Lancer

- Season 2

(1969)

Blinded by an outlaw's bullet, Johnny finds succor and love with a young mute woman as he struggles to evade the outlaw and his brothers, who plan to finish Johnny off.

Scott catches one of the robbers who was trying to rob a store in a nearby town. The robber turns out to be a young woman, and Scott is deputized to keep an eye on her. It's not so easy, as the girl is a wild young hellion who does whatever she can to cause trouble.

A boy found wandering on the Lancer ranch wants to hire Johnny to kill the ranchers he says murdered his homesteader father. The boy's sister tells a much different story about how their father died, but after learning that the boy's story is closer to the truth, Johnny decides to stay on with them, if only to prevent the kid from following the path he did when young.

Jelly has fallen for a young widow, not knowing that she is involved in a plot to have him killed after he purchases an insurance policy.

For Murdoch's birthday, Scott, Johnny, and Jelly each have a gift they've already picked out -a stereopticon, a priceless rifle, and a prize sow -but each run into people who may need them even more.

Johnny falls for a young missionary, but he will have competition in the duty she feels toward the downtrodden people she is working with, especially a crippled man and homeless Indians.

Jelly buys a white Brahma bull at an auction, and becomes the butt of jokes around town because of it, as most ranchers in the area are unfamiliar with the breed. One rancher, however, is determined to either get the bull for himself or make sure it is killed.

When Jelly is seriously mauled by a cougar, the closest thing to a doctor Murdoch can find to treat him is a man in jail for practicing without a license. The man is brought out to treat Jelly, but a local town boss wants him back in jail for leaving his son crippled after an operation.

A friend of Johnny's is killed in a bar by Tom Nevill, the son of the powerful rancher who runs the town. Johnny is wounded while fighting with Tom, and flees town as he is accused of the killing. He finds shelter at a farm, but the girl who finds him is engaged to Tom, whose father has ordered his men to kill Johnny when they find him. The girl still helps Johnny, but her mother is most concerned with how she can benefit financially.

Scott's grandfather pays a visit to Lancer with the intention of persuading Scott - through fair means or foul - to return with him to Boston to live.

A dying man, believing his land to be cursed, wills it back to the Devil, even though he has a young son. Surprisingly, a claimant shows up: a strange man who seems to know everyone's name and around whom strange things occur.

Murdoch promises an old friend before he dies that he will watch after his daughter, a child entertainer at a mining camp, and the fortune he says he has left for her, if it can be found before three men intent on taking it do. The girl's prim aunt, who accompanies them, objects to her upbringing.

Sent by Murdoch to check out a long-neglected piece of land he owns, Johnny finds it occupied by a young woman and her son. She claims to be a Lancer and chases off anyone who sets foot on her land. Johnny persuades her to let him stay and help. Soon another man arrives who may really be dangerous to her, but she seems less suspicious of him than she is of Johnny.

Scott tries to shape up a town drunk who once was a famous lawman. The man is now being treated as the town fool by the sadistic town boss. But his grandson, who has mainly known of his grandfather through the legends told of him, still believes he's a hero, and Scott hopes the boy will not be disappointed by the truth.

Johnny is wounded in the leg while coming to the aid of a hillbilly brother and sister from a group of hostile cowhands. He is forced to run with the two, as the cowhands pursue them. The brother and sister have come West to settle a feud with a family with a name that sounds like 'Lankry', and say they plan to kill any members of the family still living.

Jelly thinks he's hit the jackpot when he acquires a gold mine, but the men who've sold it to him have not told him the fine print. And what's worse, getting the gold out requires blasting, which will cut off a stream of vital importance to the Lancer spread.

After sheepherder Gabe Lincoln saves Johnny from a charging bull, Johnny allows him to temporarily let his sheep graze on Lancer land until his ewes give birth. This does not sit well with the cattleman's association, who threaten to drive the sheep away by force if necessary. But Gabe does not believe in fighting back, and complicating matters more, he and Johnny's girlfriend are becoming attracted to each other.

Murdoch decides to allow his land to be used as an experimental prison farm. But he has to deal with hard-nosed guards as well as with the distrust of the convicts, and even his sons' well-meaning interference inadvertently causes trouble.

After collapsing in the hot Badlands, Scott's life is saved by a group of miners and their families who are on the run after a riot in which several people were killed. Scott vows to not tell who they are when he goes back to Morro Coyo to buy food for them. But the store owner who sells the food to them recognizes the leader of the miners and tells the sheriff. After they have gone, the owner also realizes that the vegetables he sold them are contaminated, and Johnny and the sheriff rush to find Scott and the miners to warn them.

Murdoch brings three orphaned Modoc children to an Indian school taught by a determined teacher who unfortunately has little understanding or respect for Indian traditions, a fact which only further angers a former Army scout who has returned to his people and blames the whites for destroying their way of life.

A band of outlaws with a Gatling gun takes over the Lancer ranch and holds Scott hostage, demanding in turn that the town turn over its tax collection money to them. The outlaw leader Drago thinks Scott is Johnny, whom Drago is jealous of because his girlfriend Violet was once involved with Johnny and always compares Drago with him, and Violet tells Scott he'd be better off pretending to be Johnny.

Chad, the newest member of the Lancer family, assists an old visionary who plans to build a flying machine, using a hill as his workshop and base for takeoff. This exposes Chad and the old man not only to ridicule, but to the hostility of a big rancher and others who want to use the hill for watering purposes.

Murdoch's old friend Lizzie Cramer comes to the Lancer ranch, hoping to start a new life with her daughter when she arrives---and breaking with the outlaw gang she's been leading. But the gang does not want to let go of her so easily.

Powerful land baron Buck Addison is determined to squeeze out Lancer. He has bought out all the surrounding ranches save one, which is owned by a widowed friend of Murdoch's, whom Addison has now asked to marry him.

When Jelly comes down sick after getting a bad prediction from a young woman who claims to be able to see the future, the Lancers attribute it to his superstitious nature. But then the cattle start dying in droves, and everybody starts wondering if they have been cursed.