Good thing he's part Cartwright.

Deep in the woods, Mark finally starts putting the pieces together, quickly coming to the conclusion that the burned out car is not the work of rowdy teens, but instead belongs to Elmer. Using that knowledge he is able to locate the trail of the would-be assassin. Now it's only a matter of following the tracks (which look like they'll be pretty easy to follow since it would seem that Elmer is wearing a lead vest, making each and every step sink down into the ground, leaving semi-permanent evidence of his presence in Lost Forest), and so, while Mark heads off deeper into the forest, hoping now more than ever that he'll have this all wrapped up in time for dinner, we turn our attention to the hospital and the seemingly miraculous survival of Joey Williams. (Or perhaps the not so miraculous survival, as you will soon see.)

But first, let me take you to the long ago time of history back, when the Williams family was briefly untied with the Cartwrights of the Ponderosa by way of Virginia City. It was a union doomed from the start, but before the young woman who had caught the eye of one of the brothers died, there was a child and from that child came the line of the Williams family from which Sarah and Joey are descended, and while this means all sorts of misunderstandings about all sorts of things, it also assures them that no matter how much danger they're in, if it involves gunfire, one can be almost assured of surviving with only a wound to the shoulder. That, my friends, is why Joey is still alive and not lying face down on the forest floor. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle (or so I've heard).

While Joey spills his guts to Sarah about the details of his dealings with the mysterious shadows who have yet to appear in decent light (save for Elmer, of course), we see that the animals continue to prepare for whatever is to come. (I'm going to ignore the fact that the squirrel on the left appears to have a talking rear, so don't go expecting anything about that.) The squirrels are assembling their command posts in the trees and acquiring the necessary munitions they'll need for defense should the dumpers return. This does bring up a bit of a touchy subject though, for if the Plant Kingdom has joined with the forest animals, I'm not sure how happy they're going to be about those squirrels taking the acorns (which you could say are not but baby trees) for who knows what purpose. I hope that whoever is handling the diplomatic relations between the two groups knows of this development and has already discussed it with the leader of the plants.

(And in other news, it looks like the plants, or at least the acorns aren't above a little betrayal either, as one of them seems to be giving a very Joey Williams-like reaction in response to the abduction of its kin.)