Blood Moon
SWEETWATER FACES DESTRUCTION IN THE HANDS OF OVERZEALOUS CITIZENS WHO FEAR THAT A CHOLERA EPIDEMIC HAS STRUCK THE TOWN...
Ike witnesses the burning of Redford as men, fearing the town is undergoing a cholera epidemic, torch houses and buildings. In Sweetwater, Elijah Quinn and his mildly retarded assistant, Danny, are peddling a miracle elixir. Eli claims it cures everything from bedbugs to cholera. Later that day, Elijah falls sick and dies. Danny is left in the care of the town doctor.
The
town fears Eli died of cholera and the doctor sends Buck to Ft. Laramie
with some samples for the army doctor there to look at. The doctor tells
the town that the elixir has too high of an alcohol content, so it can't
be infected. However, he fears that the town might turn on Danny. He wasn't
wrong.
Fearing the elixir and the two who brought it, the town sets fire to Elijah's stage. Teaspoon asks Kid to look in on a frightened Danny, who is watching from his hotel room. Danny refuses to go with Kid; he promised Eli he would wait for him. Teaspoon manages to convince Danny to wait for him at the jail, where they can keep him safe from the townsfolk.
The same men who burned Redford head for Sweetwater. Their leader, Clint, fears that the cholera is moving in a straight line and predicts Blue Creek will be next. Danny shows Kid how to play the harmonica and tells Kid that his family abandoned him when he was twelve and that he has been with Eli ever since.
With
the arrival of the Redford men, as well as a quarantine of the town, Sweetwater
grows increasingly paranoid about cholera. Two deaths with the same symptoms
as Eli are reported. Kid, Noah, and Jimmy try to stop the Redford men from
torching Sweetwater.
On the other hand, Buck falls ill on his way back to town. When he sees a dog he had given part of his dinner to in the same condition, he realizes it's the meat that has been making everyone sick. In town, Teaspoon is beginning to feel ill as well. Lou returns from her run to find Cody sick. As she and Rachel tend to him, Rachel gets sick, too.
Buck is cured by the Sioux, who give him herbs. After two Blue Creek women die from the same symptoms, the crowd turns on Danny, overpower Kid, Noah, Jimmy, and Teaspoon, and take Danny to be lynched. Buck arrives in time to stop it, explaining that spoiled meat from a supplier traveling from Redford to Blue Creek is responsible.
TRIVIA: The actor who played Danny (Doug Hutchinson) in this episode may be more familiar to fans of the show The X-Files as the ultra creepy liver-eating, long-living mutant Eugene Tooms (in the episodes Squeeze and Tooms, first season).
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