Episode 9 begins with Shane (David Carradine) riding his horse up to a family looking over some dead cattle. It seems their water source has become poisoned and the patriarch of the family, Tom Gary (Robert Duvall), blames Rufe Ryker (Bert Freed). He believes that Ryker is trying to force him off of his land. After Shane heads off to get the family some fresh water, Gary grabs his shotgun and heads to Sam Grafton’s bar looking for Ryker and some payback. When Shane finds out that Gary is going after Ryker, he and Tom Starett (Tom Tully) take off to try to stop a killing. They get there just in time to stop Gary. Ryker tells them that he had nothing to do with the water becoming poisoned, that it’s just a drought and the area is subject to getting alkaline in the water. That’s what actually killed his cattle. 

Three weeks later, Shane, Tom, Marian (Jill Ireland), and Joey (Christopher Shea) are sitting around the table talking about the Garys. Nobody has seen them for a few weeks, so Marian decides she’s going to go visit Ada Gary (Phyllis Love) to check on the family. Ada tells Marian that her husband has become completely obsessed with the idea that Ryker is trying to steal his land and that he spends every night outside with his shotgun. The next day, Ryker rides up and tells Shane that Tom Gary took a shot at him as he was riding his horse along the trail. Moments later, the Gary’s little girl runs up to the ranch and tells Shane and Tom that her pa has shot her mom. When they get to the Gary ranch, Ada is shot but she’s still alive. She tells them that her husband believes everyone, including her, is out to get him, and that he has headed off into the hills with guns and supplies. Shane and Ryker head off to get him, with Ryker wanting him dead…

Episode 9 starts off like a normal episode. It’s very normal for a sodbuster to be into it with Ryker at this point. But after watching the first eight episodes, we believe Ryker when he says he didn’t poison the water supply. We know that’s not his style. As the episode progresses, we begin to learn more about Tom Gary. We hear from his kids and his wife about how scary he is when he’s angry. His kids even tell Joey about their special hiding place outside of the house that they go to when their dad gets mad. We find out that they’ve spent many nights outside hiding from their dad because it’s not as scary as being in the house with him. This is when we realize the episode is going in a completely different direction. Tom Gary isn’t a victim of Ryker and his desire to own all of the land in the valley. The truth is that Tom Gary is abusive and clearly suffering from a mental illness, and the valley is not the place for a man with a violent mental illness. Can you imagine what living hell it must be for his wife and his kids? To be honest, I haven’t ever thought of what it must have been like for those suffering from mental illness, and for those who loved them, back in the old west. And this is from a guy whose wife works with the mentally ill week in and week out. Tom Gary has no help, and his family has no way out. Robert Duvall gives a good performance as Tom Gary, and we definitely see him as a man who has lost control of his faculties and is no longer capable of living in normal society. The writers even go so far as showing Shane as the person who wants to bring him in alive, and Ryker as the person who thinks it will be better for everyone, especially Ada Gary, if he’s dead and she doesn’t have to deal with him any longer. 

Overall, Episode 9 is not an easy episode to watch, and it doesn’t provide any easy answers, which is honestly how it should be. I wasn’t expecting the show to go in this direction, even if just for one episode. This episode makes you uncomfortable and makes you think of things you don’t really want to think of, and I’m guessing that’s probably the point. I give the show credit for that, but I’m also hoping episode 10 will get back to more familiar territory.