(airdate: 10 Oct 95) Damned if You Don't sound files

"Sutpin the junkman, something in your head sent you down the hallway to catch them in the bed. Nobody will ever know what it was they said before you loaded up your gun and you shot them dead." Children's song

Story #1
Sixteen years ago Lucas Buck did Carter Bowen a favor and now he's come to collect. He wants Carter's daughter, Poppy, to come to work for him. Since she is underage, he gives Carter a consent form and tells him he has until midnight Friday to sign it. Carter can't bring himself to sign the form.

He wakes up a few minutes before midnight and his wife is gone. He goes to look for her and finds her in the basement doing the laundry. As they leave the basement she turns off the light and is electrocuted. When Carter goes outside to the breaker box, Lucas shows up. Lucas tells him not to worry, Etta has two hairline fractures to her ankle, a dislocated hip, and a shock to the heart, "but Etta's got a strong heart." At the hospital, Dr. Matt Crower tells Carter and Etta about her injuries and they are the same ones Lucas enumerated.

Lucas comes to visit and he and Carter talk in the hallway. Lucas tells Carter to forget about Poppy, that he has something else for him to do. Lucas wants Carter to pick up a friend who is arriving in town. Carter thinks he is back in Lucas' good graces but when Carter and Poppy go to the bus stop, he is shocked to find that the friend is Wash Sutpin, the man who owned the junkyard before Carter bought it. Wash has been in prison for killing a man.

When they arrive at Carter's house, Lucas is already there. While they're eating dinner, Poppy asks Wash how it felt to kill a man. Wash tells her that the man he killed was taking liberties with his daughter and he did it to protect his family. Lucas then tells her that it was, unfortunately, the wrong man. He also says that Carter worked for Wash around then and had a crush on Wash's daughter. Lucas tells Carter that Wash will have to stay with him until Lucas can get him settled in Goat Town.

When it becomes apparent to Carter that Wash is seducing Poppy, he goes to Lucas for help and Lucas tells him that "it's time for a father to do what he's gotta do." That night, Carter wakes up and hears Poppy and Wash laughing. He gets his shotgun and goes out into the hallway. He closes Poppy's door and warns Wash to stay away from Poppy. Carter falls asleep in a chair in the hallway and is again awakened by laughter. When he looks in Wash's room, it's empty. He opens the door to Poppy's room, sees Wash and fires his shotgun. Unfortunately, it is his wife, Etta, he has killed, not Wash Sutpin. We see Wash walk out into the night and disappear.

Lucas arrives at Carter's house just as a deputy is handcuffing him. Lucas goes to talk to T.J., Carter's helper. He tells T.J. that Trinity needs a Mr. Fixit and that if he wants to start his own business, Lucas could help him with a loan. When T.J. says that he always wanted to own his own business they shake hands and Lucas tells him that down the road he might ask for a small favor.

Story #2
Caleb is sitting on the front steps of the boarding house working on his Science Fair project. He's trying to simulate a tornado using a blender and it's not working. Dr. Matt tells Caleb he has a book about weather that he can borrow. Lucas Buck shows up and offers Caleb money to buy what he needs. Caleb refuses the money because it's against the rules but Lucas leaves the money anyway.

When we next see Caleb he is putting a tornado chamber together. Merlyn appears and is upset with Caleb for taking Lucas' money. As he turns the machine on, she disappears.

The night of the Science Fair everyone is impressed with Caleb's tornado chamber but when Lucas says he put it together all by himself, Caleb confesses that he bought the machine and disqualifies himself from the fair. Dr. Matt tells him to forget about the equipment and tell everyone what he learned from the book. At the end of Caleb's speech, everyone applauds and Lucas looks as if he wishes he'd told Ben to shoot Dr. Matt after all.

Story #3
Gail rents a house in Trinity and when the window a/c breaks she takes it out to Carter's junkyard to have it fixed. While she's there she finds her parents' car. Later, she sneaks back into the junkyard and finds a key hidden under the dashboard of the car.

"You made a deal and now you got to live by it." Lucas Buck to Carter Bowen.

1. August 2002