Well, this ought not to be considered as an episode. It’s more like a space to answer some questions related to the show so far. At least, questions people ask the most by looking the series up, apparently. In case of doubts, there’s still the glossary for a quick overview of the most basic information before getting into the series.

Anyway, the first half of the the first season is gone now: here’s just a brief recap of what’s going on along the Highway To Heaven.

One, the Pilot: it introduces Jonathan Smith, a probationary angel sent on Earth to solve assignments, usually revolving around helping other people. The assignment in the Pilot is about Leslie, a woman struggling both at work, as the facility where she works in is about to close forever, and at home, as she has to deal with Mark, her brother, who is frequently drunk and erratic. As part of the assignment, Jonathan helps Mark solve his problem with alcoholism, and they save Leslie’s workplace through gambling at the rodeo. Yes, that’s a Christian TV show. More information on the characters will be disclosed later on in the seasons.

Assignment Order: that’s a legitimate question, which applies to every Michael Landon TV show — and included Little House: whether the episodes actually take place in the order in which they aired. Now, this applies just to Highway, though Little House will also come back, one way or another: through some of the episodes in the first season (but that would be confirmed also in later seasons), it seems that is not always the case. Apparently, not all the episodes in the show actually follow the chronological order in which they aired in the first place, or a second explanation would be that the series doesn’t show all the assignments Jonathan and Mark face over the course of their journey.

That, of course, would raise another question: what was Jonathan and Mark first assignment together. Here, actually, there is an answer: it could be To Touch The Moon, and that can be explained by some parts of it that were scrapped but were part of the original screenplay, the first one of the show. So, not all the episodes are consecutive one another, but at least the second episode takes place after the first one.

Assignment time-span: some episode features a time-compressing part with the characters laughing and the music in the background — which makes it impossible to pinpoint specific date. However, there are some guideline. By considering the average timeline of the series the Pilot is supposedly began in 1984 and the series ran for five years), it seems that most episodes actually take place over the course of a week or 10 days, plus a two or three days break right between the conclusion of an assignment and the beginning of a new one. The longest-spanning one, so far, is Help Wanted: Angel, which lasts at least two months, as they state in the episode. The shortest one, instead, is the Christmas Special, which lasts just one night. Curiously, there are some episodes harder to date, that are implied they take place of the course of multiple days, without any sign of nightfall. Or episodes like Catch A Falling Star, where they showed an image of a morning followed by one of a night.

Anyway, an instance of “laughing randomly” part where it’s hard to determine how many days are being compressed in one minute is at the conclusion of To Touch The Moon episode.

Autobiographical cues in the show: occasionally, in some episodes of the series, Mark and Jonathan make references to the two actors’ career by jokingly taking distance from it (the complete list of episodes featuring these peculiar self-references is here). In the first season, there are two examples: one is during Going Home, Going Home (when Mark claims he wouldn’t make much of a farmer, although French played a farmer on Little House for many years) and another one of those reference is in Help Wanted Angel about Landon and French afraid of being actors.

Angels, probation and wings: in the series, Jonathan will not be the only angel on Earth, and there are others like him, even real angels (not on probation anymore). The problem is, there’s not clear definition, nor a way to tell them apart: Jonathan says he’s a probationary angel, though nobody in the series ever explains what does that mean. In the second season, it is implied that he has to work long enough until he earns his “wings”, but that’s just symbolical: no angel they’ll ever meet in the series actually has wings, even those that are not on probation.

Moreover, it is unclear how long does that take to complete his term: in the Pilot, Jonathan told Mark that he was “New at this”, implying that he’s not been an angel that long. However, during A Child Of God, he tells Mark he’s been an angel for over 40 years. The only way to make it work out is that 40 years is a short time for an angel to be on probation. Then, in the second season, Jonathan and Mark will meet an angel (episode The Last Assignment) who has been on probation for over 200 years, and they imply he’s an exception. So, it seemingly has to be more than 40 but less than 200 years. To complicate the matter further, in the fourth season Jonathan will imply that 40 years could actually be enough (in the episode “We Have Forever“). So, the only reasonable explanation is that any angel has different probation terms. Maybe, time is just relative in any place, Heaven too.

Now, for further angels’ distinctions in terms of roles and their different probationary conditions, at the entry “On Angels and probation” right at the beginning of the episode Help Wanted: Angel under “NEW FEATURES” and at the entry “Jonathan’s Wings” just under the “Assignment” part of the episode of One Winged Angels there’s more on this matter.

As for Jonathan, before his assignment as Jonathan Smith Angel, he was a man, and he died of a lung related illness that he attributes to his smoking, as revealed at the beginning of this episode. It’s unclear when and how he became “Jonathan Smith”, nor the way the name was given to him. There could be a reference to a Little House episode where there is a mysterious guy named “Jonathan”, and it could be implied that Jonathan of this show took the place of the Jonathan of that show once that “Jonathan” concluded his probation (more details about this and Jonathan’s past in the Keep Smiling episode). The only certainty now is that he walks in a different body in order to avoid being recognized among those who knew him. Though, admittedly, he can’t really go unnoticed with Landon’s appearance.

Background And Settings: In terms of locations, it’s just California. I mean, it’s useless to skirt around it. Actually, multiple descriptions of the shows here and there keep on reporting that it is a cross country journey, but the reality is that Jonathan and Mark always hang around the good California. Most of the sets are there, basically any episode has been produced there, even those in the future seasons that are going to be fictionally set somewhere else like NY or in Oklahoma or wherever. Actually, the farthest Landon ever pushed this production is Tucson, Arizona, where the last scene in the Pilot takes place, the one in which Mark offers Jonathan to help him and join him for the future assignments but Jonathan turns him away (of course, Mark is eventually allowed to). But, again, that was the only exception. Maybe it is just because Landon thought this was a proper ending in case the series hadn’t been picked up, and he wanted to conclude it in a big way.

As for dates and years, the exact time period of the show is unclear. However, it’s reasonable to assume it takes place around the time the episodes aired (or were produced). If that were the case, the series likely begins in early 1984, when Michael Landon produced the Pilot episode (March and early spring). This theory is challenged by the cold open of the third-season episode Love and Marriage, but it’s clear that the opener is problematic, and likely an exception. Unless we assume the episodes are told in a scrambled order, even across seasons (which would be unreasonable in terms of production), it’s most likely the first season is set on 1984 or as early as November 1983, at least based from the Pilot, but there are few indications on it.

Date hint is at the end of it.

Notable characters: apparently, it’s been asked whether Mark becomes an angel by the end of the series. And he doesn’t, just to be clear. Maybe Landon considered making the character an angel at some point, but the series concluded with a shorter season that doesn’t have a series finale; or, it does have it, but it’s a peculiar one, and Mark doesn’t become an angel then. It’s unclear whether that episode was just meant to be a temporary conclusion, and at some point later on in the summer Landon intended to make one last special episode to be the actual series finale (similarly to the three final specials in Little House released after the conclusion of season nine), or if Landon wrote that episode knowing it was already going to be the finale, and that was it. Either way, that’s what happened, and Mark never becomes an angel in the series (which means he doesn’t die either, and that’s positive, considering all the time his character faced dangerous situations). characters that have already been introduced in the first half of the first season and that are going to be featured again in the future episodes.

–Leslie Gordon (Pilot), Mark’s younger sister.

–Scotty Wilson (One Fresh Batch Of Lemonade), a quadriplegic lawyer. He’s going to be the most recurring character in the series excluding Jonathan and Mark, so it’s better to get acquainted to him.

Stuff Powers: The true nature of the Stuff’s powers remains a mystery, as does when Jonathan can actually use it. It seems that Jonathan is restricted from using the Stuff against his superior’s will. That’s what he explained on this episode, when Mark puts him up against some thugs — as he’s sure Jonathan will use the Stuff — but Jonathan doesn’t use it, explaining it’s because his superior doesn’t want angels to use powers to hurt people (unless there were a dangerous situation, as that time he saved Mark in the Pilot from some thugs, or in Catch A Falling Star from an armed bum). If that were the case, it means that Jonathan doesn’t actually have the “Stuff”, but his superior gives it to him only when Jonathan needs it or asks for it.

Otherwise, a second plausible alternative would be that Jonathan can actually use the Stuff anytime, even against the orders of his superior, yet in that case he would have to pay the consequences for it. For instance, taking the example before (when those thugs beat him up), he wasn’t beaten up because he didn’t have the “Stuff”. Instead, he let them beat him up — he could have used the “Stuff” to defend himself, but refrained from it because he knew that it would have been against a rule and the he would have had to pay the consequence for it. This second alternative would justify the events of one particular episode in the second season. However, it wouldn’t explain why, on some occasions in which he doesn’t use the Stuff (especially when he has to defend himself), he is shown bleeding and hurt (as in here) whereas he could have at least used the power to heal or avoid being injured or something. It’s also unclear whether the probationary angels they meet in the series follow these rules, or whether the “Stuff” works differently one another (more about it at the “Stuff” entry here).

Moreover, it’s unclear whether he can only use The Stuff when he’s working on an assignment, and not during the downtime between assignments, or if he can do it when he wants to. Either way, so far these are the powers Jonathan has demonstrated with the Stuff, with the first episode he showed it off:

• Otherworldly strength (to use only when allowed by the Superior) – Pilot
• Car hampering, fixing and repairs – Pilot
• Object materialization – Pilot
• Instant flower growth – Pilot
• Alteration of radio frequency, just to annoy Mark – To Touch The Moon
• Sudden brakes of a car with his own mind, just to annoy Mark, again – To Touch The Moon
• Dodging and catching bullets with his bare hands – Catch A Falling Star
• Moving objects around without touching them – Hotel Of Dreams
• Intrusion into other people’s dreams, including ability to take someone else with him – Another Song For Christmas

Additionally, in the episode To Touch the Moon, Jonathan hears the voices of the people he’s assigned to help, but this occurs only in a deleted scene and on a single occasion, so it’s not officially counted as a power. However, in future episodes, Jonathan will seemingly develop the ability to read people’s minds. But right now, that power has not been unlocked yet.

It’s also important to note that the Stuff Powers do not account for Jonathan’s knowledge of people background of the people he meets in the episodes, nor for the references that allow him to take any job he needs in order to properly carry out the assignment. These features are provided to him externally and are likely beyond his will.

So, that should encompass what has occurred in the first half of the season.

For any questions or curious details, this will remain subject to any update to address any doubts in the future.