Episode
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The First Circle
Overview
Robert E buys a house in town. When the auctioneer, Jedediah Bancroft, sees that he's sold the house to a black man, he tries to renege, but Mike intercedes. Later, Mike is surprised to learn that Jake, Loren, Hank and Dorothy are displeased to have Robert E and Grace living in their midst. That night, at the homestead, Matthew tells Mike he's been invited to join a new men's club -- the Ku Klux Klan, which he knows nothing about but is heading out the door to investigate. At the meeting, Jedediah, the leader of the group, promises only ""a big surprise"" for the following night, then adjourns the meeting. The next night, townsfolk don white gowns, recite the KKK oath, and ride out to harass and beat Robert E. After treating Robert E, Mike storms into the barbershop, where she confronts Jedediah, Jake, Loren and Hank about the events of the night before. Jedediah tries to make offers to get Robert E and Grace out of town, even threatening Mike with the mortgage on her clinic if Robert E
Details
- Series
- Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
- Season
- Season 2
- Episode
- Episode 20
- Air date
- 1994-03-26
Episode context
The First Circle is Episode 20 in Season 2 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. It aired on 1994-03-26.
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Episode 19: Life and Death
Tom Jennings, Dorothy's son, shows up in Loren's store one day when Mike and the kids are there shopping. He's a Civil War Veteran with an old war injury -- his leg was almost blown off. Dorothy asks Mike to treat him when he complains of pain in his seemingly healed leg. She gives him a syringe of morphine for the pain, not noticing his blissful expression. Mike invites he, Dorothy and Loren to dinner. During dinner, Colleen develops a crush on him. Sully's suspicion is piqued when Tom leaves and he forgets to use his cane.
The next day, Tom returns to Mike, telling her his leg hurts. She treats him, but denies him her last vial of morphine, which she's saving for an emergency. Later that day, Loren catches Tom slipping a vial of patent medicine from the store under his coat. When Dorothy confronts Tom, he replies that the pain just got to him, and complains that Mike won't give him any morphine. Later that night, he goes out and tries to mooch free drinks at the saloon. Later still,
Episode 21: Just One Lullaby
Rev. Johnson's in love with the town's new schoolteacher (Sherry Hursey), while Mike's concerned about the woman's wanton use of corporal punishment in the classroom.
More episodes from this season
Episode 18: Luck of the Draw
When Julius Hoffman rides into town and engages Matthew in a poker game, Matthew thinks he's found a great way to earn money to finish he and Ingrid's homestead, although Mike and Sully disapprove. At first, Matthew wins steadily, though he and Ingrid get into a terrible fight when, after missing an elaborate dinner she cooked for him (he was in a game), he confesses he used her hard-earned laundry money, which she gave him for building supplies, as a stake.
Though Ingrid and Mike disapprove heartily, Matthew continues playing the game, even after he gets beaten up and robbed of his earnings. Eventually, townsfolk become so confident in Matthew's abilities that everyone but Mike, Sully and the Reverend back Matthew in the big poker game. The Reverend pulls Mike aside and confesses that he was once a gambler, knew Julius, and suspects that the town's been set up.
As Matthew makes his way to the big game, Ingrid breaks up with him over his poker playing. In the process, she returns the e
Episode 22: The Abduction (1)
Mike and Sully get caught in the crossfire when, while visiting the Indian reservation, they see renegade Dog Soldiers shoot some Cavalry men. Mike is kidnapped in retaliation when the Indians discover she told Custer what happened; Sully vows to find her. Meanwhile, Brian falls in love with a horse Hank wins in a poker game.
Episode 17: Buffalo Soldiers
A troop of black cavalry soldiers ride into town intending to cover themselves in glory by eradicating hostile Dog Soldiers who've been attacking the railroad. Mike commits an act of civil disobedience by tipping off the Indians, which results in carnage on both sides and the defeat of the Buffalo soldiers. She's accused of treason, and jailed, but the arrogant black cavalry leader,
Sergeant Zachary Carver, manages to exonerate her when he's made to realize, through the combined efforts of Sully and Mike, that his beloved troops are nothing more than pawns in the U.S. Army's policy of genocide against the Indians. Returning the favor, Mike manages to medically fake the Sargeant's death, and he escapes court martial.
Meanwhile, Colleen cheats on a test and by doing so manages to win a school trip to Washington. Mike must then explain the concept of ""good lying;"" that is, civil disobedience for a principle, and ""bad lying,"" that is, Colleen's self-serving actions regarding the test. In t
Episode 23: The Abduction (2)
Sully sets out to rescue Mike. Meanwhile, Custer takes the Indian reservation hostage, threatening to hang everyone unless Mike is returned. Brian works off the cost of the little horse; but Hank reneges on the deal, inciting Loren's wrath. Mike and Sully return to town just in time to keep the Indians from getting hanged. Hank, not anxious to pay double for all his goods at the General Store, delivers Taffy to Brian on his birthday, declaring that, ""Sometimes it's just good business for a man to keep his word.""
Episode 16: The Orphan Train
Eight orphans arrive on the train. The Reverend takes them in at the church and Mike nurses their ailments. When no one in the town wants to adopt the orphans, the Reverend extends a proposal of marriage to Mike so that they can raise the orphans together. Mike briefly considers the offer, and Sully confronts her about it, asking her if she loves him. She accuses him of not making any kind of committment to her, whereas the Reverend has, to which he replies, ""If marriage is all you want...."" leaving his meaning clear without being spoken that he's possibly willing to offer more. Considering this, Mike turns the Reverend down, much to the relief of Sully and the Cooper kids.
Eventually, the orphans board the train and leave town, but each orphan boards the train a more complete person as a result of their interaction with the townsfolk. Dr. Mike confronts the fact that she can't save the world and she and the Cooper kids emerge as a more united family.
Episode 24: The Campaign
Mike and Jake go head-to-head when both campaign for the Mayorship of Colorado Springs. At issue: whether drinking and prostitution should be outlawed. Myra finally breaks loose from Hank.
Episode 15: Another Woman
Catherine, a beautiful blond woman captured by and raised with renegade Indians, is brought to Colorado Springs by soldiers when her tribe, which includes her husband, is wiped out, leaving her the sole survivor. She initially earns the townsfolks' sympathy, then their contempt when she rejects their gestures of kindness, doesn't know the language, and falls down into an epileptic fit. Indeed, her Indian name was ""Shivering Deer"" thanks to her grand mal epileptic seizures.
Mike takes her in, but the only members of the family she trusts and feels comfortable with, especially with her faltering English, are Sully, then Brian. Brian, however, becomes decidedly less enamored of her when he accidentally glimpses Catherine kissing Sully. Later, when Brian confronts Sully, he doesn't understand Sully's distinction between ""being kissed"" and ""kissing someone,"" and troubled, tells Mike about it.
Meanwhile, Jake, in a conversation with Loren and Dorothy about what marauding Indians do to white
Episode 25: The Man in the Moon
Only the town's love for the infinitely unlovable Hank can pull him from the brink of a deadly coma. Meanwhile, Colleen and Brian tangle when Grandma Quinn sends Brian but not Colleen a present.
Episode 14: The Circus
A ragtag circus, consisting only of Heart and Atlantis, a mother-and-daughter team, arrives in Colorado Springs. Heart, the mother, enlists the townsfolk to participate as performers. Everyone accepts but Mike, whom Heart tries to engage as a trapeze performer.
Later, in the homestead, Colleen reveals her fear of being in the limelight, and Brian asks Sully if he'll perform on the trapeze, per Heart's request. Sully says to Mike, ""I will, if you will,"" upon which Mike says she'll perform if Colleen will. Colleen reluctantly accepts the challenge. Heart engages the Reverend to be a magician, with Miss Dorothy as his lovely magician's assistant. Brian and Loren are the designated clowns. Colleen, Atlantis and Matthew do a tightrope act together, and Jake is pressed into service as the ring announcer.
The town happily embraces their various roles in the circus, but friction occurs between Mike and Heart when Mike discovers that Atlantis, Heart's daughter, has webbed fingers. Mike wants to
Episode 26: Return Engagement (1)
When ""Andrew Strauss""—really David Lewis—the fiancé whom Mike had presumed was killed in the Civil War, visits Colorado Springs. Mike is forced to choose between him and Sully. Also, Horace and Myra experience pre-nuptial tension when townsfolk start taking over the planning of their wedding for them. Andrew Strauss/David Lewis: Maxwell Caulfield.