Old Faces

Originally Aired: January 8, 1961 Gunsmoke #457, "Old Faces," Tom and Tilda Cook are newly arrived in Dodge City, full of plans for their future together. Their optimism quickly sours when a drunk man accosts Tilda at the stage depot, and Tom angrily defends her. The situation escalates dramatically when the man's partner, Ed Ivers, a notorious ex-gunman from Texas, encounters Tilda at the general store where she's just started working. Ivers claims to recognize her from two years earlier on a Mississippi riverboat called the Memphis Queen, implying she worked there in a disreputable capacity. When Tom confronts Ivers at the saloon, the gunman makes insulting remarks about Tilda's past, and the hot-tempered young husband challenges him to a gunfight. Matt Dillon tries to intervene, visiting the Cooks' room to talk Tom out of facing the dangerous gunman. Tilda admits the truth—she did work on the Memphis Queen for a year, though she doesn't remember Ivers. Now Tom must decide whether to go through with a fight he'll likely lose, or find another way to defend his wife's honor and their new life together in Dodge.