Well, folks, this is it. This is the big one. The most controversial episode of Little House on the Prairie ever made. Brace yourselves, people, and grab the Kleenex. Here we go... life had been good to Mary Ingalls, except for her going blind, but that was a bittersweet occurrence, for she met the love of her life, Adam Kendall, and with his help, she fulfilled her dream of becoming a teacher, and they had a beautiful son named Charles Adam Kendall. Yep, things were going great...but little did anybody know or could they even begin to comprehend the sheer horror and macabre that would be experienced that one awful, bright and sunny day at the school's first annual charity picnic. Everybody was having a great time, so Albert and his hooligan pal Clay slip away down to the basement and take a few hits off of a pipe (tobacco pipe), but they're soon caught by Hester-Sue, and they scurry back upstairs...UH OH! They forgot to put out the pipe! That could start a fire. And brother, that's exactly what it did. While Mary was putting the baby to sleep with a musical lullaby box, Adam had tea with Hester-Sue and Alice, when they smelled smoke. Noticing it coming from the basement door, Hester-Sue went to investigate and saw the basement was engulfed in flames. Did they coat it with kerosene or something? How could a fire spread that quickly?
Panic spread throughout. Adam rushed up to get Mary and they ran out...hey, you forgot your baby, you idiots! Doesn't matter if you're sighted or not, you don't leave your child behind! So, as Alice and Hester-Sue helped evacuate the children, Alice suddenly remembered Mary and Adam's baby. Good to know somebody still has all their brains. She procured the infant, but by now the entire building was a blazing inferno, and Alice had no way out. The window! Alice tries to break out...no, that's a baby, stupid, not a battering ram! So, Alice and the baby burned to death, and by morning, the building was a pile of cinders. Charles and Doc Baker soon discover the culprit: a stupid pipe. Needless to say, the Ingalls', the Garveys and the Kendalls were traumatized by this, especially Mary, who had suffered a deep shock. Albert also felt extreme guilt...gee, I wonder why. While at Nellie's hotel, Mary experiences temporary amnesia and when it comes back to her, that her baby was gone, she absolutely flipped her wig. Yeah, Mary was hurting. Jonathan, meanwhile, had lost his faith and turned to the bottle to drown his sorrows, and he lashed out at Andrew for no good reason. Everybody was hurting, and sad as things were now, this was only the beginning...
This is the grand champion of dramatic, tear-jerking Little House episodes. If you can stomach this one, you can take anything. But as dramatic and sad as this episode is, it's also ridiculously over-the-top. Why does it even exist? Why did Michael Landon think this was a good idea? Killing off Alice Garvey and Mary's baby in such a brutal way? I'm sure Hersha Parady wanted to leave the show, but did they have to kill off her character? What's disturbing is that even to this day, Parady jokes about that scene of her using the prop baby to break the glass window. That's weird. Plus, it's beyond stupid that Mary and Adam would abandon their baby to save themselves from that fire. Just beyond stupid. It's also impossible for a fire to turn from a smoking patch to a blazing inferno in only a few minutes without the aid of chemicals. I wouldn't really recommend this one. It's over-the-top, overly dramatic, and it can really make you angry. May We Make Them Proud? Try harder. Stay tuned for Part 2.
Panic spread throughout. Adam rushed up to get Mary and they ran out...hey, you forgot your baby, you idiots! Doesn't matter if you're sighted or not, you don't leave your child behind! So, as Alice and Hester-Sue helped evacuate the children, Alice suddenly remembered Mary and Adam's baby. Good to know somebody still has all their brains. She procured the infant, but by now the entire building was a blazing inferno, and Alice had no way out. The window! Alice tries to break out...no, that's a baby, stupid, not a battering ram! So, Alice and the baby burned to death, and by morning, the building was a pile of cinders. Charles and Doc Baker soon discover the culprit: a stupid pipe. Needless to say, the Ingalls', the Garveys and the Kendalls were traumatized by this, especially Mary, who had suffered a deep shock. Albert also felt extreme guilt...gee, I wonder why. While at Nellie's hotel, Mary experiences temporary amnesia and when it comes back to her, that her baby was gone, she absolutely flipped her wig. Yeah, Mary was hurting. Jonathan, meanwhile, had lost his faith and turned to the bottle to drown his sorrows, and he lashed out at Andrew for no good reason. Everybody was hurting, and sad as things were now, this was only the beginning...
This is the grand champion of dramatic, tear-jerking Little House episodes. If you can stomach this one, you can take anything. But as dramatic and sad as this episode is, it's also ridiculously over-the-top. Why does it even exist? Why did Michael Landon think this was a good idea? Killing off Alice Garvey and Mary's baby in such a brutal way? I'm sure Hersha Parady wanted to leave the show, but did they have to kill off her character? What's disturbing is that even to this day, Parady jokes about that scene of her using the prop baby to break the glass window. That's weird. Plus, it's beyond stupid that Mary and Adam would abandon their baby to save themselves from that fire. Just beyond stupid. It's also impossible for a fire to turn from a smoking patch to a blazing inferno in only a few minutes without the aid of chemicals. I wouldn't really recommend this one. It's over-the-top, overly dramatic, and it can really make you angry. May We Make Them Proud? Try harder. Stay tuned for Part 2.