Mighty is the Word

NBC | Air Date: November 7, 1965

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TheWatcherViewsOct 24, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. spoiler alert ahead. Also watch the episode before reading this review to avoid any confusion as it contains no summary. There is a man who works for the Cartwrights as a ranch hand. He used to have a twin brother. Who he loved very dearly. He said "we were more than brothers we were friends." (One of the only good lines lines in this terrible episode. )

The self righteous gunslinger killer now turned "preacher" says he feels bad for killing a frightened man (Cliffs twin brother) "who died crying like a baby in my arms" but shows little actual remorse or contrition towards Cliff, the victim's brother (who obviously loved his twin brother very much) other than merely saying "not a day goes by " that he doesn't feel bad about it. Words are cheap. He shows no REAL remorse to the dead man's living brother but we are all supposed to cheer for the gunslinger now that he is a "preacher". The "sin" of the dead man , Cliffs twin brother, seems to be (according to the preacher) that he "was afraid every waking moment of his life." He was "frightened and lonely". In other words its like the writer (who wrote pulp westerns) thinks that being afraid is a sin or makes you a bad guy in some way. It makes you a person who needs help and compassion according the the book the preacher is supposed to obey. ("encourage the weak" and "strengthen the faint hearted")

The dead man's brother (Cliff) wants the preacher to put on a gun to fight him over the death of Cliffs brother but the preacher refuses because now he is a preacher. Cliff does have some honor since he does not want to shoot the unarmed preacher and insisted the preach strap on his gun again. The preacher keeps refusing and Cliff sets off to do various silly things to make the preacher angry enough to shoot it out. Cliff finally coaxes the preacher into a gunfight through various stupid acts (like harassing the preachers wife and wrecking the church in the process of being built) and the "preacher" shoots Cliff and wounds him but doesn't kill him. This is supposed to impress the audience that he has really "changed". When the wounded man Cliff asks little Joe why the "preacher" didn't killl him little Joe (a friend of the preacher) quips "he's too much of a man to kill you" . Huh. Tell the to to Cliff's dead fearful brother he DID kill. He wasn't too "much of a man" to kill him! This episode teaches the viewer the wrong moral. Get this: later in the final scene --not only does CLIFF apologize for his knocking down the church building and so on but wants to help rebuild at the end and the "preacher" forgives him. Forgives Cliff! But the preacher doesn't ask Cliff forgiveness for killing the man's beloved brother! I notice the fake "preacher" NEVER apologized for killing Cliff's brother in the first place in his "previous"life at ANY point in the episode either. He only said he felt bad just before he basically mocked Cliffs dead brother for dying scared for his life. So he felt bad "every waking moment of my life." Big deal. People say alot of things . Its Actions that prove that you mean it. Did the preacher show true contrition TOWARDS Cliff at any point? How about visiting the parents of the dead young man you shot in your previous life as a villain? How about begging for forgiveness from his mother now that he is a "man of God". How about restitution towards the dead mans family? If a criminal robs a bank and becomes a preacher he still has to do jail time. Nope, none of that. What I got from this all this as a viewer was that this character became a preacher out of a fake guilt for the past not real faith towards God. That is the sign of a true coward and a fake "believer". IF he had true faith towards God he would have apologized to Cliff at least. Funny that. I guess the audience is supposed to automatically side with the fake "preacher" because he was a "real man" and not fearful like Cliff and his dead brother. As if fear made it okay to kill the victim? This fake "preacher" is nothing but a sociopath and a narcissist as is his idiot wife.. His wife told Cliff "sorry that your brother died" not "sorry that my husband killed your brother." One of the worst bonanza episodes that teaches people its okay to do evil deeds if you later SAY you repent (not actually repent mind you). Just trash. Thompson, the writer was actually a co-producer for Bonanza. Thompson should not be confused with another Thomas Thompson the editor/author who covered the JFK assassination for LIFE magazine. Not the same man.)… Expand

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