"The Secret" is the seventeenth episode of season 1 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
On the way to the Indian reservation with Sully, Dr. Mike decides to check up on Ruby Johnson and they discover her dead and a young boy, Zack, hidden in the closet. Dr. Mike takes the child back with her and confronts the townsfolk, who reluctantly admit to knowing the boy's mother was one of Hank's “girls”. After she died, they sent Zack to live with Mrs. Johnson because he was "simple." While Sully, Matthew, and Brian are loading up the wagon with Mrs. Johnson's possessions, Brian finds an artistic drawing of a horse. Dr. Mike tries to get school clothes for Zack at the general store, but Loren says he can't go to school because he's a "simpleton". When she takes Zack to get a haircut, Jake calls him an "imbecile". In school, Olive sees the drawing Brian found and thinks he drew it. Dr. Mike also sees it and thinks the same thing. Zack is laughed at, bullied, and called an idiot by the other schoolchildren and runs away. When Sully and Brian go looking for Zack, they find him at Mrs. Johnson's as well as more drawings. Brian tells Zack everyone cries when they lose people they love, and Zack breaks down and is comforted by Brian. Dr. Mike is frustrated in her attempts to find a medical diagnosis and cure for Zack's condition. Hank gives Zack a job cleaning the saloon. Dr. Mike figures out that Hank is Zack's father. When she confronts him, he tells her to mind her own business and stick to doctoring. After the townspeople tell Hank that Zack needs to go somewhere else, Hank says Zack is staying right where he is and admits he is Zack's father. Zack gives Hank a drawing he made of a beautiful woman, and Hank stares at it then weeps quietly. The next day, Hank shows Dr. Mike the drawing. It is Clarice, Zack's mother. He says he wants to give the boy a proper home but knows it's not the saloon: “What do I do now Michaela?” Dr. Mike arranges to enroll Zack in an art school in Denver. The townspeople gather to say goodbye to Zack as he leaves on the stagecoach for Denver accompanied by Hank.
This episode provides examples of:
- Enemy Mine: Hank and Sully can't stand each other, but Sully leaps right in to help him fight the two jerks bullying Zack, even yelling a warning to him when one of them draws a knife. Afterwards, they briefly nod to each other.
- One-Shot Character: Hank's son Zack, who leaves to attend an art school in Denver, and is never heard of again.
- The Lost Lenore: Hanks reaction to the picture of Zack's mother indicates that he loved her very much.
- Papa Wolf: Hank does several things on Zack's behalf, tipping Mike off to the fact that he's the boy's father before he admits it.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Ruby Johnson's death triggers the episode's story.
- Son of a Whore: Zach's mother was one of Hank's "girls".
