Original title
Bordertown
Released
1/7/1989
Origin country
CA
Genre
Drama, Western
Production companies
Alliance Entertainment, CTV, La Cinq, Télé Images
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
3
Number of episodes
78
Bordertown is a television western-drama series that aired from 1989 to 1991. It depicts the town formerly known as Pemmican that was later renamed Bordertown when the western border between the United States and Canada was surveyed in 1880, dividing the town.
A barroom fight between an American rancher's son and a Canadian farm boy result in the shooting death of the American. Jack and Clive attempt to take the prisoner to Ft McCloud, but the dead boy's father wants revenge.
A Mountie mail wagon is ambushed and robbed, and the crime is made to look like an Indian attack. Jack and Clive are suspicious, and soon determine that the thieves were Mountie deserters. Meanwhile, Marie's nephew comes to town to visit.
Howling Dog, a young Blackfood, accidentally causes a fire in Marie's store while attempting to steal food. After the Indian is released when Marie refuses to press charges, he is murdered by Erskine, the Canadian Indian Agent. Marie discovers that Erskine has been selling Indian rations to the townspeople for profit.
Two friends from Jack's Texas Rangers days come to Bordertown on their way to Canada to sell their merchandise. Marie disappears when her patient is murdered, and the evidence points to Jack's friends.
Jack reluctantly hangs a prisoner, but the prisoner survives the hanging. When Jack refuses to hang him again, the judge sends in a government appointed hangman. Barry Joe's only chance for clemency is if he names his accomplices. The problem is, his throat is so badly damaged that he can't speak.
A Chinese immigrant overhears a plot to rob a gold shipment. Determined to be a good citizen, he informs the law the plot, but is fearful for the life of his fiancee, who is arriving on the stagecoach.
While investigating the presence of a band of Cree Indians camped near the town, Jack and Clive discover that a white boy is living among them. The boy's uncle is determined to get him back, even if it means endangering the town by starting a war with the Indians.
Charles Ashley intends to bring a railroad to Bordertown, but Jack is incensed when the railroader turns out to be a former Confederate Captain from the Civil War who abandoned his wounded men -- including Jack -- to the enemy. When the two men exchange shots, Ashley gets rid of his gun, and claims that he was ambushed by Jack.
The lawmen are troubled when an aging gunfighter comes to Bordertown, followed by glory-seekers who are out to kill him, and a novelist, who wants to write a story about him.
Liam becomes infatuated with a blind gypsy fortune teller who is being forced by her employer to convince men that their future includes earning a fortune in a new business venture, so he can sell them stock in a non-existent silver mine.
A young easterner challenges his employer to a gunfight after he is cheated out of part of his wages. Jack attempts to teach the young man to shoot.
Two outlaw brothers, believed to be dead, come to Bordertown to rob the bank. Before they can carry out their plan, they are recognized by Hiram. When he speaks up, he is fatally struck by one of them. The brothers leave an accomplice behind so that they can escape, and when he tries to rejoin them, they shoot him. Knowing that the brothers will return, Clive and Jack set a trap to capture them.
Severely traumatized when her former ""master"" comes to Bordertown, Diane Denny tries to shoot him to avenge the beating death of her father, killed years earlier while attempting to escape.
A young woman, posing as a male ranchhand in an effort to find her husband's murderer, is shot on the streets of Bordertown.
Two escaped convicts come to Bordertown looking for the only man who can identify them. Claiming to be friends of Sally Duffield's imprisoned husband, they swindle her out of her jewelry by insisting that he can be paroled if she pays them a thousand dollars.
When Dom's friend dies, he leaves instructions that half his gold goes to Dom, but it is stolen before it can be recovered. Jack believes Clive's new lady friend is involved, but the mountie refuses to believe it.
A local trapper is found murdered and his furs stolen. The only clue left at the scene is a sliver of bone from the handle of a knife, and the only suspect is a French entrepeneur, a friend of Marie's, who is found holding the murder weapon after a dispute with an employee. Jack and Clive formulate a plan to flush out the real killer.
Willie's father comes to Bordertown with the intention of taking the boy back to France with him. Meanwhile, an escaped criminal is seeking revenge on Clive.
When a Mexican bounty hunter shows up in Bordertown, Jack is instantly suspicious, suspecting that the Mexican has actually come for him. When he and Marie are jailed by the bounty hunter, Jack confesses his secret past to Marie, revealing that his wife and daughter had been murdered by Don Carlos, a wealthy Mexican landowner who had been trying to drive Jack and his family from their land. In the ensuing fight, Jack had killed the Mexican's son. Seeking revenge, Don Carlos wants Jack delivered to him alive, but his bounty hunter has no problem with using Marie as a pawn to control him.
A band of teenaged outlaws ride into Bordertown intending to rob the bank. Marie reports to Clive when she sees the young outlaws go into the bank with their guns drawn. Clive is shot attempting to prevent the hold-up, and is dragged into the store by the robbers. Jack, in the marshal's office, and the outlaws in Marie's store exchange shots. Meanwhile, Clive, who knows one of the boys, tries to convince him that he is headed down the wrong path.
A visiting German is knocked unconscious while being chased by bank robbers who want the map he carries that will lead them to the money. He awakens with amnesia. Meanwhile, Clive's supervisor comes for inspection.
While giving Jack an eye exam during a physical, Marie discovers that he cannot read. Worried that many others in the area cannot read, either, she decides to order some primers. In spite of Marie's objections, Moberley proposes a boxing match between the marshal and the mountie to raise money for the books, but during the fight, his plans are to rob the town.
Clive's training officer arrives in Bordertown with his pregnant Indian wife, Nahanni. Driscoll had been shot in a skirmish with the U.S. Cavalry, who had apprehended Chief Sitting Bull from a reservation in Canada. Driscoll, determined to free Sitting Bull, had killed two of the soldiers, who follow him to Bordertown, seeking revenge.
A teenaged boy is hired by a group of horse thieves to deliver six horses stolen from a local ranch. When he realizes the horses have been stolen, Johnny intends to return the horses to their rightful owner, but when he is caught with them, the rancher decides to hang him as a horse thief.
While escorting a large amount of gold to Bordertown, Wendell is robbed and wounded, and the armed guard is killed by a couple of thieves. Then the killer turns the gun on his accomplice. Jack and Clive have trouble identifying the dead outlaw, but the killer turns out to be the estranged father of Bruno's girlfriend. Holding his family at gunpoint, he orders Bruno to bring him a horse and supplies.
Three members of outlaw gang Keenan's Raiders plan to meet in Bordertown to recover stolen gold they had buried years earlier. One dies of a heart attack on the stage, a second is found shot to death outside town. The third member has been wounded, and seeks medical attention from Marie. Jack and Clive discover that the two dead men are wearing identical belt buckles with a secret compartment, which conceals pieces of a map. Meanwhile, Marie has been taken hostage by the wounded man as he tries to dig up the buried gold.
Bat Masterson tracks a gang of outlaws into Canada, and refuses to adhere to Canadian jurisdiction. When Jack and Clive accompany him into Canada, Masterson leaves them, allowing them to ride into an outlaw ambush.
A branch of the pony express is scheduled to run through Bordertown, promising employment for the town's young men, including Bruno Danzinger, but the route will carry the riders through Indian burial grounds. Angered that their sacred burial grounds have been disturbed, the Indians threaten war if the route is not changed.
A Mountie wagon is ambushed, and the Mounties, including a friend of Clive's, are murdered by a gang of outlaw brothers. One of the brothers is captured and taken to Bordertown. When Clive decides to take him to Ft McLeod to stand trial, Jack and several of the townspeople act as decoys in an attempt to lead the rest of the gang away from the stagecoach on which Clive had elected to transport the prisoner. The outlaws do not fall for the decoy, and attack the stagecoach, wounding their own brother. Clive handcuffs himself to his prisoner as they are forced to flee on foot.
Stricken with guilt, Jack resigns after he accidentally kills a saloon girl during a dispute with a gang of ruffians. With the marshal's position vacant, the gang takes over Bordertown, and the Mountie is powerless to keep law and order on the American side of town. In attempt to regain order, he ""appoints"" Couteau temporary marshal.
The U.S. Cavalry is turning over a Gatling Gun to the Canadian Mounted Police, but when Clive arrives to escort the wagon into town, he is shot by one of the Mountie impersonators who has already killed the Mounties assigned to the transport. When they arrive in Bordertown to assume possession of the gun, Jack becomes suspicious of their behavior, and arrests one of them when he becomes aggressive with Marie. The next morning, the ""Mounties"" take the gun, and leave Bordertown. Meanwhile, Couteau has found the wounded Clive, and reports it to Jack, who must find a way to recover the stolen gun.
A retired Canadian colonel arrives in Bordertown with a stongbox containing money obtained by docking his men's pay. His intentions are to set up an estate for the men to work on when they muster out. Liam's niece, her husband, and cousin have joined the Fenian Brotherhood, and are after the money. Along with the strongbox, they kidnap the colonel, who had helped protect Canada from the Fenians years earlier.
When an American is killed over a land dispute, a Canadian is accused of the crime. Jurisdiction is questioned because the Canadian was standing on the Canadian side of the line, the American was standing on the American side.
A Blackfoot warrior rescues Marie when her horse bolts after being spooked by a snake. Jack recognizes her horse, and arrests the Indian for stealing it. Marie insists that he be released from jail, but he returns to bring gifts and to seek her attention. Infatuated with her, White Feather kidnaps her and takes her to the Blackfoot village with the intention of making her his wife. Clive must prevail in a test of manhood to win her back.
Theodore Roosevelt comes to Bordertown, and promptly becomes involved in a dispute with a couple of ruffians. They later ambush him and Couteau, who he has hired as a guide on a hunting trip. When the two lawmen come to his rescue, they end up getting captured, too.
Two local ranchers become involved in a dispute over water rights between their properties. Meanwhile, a young physician comes to Bordertown and questions Marie's right to practice medicine. He takes his concerns to Clive, and threatens to press charges against her if she does not comply. Her ability is proven when Henry Jordan's son is shot over the water dispute.
Jack is intrigued by a young woman who is seeking to save the buffalo from extinction brought about by reckless hunting. When she interferes with two men involved in a contest, she and Jack are taken hostage by them.
A tribe of Indians claim that Henry Jordan's ranch is on their land. Clive is trapped in the Jordan's ranch house when they are surrounded by the Indians.
During a tour of the western states, President Garfield's entourage is scheduled to pass through Bordertown. A would-be assassin ties Marie up inside her store, and is planning to use the store's loft as his assisin's post.
Clive's father, Reverend Bennett, arrives from Toronto to visit, but he makes it clear that he is not pleased with his son's career choice. Meanwhile, a local farmer's imported cattle have anthrax.
Carrying large sums of money, Zack and Wendell escape into the woods when the stage coach they are on is held up by thieves. With the robbers in pursuit, they make their way back to Bordertown, eluding not only the robbers, but the lawmen.
Wendell buys an unsafe mine, and sells half partnership to an unscrupulous businessman, who hires ill, underfed Chinese laborers to work the mine.
When Jack kills a gunfighter in a showdown on the street, the dead man's relatives hire a young gunfighter to even the score. Meanwhile, Lucy, a young orphan girl arrives on the stage coach.
Couteau infiltrates a group of radical Indians in an attempt to apprehend their leader.
Two Pinkerton agents arrest Jack, claiming that he is really John McCarty, a member of the James Gang, who murdered a Pinkerton agent ten years earlier. Jack's cell door is mysteriously opened during the night, and when one of the agents is gunned down on the street, Jack becomes the prime suspect in that killing as well.
When a photographer is murdered, his young assistant is accused of the crime. Willie and Lucy secretly help him in an attempt to prove his innocence. The proof of the killer's identity lies in a photograph snapped at the moment the murder occurred.
Bordertown is about to have its first mayoral election, but rancher Henry Jordan is initially the only candidate, and he intends to remove Marshal Craddock and replace him with a rogue who is sympathetic to the ranchers. When the town's newspaper prints Jordan's intentions and endorces Zack Denny, who decides to join the race, the press is destroyed and the journalist injured.
Dom is deputized to watch over the town in Jack's and Clive's absence. A famous author, interested in experiencing the west first hand, becomes involved in a bank robbery. Sally is taken hostage by the outlaws, believing that she is the doctor.
The Rancher's Association is trying to convince the local rancher to join their organization. When Henry Jordan refuses, he is attacked and some of his horses are stolen. The Association offers to get the horses back, and shoots the two thieves to keep them silent. However, one of them is still alive.
When Artimus Boone is caught trying to sell a gun belt that once belonged to Lucas Craddock, Jack goes on a quest to confront his father's killer, and must come to terms with the fact that his father abandoned him as a child.
An old prospector is shot, but refuses to reveal his assailant. Fed up with Clive's and Jack's rivalry, Marie goes camping. Much of this episode is a dream sequence featuring Marie and the prospector, who has stolen a map that supposedly marks the location of buried gold.
Clive is offered a promotion to sergeant, but if he accepts the advancement, he will be reassigned to another post. He asks Marie to marry him, setting off a bitter dispute between him and Jack.
Clive's former flame, Anna, the wife of his deceased friend, stops in Bordertown to visit her husband's grave, and rekindles her relationship with the Mountie. Meanwhile, Jack and Clive break up a group of moonshiners, but one of them escapes, vowing revenge on Clive.
Clive and Anna plan their wedding. Delighted that his son is getting married, Clive's father arrives from Toronto to perform the ceremony. On the day of the wedding, the surviving moonshiner takes his revenge on Clive.
When Bat Masterson kills a member of an outlaw gang and uses Jack Craddock's name to collect the reward, the rest of the gang comes to Bordertown seeking revenge, culminating in a major gunfight on the streets of Bordertown.
Emile Chabrolet, a friend of Marie's from France, comes to town bringing with him bicycles that he wants her to sell in her store. Wendell has purchased a generator to supply the bank with electricity in an effort to discourage bank robbers. Most of the townspeople are excited about the electricity, but Jack is reluctant to accept the new invention. Meanwhile, Emile, who helps to install the power lines, has devised a unique plan that anables him to rob the bank.
Jack is assigned the task of escorting an affable prisoner into Canadian hands, but the prisoner is being pursued by a couple of thugs who want him to answer for American crimes. To make matters worse for the lawman, his prisoner is an escape artist who has enlisted the help of his girlfriend.
When a horse trader comes to town, Jack and Clive purchase a horse for Willie, but they are forced to arrest the trader when two men ride in to town claiming that the herd belongs to them.
Jack and Clive hire Couteau to track an outlaw who robbed a bank in Helena, but they are unaware that the outlaw is Couteau's brother, John. Couteau enlists Marie's help to tend to the wound John received, but they are followed by a bounty hunter interested in collecting the reward. In the fight that follows, McKay kills the bounty hunter and injures Marie.
Jack shoots a thief during a stagecoach robbery, but the thief turns out to be a local resident who was experiencing hard times, and was desperate to obtain money so he could hold on to his land. Although Jack rushes him to Marie for help, he dies from loss of blood. Embittered, his children threaten to kill Jack in revenge. Feeling responsible, Jack is compelled to help them find a way to retain possession of their land.
When Clive goes after the outlaws who wounded Jack and killed two other lawmen, his pistol misfires, blinding him. To elude the outlaws, he must rely on the help of a young woman he had run out of Bordertown years earlier.
The Marshal and the Mountie come across an Indian village in which all the Indians had mysteriously perished. Also in the village is a priest, who claims to be ministering to the dead. Meanwhile, Marie and Lucy find an unconscious Indian boy. While searching through the village, Couteau discovers the source of the tribe's demise
A farmer accuses Couteau of murdering a man who had wronged the Metis tribe of Indians. The farmer's son backs up his father's story, claiming to be a witness, even though he was not present when the shooting occurred.
Don Carlos comes to Bordertown to oversee the bounty hunter he has hired to eliminate Jack Craddock, but Jack intervenes by confiscating the money that was intended to pay the bounty. Unaware that she is placing Jack in danger, Marie returns the money to the Don in the hopes that he will leave town peacefully. Instead, he forwards the money to the killer, leading to a fatal shootout between the two men.
Marie's competence as a doctor is questioned when a patient dies of minor injuries. Gilbert claims controlling partnership in Marie's store.
An educated Cree Indian produces documents claiming that Bordertown belongs to the Cree Nation.
When a friend passes away, Jack deems the death suspicious, and summons the man's nephew, Arthur Harrington, to Bordertown to prevent the sale of the property to a rancher, who seems to have an unnatural desire to acquire the land. His suspicions prove correct when an attempt is made on Harrington's life.
Gilbert is challenged to a duel by a French peddler who recognizes him from an incident that occurred in France years earlier. Marie startles everyone by supplying the dueling pistols that had belonged to her late husband, but, unknown to the peddler, she devises a plan to prevent either of them from being killed.
On his way to Bordertown to assist Corporal Bennett in the delivery of a payroll wagon to Ft Walsh, a young Mountie is murdered by a gang who mistakenly believe he is carrying the payroll. Discovering their error, they assign their newest member the task of assuming the identity of the Mountie, and send him into Bordertown to join the escort. Clive leaves town with him and the payroll, unaware that he is being led into a trap.
Willie and Lucy stumble upon a dead body, and Jack and Clive track down a U.S. Marshal who has illegally entered Canada while chasing an escaped criminal.
After serving time in jail, Clive's old friend, Archie Stanton, comes to Bordertown to ask the favor of a job, insisting that Clive owes him for running out on him. While the Mountie considers it, Archie tells Marie through flashbacks all about the days he and Clive used to ride together.
On a stormy night in Bordertown, a gang of outlaws break into Marie's house demanding that she tend to their wounded member. Jack and Clive have been searching for them all night, and soon realize that they are holding Marie and Lucy hostage. With Archie's help, they formulate a plan to apprehend the outlaws, but a gunfight breaks out as they attempt to escape.
Joanna Radway offers a black farmer a fraction of what his property is worth, and when he refuses to sell, a couple of her hired thugs use violence in an effort to pursuade him. Jack's old friend, Isaac, is also working for Mrs. Radway as a hired hand, and when her two thugs finally convince the farmer to sell and then plan to kill him, Isaac kills them. Jack is forced to go after Isaac to arrest him for murder.
When a young cowboy becomes ill on Zack Denny's whiskey, the women of the town organize a revolt to close the saloon and destroy the whisky. Meanwhile, Marie discovers that the whiskey has been tainted with a chemical, but when she confronts the distributors, she is kidnapped by them.
When Willie finds a wooden grave marker in the cemetery with Jack Craddock's name on it, Jack disregards it as a prank. Distressed that Willie is leaving for Paris with his father, he decides to accompany them part of the way, but on the trail, they are apprehended by the brother of an outlaw Jack had killed, intending to kill the marshal on the same spot where the brother was buried.
After missing her last three mortgage payments, Sally is notified by Wendell that his superiors in Helena have ordered him to foreclose on her mortgage. While he is trying to find a solution, Wendell is approached by a potential buyer who intends to turn the structure into another saloon complete with dancing girls.
Returning from Helena, where she has joined her late husband's parents, Marie is forced to stay overnight at a stage stop during a storm. During the night, one of the travelers is found murdered with Charles Dumont's knife in his chest.
Returning with Marie and Clive from a party in a neighboring town, Jack is critically wounded by a criminal he had arrested while a Texas Ranger. Taking refuge in an abandoned cabin, the three friends are pinned down by the shooter and his cohorts. Realizing that Jack will die without help, Clive attempts to sneak out of the cabin, but he, too, is shot. It is up to the townspeople to deliver a ransom to the outlaws and free the lawmen and Marie.
This website uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
