Episode Guide - Emily
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Title Emily
Episode No: 328 Season: 10
Summary: Yet again, Joe meets up with a doomed love. You just know it’s gonna be a goody.
You’ll like this if: You like older Joe, Joe wearing black gloves, shirtless Joe, bandaged Joe and maimed Joe. What more can a fan want? And then, for those of slightly alternative tastes, there is the added attraction of the lovely Emily…who is gradually revealed to be a scheming minx at best – or a pathological liar, if you prefer!
Synopsis: Joe happens to meet his old love, Emily Anderson, in the street in Virginia City. He wants to rekindle their relationship and Emily, although initially hesitant, soon seeks Joe out. Unfortunately, she hasn’t told Joe that she is married and he finds this out the hard way after a street brawl with Wade McPhail, Emily’s husband, who is a new deputy marshal in town.
Their paths are destined to cross again, as $90,000 of cash is crossing the Ponderosa and Joe, Hoss and Candy are asked to scout around to make sure there isn’t anyone lying in ambush. Emily meets Joe on the ranch and asks him to run away with her. Joe refuses and as he rides away, there are two shots. Joe goes to investigate and finds the buckboard carrying the money, with the guard and driver both shot. As Joe signals for help, he is shot in the back.
McPhail finds Joe and suspects he was trying to commit the robbery and the lie that Emily tells him convinces him further. Joe eventually found innocent, following a trip to the place where the buckboard was found. Joe’s dainty boot is too small for the prints found, thus proving his innocence. It is then that Emily comes forward to admit to her lies. As Joe is taken back to the Ponderosa, Wade tells Emily he still wants her. Why? Is he completely mad?
Clothes: the Cartwrights are wearing their standard uniforms.
Ben: is wearing his aubergine shirt, which is quite dark coloured, along with his tan waistcoat, all conchos present and correct. Has the aubergine shirt has suffered slightly in the wash for it has now acquired a dark purple-hue with none of its former vibrancy?
Hoss: is wearing his white shirt and tan waistcoat, as usual, plus a rather unconvincing dark brown hairpiece.
Joe: has his tan shirt and pants, along with the green jacket, which is nattily accessorised with a little blood on the back. Hop Sing must have got the needle and thread out quickly, as Joe was wearing the jacket again just a couple of days later. Or does Joe have a wardrobe full of them? This is season 10, so naturally Joe wears his black leather gloves. Seemingly, some ladies find these incredibly sexually alluring — you know who you are! Later on, Joe has yet another chance to show how perfectly wonderful he looks in bandages. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – that combination of smooth, golden pectoral muscles and pristine white bandages in an absolute beauty!
Candy: Candy has on his usual scarlet shirt with black trousers and a black waistcoat. He actually appears to usurp Hoss in this episode — stopping Wade from shooting Joe and standing up to the Marshall, speaking up in defence of Joe, while Hoss is relegated into the background.
Token Female Interest: Emily, who has to be wearing the worst hairpiece ever and has a vast wardrobe of clothing, including a blue dress, but sadly, she survives the episode. We are told that Emily and Joe met in Monterrey, where they fell in love and Joe wanted to marry her. However, Emily’s father thought Joe was too impulsive and too wild, so forbade Emily from writing to her love. As later events show, Emily has certain problems with telling the truth, so do we actually believe her?
She first appears in a dark blue walking suit, with a pale blue frilly blouse, topped off by a ludicrous hat, complete with veil. Her hair is in nasty sausage curls, but at least the hat hides the fact the top half is a completely different colour from the bottom half. That evening, Emily sashays along the main drag of VC in a white blouse (with frills and a bow) and a dark orange skirt. She shows she has no morals by snogging Joe in public. Joe, being a red-blooded male, kisses her with alacrity and considerable passion. She has a cream striped shirt and taupe divided skirt for riding, which is quite nice, but then appears in a particularly girly pale blue dress, with puff sleeves and frills. Next, Emily changes into a pale blue blouse (with frills, just in case you hadn’t guessed) and a dark blue skirt, although she later changes into a white blouse with blue stripes. While this blouse doesn’t have any frills, it does have another bow at the neck.
JPM: He tenderly tucks Joe in after Doc Lewis (looking spookily like Doc Martin) has operated. Once again, Joe has the manly-yet-vulnerable look down to a tee! No touching involved in this JPM, but Ben is hovering protectively over the bed-ridden, bandaged, shirtless Joe while the marshal is questioning him and hands him a glass of water.
Frailty, thy name is woman
Emily spends a good proportion of this episode lying through her teeth. She and Joe first encounter one another in a highly romantic interlude in the street, clearly indicating there was once great passion between them. Joe says that he thought she would be married – and tells her that he is still a bachelor – but Emily says nothing…
When Wade pulls Joe out of the buggy and they start to fight, Emily does not say a word. Is she enjoying watching two men fight over her? We learn that Emily has deliberately taken off her wedding ring and Wade is furious.
While out riding, Emily tells Joe that she has to know if he still loves her and says that she loves him. By this stage, most viewers have a clear picture of her as amoral and scheming…but it gets worse!
Emily blatantly lies to Wade, claiming that Joe instigated the meeting and asked her to run away with him. As the viewers know she is lying, any sympathy we might have for a woman married to the dull-as-dishwater Wade, who has remarkably nasty sideburns, vanishes. And her actions lead directly to Wade loosing his job, although he is reinstated at the end of the episode.
Unwisely, Emily attempts to be economical with the truth with Ben – but he does not stand for any of her nonsense!
Marvellous Medicine: Unspecified, but clearly involved an operation and bandages. Sadly, Joe later opts to tuck his arm into his shirt, rather than wear the black silk Cartwright family sling. Which is a pity, because it is such a dear friend and should practically have had its own credits.
It’s a Bloodless Bullet Wound
Except it isn’t. There’s a splodge of bright red blood on the shoulder. This would indicate arterial blood, which might account for the fact that the Doctor informs Ben that Joe has lost a lot of blood.
Where am I? Joe’s bed is on the left hand side of the screen, opposite the door. The room is similar in layout and appearance to that in MBK, except that the scarey Indian painting has vanished and the photograph of Marie from First Born is now on the wall beside Joe’s bed.
Do any houses in the Virginia City vicinity have a useful device known as a hall? The Ponderosa, Wade and Emily’s house, Abigail Jones’ house, the Widow Hawkins’ house – every single one of them has the front door opening into a room with stairs rising up to the first floor. A positive mecca for draughts!
Continuity; what continuity?: When Joe is shot, he is initially seen lying curled up on his left side, facing away from the guy who shot him. When McPhail turns up, Joe is lying flat on his face, having moved around about 45 degrees or so.
Didn’t Joe give Clay that photograph of Marie in First Born? Did Clay send it back? Does Ben have several copies of the photograph?
In the credits, Clem is listed to as ‘Sheriff Clem’, although he is referred to as ‘deputy’ throughout the episode and says something about the sheriff being away. Oops.
Have you been following the plot? When Candy asks who Emily Anderson is, the audience heaves a sigh of relief, for they had been wondering that very same thing. Who was this peculiar female?
Why did Wade believe anything Emily said, since she appeared to spend a good bit of her time lying to him? And why did Emily marry Wade? She really doesn’t seem to like him at all.
The Crucial questions no-one asks:
Why would Emily’s over-protective father let her marry the less-than-dynamic Wade? He’s been a Deputy Marshall for nine years and seems to be going nowhere fast.
If no-one knew about the shipment, how did Emily know where to find Joe?
How did she know that Joe would be at the tedious Egyptian lecture?
When did Hoss develop his passion for Egyptology? He pays rapt attention to the rather boring lecture and gives every appearance of being fascinated.
Where did they get the buggy from? Is it the Doctor’s?
Where is Roy? And, as Clem lets the Marshall have his office – exactly where is he hanging out? And why doesn’t Clem actually do something to help? He just slouches around, looking as useful as a chocolate fireguard, says about two lines and then disappears.
Guest Stars: Ron Hayes was Wade McPhail. He was a Bonanza regular having been in Mirror of a Man, Night of Reckoning, The Bridegroom, The Rescue and Desert Justice.
Beth Brickell was also in A Single Pilgrim as Dilsey Brennan. She went on to become a producer, writer, director and editor in motion pictures and television.
Harry Holcombe makes another appearance as the doctor, but this time is called Doctor Lewis, for reasons best known to the producer and writer. He’s another Bonanza stalwart.
David McLean played Marshal Calhoun. He was best known for playing The Marlborough Man in commercials. He was also in the episodes The Witness and Return Engagement, playing lawmen both times. He died in 1995 from lung cancer.
Irony and Symbolism
At the beginning of the episode, the shopkeeper offers Emily a good deal on a barrel of apples…making a rather neat link to Eve, who caused the original fall from grace. And Emily goes on to spend the rest of the episode wreaking havoc and nearly ruining Joe and Wade’s lives in the process.
Joe says that he would rather buy Emily rubies…as the Bible says “Who can find me a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies” Emily, of course, is worth considerably less.
You can Quote Me on That:
Who is Emily Anderson? – Candy
Now it’s been said, I don’t think either one of us is the better for it. – Joe to Emily.
We go in opposite directions — go home to your husband. — Joe to Emily
I wanted to marry you – Emily to Wade, shortly before telling Joe that she loved him.
I’m not sure how I feel about him. — Emily to Wade, after telling Joe that she loved him.
He’s young and healthy, Ben – Dr Lewis
I didn’t come here to flatter you, Mrs McPhail — Ben to Emily.
There’s still some fire left…you’re still in love with him.— Wade’s response.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Just promise me you’ll try. — Wade to Emily, at the end of the episode.