Harland Bristol is the reigning saddle bronc champ. Getting ready to ride Megaton, Harland is critically injured when the rank bronc rears up and slams him into the chute wall.

Unfortunately, Stoney Burke was helping out - holding Megaton's head. Harland's brother Cody and his best friend E.J. Stoker blame Stoney for Harland's death.

The episode introduces us to the principal characters, establishes themes sewn throughout the series, and gives hints to the eventual outcome.

Thematic examples include forgiveness; Cody and E.J. go from wanting Stoney hurt for Harland's death to being his best friends and constant companions.

We learn what a sleaze the character of Ves Painter is, and the attendant friction - approach/avoidance - represented by Ves and Stoney's difficult relationship.

Stoney falls for Hamilton's girl (much younger than he) and seems willing to give it all up for her. She, however is smarter - or more mature than Stoney and realizes that if he does not go for the buckle -

An old political fight between two small-county commissioners causes the delay of Stoney and the rodeo from getting to the next venue, resulting in the death of one of the cowboys. The Police Commissioner wants his charity boxing match to run on the same night as the Health Commissioner's charity rodeo.

Thugs in the employ of one of the boxers pays Ves Painter to help disrupt the rodeo.

Hell's fury is unleashed when Stoney scorns the affections of a spoiled rich girl whose daddy is the town's power broker.

Stoney and E.J. notice that local boy Soames Hewitt is drunk, just moments before he is scheduled to ride a dangerous brahma bull.

Local teen-agers become upset when they discover that the old arena they use for stock car races will be converted into a rodeo IF Stoney Burke agrees to perform there.

Rodeo rider Miller Hill ties himself so tightly to a brahma bull he is riding that he ends up being killed by the animal. His family refuse to accept money that Stoney collects to help them in their hour of need.

Stoney is hit with a lawsuit when the bronc he is riding crashes thru a fence and injures a woman spectator, Loreen Julian.

Stoney's friendship with Ves is put to the test when Ves is jailed for murder. When a money clip belonging to the dead man is found in Ves' car even Stoney begins to have his doubts. A street bum holds the key, or in this case, a watch, to Ves' salvation. But first,Stoney and the boys must find him.

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During an exhibition of Indian archery, a government official is killed.

Stoney is unable to ride at the World Championship Rodeo because of a badly injured hand. Desperate for money to send to his folks and hitting bottom, he takes a job delivering horses to the slaughter house. One of the horses turns out to be Megaton. Stoney takes a good hard look at where he's headed—and the slaughter house isn't it.