Previously on Little House, Mary's eyesight was becoming an issue. She thought it brought on from studying too hard, but after hearing she'd had scarlet fever, Dr. Burke was sure that Mary was losing her sight. It wasn't long before Mary had to cope with blindness and faced having to be sent away to a school in Iowa. Meanwhile Walnut Grove had hit the skids with the railroad war and the mill being shut down. Let's hope at least one of these problems can be solved as we rejoin the Ingallses for the second part of the most gut-wrenching Little House episode of all. We open with Mary being signed up at the very fancy blind school in Iowa. Right away, she met her teacher, Adam Kendall, a no-nonsense young fellow who was blinded in a terrible accident. He shows Mary to her room just as Charles comes to say goodbye, and he was told to make it as brief as possible to spare both of them any further pain, so he quickly leaves Mary, despite her vehement protests. Adam attempts to reach out to Mary over a lovely dinner in her room, with which she quickly decorated the carpet. Looks like Adam has his work cut out for him. A new student and a difficult one at that. But as time went on, Mary became more accustomed, and Adam was strict. He had her make a bed, then remake it when she left a few wrinkles. He taught her proper table manners and even how to read braille. When this news reached Charles and Caroline, they were ecstatic. Yep, Mary was a changed woman, owed in big part to Adam, as well as herself for not giving up and believing. Soon, it was time for Mary to go home, and Adam was leaving too, to start a new blind school in Winoka and he asked for Mary to come along and be a teacher. Her dream was coming true.
The notion of going to Winoka got Charles thinking. With Walnut Grove in the state it was in: the bank was closed, Hanson's mill was closed down, even Oleson's Mercantile was on the verge of closing, no work anywhere, the prospect of going to Winoka to seek work sounded too good to Charles. But Caroline was not so sure. Being country folk, going to a city like Winoka sounded like a big step. She agreed, and they raced over to the school to wake up Mary and tell her the news. So after bidding a farewell to Adam, her new love, Mary joined her folks on the trip back to Walnut Grove, which was slowly beginning to resemble a ghost town. Even the school closed and Mrs. Simms (Miss Beadle) was moving on, but not without first congratulating Mary. Many folks in town would be moving on, which Reverend Alden emotionally addressed in his Sunday sermon, and seeing as how it would be her last day in town, Mary was invited to come up and lead the congregation in prayer. She assured them that even though they would all be leaving, they would all one day be reunited in the God's house.
Well done episode in every sense. Especially the performances of both Melissa Sue Anderson and Linwood Boomer (Adam), who would one day go on to bring us Malcolm in the Middle. This episode is loosely based on real-life events. Mary Ingalls did lose her sight, but she never got married. She attended school until the age of 24 and moved back home. I'm glad a happier path has been written for her here. This was also originally intended to be the series finale until it was picked up again at the last minute, and we're all glad it was, for this would have been quite the bittersweet note to go out on.
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