In what turned out to be the series finale, Little Joe is making a delivery for Ben when he meets Bill Tanner, a psychotic killer that is posing as a soldier he has killed. His delivery wagon stolen and sans supplies, food or water, Joe - whom Tanner has called his ""prey"" - tries to evade the well-stocked madman, who takes sadistic pleasure in his role as a predator.

Hoss and Joe find a woman abandoned by a wagon train because her gift of prophecy is considered a curse. "Wouldn't it be wonderful," says Ben, "if eveybody made a real effort to understand whatever's strange and unfamiliar rather to fear it and try to destroy it?"

Ben helps shepherd a young family, the Kosovos (Nick; his wife, Anna; and his son, Sandor), who had recently immigrated from Serbia. Nick soon finds he can't handle the pressure needed to become successful in America and, one evening while Ben is visiting, his mind snaps. He goes on a rampage, trapping Ben (who becomes injured) and a terrified Anna and Sandor inside their home. Ben must do all he can to keep Nick at bay and try to reason with the mentally ill rancher.

An irritating man who boasts of being the reincarnation of French poet Francois Villion shows up causing trouble for the Cartwrights.

An untalented gypsy girl tries to get the Cartwrights to finance her career as an opera singer.

Hoss becomes concerned for the welfare of an insecure, belligerent fellow who is as small as Hoss is large. Interesting blend of comedy and pathos that ends unpredictably.

A headstrong Chinese girl (Marlo Thomas) visiting the Cartwrights incites labor unrest among local workers.

A conman heads into town and takes advantage of the Cartwrights with a fake land deal. The conman ends up staying in Virginia city to run an orphanage.

The Cartwrights are visited by their second cousin, Muley Jones of Weedville, Missouri who sings with a window-shattering voice and stirs up trouble with Indian negotiations that Ben is trying to ensure.

Cousin Muley Jones returns to the Ponderosa, along with a pack of noisy hound dogs, in this funny sequel to "The Saga Of Muley Jones".

Hoss is conned into buying a violin from a gypsy fortune teller, and everyone on the Ponderosa--except for Hop Sing--suffers the consequences.

Bradley Meredith, a Ben Cartwright look-a-like, causes trouble when he sells land to the railroad. Ben has already turned down the deal, but Meredith, acting as Ben, accepts the deal, which stirs up all kinds of trouble.

Ben's ability to close a lucrative livestock contract with a conspicuous widow hinges on the sale of a dilapidated saloon in Upright that Hoss and Joe had impulsively purchased. However, the boys put off the sale when the town drunk (who acts as ""saloon keeper"") insist the crumbling Trails End Saloon may house a fortune. Things get even more complicated when a woman, claiming to be the daughter of the deceased former owner, envisions turning the Trails End into a booming saloon, hotel and restaurant.

Joe falls in love with Tirza, an undeniably strange gypsy girl who says she is cursed and never does seem to "snap out of it". The first episode of the series with a supernatural flavor, directed appropriately enough, by Lewis Allen, who made the classic ghost film "The Uninvited".

Joe becomes romantically involved with a woman who considers herself a serious dramatic actress. Unfortunately, she is the only one who does.

When mountain man Jim Leyton decides to marry, he chooses Hoss as his best man. Julie's father, Grizzly, does not agree and Hoss must come to the rescue.

Hoss chooses a difficult path when he decides to rehabilitate a famous poet, Will Smith, who is really William Warlock Evans, who spends too much time drinking and eventually his wife arrives at the Ponderosa.

In the third and final installment of the Rossi family, Georgio Rossi doesn't understand why he cannot allow Indians who have left the reservation to live on his land.

The only person who can get Dusty out of jail is a professional fighter who will not return to Virginia City, so Joe stays on the man's heels no matter where he goes.

An elderly business associate of Ben's is killed after a man, posing as Candy, tries to rob her; the woman suffers a fatal heart attack, which - since it happens during the commission of a felony - is considered to be the same as if the assailant had pulled the trigger. The real Candy, who had been assaulted at a hotel by the same man, is held in connection with the old woman's death. A woman named Kate is the only one who can back up Candy's alibi, but she has left town with her husband, who is the thief. Griff agrees to go after Kate and have her provide a statement. Only thing is, he discovers - as Ben and Joe do later - that she, too, has a past that, if revealed at trial, could do serious harm to Candy's defense. Meanwhile, Ben is unsure about the young defense attorney's ability to defend Candy, particularly since the state's attorney has a nearly spotless conviction record. But the budding lawyer is determined to play David to the prosecutor's Goliath.

Adam takes Ben's friends, Lord Marion Dunsworth and Lady Beatrice, on a hunting expedition, and they are captured by a gang of crude thieves and murderers. During one early scene, after listening to Ben reminisce, Hoss says, "Always like to hear Pa get wound up. He don't do it often."

Adam's life is saved by a woman known to the Indians as White Buffalo Woman, but who is actually the daughter of Norwegian immigrants.

Hoss blames himself when a young woman is crippled in a wagon accident, and hopes a faith healer can help her walk again.

Mateo Ibara and his wife Carla visit the Ponderosa. Ibara asks Will to return to Mexico with him. Ibara and Will fought together for Juarez's cause and Ibara saved Will's life. For this reason, Will feels obligated to Ibara, but Ben is suspicious of the man's motives.

Ben is attracted to Sarah Reynolds, a member of a religious order led by her fanatical uncle. When she is accused of being a witch, the Cartwrights step in.