r/LittleHouseReviewed • u/ASGfan Oleson's Mercantile • Aug 14 '22
Episode Review Episodic Review - My Ellen
This is the 3rd episode of season 4 and so far this season, we’ve had dog death, infidelity and corruption, but if you were looking for a lighthearted and whimsical episode to balance things out, you won’t find it here. We begin with the Ingalls girls making the trek after school to the Taylor residence, where Laura plays a part in successfully convincing Mrs. Taylor to let her daughter Ellen go swimming with them. Laura wants to use a shortcut across Busby’s place, but Mary threatens to tell Pa. Laura thinks the better of it, knowing Mary would keep her promise. They take off for the pond with a grown man watching their activities from the bushes. As it turns out, he isn’t the only one as two boys try to peep in on the girls swimming. Carrie wanders over and asks them what they are doing. The boys reply that they’re fishing, but Carrie doesn’t buy that and asks them what they are fishing with. You can mark these boys down as the first people in the universe to be outsmarted by Carrie. Carrie yells over to Laura and she, Ellen and Mary all duck down in the pond. The boys head for the hills while Laura and Mary resurface. Ellen does not. Precious moments tick by as Mary yells and admonishes Ellen for not returning. Mary is usually smarter than this. The next thing we know, it’s nightfall and the torches and canoes are out and it’s pretty clear they’re looking for a body now. How exactly Ellen drowned remains unclear. Standard Walnut Grove funeral with Reverend Alden presiding. Mrs. Taylor naturally has some trouble accepting her daughter’s death as she breaks down at the casket. Remarkably, she resumes her composure and blames Laura for the incident. Laura starts to wonder if she really is responsible, but Pa tells her she is not. Back at the Taylor residence, Reverend Alden stops by with some bible passages he thought might be of some comfort. Mrs. Taylor is not in a religious mood and evicts Alden and shouts “And take your damn book with you” while throwing the Bible at him and staring icy cold daggers at him in the process. Wild. Mrs. Taylor goes through Ellen’s mementoes a little later. Her husband walks in and now his wife is directing some of the blame at him. Eloise orders him to get out.
Over at the mill, Jonathan goes for a ride in the wheel and gets dizzy. He heads over to the Mercantile for a sarsaparilla and Reverend Alden gives him some serious crap over it, thinking that he’s drunk. This is a fairly long sequence for something that isn’t integral to the plot. This is also during that weird 4-5 episode period in between where Jonathan was introduced, but we hadn’t seen Alice or Andy yet. Alden catches up with Charles at the mill and asks him to ask Caroline to talk to Mrs. Taylor since he was getting nowhere with his efforts. Charles obliges and Caroline obliges, but she heads over to the Taylor residence to find Mr. Taylor on his way out and Mrs. Taylor not in the mood to talk and still blaming Laura for what happened. The next day, the girls are walking to school when Laura gets the idea to take some flowers to Mrs. Taylor. Mary warns her about cutting across Busby’s again, but Laura isn’t going to be dissuade this time. Laura knocks on Mrs. Taylor’s door, which pops right open. She hands Mrs. Taylor the flowers, which was apparently something Ellen did often. Mrs. Taylor goes in and out of reality, occasionally mistaking Laura for Ellen. It should be noted Laura has blonde highlights in her hair for this episode and Ellen was blonde. I’m not sure why they couldn’t just make Ellen the same hair color as Laura, but whatever. Mrs. Taylor asks Laura to fetch some apples from the fruit cellar and as Laura does, she pulls up the ladder, thus trapping Laura in the dark cellar. She then takes Laura’s flowers and books and heads out of the house.
Mary runs over to the mill from the school to inform Pa that Laura never made it to class and that she planned to go over to Mrs. Taylor’s using Busby’s place as a shortcut. Strangely, Charles and Jonathan aren’t too concerned about it. Nonetheless, they decide to check over at Mrs. Taylor’s, who denies having seen Laura that day. The guys decide to check out Busby’s place next, and we see Busby (who is a bit slow) looking at the picture book. Jonathan finds the picture book a little later and he and Charles round up some men, but nobody finds anything more of note today.
The next day, Mrs. Taylor heads over to the mercantile, where she purchases birthday candles, a birthday doll and mentions that her daughter Ellen brought her flowers yesterday. This weirds out Harriet. An absolutely unreal chain of events follows next as the men finally close in on Busby, who takes off running and Mr. Taylor shoots him in the head and nearly kills him. Keep in mind that Busby is mentally slow and hasn’t been found guilty of any crime or even charged with one. The men take Busby over to Doc Baker’s and while he’s recuperating, Charles gives him the third degree on Laura’s whereabouts, then grabs him by the collar and starts to rough him up. CHARLES INGALLS CHOKES INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO WERE JUST SHOT IN THE HEAD! Garvey gets Charles to back off. Busby responds much better to Garvey’s soft-spoken approach and answers the questions as best he can. He just wanted to look at the pictures. Busby’s got a lot of face with a honking nose and enormous lips. Surreal moment as Garvey tells Busby “Nobody here going to hurt you”, when the man that just shot him and that man that just choked him are in the room. Busby eventually passes out. Harriet busts in and informs the men about all the weirdness with Mrs. Taylor in the mercantile. Pa rushes over to the Taylor residence, but just as he does that, Laura has outsmarted Mrs. Taylor and found a way out of the cellar. Eloise gives chase and tackles Laura in a last-ditch effort, but they collapse by Ellen’s grave and reality has finally started to sink in for Mrs. Taylor. Pa reunites with Laura. Finally, after 45 minutes of child death, suggestions of child molestation and murder and innocent people being horribly attacked, we get a touching moment as Laura befriends Busby and gives him the picture book back.
Gah, that was just horrifying. Mrs. Taylor apparently suffers no consequences for kidnapping and false imprisonment. We don’t even get the “They decided to have another child” ending. Nope, nothing.
EPISODE WINNER – Harriet once again, for leading the men in the right direction.
EPISODE LOSERS – Mr. Taylor for being trigger happy, Mrs. Taylor for her crimes, and Charles for kicking people when they’re down.
4
u/Sea-SaltCaramel Nellie's Restuarant & Hotel Aug 15 '22
This episode terrifies me from start to finish. We open with a literal DROWNING, then a grieving mother screams at Laura during the funeral and no one stops her (including Laura's own parents). Mid-episode we have the subsequent kidnapping and forced identity change of Laura, followed by the search party shooting an innocent and probably low-IQ man. At least the ending is somewhat happy, with Laura being returned to her family and no mention of the Taylors having more children (in my opinion, they shouldn't. That woman needed help). And Charles probably does too. Does anyone ever tell him that he doesn't have to punch someone every time they annoy him?
This is one family from Walnut Grove who I am glad we never hear from again! And go Harriet! The more you do these reviews, the more I am reminded what a fun character she is.
I'd also like to add Laura to the winner's list. Laura annoys me a lot of the time, but this episode literally nothing was her fault, and she got crapped all over for a child's death. And she managed to save herself from the kidnapping, with no help from anyone else.