Bonanza: Season 13
Season 13 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Picks up essential narrative continuity directly following the events of Bonanza Season 12.
- Character alliances, factions, and personal loyalties undergo significant shifts under escalating stakes.
- Addresses unresolved cliffhangers and thematic mysteries introduced during previous seasons.
- Establishes the primary seasonal conflict that drives serialized character arcs toward the finale.
Episode Guide
Season 13 Progress Shield
The Grand Swing
Sep 19, 1971 · 49 min
Jamie deliberately disobeys Ben's order not to drive the supply wagons. During his recklessness, the wagon goes out of control on a sharp curve and is wrecked. Nobody is hurt but a
Fallen Woman
Sep 26, 1971 · 49 min
An alcoholic woman lashes out at Hoss after his testimony sends her husband to prison. She gets back at him by forcing the big guy to take custody of her young son, Petey. Hoss mus
Bushwhacked
Oct 3, 1971 · 49 min
Joe is shot and wounded while he is on a cattle drive in the Nevada desert. Two ranchers find him, delirious from thirst and the heat, and take him to their home to recover. While
Rock-a-Bye, Hoss
Oct 10, 1971 · 49 min
Hoss becomes a judge in a contest--he has to pick the perfect/prettiest baby. The parents of the babies nearly all try to influence Hoss, so he has a hard time deciding. There is
The Prisoners
Oct 17, 1971 · 49 min
Joe volunteers to help an old lawman escort a slick outlaw to jail, but when their prisoner kills the sheriff and wounds Joe, he must face the task alone.
Cassie
Oct 24, 1971 · 49 min
To help the hapless wife and daughter of a lazy dreamer, Hoss arranges a "fixed" horse race.
Don't Cry, My Son
Oct 31, 1971 · 49 min
The wife of Virginia City's new doctor leaves him, after their son dies in childbirth. The doctor snaps and abducts another woman's baby.
Face of Fear
Nov 14, 1971 · 49 min
Neta, a teen-age girl who is a friend of Jamie's, witnesses an assault and robbery. The victim - Mr. Trumbull, a man who is about to inherit a fortune - dies. The culprit, a drifte
Blind Hunch
Nov 21, 1971 · 49 min
A veteran blinded by the last battle of the Civil War, returns to Virginia City, to solve the mystery surrounding who killed his brother.
The Iron Butterfly
Nov 28, 1971 · 49 min
Hoss takes the blame when a visiting actress kills her former boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend's father, a senator, sets out to destroy the Cartwrights and the Ponderosa as retaliation
The Rattlesnake Brigade
Dec 5, 1971 · 49 min
Jamie and three teen-agers - a girl and two boys - are kidnapped by Doyle, a hardened criminal with nothing to lose, and his gang of outlaws. The desperate outlaws use the youths a
Easy Come, Easy Go
Dec 12, 1971 · 49 min
When Luke Calhoun loses all his money in a stock scheme, he and his daughter Meena stay at the Ponderosa with disruptive consequences. Luke turns the ranch into a casino and Meena
A Home for Jamie
Dec 19, 1971 · 49 min
Just as Ben begins to formally adopt Jamie, his grandfather shows up to take him away. Ben tells the gentleman, "He's a young man with his roots in Ponderosa soil. This is the li
Warbonnet
Dec 26, 1971 · 49 min
Joe is stranded in the desert when his mare falls and breaks her leg. He falls unconscious from exhaustion and lack of water, and is found near death by a Paiute named Swift Eagle
A Lonely Man
Jan 2, 1972 · 49 min
While panning for gold on his vacation, Hop Sing meets and falls in love with a shy woman. Their future plans are dashed when a judge confirms what Ben has told Hop Sing: the law
Second Sight
Jan 9, 1972 · 49 min
Hoss enlists the aid of Judith Coleman, a clairvoyant woman who has the gift of "second sight" to find Jamie. He has been missing in the high country and cannot be found by anyone
The Saddle Stiff
Jan 16, 1972 · 49 min
Fired ranch hand, Cactus, suggests that Ben is too old to put in a real work's week and challenges Ben to take a job as a ranch hand under the name "Ben Brown". He takes the job t
Frenzy
Jan 30, 1972 · 49 min
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 ne
Customs of the Country
Feb 6, 1972 · 49 min
All about Joe and Hoss' visit to a small Mexican town named Agua Santos, which seems to have some rather peculiar laws. The two Cartwright boys soon find them in pretty deep troubl
Shanklin
Feb 13, 1972 · 49 min
A band of ex-Confederate soldiers demands $25,000 from Ben. When Hoss resists their demands and tries to fight them, their leader, Shanklin, shoots Hoss in the abdomen. Hoss linger
Search in Limbo
Feb 20, 1972 · 49 min
Sid Langley is a real estate broker who is not well liked in Nevada, thanks to his shady ways of doing business. An irritable Ben is barely polite with Langley when closing a land
He Was Only Seven
Mar 5, 1972 · 49 min
A 7-year-old boy is killed after he walks into a bank during a robbery by the ruthless Springer gang. Joe and Jamie help the boy's angrily grieving grandfather track down Springer.
The Younger Brothers' Younger Brother
Mar 12, 1972 · 49 min
A comic tale of mistaken identity, as Hoss (and eventually Ben and Joe) are held in connection with a series of road gang robberies by the bumbling Younger Brothers.
A Place to Hide
Mar 19, 1972 · 49 min
The Cartwrights are once again brought in the middle of the Civil War. This time, the wife of former Civil War Col. Cody Ransom brings her young daughter to the Ponderosa, trying t
A Visit to Upright
Mar 26, 1972 · 49 min
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. Ho
One Ace Too Many
Apr 2, 1972 · 49 min
While the Cartwrights are away to Carson City, ruthless land baron Bradley Meredith (Lorene Greene in a dual role) poses as Ben in a scheme to get control of the Ponderosa ... by p