Season 17 - Episode Guide

Kitty is lost and wandering countryside when she befriends a female child who has been living like a jungle girl for years in the wild, and then a family captures the girl and wants to use her in a freak show. 

Phoenix is an ex-con hired to kill an ex-law man. When he starts working for the man and his wife, he becomes attached to them and can't go through with it. 

On the trail of thief and killer Ben Rodman in the spectacular Utah wilderness, Matt meets Rodman's latest victim, an old prospector who was shot by Rodman over the water hole the old man had staked a claim to. The dying man entrusts his grandson to Matt's care. Quickly thereafter, a wagon drives up with Maggie Blaisdell and Jed Rascoe at the reins, looking for the same water. Maggie is a madam, gimpy Rascoe her handyman, and the four women inside are her prostitutes. Despite Maggie's profession, she and Matt are old friends, complicated by the fact that she was also once Rodman's girlfriend. It's further complicated that one of the "girls" is, unknown to anyone, the mother of the young boy (she ran off and left him with his grandfather years ago). Matt chats with Maggie and learns that she is taking nearly $48,000 in gold dust to the East to invest in a mining consortium where she's a partner. One of the "girls", treacherous Lisa, overhears the conversation and sneaks out, first ...

Matt, Maggie Blaisedell, her "stable" of call girls and a young boy who's the son of one of the women take refuge from Ben Rodman's gang in an old fort. Unfortunately, the fort has crumbled with age and Rodman and his gang are able to get inside and demand a fortune in gold dust Maggie is carrying for friends. Maggie also has a trunk full of fine hunting rifles and ammo, which she distributes among the group, and though the girls can't hit the broad side of a barn they can scare off any frontal assault. What they don't have is water - one of Maggie's girls turned traitor had drained their barrel before running off to join the gang. With time running desperately short, Matt (and the weather) contrive a scheme to force the outlaws to come headlong after the gold dust, hail of bullets or no

Kitty finds and reads a letter from Doc Adams, who has disappeared from Dodge. Doc writes that he was so distraught over the death of a young girl under his care, who was suffering from an illness he didn't know how to treat, that he has gone East to re-enter medical school and catch up on something other than surgery for bullet wounds. (This was actually a ploy to give Milburn Stone, who had suffered a heart attack in the off season, time to fully recover.) Soon a new doctor, Dr. John Chapman, arrives. Chapman is a highly cultured, very standoffish New Orleans dandy. The townspeople treat him with disdain and refuse to see him. Chapman pretends not to care, but his feelings are deeply hurt. It takes an explosion at Newly's gun shop -- and a bone fragment pressing on Newly's brain, causing him to have hallucinations and become a dangerous maniac -- to get people to turn to Chapman for help.

The Colter family is in trouble. The father is dead, one brother has been hanged, two brothers are on the run, Travis gets fired because of his name and the mother, Beatrice, has to go to work as a saloon singer. Matt and Newly leave town, and Festus is in charge. The two brothers return to Dodge City to get Travis to join in a robbery, but he refuses. Dr. John Chapman, filling in for Doc Adams, steps in to help Bea and Travis.

An outlaw used to killing with ease, kills a priest and then strangely starts to show compassion, mercy, and remorse towards his victims.

A badly injured Matt asks a good friend to take over temporarily as the Marshal of Dodge.

Lijah, an itinerant mountain man, happens on three murdered members of the Ezra Parker family, and discovers the lone survivor, ten-year-old Rachel Mae, hiding in the root cellar. As Lijah is burying the family, Hale Parker, Rachel Mae's shiftless uncle, comes on the scene. In a struggle with the supposed killer Lijah, Hale is knocked unconscious. Lijah leaves and takes Rachel Mae with him to rescue her from unseen danger. Hale revives and makes his way to Dodge City where he tells his story. Matt organizes a posse and rides out to see what's what.

During a thunderstorm, Festus seeks refuge in a cave, finding an Old Indian waiting to die. Festus decides to be his "brother's keeper". He takes the Old Indian to Dodge and tries to civilize him. His efforts don't work.

An aging mountain man reluctantly agrees to join the posse pursuing a murderous outlaw gang, but his real intent is exact a murderous vengeance on the men that murdered his female benefactor.

Doc lacks the faith to operate on Matt's bullet wound, so he transports him to a specialist by train, which is taken over by bandits for its gold shipment.

Jack Sinclair's gang is trying to steal the gold the U.S. Army is transporting on the same train Doc is transporting a seriously wounded Matt to Denver. Festus and Newly commandeer the wagon the gang will use the haul the gold away. Sinclair and most of the gang give chase on foot; the wagon cannot move fast because of the weight of its load. Matt, laying face down, still manages to shoot one of Sinclair's gang. But, in the process, his condition worsens. Meanwhile, the back story of various passengers unfolds, including a priest who doubts his faith.

—Bill Koenig

Matt, a bullet lodged near his spine, must have surgery immediately. Doc is convinced he's not up to the task. However, a priest, whose own faith has been wavering, tells Doc that he must operate; if Matt should not survive the operation, it will be God's will. The priest rediscovers his own faith because of the ordeal. Meanwhile, Festus and Newly abandon the wagon with gold while freeing the horses. Sinclair's gang will have to haul the wagon themselves. Festus and Newly gamble the train can be restarted before they arrive. Doc must complete the intricate operation before the train starts up. Sinclair gets to the train ahead of the gang and finally discovers that Matt is aboard.

Handyman Titus Spangler rescues seven orphans from an overly stern headmistress, Emma Grundy, and winds up in Dodge City at Christmas time.

A young man is caught in the web of a trumped-up rustling charge, jailbreak and murder.

Mando is an outlaw in Mexico who seriously wounds Matt and leaves him to die in the desert. Hidalgo controls nearly all of the small town where Matt finds refuge, and nobody will stand up to him. Matt is determined to kill or capture Hidalgo for his crimes, but is so weak from his injuries he has to prop himself upright with the saddle horn of his horse.

Newly falls in love with a woman who could put him in danger.

"Dirty Sally" Fergus takes in an old drunken drifter with a surprisingly cultured wardrobe and manners. The old fellow is on the run, as it turns out. He once was an extremely wealthy Eastern businessman, but Demon Rum ruined him. Sally gets him sobered up and to show some self-respect. But into the picture comes the man's disapproving daughter, who wants him committed to an asylum because of his past drunken antics. She's not all bad -- but her boyfriend, who is traveling with her, is. Unbeknownst to her, the boyfriend has his eye on what's left of the old man's fortune, which is still considerable. He went along with her plans to commit him because she would control his estate (and then he would marry her and take over her property rights), but that's taking too long. Now he just wants to assassinate the old man outright. Matt temporarily frustrates the killer's plan by taking the old man into custody and -- with Sally's help -- getting him to prove his competency in court. The daughter is mollified when the old man gives her some money, but the boyfriend drops all pretense and goes after Sally and her friend with a rifle.

A 'mad' dog in the countryside has been killing cattle & sheep. A vengeful gunman seeks to kill a man who shot him in the back 4 years ago, as a widow and her two children try to tame him. 

When wealthy Wil Donvan's daughter and cowboy Yankton fall in love with each other, the young woman's classy European born mother wants to put a stop to the romance. 

Phoebe nurses a wounded man with amnesia back to health. But with his memory returning it could lead to even more danger for the confused man and heartache for the lonely Phoebe. 

A case of mistaken identity is no laughing matter for Festus when a U.S. marshal arrests the good-natured deputy as bloodthirsty murderer Frank Eaton. While Festus stands trial, Matt investigates to clear his friend's name. 

Walt Clayton is bound to protect his daughter from marrying a young local boy. But his protection may lead to Walt losing the most precious thing in his life.