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| Men raise a wall for the church |
This episode begins with Charles and Adam building a well. Exposition establishes that in order to make sure air is safe to breathe, they always do a test with a candle. If the candle stays lit, it's safe. After setting this precedent, Adam arrives and announces he wants to get an early start. Charles goes to join him, only to find Mr. Scott passed out at the bottom of the well. He didn't do the candle test. Charles holds his breath long enough to get Adam positioned on top of a bucket and hauls him up. Once Adam wakes up, Charles angrily scolds him and accidentally calls him George, revealing his lingering trauma. Thankfully, all is well, and Adam promises he won't make that mistake again. Sweetly, for the rest of the episode, Mr. Scott tells anyone who will listen how Charles saved him.
The Ingalls' horses Pet and Patty are still missing, but Pa is convinced they will return soon. The family is all set to go to town on different errands. Pa will begin working on the church with a crew of volunteers. Ma will go to a women's society meeting, hosted by the ever-present Jemma James. Laura and Mary are scheduled to have a playdate with Jemma's twin daughters.
Laura asks Pa if she can come and help him with the building project instead. She feels leery about this playdate. Society girls never seem to like Laura much and always prefer Mary. Mary is more conscious about fashion and trends, while Laura is more comfortable fishing, riding horses, and wandering the fields. Pa assures her that she should just be herself and they can't help but like her. Oh, Charles, you've never been a tween girl have you?
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| [L-R] Barrett Doss as EMILY, Jocko Sims as DR. TANN |
On the way to the house, Laura and Mary talk about this very issue, and they end up making a wager about who the girls will like more. Their decision makes an already stressful situation into a competition. There is no Nellie yet, so these two sisters seem to fight a lot as a substitute. Yes, sisters fight, but the amount of fighting these two sisters do seems exaggerated and not necessarily realistic.
While Pa busies himself with raising the church, Ma settles in comfortably at a women's society meeting. She's brought blackberry jam as a house gift. On the way to the house, Ma tells her girls how important Ms. James is and to be on their best behavior. It's clear that Caroline still feels set on putting on a good face for Ms. James' benefit. During the meeting, Ms. James parades Caroline around the room like a new pet, showing off her connections. Conversations at the society meeting include talk of hiring a new reverend. Some of the women mention some friends they would like to be considered, but it turns out that Ms. James has arranged for one already as a committee of one.
The build is going well. Mr. Mitchell returns from his business trip and goes to thank Charles for his family's care for his. We learn that during the trip he met the new Indian agent, a man named Isaac Gibson. Mr. Gibson is a Quaker and will need to get all seven chiefs to agree to any sale terms. Charles is eager to hear more, but out of respect, he simply tells Mr. Mitchell that he hopes the terms will be fair for the Osage.
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| [L-R]: Crosby Fitzgerald as CAROLINE, Alice Halsey as LAURA, Skywalker Hughes as MARY, MacLean Fish as ADAM, Luke Bracey as CHARLES |
The men break for lunch, and Emily Henderson arrives with a basket of ginger cookies that she bestows upon Dr. Tann. Flirting is at an all-time high with these two. After dropping off the cookies, Emily Henderson arrives a little late to the women's society meeting. Instead of a warm welcome, she is greeted by a frown from Ms. James, who has no intention of letting her in. She claims that the meeting is only for married women. But Emily can tell that's baloney.
The playdate is in full force. Initially, Laura is snubbed for not being as invested as Mary in the girls' dress up game. It feels that surely Mary will win the bet. But one the James twins discover Laura's storytelling skills, they get invested in her wild tales of their family's journey. Perhaps there are things more fun than dress up. At the same time, Mary feels intimidated when the twins begin gossiping about Caleb. Initially, they were asking if she found any boys cute. But once she witnesses their verbal snobbery of Caleb, she hides their special connection.
Meanwhile, building hast come to a halt because Russell Kind arrives, claiming he has found the horse thief. Mr. Kind's horses were also stolen, so he has launched his own investigation. He presents a man with a bag over his head, who turns out to be Mr. Edwards. Charles protests, but Russell Kind insists that he be detained until the local marshal arrives. There's no innocent until proven guilty on the prairie. They don't have a jail, so Mr. Edwards is detained at the hotel.
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| [L-R] Crosby Fitzgerald as CAROLINE, Mary Holland as JEMMA JAMES |
Dissatisfied with Mr. Edwards being detained even one moment, a furious Lacey Aubert decides to go pay Little Puma a visit. She feels certain that he knows where the true thief has been holding the horses. Charles and Mr. Mitchell join her to assist with this investigation. Little Puma doesn't really want to help Charles, but he relents when Mr. Mitchell reveals that Osage horses have gone missing, too. Sure enough he easily locates the missing horses, and the group confronts the thieves together. Little Puma is surprised when Charles lets the thieves go. It's not the reaction he expected from a white man. He protests the decision, but I wonder if he respects it.
Back at the ladies society, things continue to feel awkward for Caroline. Jemma is clearly the queen of the roost and takes a passive aggressive approach towards anyone who would dare raise a dissenting view to her own. Caroline feels uncomfortable but doesn't raise a fuss until she learned that Jemma James turned away Emily Henderson because of her marriage status. That seems to shake Caroline out of her stupor, and she finally decides to abort. Thank God! It's time that someone stood up to Jemma James.
Dr. Tann arrives at the hotel to look at Mr. Edwards' head. Mr. Edwards shares that he has been at Lacey's sobering up. He confesses to Dr. Tann the reason for his depression: his family all died of cholera. In this scene, we establish that Dr. Tann continues to be someone men feel they can talk to.
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| [L-R] Rebecca Amzalag as LACEY, Luke Bracey as CHARLES, Meegwun Fairbrother as MR. MITCHELL, Xander Cole as LITTLE PUMA |
The playdate with Laura and Mary ends on a poor note when the twins and Laura catch Mary having a conversation with Caleb, who has come by with a delivery. Laura teases Mary good naturedly, but the twins call Caleb an "ugly orphan boy." Caleb leaves, humiliated, and Mary is equally upset. Laura doesn't approve of the name calling but doesn't know what to do in this situation. Everyone is ready to go home, upset for different reasons.
Pa's arrival with Pet and Patty makes things a little better, plus Caroline is able to apologize to Ms. Henderson. Mr. Edwards is vindicated and joins the Ingalls family for dinner, along with Lacey Aubert. Laura tries to make amends with Mary, but Mary isn't ready to let her off the hook yet.
Compared to other episodes, I enjoyed this one much more. There were a lot of moving parts and a satisfying ending. The mission to reclaim the horses felt exciting and well-paced. I always like the trope of seeing disparate parties working together, so it was nice to see settlers and Osage working together. My highlight was probably Caroline leaving Jemma James in the lurch.
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| Alice Halsey as LAURA |
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