Adventures of Brisco County Jr. 22 - Stagecoach

Plot: It's a bit of an espionage-themed episode, as Brisco is enlisted (rather rudely) by the U.S. government to escort a prisoner to Mexicali (while Bowler heads there separately to wine and dine the Spaniards). There, Emma Steed will be exchanged to the Spanish for one of the United States' agents. This requires Brisco and Emma to be handcuffed together on a stage along with a colorful cast of characters, who promptly begin dying one at a time. This leaves Brisco trying to keep himself and Emma alive until he can determine who among the passengers is the killer. There's also the question of just why Emma is really there. Turns out Agent Brown wasn't the only crooked guy in the government.

Does Brisco use his gun? He shoots out the barrel of a sniper rifle.

Things Comet does: N/A

Kiss Count: 2, Emma (21 overall). That's the first kiss since "Mail Order Brides". heck of a dry spell there, Brisco.

Is Pete Hutter in this episode? YES!! Whoo!

Pete Hutter quote: 'In all my years, in all my days, I have never hit a woman. I hit a man in a dress once, but that was another story.'

Non-Pete Quote: Emma - 'Why would I head south?' Brisco - 'Because you're hiding something from me, Ms. Steed.' Emma - 'Mr. County, I'm your prisoner. Of course I am.'

Brisco's Coming Things: Stand-up comedy, maybe. It pretty much lays out how the airline industry is gonna go, from pre-prepared food, to seats as floatation devices, to pamphlets with safety procedures on them.

Other: I should have mentioned this earlier, but at the end of "Bye Bly", Brisco and Bowler are asked by the President to serve as special agents. Soc had already become an 'intelligence operative for the executive branch' at some earlier date. Which makes the agents gathering Bowler and Brisco at gunpoint in their bedrooms all the more curious.

Amongst the passengers, we have Bobby (Aries Spears) as the aspiring entertainer, Ms. Plowright (Debra Jo Rupp, who I always think of as Kitty from That '70s Show), and Dr. Milo (Timothy Leary) as a slightly spacey botany professor Brisco had for Biology. Brisco got a C-. There's also Ashok (Shelley Malil), the stage driver. This episode also sees the return of Owen (played by series creator Carlton Cuse), the landscape painter, who painted the rock the train carrying the Bly gang crashed into in the pilot.

This actually starts as a bit of a mystery, since Brisco's trying to find the killer amongst the passengers, as well as figure out what Emma's game is. As it turns out, Emma doesn't know everything that's going either, and she might be even worse off than Brisco, since she thinks she knows what the score is.

I'm predisposed to like this episode, if for no other reason than it brought Pete Hutter back. He's ridiculous, but some of it is intentional, and I like villains that go weird with their plans. Pete does enjoy using rocks. It also appears that Bowler as Brisco's "faithful companion" has spread to the underworld, since even Pete calls Bowler that.

Bowler's Spanish is much better than Brisco's, which is why he was assigned the wining and dining. Unfortunately, he wound up having to try and catch up to Brisco with Soc in tow. Those two are always a fun pair, since Soc is, perhaps despite himself, fascinated by the work Brisco and Bowler do, and the skills they've learned, such as Bowler's tracking skill. At the same time, he isn't so keen on the rest of it, sleeping outdoors, eating snakes (Bowler's first rule of the trail: Don't eat what you bring, if you can eat what you find), and so on. Which gives Bowler something to needle him about. Soc - 'I don't backwash!' Bowler (as Soc drinks from canteen) - 'I do.'

Are prisoner exchanges typically on a time limit? Trying not to give too much away, the crooked government fellow wants Emma dead, presumably so she can't be exchanged for the guy the U.S. is getting back. Couldn't the U.S. scrounge up another prisoner to use? I guess it would take time, and if it took too long, then the crook would get what he wanted. As it turns out, assuming the Briscoverse has the same history as we do, he got what he wanted anyway. It just took another 4 years.