Judge not a man by the color of his skin, but by the actions of his heart. A good piece of advice that most people do not adhere to. On this day, the Walnut Grove town council was to vote on whether or not Joe Kagen would be accepted into their church. Charles, Jonathan and Doc Baker had always voted in his favor, but Harriet and Larabee, the town's heated bigots, kept voting against it, with Nels always caught in the middle and his vote being decided by his wife. Not tonight, however. After putting up with that fat bitch's racism and hatred, Nels finally stood up for himself and voted in Joe's favor. While Joe rejoiced that he could join his friends on Sunday, back in Winoka, Mary and Adam are dropped a bombshell: the blind school, was going to be shut down. A private benefactor bailed out the church, who owned the school building, and this person wanted the property. Who would be so ruthless as to do such a thing? It was the evil super-villain, Mr. Standish. He had plans to convert the school into yet another hotel. They had nowhere else to go, so it looks as though the blind school may have to close down for good. Mary wrote home about it, and Reverend Alden had the answer: Mr. Hanson's old house. The place was huge and since his estate was left to the church when he died and Alden was unable to sell it, he would give it to Adam and Mary for their new school. Now, the episode "Welcome to Olesonville" in Season 9 completely contradicts everything mentioned above for some reason. Anyway, the congregation agreed, so it looks as though the blind school will relocate to Walnut Grove.
The citizens of the Grove jumped into repairing the old Hanson estate. Charles received another telegram from Mary, saying that they were joining with a second blind school operated by a Mrs. Hester Sue Terhune. When Harriet heard that name, she was overjoyed. A St. Louis Terhune, part of a very upper crust crowd. So while prepared to fawn all over her new best friend, Charles and Joe went to Winoka to help the school move. Come to find out, the team Adam procured for the drive were in very poor shape. It was all the doing of Mr. Standish, who traded him the team for all the school's furnishings. Swindling blind people, Standish has hit a new low, even for him. Charles, Joe and the poor man's stallions waltzed right into Standish's gambling den and exposed the old man's trickery for all the customers to see. Standish immediately jumped to defend himself and let Charles and Joe select any horses and wagon from the livery. So after that confusion was all settled, they all prepared to leave. Unfortunately there was one last obstacle for the group to overcome: Harriet Oleson, having arrived by stage and wanted to ride home with them to properly greet Hester Sue. So they all set off, and something I find strange is that the kids, Mary and Adam were made to walk behind the wagons. They can't really expect them to be able to walk all the way from Winoka to Walnut Grove. That's a several day trip. Oh well, at least there will be some entertainment in the form of Harriet, when she wasn't whining about the trip, she was falling into rivers. Something tells me it's gonna be a long, long journey.
So ends Part I. This episode shows what a generous community they have in Walnut Grove, how everybody is very giving and very excepting, and I don't include Harriet in either of those instances. Just by the fact that they excepted Joe Kagen and that they donated Hanson's old mansion to the blind school, you can really see how generous the folks of Walnut Grove really can be. As for performances, Moses Gunn was pretty good as Joe Kagen, and Katherine MacGregor was once again scene-stealing as Harriet, who is still a raging bigot and does not respect the feelings of those around her. This was the final appearance of Leon Charles as Mr. Standish, truly one of this show's most ruthless characters, and Leon pulled it off so well. So in Part II, we'll meet Hester Sue, and won't Harriet be in for a surprise.
The citizens of the Grove jumped into repairing the old Hanson estate. Charles received another telegram from Mary, saying that they were joining with a second blind school operated by a Mrs. Hester Sue Terhune. When Harriet heard that name, she was overjoyed. A St. Louis Terhune, part of a very upper crust crowd. So while prepared to fawn all over her new best friend, Charles and Joe went to Winoka to help the school move. Come to find out, the team Adam procured for the drive were in very poor shape. It was all the doing of Mr. Standish, who traded him the team for all the school's furnishings. Swindling blind people, Standish has hit a new low, even for him. Charles, Joe and the poor man's stallions waltzed right into Standish's gambling den and exposed the old man's trickery for all the customers to see. Standish immediately jumped to defend himself and let Charles and Joe select any horses and wagon from the livery. So after that confusion was all settled, they all prepared to leave. Unfortunately there was one last obstacle for the group to overcome: Harriet Oleson, having arrived by stage and wanted to ride home with them to properly greet Hester Sue. So they all set off, and something I find strange is that the kids, Mary and Adam were made to walk behind the wagons. They can't really expect them to be able to walk all the way from Winoka to Walnut Grove. That's a several day trip. Oh well, at least there will be some entertainment in the form of Harriet, when she wasn't whining about the trip, she was falling into rivers. Something tells me it's gonna be a long, long journey.
So ends Part I. This episode shows what a generous community they have in Walnut Grove, how everybody is very giving and very excepting, and I don't include Harriet in either of those instances. Just by the fact that they excepted Joe Kagen and that they donated Hanson's old mansion to the blind school, you can really see how generous the folks of Walnut Grove really can be. As for performances, Moses Gunn was pretty good as Joe Kagen, and Katherine MacGregor was once again scene-stealing as Harriet, who is still a raging bigot and does not respect the feelings of those around her. This was the final appearance of Leon Charles as Mr. Standish, truly one of this show's most ruthless characters, and Leon pulled it off so well. So in Part II, we'll meet Hester Sue, and won't Harriet be in for a surprise.
