season: 4
Summary: Maimed Joe, Adam in turmoil and one of the all-time great Joe/Pa moments make this a classic episode.
You’ll like this if: You’re a Joe fan, a maimed-Joe fan or an Adam fan
Synopsis: Adam and Joe are out hunting a wolf, when Adam accidentally shoots his brother. Joe is then mauled by the wolf, which Adam shoots. He then has to bring his wounded brother home to the Ponderosa, helped by an Irish father and daughter, Emmett and Sheila Reardon. Adam is forced to remove the bullet and when the doctor eventually arrives, Hoss has to travel to Genoa for life-saving medicine. The villains of the piece are Dowd and his partners, who are determined to get compensation from Adam for damage he supposedly caused. Hoss is ambushed and the vital medicine is stolen. Dowd and his gang attempt to blackmail the Cartwrights, but after a gun battle, they are overpowered by Emmett. Adam wrestles with his conscience, in between sponging Joe down. By the time Ben arrives home, Joe is starting to recover. In the final moving moments, Joe praises his brother’s actions in saving him from the wolf attack.
Clothes: Adam wears his famous custard-coloured coat during the hunting scenes, but then puts it around Joe’s shoulders after he's wounded. Joe, of course, appears not to feel the cold, as he is clad only in his usual shirt and pants.
Joe spends most of this episode modelling bandages with his normal aplomb. Very exciting indeed.
Sheila Reardon has a vast wardrobe, complete with dressing gown. Strangely, the opening scenes show the Reardons have little in the way of luggage and no outsize steamer trunks are evident.
Her father Emmet continually wears a scarf indoors to signal that he's not well. Actually, he’s dying, but we really don’t care about that when darling Joe is in agony, do we?
JPM: An absolute classic. Ben ruffles Joe's curls affectionately and places a fatherly hand on his forehead. Joe looks up lovingly. Adam sits by and observes. We just know everything is going to be all right, because Ben tells us so! And we know we can trust Pa. (For further revelations, check out Rona’s WHN, Ex Corde Caritas, on her pages.)
Adam: Quotes Thoreau rather hammily but then has a moment of quietly suppressed fury when confronting the would-be blackmailers, "If my brother dies, I'll kill you." Spends an inordinate amount of time with the annoying Irish girl, Sheila. He’s stunningly rude to her irritating father, but miraculously manages not to strangle him out of sheer frustration. Of course, he is under extreme stress: he has to touch Joe several times and looks quite sick during these scenes. Mind you, this could be his unique style of acting and showing great sorrow and turmoil.
Joe: Looks gorgeous and moves his feet in that heart-breaking fashion, which shows he's in great pain but is trying to be brave about things. The pathos is heightened when he also clutches at the pillow in agony. At least they take him straight up to bed and don’t put him on the uncomfy sofa first. Utterly heart-breaking when Adam is operating, but still stunningly gorgeous.
Hoss: Spends most of this episode riding valiantly for help. Mind you, he almost bops Sheila Reardon when she tries to get him to stay and eat when all he wants to do is go upstairs and see his poor maimed little brother. He does get clonked by the villains when protecting Joe’s medicine.
Ben: Makes it home just in time to see Joe getting better.
Token Female Interest: For some reason, Sheila doesn't get at all excited by seeing maimed Joe lying ill and moaning pathetically in bed. One of the more annoying guest stars, she purses her mouth in a pettish fashion and even wears a blue dress. She spends a lot of time standing absolutely still until prompted by a line into movement. Sadly, she makes it to the end of the show in one piece. Plus, no self-respecting young lady would ever be seen in a man's bedroom in her dressing gown!
Marvellous Medicine: What is that wonder drug the Doctor prescribes? And where is kindly Doc Martin? Doc Hickman’s a bit cursory with the examination, isn’t he? Somewhat heavy handed when probing the obviously sore wound, and not very sympathetic. Plus, do you really believe that excuse of having to leave because a woman is in labour? Ever noticed how many of those terribly convenient gynaecological emergencies pop-up? Adam clearly doesn’t like him much and obviously thinks he’s an idiot.
Meanwhile, Adam uses what looks like a pair of sugar tongs and a steak knife to remove the bullet. No wonder Joe's writhing in pain. He doesn't even offer his baby brother a drop of whiskey to deaden the pain.
Where am I? This time, Joe's bed is on the left-hand side of the screen, the window is in the middle and the door is on the right hand side.
The bed is almost laughably short: we all know Mike Landon was not the tallest of guys, yet his feet hang over the edge.
Doesn't that horse statue normally live downstairs?
Why aren’t the curtains drawn during the gun battle at night? Night air was thought to be incredibly dangerous for sick people.
Continuity: what Continuity?
Adam had shot Joe in the left shoulder, yet when riding double back to the ranch, he casually drapes his left arm heavily over Joe’s injured shoulder. That had to hurt!
When Adam and Joe arrive back at the Ponderosa, Hoss helps his brother into out of the surrey with the words "Come on, Mike!"
Given that Joe has been seriously injured, Hoss isn’t very careful about lowering him gently onto the bed. In fact, he drops his precious little brother from such a great height that the poor, maimed little sweetie actually bounces. Plaudits to Mike Landon for staying in character there.
Why does Ben call out "Joseph!" when he enters the house? He knows Joe is gravely ill - so what does he expect him to do? Jump out of bed and run downstairs?
Adam mentions going out of the ‘side door’. Where exactly is this situated? Somewhere in the kitchen, by appearances, although, like the back door, it is never seen or heard of again.
Watch the gun fight carefully. Given the lines of fire, there is no way the Cartwrights and Dowd's gang would ever hit one another.
Having you been following the plot? The silly Irish girl and her father keep telling Adam not to blame himself. Why not? He’s shot his brother for goodness sake!
The Crucial Questions No-One Asks: Why does Adam shoot Joe? He doesn’t look like a wolf – does he? And what happens to Cochise, last seen tied to the hitching rail outside. Is he left there during the famous gun battle?
Where are the ranch hands during all this? Are they all out on the range with Hop Sing rounding up cattle? If so, why aren’t Adam, Joe and Hoss there, too?