It's another Bart Noir-Palooza, as he gets involved with a scheming woman in Denver. It's Joanna Barnes, and she's keeping secrets. Bart rescues Linda when her horse runs out of control (or... does it?). The romance is tossed in too quickly to be very believable, which is often a case with Bart. Maybe that's the point with Bart, that he tends to lose his heart too quickly. But there's no chemistry between Bart and Linda.
Bart soon gets drawn into politics in Denver, and it turns out Linda is the wife of the wanna-be governor, Burke. There's also a rich young snob, Phil Dana, who loses to Bart at poker a couple of times and hates him with the heat of a thousand suns. Eventually Dana ends up dead, and Bart is suspect of his murder. Linda actually did it, however, shooting Dana in the back.
There's also a young girl that is interested in Bart, and whose grandfather runs the livery where Bart has his horse parked. Bart isn't interested in her, and cue the romantic triangle. Cathy helps Bart when he's framed for Dana's murder, but that's pretty much all she does.
The last part becomes a bit muddled. The disguised Bart fights it out with a couple of posse members on the road. Then he rides through Denver and the marshal spots and recognizes him. Then Bart breaks into Linda's bedroom and she tries to get him to take her away with him. But she's actually setting him up.
And... I'm still not sure why. It doesn't help that Linda is a two-dimensional femme fatale. Why is she scheming to get Dana killed? I guess because he knows she's involved with Bart, and if he leaks that information it could ruin her chances of becoming a governor's wife. But then why did she hook up with Bart in the first place? At the end she feeds Burke some information so he can claim he saw Bart kill Dana. There's an improvised legal hearing at the Burke manor, with Bart playing the defense attorney for himself, and he picks apart the holes in Burke's story. So does Linda, but then Bart points out the holes in her story, and she breaks into tears and collapses.
There's not really anything to recommend this episode. There's no Maverick humor (except for a bit where Bart laments having to get a "real job" since gambling would be too high-profile if he doesn't clear his name), and the whole thing is as dry as dirt. The romance isn't believable, Linda's actions make no sense. I guess she's framing Bart for Dana's murder, but why does she need Dana dead. Dana is only threatening her because she's with Bart.
While Carole Wells as Cathy is good, she has nothing to do.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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