A New Beginning was a fine episode overall. It features Jonathan and Andrew Garvey moving to Sleepy Eye where Jonathan has bought a freight business. Immediately he is introduced to a Pete Rawlins, who he learns is not the town's official sheriff, but a private cop who doesn't press Jonathan when he says he doesn't want to hire his services. We see a group of street hooligans, who appear to be in the 16-19 age range. Their leader is Tim Mahoney, whose father owns a big farm.
Their first night in their new home sees the Garveys dining at the blind school with the Kendalls. Andy is almost silent. Back in their room upstairs at the freight business, he says that although he knows it's wrong, he still blames the Kendalls for his mother's death in the fire a few months ago. As writers on this series' message board have filled many posts, there is much blame to go around for that one.
Later, we see the hooligans break into the freight office and take several boxes of items. Jonathan hears them and gets only a glimpse as they race away in their buggy. Jonathan finds the sheriff sleeping in one of his cells. He is an old man who says that without him having seen who did it, he can't do anything. We learn that, like in many Westerns, the "sheriff" is like a modern day police chief—hired by the city, not elected by the county as they normally are in the real world.
Jonathan winds up being a part-time deputy, for an extra $30 a month. He goes to the Mahoney home and is given permission by Mr. Mahoney to search his son's room and the adjacent attic, where he finds some stolen merchandise. The son insists he never robbed Garvey and only committed one act of theft. His father, who is a good man, wants to believe his son, and offers to make good on the merchandise stolen that was not returned to the one man whose property was found.
Now I'm not looking for J. Edgar Hoover here, but it seems like before they agree on anything about not charging this young man, the other people in his gang need to be questioned and there should be questions about what he did with the merchandise in his "one theft" that wasn't recovered. The sheriff may have been reluctant to go into the night after thieves who might shoot him, but he should have been willing to let his deputy bring in the rest of the gang for questioning.
Instead the charges are dropped. When Charles makes a delivery to Sleepy Eye, Jonathan gives him a list of all the stolen goods, and sure enough, he sees some at Oleson's, where he learns Harriet has made a great deal on a tea service from a store in another town. Charles goes there and gets a description of the man who sold that set to the store—it fits that Mr. Rawlins' description.
Now to me, this is not really a spoiler since there was really no other character around who seemed like a possible candidate as the "fence" of Sleepy Eye. I'm trying not to describe everything, but a lot happened here. Rawlins is carted away in a prison wagon and Tim and Co. beat up Andy Garvey. Now I don't claim to be a lawyer, but it seemed odd to me that the charge of "aggravated assault" apparently wasn't on the Sleepy Eye or Minnesota state books at the time because the only consequence to Tim is that Mr. Mahoney publicly disowns his son.
The rest of the story deals with an attempted bank robbery, with the standard 1970s-and-beyond Hollywood "lesson" about how bad things happen when good guys have guns. Given everything we had seen, I felt like cheering when the shooting occurred. Well, maybe not cheering, but it did seem a fitting ending.
Despite the flaws and inaccuracies, it was a very entertaining episode, so I gave it an 8.
Their first night in their new home sees the Garveys dining at the blind school with the Kendalls. Andy is almost silent. Back in their room upstairs at the freight business, he says that although he knows it's wrong, he still blames the Kendalls for his mother's death in the fire a few months ago. As writers on this series' message board have filled many posts, there is much blame to go around for that one.
Later, we see the hooligans break into the freight office and take several boxes of items. Jonathan hears them and gets only a glimpse as they race away in their buggy. Jonathan finds the sheriff sleeping in one of his cells. He is an old man who says that without him having seen who did it, he can't do anything. We learn that, like in many Westerns, the "sheriff" is like a modern day police chief—hired by the city, not elected by the county as they normally are in the real world.
Jonathan winds up being a part-time deputy, for an extra $30 a month. He goes to the Mahoney home and is given permission by Mr. Mahoney to search his son's room and the adjacent attic, where he finds some stolen merchandise. The son insists he never robbed Garvey and only committed one act of theft. His father, who is a good man, wants to believe his son, and offers to make good on the merchandise stolen that was not returned to the one man whose property was found.
Now I'm not looking for J. Edgar Hoover here, but it seems like before they agree on anything about not charging this young man, the other people in his gang need to be questioned and there should be questions about what he did with the merchandise in his "one theft" that wasn't recovered. The sheriff may have been reluctant to go into the night after thieves who might shoot him, but he should have been willing to let his deputy bring in the rest of the gang for questioning.
Instead the charges are dropped. When Charles makes a delivery to Sleepy Eye, Jonathan gives him a list of all the stolen goods, and sure enough, he sees some at Oleson's, where he learns Harriet has made a great deal on a tea service from a store in another town. Charles goes there and gets a description of the man who sold that set to the store—it fits that Mr. Rawlins' description.
Now to me, this is not really a spoiler since there was really no other character around who seemed like a possible candidate as the "fence" of Sleepy Eye. I'm trying not to describe everything, but a lot happened here. Rawlins is carted away in a prison wagon and Tim and Co. beat up Andy Garvey. Now I don't claim to be a lawyer, but it seemed odd to me that the charge of "aggravated assault" apparently wasn't on the Sleepy Eye or Minnesota state books at the time because the only consequence to Tim is that Mr. Mahoney publicly disowns his son.
The rest of the story deals with an attempted bank robbery, with the standard 1970s-and-beyond Hollywood "lesson" about how bad things happen when good guys have guns. Given everything we had seen, I felt like cheering when the shooting occurred. Well, maybe not cheering, but it did seem a fitting ending.
Despite the flaws and inaccuracies, it was a very entertaining episode, so I gave it an 8.
