The BEST episodes of Bonanza season 9
Every episode of Bonanza season 9, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bonanza season 9!
The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright. He had three sons, each by a different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect Adam who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric "Hoss"; and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph or "Little Joe". Via exposition and flashback episodes and each wife was accorded a different ethnicity. The family's cook was the Chinese immigrant Hop Sing.
#1 - To Die in Darkness
Season 9 - Episode 28 - Aired 5/5/1968
While the others are away, Ben and Candy are lured by an old friend of Ben's to go somewhere. The "friend" traps them in a deep pit. He comes back to give them food, but how long will he be feeling "generous"?
#2 - Blood Tie
Season 9 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/18/1968
A band of outlaws enact a scheme to rob the Ponderosa, by tricking Hoss and Little Joe away from the ranch and leaving a wounded Ben alone at home.
#3 - Showdown at Tahoe
Season 9 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/19/1967
A career robber who claims to be a lumber man, and his gang plan to use Ben's new freight paddleboat to haul a $1 million currency shipment to San Francisco.
#4 - The Burning Sky
Season 9 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/28/1968
A cruel, sadistic, alcoholic and racist rancher named Aaron Gore stalks the wife of Ben's friend, whom he has hired as a horse trainer. The woman is a glowingly beautiful Sioux who befriends Mr. Gore's son, whom he regularly beats up. Mr. Gore uses some incredibly vicious means to ensure she regrets ever having anything to do with his son.
#5 - Desperate Passage
Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/5/1967
Driving horses to Utah, the Cartwrights and Candy discover only two people left in a town wiped out by rampaging Paiute Indians. Together, Mary Burns and Josh Tanner must travel through hostile territory, along with the Cartwrights and Candy.
#6 - A Dream to Dream
Season 9 - Episode 26 - Aired 4/14/1968
An alcoholic rancher, drinking away his bitterness, makes live unbearable for his wife and children. Hoss helps reform his friend while bringing happiness and stability to his family.
#7 - The Stronghold
Season 9 - Episode 31 - Aired 5/26/1968
Joe and Candy sell a herd to the Farrell Brothers in Arizona, but are paid a worthless bank draft. The widow of the man one of the brothers killed helps them get their money back, and the brothers' hatred for each other is their undoing.
#8 - The Late Ben Cartwright
Season 9 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/3/1968
In order to ruin the plans of a corrupt politician, Ben allows everyone to think that an attempt on his life was successful.
#9 - False Witness
Season 9 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/22/1967
While at the bank in Sandust, Little Joe and the bank's secretary witness an armed robbery. During a subsequent gunfight, the main culprit kills the banker, but is quickly brought to justice. Joe, Hoss and Candy agree to be witnesses but must avoid being killed in the meantime.
#10 - Second Chance
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1967
Renegade Indians have been on the rampage attacking settlers and raising havoc in the West. Joe and Hoss have gone to warn the settlers when Joe is shot with an arrow. Hoss tries to remove the arrow, but the shaft breaks and it is imbedded in Joe's shoulder, leaving Joe gravely wounded. Hoss desperately searches for help and comes upon a wagon train with an odd assortment of people. There are two women, a thief, a dying doctor, and a coward on the wagon train.
#11 - Trouble Town
Season 9 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/17/1968
The Ponderosa ranch hands are at Riverbend during a cattle drive. While there, Candy meets an old friend, Lilah Holden, working in a saloon. When the cattle drive is ready to move on, Candy resigns to stay and help Lilah. It is not long before Ben, Hoss, and Joe are involved.
#12 - The Gold Detector
Season 9 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/24/1967
Hoss wants to buy a mine thought to be worthless and orders a fancy invention to prove it isn't and becomes the local laughingstock in town
#13 - The Trackers
Season 9 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/7/1968
A man, recently released from prison for bank robbery, is accused of robbing the same Virginia City bank and gunning down a teller. The Cartwrights try to protect the accused man from a posse that intends to lynch him before his trial.
#14 - Night of Reckoning
Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/1967
A sadistic outlaw named Dibbs along with his gang, take siege of the Ponderosa, holding Joe, Hoss, and Candy prisoners. Their foreman, Donny Buckler, has stashed $60,000 dollars and Dibbs will stop at nothing short of murder to get his hands on it.
#15 - The Gentle Ones
Season 9 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1967
Most people consider Mark Cole a coward, but he does not hesitate to step forward when his brother attempts to break a horse by torturing it.
#16 - Star Crossed
Season 9 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/10/1968
Candy falls in love with a beautiful young woman, unaware that the man claiming to be her cousin is a bounty hunter who is not only harassing her but has framed her for murder and robbery.
#17 - A Severe Case of Matrimony
Season 9 - Episode 33 - Aired 7/7/1968
An untalented gypsy girl tries to get the Cartwrights to finance her career as an opera singer.
#18 - The Bottle Fighter
Season 9 - Episode 29 - Aired 5/12/1968
Hoss is accused of stabbing a man to death, and his only hope of acquittal is a once great trial lawyer who is now a hopeless drunk.
#19 - Justice Deferred
Season 9 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/17/1967
An anguished Hoss discovers that his testimony helped hang an innocent man accused of murder. As he struggles to bring the real killer to justice, Hoss must also combat the cowardice of another witness and the jury foreman, an influential banker.
#20 - The Crime of Johnny Mule
Season 9 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/25/1968
Hoss stands alone in refusing to convict Johnny Mule, a "slow" ranch hand who is accused of robbing and murdering his boss. So when Johnny Mule fearing he'll be lynched, regardless of the verdict escapes from jail during jury deliberations, it's Hoss who takes the heat.
#21 - The Arrival of Eddie
Season 9 - Episode 30 - Aired 5/19/1968
Eddie McKay, the son of a robber and murderer who Hoss killed several years ago in a shootout, returns to Virginia City to make a good start. Hoss wants to help reform Eddie and help him get over his bitter feelings for the Cartwrights, but it's an uphill battle. Not helping matters – a rancher who wants Eddie to help him steal from the Ponderosa.
#22 - The Sure Thing
Season 9 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/12/1967
A young girl's ownership of a beloved stallion is jeopardized by the "big plans" of her scheming father.
#23 - In Defense of Honor
Season 9 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/28/1968
Davey – a orphaned Yute that Ben helped raise and has worked as a ranch hand on the Ponderosa – falls in love with one of his own. A fellow Yute's jealousy over the blossoming relationship, and later his murder jeopardize a treaty between the white man (which Ben has helped negotiate) and the Yutes.
#24 - Commitment at Angelus
Season 9 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/7/1968
When a horse steps on Candy's hand out on the trail, he and Joe go to Angelus to find a doctor. When they arrive, Joe sees his friend, Steve Regan, an Angelus miner. Steve tells Joe that the miners have gone on strike at his suggestion; the timber supports in the tunnels are rotting away. Joe offers him a day's wages to help him drive the wild horses, since Candy's hand is injured.
#25 - The Conquistadors
Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1967
A band of Mexican kidnaps Little Joe for a $25,000 ransom. A group of cowboys plan to rescue Joe, kill him and claim the gold for themselves.