Gunsmoke: Season 9
Season 9 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Gunsmoke Season 8.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 9 Progress Shield
Kate Heller
Sep 28, 1963 · 45 min
A teen-aged boy who robbed and killed to impress a saloon gal is pursued by Matt. The boy waylays Matt and leaves him for dead, then goes home to his grandmother's house to find he
Lover Boy
Oct 5, 1963 · 45 min
A charming cowboy apparently is guilty only of breaking hearts until he gets to Dodge, where he finds two women who may make a killer of him.
Legends Don't Sleep
Oct 12, 1963 · 45 min
A young rascal meets the outlaw idol of his youth, but the aging gunman, newly released from prison, wants only to go straight.
Tobe
Oct 19, 1963 · 45 min
Hard-luck Tobe, who's lost his farm, gets a job in town with Chester's help and takes up with a saloon gal, not knowing she's on the run from a beau who's a con man and a killer.
Easy Come
Oct 26, 1963 · 45 min
A mild-looking cowboy discovers that it's easy to steal, and, soon thereafter, that it's easy to kill as well.
My Sister's Keeper
Nov 2, 1963 · 45 min
A despondent widower goes to work on a farm for two sisters, each of whom finds him fascinating in her own way.
Quint's Trail
Nov 9, 1963 · 45 min
Quint is hired to escort a family on the first leg of their journey to Oregon. On the way, he learns the reason for their going, a motive that could have repercussions for Quint.
Carter Caper
Nov 16, 1963 · 45 min
A man with a grudge hits upon the perfect revenge when he spreads the word in Dodge that short-tempered Billy is so good with a gun that he shot down the famous gunfighter, Beau Ca
Ex-Con
Nov 30, 1963 · 45 min
On his way to Larned, Matt, feverish, spends the night at an abandoned shack. When he wakes up after losing a day, a recently released convict who swore to kill Matt, is himself fo
Extradition (1)
Dec 7, 1963 · 45 min
When fast-talking killer Charlie Hacker escapes from Matt in Texas, Matt follows him right into Mexico without extradition papers and has to deal with corrupt officials there.
Extradition (2)
Dec 14, 1963 · 45 min
Matt finally catches up to killer Charlie Hacker in Mexico, and has to make a deal with the greedy Mexican police to get Hacker back to the border, with revengeful Mexican bandits
The Magician
Dec 21, 1963 · 45 min
A mild old peddler of patent medicines and card tricks arrives in Dodge with his grown daughter, hoping to settle down, but instead they find their worst luck yet, beginning with a
Pa Hack's Brood
Dec 28, 1963 · 45 min
A repugnant drifter hopes to use his nubile daughter to get his hands on a piece of land.
The Glory and the Mud
Jan 4, 1964 · 45 min
A retired lawman and showman wants only to settle down with the Dodge seamstress he left behind twenty years ago, but a young whippersnapper hopes to make a name for himself by cha
Dry Well
Jan 11, 1964 · 45 min
It's a test of wills when Quint witnesses a murder and the father of one of the prime suspects lowers Quint into a well to try to force him to promise his silence.
Prairie Wolfer
Jan 18, 1964 · 45 min
Festus returns to Dodge from wolfing and is hired by the Cattleman's Association to hunt down the wolves killing everyone's cattle. What he finds is that what's been doing the prey
Friend
Jan 25, 1964 · 45 min
A man carrying a tempting sum of money is attacked from behind by someone who beats him and leaves him for dead. Lucky for the injured man, an old friend of Matt is there to take h
Once a Haggen
Feb 1, 1964 · 45 min
A man is stabbed after winning in a poker game, and Festus is suspected.
No Hands
Feb 8, 1964 · 45 min
The Ginnis family causes trouble for Doc Adams, because they hate waiting. Will Timble gets hurt at The Long Branch. Doc has to remove Will's hand, which causes Will to leave Dod
May Blossom
Feb 15, 1964 · 45 min
Festus' cousin May Blossom arrives from Texas to marry Festus
The Bassops
Feb 22, 1964 · 45 min
A family in search of a doctor find Matt and his prisoner unconscious and handcuffed to each other on the prairie. The prisoner wakens first and announces that Matt is the condemne
The Kite
Feb 29, 1964 · 45 min
Festus finds a little girl out on the prairie. He learns she saw her mother get killed by a stranger. When he takes her to Dodge, Matt hears she was hiding when this happened but c
Comanches Is Soft
Mar 7, 1964 · 45 min
After some horsing around, Festus breaks some of Quint's equipment. To repair or get anew, they travel to Wichita and meet a saloon girl who tells them she needs to get away from t
Father's Love
Mar 14, 1964 · 45 min
A saloon girl spurns a man's advances in Wichita and moves to Dodge, where she becomes a respectable married woman, only to be confronted with her past when she discovers that her
Now That April's Here
Mar 21, 1964 · 45 min
Festus, returning to Dodge after doing some trapping, sees his girl, April, and they argue over a gift she received. Running off, she hides but her perch gives her a bird's eye vie
Caleb
Mar 28, 1964 · 45 min
Caleb Marr comes to Dodge in search of a meaningful life after finally acknowledging his failure at farming.
Owney Tupper Had a Daughter
Apr 4, 1964 · 45 min
To earn money to recover the custody of his daughter, an aging man accepts the job of Dodge's first in-town hangman, work no one else wants.
Bently
Apr 11, 1964 · 45 min
A dying man confesses to a murder of which he was acquitted, but Chester suspects the man was lying.
Kitty Cornered
Apr 18, 1964 · 45 min
Competing with Kitty is a fancy new woman in town with plenty of money to build a new saloon and a secret from the past life she recently left behind.
The Promoter
Apr 25, 1964 · 45 min
Henry Huckaby, a local farmer and fed up with a sore back and an empty belly leaves to seek his fortune in Dodge. After several failed ideas he hits on one that may make him rich b
Trip West
May 2, 1964 · 45 min
Given three months to live by a quack peddler of patent medicines, a mousy bank clerk quits his job, withdraws all his money, makes ready to go to California, and falls for a girl
Scot Free
May 9, 1964 · 45 min
Rob Scot considers himself a man who could stay or go when it came to women. He may have met his match though when a woman he desires, along with her husband, take over an abandone
The Warden
May 16, 1964 · 45 min
A traveling salesman meets up with Bull Foot, an Indian who mainly sells vegetables. When goods are traded for a squaw, he is upset when she runs away and into the arms of Festus,
Homecoming
May 23, 1964 · 45 min
Orval returns from seven years in prison for killing his wife's lover, vowing to reclaim his house and business. Edna tries to goad her new husband and Orval's son into a plot to k
The Other Half
May 30, 1964 · 45 min
Jess, Jay's twin, is shot and killed by an unknown assailant while working late at the family business. When a stranger to Dodge is suspected, Matt does his best to track him down
Journey for Three
Jun 6, 1964 · 45 min
Two brothers traveling to California are joined by a third man who soon proves to be a wrong 'un, manhandling and killing a young woman they encounter on the prairie and turning on