The Memoirs of Nicodemus Legend: Fall of a Legend

"Fall of a Legend" was the tenth episode of Legend, and first aired on June 18th, 1995. The teleplay was written by Ron Friedman from a story by Bob Shane, and the episode was directed by Michael Vejar. You can watch the episode via Amazon Prime Video or DVD.When Ernest Pratt’s amorous attentions to Drusilla Dern are interrupted by the woman’s rifle-toting father, Pratt is forced to make a quick getaway in the quadrovelocipede, losing his Nicodemus Legend costume and electrofulminator in the process. This proves to be especially unfortunate as the father, Amos Dern, is accidentally killed shortly afterward by a pair of ranchers attempting to threaten him into making his land more accessible to their cattle, and the ranchers immediately frame “Nicodemus Legend” for the deed. 

It doesn’t take long for Sheriff Motes to arrest Pratt on the basis of the framed evidence, and Pratt has little choice but to allow himself to be taken to jail. He does, however, ask Bartok to get help from E. C. Allen, which soon arrives in the form of Milton J. Faber (head of business affairs), who happens to be a former criminal attorney. Pratt is less than impressed, but has to make do. His situation isn’t made any better when Drusilla arrives to visit Pratt, clearly believing in Pratt’s guilt. Even Faber is clearly planning ahead for a loss at trial. 

Pratt’s trial doesn’t go well, with Mayor Chamberlain Brown (a taxidermist when not in his political role) serving as medical examiner of Dern's body, as well as prosecuting attorney and judge. When Faber protests Brown’s lack of qualifications to make a determination of the cause of Dern’s death, Brown simply holds Faber in contempt of court. Meanwhile, Bartok insists that the electrofulminator isn’t the murder weapon, but Brown and the Sheriff are able to prove that it was used on Dern’s body multiple times. When Bartok attempts to demonstrate that the electrofulminator has a fingerprint that doesn’t match Pratt’s nor those of any law enforcement officials, he simply ends up confusing members of the jury, who are happy to recognize that, because Pratt’s fingerprint is also on the weapon (which he uses regularly), Pratt could easily be the guilty party. After all this, Brown is able to demonstrate that Skeeter has discovered (poorly written and obviously counterfeit) pages confessing to the murder, and it is no surprise when the guilty verdict comes in. 

Forced to go back to prison to await his execution, Bartok and Skeeter arrange for Pratt to break out of prison by getting a blow torch to him, disguised as a dinner tray with fancy dinnerware. While Skeeter distracts the Sheriff, Pratt uses this to cut the iron bars on the window of his jail cell, and escapes to a waiting velocipede outside. Upon learning this, the Sheriff wastes no time in assembling a posse, which happens to include Dan Rusch, one of the ranchers who killed Amos Dern. Rusch shoots at the escaping vehicle, earning a rebuke from the Sheriff, but it turns out that the velocipede is a decoy, anyway. Pratt and Bartok have escaped for now. 

Now on the run and in disguise, Pratt, Bartok, and Ramos return to the Dern farm in an attempt to gather evidence, having learned from Drusilla that a bald man had been seen near the farm before the murder, who might be a witness. Having found a distinctive horseshoe print, they follow the tracks, but are stymied any time they happen upon other people, who are instantly able to see through Pratt’s disguises due to “Nicodemus Legend’s” well-publicized and distinctive eyes. 

Eventually, our heroes learn that the bald man, one Louis Halewa, was accepted at a Denver hospital for a gunshot wound. Traveling to the hospital, they fail to find Halewa there, but learn that he is expected to return for follow-up treatment. Reasoning that he would have to remain nearby, our heroes keep watch from Bartok's caravan, and Halewa is soon located, but before they can catch up with him, the posse catches up with them. 

Rusch suggests immediate action, getting "Legend’s" execution over with by hanging him right there in Denver. While the posse prepares Pratt’s hanging, Ramos approaches Halewa in a nearby building, and convinces him to tell the posse what he’s seen. When Halewa emerges and accuses Rusch of being at the scene of Dern's death, Rusch attempts to escape by frightening the horse upon which the already-noosed Pratt is sitting, nearly completing Pratt's execution. Thankfully, Bartok uses a gas gun to freeze the rope into snapping, allowing Pratt to fall to the ground mostly unharmed. Pratt then takes the electrofulminator from Bartok and uses it to thwart Rusch’s escape. 

The crisis over, Pratt hopes to pick things up where he left off with Drusilla, only to find that Faber has promised her a “brilliant future on the New York stage,” for which he and Drusilla are leaving together. Pratt is disappointed, but he’ll get over it….

Some additional notes:

• This is Faber’s second-and-last appearance (previously in “Knee-High Noon”).
• In theory, Sheridan does have an actual medical doctor, the oft-mentioned but never-seen Dr. Larkin, who always seems to be out of town fighting an epidemic elsewhere.
• Transformers fans will recognize the name of teleplay author Ron Friedman, who helped develop the original Transformers cartoon, as well as the screenplay for the 1986 Transformers: The Movie.
• The first European to conclude that fingerprints were unique to each individual was Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer, in 1788. Checking for fingerprints was first suggested to Scotland Yard in London for a murder investigation in 1840, but the process was not yet adopted, and indeed was not yet in use, even in the whole of Europe (let alone in America, much less the small town of Sheridan), for at least another decade or two after the time of this episode.

Next week: "Clueless in San Francisco"