Beaver and Larry play a trick on a younger boy, "Bengie", instilling in him the unshakeable conviction that Beaver has been transmogrified into a rock. The boy takes the rock home and, sweetly worried about Beaver in his altered state, attempts to care for it like a pet. He tells his mom "A fat kid turned him" or something to that effect. Bengie's mother worries about it maybe a tad too much and shows up at the Cleaver residence bright and early the next morning with Bengie and the rock in tow, to set things straight. Circumstances conspire to thwart her, lol.
It was heart-warming that all the adults were so concerned about Bengie's emotional distress, going so far as to retrieve the Beaver early from his weekend with Aunt Martha, driving several hours round-trip to do so, in order to put Bengie's mind at ease. They wouldn't have gone to such lengths to soothe a child in Aunt Martha's day. Or maybe they would have--Bengie is just at that right age where grown-ups can't help themselves from bending over backwards for him. I have a feeling the Beaver didn't mind having to cut his visit short too much, as Aunt Martha was making him parade around in a tie and clean socks.
Overall the episode was cute and felt like a very real slice of a child's imaginative life. Where it fails is with some of the mind-bogglingly stilted dialogue. June is packing a suitcase for the Beaver's weekend sojourn, and every time she walks in the room Wally has to know "What're you doing?" "What's that junk for?" "What're you doing now?" Wally ALREADY KNOWS his brother is going to visit their Aunt Martha; his mother is putting CLOTHES into a SUITCASE--what does he think is going on? Good grief open your frickin' eyes and use your frickin' brain, Wally. A case where the writers put dumb dialogue into a character's mouth for the purpose of extracting exposition from another character. And then at the end Wally and the Beaver have a little convo mulling over the episode's events, with a lot of "You know, you shouldn't have blah blah blah" and "You know, when you're a kid blah blah blah" in that stilted way that people of any age didn't speak then or now. Then they turn away from each other and get into their respective beds at exactly the same time and in perfect synchronicity as if they'd been rehearsing it.
It was heart-warming that all the adults were so concerned about Bengie's emotional distress, going so far as to retrieve the Beaver early from his weekend with Aunt Martha, driving several hours round-trip to do so, in order to put Bengie's mind at ease. They wouldn't have gone to such lengths to soothe a child in Aunt Martha's day. Or maybe they would have--Bengie is just at that right age where grown-ups can't help themselves from bending over backwards for him. I have a feeling the Beaver didn't mind having to cut his visit short too much, as Aunt Martha was making him parade around in a tie and clean socks.
Overall the episode was cute and felt like a very real slice of a child's imaginative life. Where it fails is with some of the mind-bogglingly stilted dialogue. June is packing a suitcase for the Beaver's weekend sojourn, and every time she walks in the room Wally has to know "What're you doing?" "What's that junk for?" "What're you doing now?" Wally ALREADY KNOWS his brother is going to visit their Aunt Martha; his mother is putting CLOTHES into a SUITCASE--what does he think is going on? Good grief open your frickin' eyes and use your frickin' brain, Wally. A case where the writers put dumb dialogue into a character's mouth for the purpose of extracting exposition from another character. And then at the end Wally and the Beaver have a little convo mulling over the episode's events, with a lot of "You know, you shouldn't have blah blah blah" and "You know, when you're a kid blah blah blah" in that stilted way that people of any age didn't speak then or now. Then they turn away from each other and get into their respective beds at exactly the same time and in perfect synchronicity as if they'd been rehearsing it.