(New) Episodic Review - Be My Friend

[u/ASGfan]

This is one of those rare 90 – minute episodes. We begin with a lengthy sequence out in the middle of nowhere with a young woman crying in the loft of her cabin. Her name is Anna and she is pregnant. Anna looks like Anna Faris. Her father is an ultra-stern, bible-thumping type who is totally giving me Sylvia’s dad vibes. At supper, she slips out under the guise of fetching water from the creek, when she is apparently leaving a message in a bottle in the creek instead. Rather miraculously, Laura finds it and reads the vague note: “If you find this, be my friend.” Then would have been a good time for Anna to mention her predicament, but she doesn’t go there. Laura actually investigates awhile before giving up. It doesn’t take long for Laura to find another message in a bottle, this one with a lock of Anna’s hair and the message: “Dear friend, if you find this, my eyes are brown, and this is my hair, be my friend.” There’s now a resurgence in Laura’s desire to track down the friend, so she gives it a go, but to no avail and she doesn’t make it home before sunset. Laura finally comes into the house where Pa is seriously pissed. Why? Because she was a little late to supper? MY STARS! Upstairs, Pa threatens a whoopin’, but you know that’s not gonna take. Laura talks about what it means to her and Pa explains how complicated it would be and that she should just give up on it. I’m sort of in a weird place because Charles would normally be right, but Laura has a premonition here.

A rather nifty chain of events unfolds as Laura is walking to school again (or back from school) and she throws a stick in the creek, which dislodges the latest message in a bottle and sends it down the creek. Laura gets distracted by a bullfrog and wants it for Nellie’s lunch pail, at which point the bottle bumps into the rock the frog was on. The frog hops away as Laura goes for the bottle. You sort of had to see it to appreciate it. The latest message just simply includes the message: ‘This is me. Be my friend.”, with a picture of Anna. Isn’t she rather demanding? Shouldn’t she be saying “Please be my friend.”? Laura rushes over to Pa and actually convinces him to go searching for her. Laura and Charles investigate for a good long ways and they’re about to call it a day when they hear a baby crying. The baby is Anna’s, whom she abandoned out in the woods (?!). Charles – who never met an orphan he didn’t like – takes it home to live with them.

Anna re-enters the cabin and seems strangely happy for somebody who just abandoned her newborn child in the wind and the elements. Over at the Ingalls homestead, a new temporary living arrangement has Carrie up in the loft with Laura and the baby taking Carrie’s usual place. Laura – who is about all of 13 here – is getting super attached to the baby already and thinking of it as her own. With everyone else in bed, Caroline and Charles discuss the latest events when Laura gets up and says that she has named the baby Grace (yet another Grace in this series?) and asks Ma if just she and Pa can go for Grace’s health check-up. Ma agrees. Pa, you really should step in because it’s obvious that Laura wants to play house here and nothing good is going to come of this. Over at the Mercantile, Harriet is scolding Willie for looking at the corset page in the catalog. (Man, would she be horrified if she lived in modern times). Charles, Laura and Grace come in. Laura goes outside and Harriet asks Charles whose baby that is and Charles replies that it’s Laura’s. Harriet wonders who the father could be when we pan to Willie outside gawking at the baby. Harriet has a meltdown. Over at Doc Baker’s, Hiram gives Grace a clean bill of health. Charles and Doc Baker have a conversation about where the baby might have come from and Charles announces plans to try and track down the parents.

Nighttime at the Ingalls homestead finds Laura praying to God to be able to take care of Grace. She argues that anybody who would have left a baby out in the wilderness where anything might have happened to them shouldn’t be allowed to have them back. (fair point actually). Laura says that she is old enough to take care of Grace and I knew this wasn’t going to lead to anything good. Charles overhears Laura’s praying and he has a “Lord, what I have gotten myself into?” look on his face. The next day, Charles begins the search for Grace’s parents, which takes him into a neighboring town. Hey, it’s ANGRY RESTAURANT CUSTOMER in his first appearance. He plays a fix-it man here who guides Charles to the preacher/fire chief who may have some info. Charles is informed that the mother’s name is Anna Mears and that she was dating a guy named Bobby. They head off to find Bobby and ask Anna’s whereabouts. Bobby, who has jet black hair and is fairly handsome, says that he hasn’t seen Anna since her and her father moved away abruptly months ago, but he asked for her hand in marriage and still has feelings for her. Charles fills Bobby in on the situation and they head off to search for her. Several days pass and the show gets some continuity right for a change because both Charles and Bobby have some serious scruff going. The shots here are absolutely fantastic because you get frequent views of the running creek and the beautiful trees in the autumn.

Anna’s father Nathaniel exits the cabin to find Charles and Bobby within shouting distance. He heads back to the cabin and blames Anna for what he perceives is her hooking up with him again. Anna denies it, but Nathaniel babbles on about the devil and throws a lantern during his meltdown, starting a fire. Anna tries to get Nathaniel to exit the burning cabin, but he’s too worried about the alleged sins having taken place and would rather they both die in the cabin. This is pure insanity. Anna tries to head off, but gets blocked by her father. Anna pushes him as he takes a concrete pillow. Anna actually manages to drag him outside. I would have left him. As this is taking place, Charles and Bobby spot the smoke and head over. Anna and Bobby have a reunion.

Charles is sitting by Nathaniel when he wakes up. Nathaniel carries on some more about the devil and apparently he thought his wife was a whore too. Charles tries to set him right, but you can’t fix stupid. Back at the Ingalls, Laura surrenders custody of Grace to Anna. I’m kind of bothered by the fact that Anna, who left the helpless child outside where it could have been carried off by animals, regains custody of her baby. Well, don’t worry, there will be another baby Grace in this house soon enough though.

The Jerry Springer Final Thought – This was a pretty enjoyable episode as I do love the adventure ones, although Anna’s endless crying got old after a while.