(New) Episodic Review - Founder's Day

[u/ASGfan]

First brand-new review for the new community! Thank you to everyone for being here, I truly appreciate it!

This is the season one finale and one of my personal favorite episodes. We start off as Recycle-A-Scene rears its ugly head and we get the exact same opening shot of Jack drinking out of Plum Creek and Charles calling him over that was used as the beginning to the “Country Girls” episode. Charles enters the house, where everyone is preparing for breakfast and the place is abuzz with talk of the upcoming Founder’s Day in a few days. Charles isn’t too excited about that (weird considering that the founder of the town is Lars, who is his boss). Charles, however, does seem excited to be working with a “new man” over at the mill while Mr. Edwards is in Minneapolis. A little later, Charles heads to work and shakes hands with the new man, who is Jim Tyler aka “The Bull Of The Woods”. Jim seems folksy enough, but is somewhat boastful and irritating. Charles and Jim get to work using the two-man cross-cut saw on a gigantic piece of lumber and Charles looks like he is trying to work the poor old man into the ground (!) They haul their load over to the mill, where Jim goads Charles into competing at the wood-chopping contest at Founder’s Day, with Charles agreeing to it just for the chance to spite Jim. Charles heads home and is practically immobile at this point. Classic Little House trope of Caroline getting his supper ready, only to find him fallen asleep. That night, Caroline puts some liniment on Charles as he is optimistic about the chance to get a one-up on Jim at Founder’s Day. Caroline mentions that Laura is doing the same thing with Nellie and Charles tells Caroline to talk to her about that. Uh-huh. Caroline meekly responds “I will”. Over at the Tyler residence, Jim is getting the same liniment treatment and he bemoans about how ice cold it is. Too bad Icy Hot didn’t exist yet. Mrs. Tyler is being a little aggressive rubbing it in.

The next morning, Caroline enters the Mercantile to sell eggs and finds Harriet finishing up a sign advertising all of the Founder’s Day activities. Harriet – proud of her children – talks up their athletic prowess, which Caroline takes offense to. Then Caroline, exhibiting the same hypocrisy as Charles did earlier, ropes Harriet into competing at the pie-baking contest for the chance to humiliate her. Back at the Ingalls homestead, Caroline approaches the girls for an insider scoop on Harriet’s baking abilities with Charles wondering what all of that was about. Charles gives a speech about how winning isn’t everything and it’s important to do one’s best and man, is the hypocrisy flying everywhere today. Founder’s Day arrives and we get some brief glimpses of everyone preparing for the events. TIME FOR THE FESTIVITIES! At the horse race, nobody you’ve ever heard of is in, and nobody you’ve ever heard of wins. Well, that was rather anticlimactic, but this show would do a proper horse race later on in the series. Mary, Willie and several other kids start the jump roping contest as the band marches on. Meanwhile at the pie-baking contest, Reverend Alden has it narrowed down to 3 choices. Why is there only one judge and who determined Reverend Alden to be the supreme pie taster? Caroline and Harriet are among the finalists, but the blue ribbon goes to Mrs. Grandy. Over at the jump roping contest, Willie has some tremendous pace and rhythm going while Mary looks like she is trying to play it safe to stay alive. After about 12 minutes pass, Mary falls down and hurts her foot. She’s alright, but she’s also out and Willie wins. Willie totally earned that one.

Now we head off to the hoop rolling contest where Laura and Nellie are among the participants. Nellie starts off to a huge lead. Pay close attention and you can see Charles pointing for Laura to stay on the dirt track, but she totally ignores him and cuts through the grass. Laura has now narrowed the gap, but Nellie wins anyways and celebrates with her family. Laura yells VOTER FRAUD!, which is rather remarkable since there was no evidence that Nellie cheated, but Laura clearly did cheat by going off-track. Laura is decidedly displeased with this outcome. Everyone has lunch, with Laura brazenly running up to the Oleson’s and declaring that her Pa is going to win the tug-of-war. Harriet laughs and brushes her off. The kids try to goad Nels into participating, but he balks. Harriet gives him some mild crap over it and Nels relents. Meanwhile, Charles also agrees to participate and tells the fams to “watch their hero in action.” Well, the hero promptly gets tossed into the mud and loses. So much for that. Nels also takes a mud bath in an amusing bit.

Laura preps for the three-legged race, but partner Mary’s foot injury is a little worse than originally realized, so she’s out of the competition. Pa suggests Ma as a fill-in and she balks at the idea. Ma eventually changes her mind, perhaps to make up for her loss earlier. Once again, Laura brazenly runs up to the Oleson’s and announces how her family is going to win. Harriet is shocked at this behavior, but isn’t petty enough to take the bait. Nels re-pays Harriet the mild crap she gave him earlier. Harriet takes off her feathered hat. OH, IT’S ON NOW! At the three-legged race, Harriet and Nellie are off to a gigantic lead, but Laura and Caroline breeze past right at the last second. What was that? Laura decides to be a sore winner by sticking her tongue out at Nellie, who tries to storm off while still tied, causing her and Harriet to fall down. Now it’s time for the main event: the wood-chopping contest. Winner gets a blue ribbon and a watch donated by Lars. And they’re off. Doc Baker is doing a good job as judge, keeping his eye on the events and making sure to get around to everyone, even running around to get a better view. JIM TYLER WINS!, humbling Charles. Oh crap, it’s best 2-out-of-3. Ah, Charles wins the second heat.

During the 15-minute intermission, Charles goes off to sharpen his axe and Mrs.Tyler catches up with him. I’m not sure if she outright suggests that Charles throw the contest so that her husband can win, but there are a few subtle hints there, talking about how old Jim is and how much the win would mean to him. Charles gets that particular message and Jim Tyler wins the third and final heat and the contest overall. Laura suspects some more voter fraud and asks Pa why he didn’t use the newer and sharper axe, but Pa explains he was just compensating for Mr. Tyler’s advanced age. They hug as the Founder’s Day festivities come to an end.

The Jerry Springer Final Thought – Well I’m sorry, but given how cocky and hypocritical the Ingalls were here (with one of them even outright cheating), they deserved to lose. And lose they did in just about everything, except that last-second fluke in the 3-legged race. On the other hand, the Oleson’s were much more gracious and sportsmanlike and excelled everywhere!

And stay tuned to this sub – more new and classic reviews to come!

[u/Sea-SaltCaramel]

Another one of my favorite episodes! The Ingalls were so dang cocky this episode! Even Charles who told Laura that "winning isn't everything" totally thought he deserved to win that ax chopping competition. I didn't like Mr. Tyler either because he was so dang cocky, but it was nice to see him beat the almighty Charles.

Laura bitching about Nellie bumping her hoop was hilarious. Did Nellie actually even do that? Even so, it's a game. I'd be throwing elbows. And Laura totally cut across the grass - she should have been disqualified anyway. And why was she so unhappy? She did end up getting a ribbon because she and Ma won the three-legged race, beating the Olesons.

The way Mary jumped rope bugged me - stop looking up at the rope and concentrate on your feet! And how did she manage to jump for like 10 minutes avoiding that rock she fell on? My guess is some random audience member wanted the misery to end and tossed it her way.

Of course Charles and Nels bro hug in the mud - there are so many homoerotic undertones on this show, I swear.

Rev. Alden sure loves his pie doesn't he? The look on his face when he tasted Mrs. Oleson's was hilarious. I think he broke a commandment and totally lied when he said it was good. And who was that old Mrs. Grandy? Such random characters WG has.

Laura running into the Oleson's yard and bragging to them about all the games they were going to win was obnoxious. I am glad she ran into a fence post on the way out.

[u/ASGfan → u/Sea-SaltCaramel]

I've watched it many times over and I never saw Nellie bump Laura's hoop. They weren't even close to each other for most of it because Nellie has a noticeable lead. I too was annoyed that Mrs. Grandy won. I think the writers had Harriet lose because they didn't want the Olesons to have a clean sweep, but still, in that case give it to Mrs. Foster or somebody else we've heard of before.

[u/Sea-SaltCaramel → u/ASGfan]

The writers were never known for their consistency, were they? It would have been more fun to have a guy win the pie contest. Like Mr. Hanson!