Blind Hunch - first shown November 21st 1971

 

 

'The Cartwrights' neighbour, Sam, is murdered and the law can't find a guilty party. His brother, who was blinded in the Civil War, comes to town and, with Jamie's help, finds the man that the posse couldn't find in their four-day search.'

 

Guest Stars: Rip Torn as Will Hewitt, Loretta Leversee as Laurie Hewitt, James Chandler as McKey, Charles Maxwell as Keeley, Larry Ward as Deputy, Don Knight as Clayton, Robert Ridgley as Bartender.

 

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The story involves Will Hewitt who has returned to the area, following a seemingly unsuccessful operation to restore his sight.
His brother Sam was murdered; leaving a widow Laurie and baby Sam Jnr.

Will uses his blindness to allow him to potentially investigate his brother's murder further than a sighted person might get away with.

The episode opens where Jamie meets Will on the trail and takes him to the Hewitt ranch and Sam's burial place. At the Ponderosa, Laurie Hewitt and baby Sam are preparing to move in with her father. There are some very good scenes where Ben and Laurie share thoughts on bereavement, some thoughtful kindness from Joe and a brotherly discussion between Jamie and Hoss. Jamie is trying to understand blindness and his own dislike of Will Hewitt.

Joe accompanies Will to Virginia City where the new owner and assayer is the devious Pat Clayton. To Joe's annoyance, Will starts asking very probing questions of a ranch hand Keeley, who found Sam's body, and also of Clayton.

Will gets Jamie to take him to the campsite where his brother was killed and finds gold samples in a tin buried under the former
campfire. Sam had discovered gold and that was the reason for his murder.

Will, now suspecting Clayton, visits him for an assay where high quality gold is confirmed and Will lets it be known that he will be
at the former Hewitt house that night.

Clayton naturally tracks him there and the neat twist to the plot is that Will can actually see. He extracts a confession from Clayton, witnessed by Jamie who was hiding in the loft on Will's instructions.

In the final scene Will visits Ben and Hoss who are annoyed by the risk he took with Jamie and decidedly against the dangerous way in which he sought to find the truth. However, Will says that his nickname was "Lucky" in the past and he still is.

I thought there were some very realistic, human issues in this story. Neither Ben nor Laurie can find any total solution to bereavement except to trust to time and moving on with life.

I liked Laurie's honesty when she says to Ben that she doesn't want Will living with them in their new home but feels guilty about that. She and Sam paid for Will's eye operation as well as caring for him for a long time.

Jamie feels that he shouldn't dislike Will because he is blind but is honest in his initial dislike.

Joe is honest in being willing to assist Will to Virginia City yet annoyed with Will's dangerously provocative questions.

The ending is also honest with Ben and Hoss being annoyed but ruefully resigned to Will's method of finding the truth.

While Rip Torn gives a fine performance as Will, I was annoyed that Jamie's central role was subordinated to the guest star's and Ben, Hoss and Joe even more. This should have been Bonanza not just a western adventure!

One missing scene for me was the absence of a family discussion with Jamie about Will's search and his plans. Jamie would have been puzzled and the Cartwrights would have been pretty suspicious. The episode was crying out for a round-the-hearth discussion.

There is also a scene that I would definitely re-write and that is the one where Will takes Jamie to the Hewitt home at night. Jamie would never have stayed out overnight without one of the Cartwright's permission and they certainly wouldn't have allowed him to do so in such circumstances.

It would have been far more credible if Jamie had gone home and told the family that Will was going to spend the night alone. Then the Cartwrights would have guessed that Will was using himself as bait. Ben could then have kept watch on Jamie at the Ponderosa while Joe and Hoss went to the Hewitt home and silently listened and watched all the interactions between Will and Clayton; also intervened if necessary.

This episode made me understand very well why Michael was so insistent (perhaps to a fault LOL!) of wanting to re-write parts of scripts.

Overall worth a viewing but I would probably only watch it again for any scenes which included Ben, Hoss and Joe.