Luther Boardman is the new owner of the Laramie Free Press, and he is in love with the outlaw persona. Feeling the outlaws are the real story in the wild west, he begins a smear campaign against Dan. He accuses him of police brutality because Dan knocked out a man who was rowdy and drunk and threatening to shoot people in the Bird Cage, even though Boardman wasn't in the saloon at the time. He soon has the drunk convinced he needs a public apology from Dan.
Lex Buckman, a mountain man - huge, dirty, and unshaven - gives the men in Laramie a lot to talk about-and admire- by his shows of strength and prowess. However, once he sees Lily, he tells her he needs a wife and ""You're it!"". Nothing she can say can dissuade him, until she wheedles Dan into telling him they're engaged. Instead of running Lex off, he decides to eliminate the competition. Lily and Johnny spend the rest of the show trying to protect Dan from Lex, some with comic results.
Clootey is a female gunslinger who lives up in the hills and has just come into Laramie for supplies. In a pouring rainstorm at night, after spurning his advances in the Bird Cage, she is called in the street by a drunken Earl and shoots him down in a fair fight. Dan is forced to try to arrest her, but she tells him she knows she can outdraw him. Earl's cooler headed brother, Paul, suggests instead she try to 'take him' in a gunfight to prove she really could outdraw the dead man.
Mr. Lazarino is an Italian immigrant who has a wagon full of transported grapevines to plant in his new home, hoping to become a wine maker. After two men destroy most of them in a brawl in the street, his son, Tonio, opens fire and is killed by one of the men. The older man is devastated by the destruction that has occurred, and one of the two men feels strong pangs of conscience.
Dan's old friend, Major Jason Leeds, has come to Laramie to offer Johnny an appointment to West Point. Johnny has never considered a military career, and wants Dan to tell him to stay. Dan can't and won't make the decision for him. We can tell he really cares about Johnny and doesn't want him to go, but he knows it's a very good opportunity for him and doesn't want to stand in his way. Johnny must make a hard decision, made easier by his saving the major's life.
During a terrible, windy storm, Lily is suddenly terrified by the sight of a book of poetry. She explains that the poem, ""Porphyria's Lover"", by Robert Browning reminds her of a man she helped put in prison. Dan tries to convince her that it's only the storm. The next day her bartender is sent by Dan to go help the men work on rebuilding the schoolhouse, with Lily's blessing. Then while she is alone, the escaped prisoner shows up and carries her off, and Dan must piece together clues from the poem to locate her before she is killed by the madman.
When one of Laramie's citizens disappears the day after his wedding to a woman he met through a marriage catalog, Dan does some investigating. Learning that several other men have also disappeared after marrying someone from that agency, he decides to try to flush her out by posing as an eligible bachelor, Arthur Daniels. Lily at first thinks it's funny, but gets serious (and jealous) once Johnny points out that this could be for real - or even fatal.
In another rather light-hearted episode, the school teacher leaves to get married in a fit of what is deemed 'spring fever'. A search for a substitute teacher until the new one can arrive turns up a man who is very educated, but is now a drunk. Lily volunteers over Dan's objections - he's worried about what the women in town will do to her. His suspicions are proved right, but Lily once again wins over hearts by her kindness.
Millie Cotton, the governor's daughter, has run away from home and landed in Laramie. Desperate for money, she robs Owny in an alley with her hairbrush in his back. Both are scared. Owny later describes the robber as a huge, vicious man. Dan, told to be on the lookout for the governor's daughter, recognizes Millie, who sings for Lily and is told honestly that she has a lovely voice. Owny is struck by her, not knowing that she is his assailant. When he finds out, his hurt feelings take over. Later, an escaped convict, Millie, Owny, his horse, and his dog all combine for a scene of pandemonium before everything is sorted out.
Four men ride into Laramie, all carrying rifles, and station themselves around town. After one of them is shot and killed, the leader tells Dan they are searching for a young, innocent looking young man who was reported to them as being in the area. He was a cold-blooded killer they had been tracking. Dan deputizes the three remaining men since Johnny was out of town, and together they track the boy down.
One member of the Cauley gang is captured and brought to Laramie for trial, because the town where he was caught couldn't find anyone willing to serve on a jury. The other 5 Cauleys have threatened to kill anyone who served. Dan is sure Laramie will rally to the cause, but finds that fear is contagious. Finally, learning that it only takes one juror, under extreme circumstances, to try a case, Dan pulls one name out of the tax register list at random to be that juror. To his shock, it's Lily's name. She accepts, and then he must worry about her safety until the trial.