Ben and Ash are partners and best friends in a Dodge City freight office. They are both generous good natured people, and the episode spends a good deal of time on how they are partners at everything. But then tragedy strikes and Ben is hit on the head by a heavy barrel. He is carted up to Doc Adams' office, and Doc is not sure that he will live.
A few hours later and Doc sends for Ash, although he won't say why. Ben has regained consciousness and will live. However, his personality has completely changed due to his head injury, and now he is mean and aggressive. And he may be this way for the rest of his life. When he recovers Ash is patient with him, but Ben has taken to drinking heavily, to snapping at everyone, and worst of all he is stalking a saloon girl, Tillie, who he says he plans to marry regardless of what she says. When she says that she is marrying Emmett (Adam West), Ben decides he will kill Emmett. He does know enough to lie about it to Marshal Dillon, but Ash knows the truth, and figures something must be done to stop him.
This was an unusual episode of Gunsmoke on such an untimely subject. The Civil Rights era was in full swing in 1963, so racism being a common topic on Gunsmoke was understandable. But in 1963 people were largely held responsible for their actions regardless of circumstances. I think of the true story behind "The Honeymoon Killers" (1969), in which Ray Fernandez, who always led an unremarkable life, was hit in the head by the steel hatch of a ship and had his frontal lobe injured. From that point forward he developed a complete lack of impulse control, abandoned his family, and embarked upon a career of romancing and fleecing lonely women. He was eventually executed for a murder he committed while running that con. Nobody thought of letting him off the hook because of the head injury. It was just so progressive of Gunsmoke to bring up such a subject in the context of a western.
