Season 1 Overview

Air Date: 01/08/1985

After two weeks of Christmas break, this was the first episode to air on 1985, marking officially the beginnig of the second half of the first season.

The first time reading this title, it seemed like a pun on “Plain” or something. But let’s get over it. At least it doesn’t sound as odd as some previous episodes, though it sounds a bit weird in the context of this assignment: it’s an investigative story, probably the bleakest episode of the season, and possibly among the bleakest in the entire series, so consider this a warning for what’s ahead.

Glossary and Features:

• Assignment and Characters

This marks the first episode in the series in which the assignment involves a friend of the protagonists: in this case, Mark’s former colleague as a cop. This won’t be the last time Mark will find one of his old colleagues on the series: he’s going to meet two in season two, another in season three and two in season four as well (every time they are part of the assignment). Also, it marks the second time in the series that an episode actually doesn’t begin with Jonathan and Mark working on the assignment right away, but they will receive it later on into the episode. Compare to Help Wanted: Angel for the first time it happened, though that episode was admittedly peculiar.

Instead, about the assignment: this episode kicks off the Bums, Bins and Drugs. They’re three recurring problems Highway will much frequently addresses over the seasons. As for the drugs in particular, Landon will be depicting them as the most serious problem the country is currently facing and that may even lead to its extinction (he’ll say that in a future episode) if people won’t be taking action soon.

Such idea of drugs, and such topic in general, must have been very dear to Landon, as he had already featured it all through Little House, (most notably in the season nine show “Home Again”, that he wrote specifically to portray its destructive effects), though not as prominently as it is here. Actually, this problem likely stems from his personal experience: during one interview dated back to September 1984 (this episode was written on November of the same year) in the Philadelphia Inquirer, he candidly revealed that one of his daughters was hooked on drugs, and he admitted the whole family struggled with her to fight it back and help her find a way out of this.

Now, this won’t be the place to make some fuss around this story. Those are personal problems, and the best thing is that he reassured she’s out of it now. Neither it is the point here to underline the way he talked about such a private topic related to his personal life — as his intent was not to seek compassion or be considered an inspiration because he admitted his mistakes (that’s actually a topic he will coherently and largely expand during a future Highway episode). The relevant part is that Landon experienced firsthand the destructive effects drugs have on people, and such experience may be the driving force behind his call to action in the series.

• Background

It’s unclear when this episode takes place, whether it is before or after the Christmas special one last time. Again, if some assignments were consecutive in the series, then it could be possible it takes place around the same time as it aired, on January 1985, and it seemingly lasts around two days. That’s excluding all the time they spend moving on the car, of course.

Anyway, the assignment may take place even before Christmas, also considering it’s unclear where Jonathan and Mark were after the conclusion of the assignments they’ve worked on so far.

• Production

This was actually the first of only two episodes in the series written but not directed by Landon, who assigned the task to French instead (the second time is for The Right Thing later this season). It’s unusual for Landon to give his scripts to others (assuming the scripts he was credited for were truly written by him alone, without any uncredited help), but here we are, first time in the series. It had already happened a couple of times for Little House, but mostly in season 9 (where Landon appears just for three episodes) — and on those occasions, they were assigned to French as well, so they probably trusted each other a lot.

And yet another curious fact: apparently, this episode was shot over the course of nine days (like most episodes), starting from the last week of November and wrapping the fourth of December, which is French’s birthday. And he turned fifty that day. I suppose they all threw a big party on set; like, imagine attending a party with Landon and French, those who boldly made a fool of everybody, when they mythically stole a cart one day and went driving for like an hour invading the nearby production sets like two drunk teenagers in a fraternity hazing, until somebody got very annoyed and called the security on them. Or that time when French was invited to a July 4th party at Landon’s place and innocently and harmlessly decided to light up a firework inside the house. With Landon’s children in there, too.

I mean, it must have been so much fun just hanging around them folks.

• Settings

The story is set in the fictional town of “Deter” but the production mostly took place in Tuolumne city, California (of course).

Then, some parts were also produced in the ghost town of Mentryville in the Pico Canyon, California as well.

It’s curious: those two cities are implied to be part of this Deter, with the center of the town is Tuolumne and the family of some character lived in Mentryville, and Jonathan and Mark will often stay in both. However, according to Google Maps, the two cities are actually over 300 miles far away.

So, whenever in this episode Jonathan and Mark go to town and back, it’s a long way.

• Little House Actors

In this episode, there are two guests appearances that may look familiar, as they had already collaborated with Landon on Little House, though playing minor characters.

So, the first actor from Little House is David Faustino, playing Robbie here. He had appeared in one episode in the seventh season of Little House in 1980, playing a mute kid who runs away from the orphanage alongside his brother. You know, those episodes featuring a random character that won’t be appearing again in the series.

Instead, the second actor is Ramon Bieri, a famous western actor.

He appeared on multiple shows at the time, including the long-running western Gunsmoke (where French also directed and starred as well, though they were on different episodes) and, prior Little House, he had already collaborated with Landon on two occasions for Bonanza, in a season twelve episode of 1971 and in one last season episode in 1973, both times playing a sheriff — he’s playing one for Highway too. Anyway, on 1974, right after the conclusion of Bonanza, he would appear in the very first episode of the first season of Little House (though it’s not the Pilot, which aired separately months earlier), but not as the sheriff: rather, he played the antagonist that time.

Actually, neither the sheriff nor Faustino’s character will be part of the Highway assignment, but they’re there nonetheless. Also, this time they won’t be directed by Landon, but rather French, whom they had never collaborated with before.

• From Little House

This was just a random coincidence: in the episode, there’s going to be a bully character named “Bubba”. Now, if that weren’t enough outlandish as a name, there was already one guest character on Little House with that name, appearing back in the season three on the Bully Boys show (the same one with Geoffrey Lewis, already met during the previous episode of Highway as well), as the youngest brother of the titular characters. And that episode of Little House was an episode directed by French, as well. Basically, they assigned the same name for two guest characters coming from a very similar background in two different shows, that had the same director on both.

I mean, it aired nine years before the Highway one, so it’s unlikely it was a throwback on purpose.

Again, just a coincidence, but whatever.

• Highway of Mysteries

This episode is a plain mystery — which is fitting, as it is actually an investigative episode. Here, the three most important mysteries of the highway entries for the series: first, the dices hanging in Charlie’s car. So, at the beginning of the episode, a car is shown with two dices inside. However, once Jonathan and Mark dig the car up, the two dices are gone now. No explanation, anything.

Then, basically the whole premise of the episode is quite disputable: basically, a man is apparently investigating on some illegal operations, and at the beginning he sends a letter to his old friend Mark, likely wanting his help for this assignment. Now, the problem here is not why he decided to send the letter right at that moment, as it could be justified by pretending that maybe he feared something was going to happen to him (as it actually did eventually), and he wanted to ask Mark to stop by and take care of his family in that case or something. However, what’s unusual is why he would ask Mark in the first place. I mean, they haven’t seen each other in years, and Mark has been suspended from the police for his alcoholic behavior. So, why would he want to contact his old drunk friend, instead of, you know, somebody who is actually a cop. Or the producers wanted to imply this man has no friend except for Mark, but that’s quite hard to believe — and would even contradict the conclusion of the episode.

Another mystery is the whole final confrontation moment, and not his bloopers (they’ll come later). I mean, Jonathan shows off his powers for no apparent reason, except to just punish some random criminals for what they did before the justice takes them. Because, think about it: the cops were on their way, and even though they hadn’t already surrounded the place by the time Jonathan got there, nobody inside was planning to walk away. So, Jonathan had no reason to hold them in, as the cops would have surrounded the place and got them all the same.

Eventually, Jonathan uses his power to actually destroy a building, and that will be hard to justify if the police were to find out.

• The “Stuff”

New powers of the Stuff includes immunity to bullets in a different way than the previous time: now, Jonathan is able to seemingly divert bullets’ trajectory away, or maybe bullets pass over him as if he were a ghost.

As for the mindreading, it’s unclear: throughout all the investigation, Jonathan seems to know as much as Mark about the assignment (otherwise it would have been solved instantly). However, once the truth about Charlie’s whereabouts is revealed at the conclusion, he seemingly knows where to find the missing drugs and the stack of money, though nobody had told him that. So, it’s unclear whether he knows that because he’s been informed by his Superior (and maybe the assignment was just about discovering the truth) or if the Stuff allowed him to actually do some mind readings — a new power.

Still, this episode marks the first time Jonathan vanishes to move quickly from one place to another. Actually, he already vanished continuously in the previous Christmas episode, but that was just inside of a dream. This power will come particularly in handy for him now, as the town and the house where most of the episode takes place are not as close as they wanted them to.

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to investigate the sudden disappearance of Mark’s old friend.

So, a man named Charlie Down, leaves a letter in someone’s mailbox, then drives off to a desert area, where he spots a model airplane,

Inside, he reveals several mysterious white envelopes. He collects one.

By this point, it’s clear what’s in the envelope, but what he’s doing, much less. Is he stealing that? Is he from a rival group?

Any confusion is soon cleared up by the sound of some threatening approaching motorcycles — and, of course, Charlie’s car won’t start, so he has to run away on foot.

Now, there’s a lingering image on some dice inside Charlie’s car as the bikes pass by and a gunshot rings out.

Then, prologue’s over, and there goes Mark and Jonathan by a phone booth (which feels odd to mention these days), where Mark receives a message left by Charlie, his old colleague.

To clear some doubt on how is that possible: originally, there was supposed to be another part before this where Jonathan and Mark are driving when suddenly Jonathan spots a phone booth and suggests making a call to Mark’s sister, Leslie (from the Pilot episode). And then she was apparently supposed to inform Mark of his friend that dropped him a line, or whatever. However, this part was just skipped and they began here, with Mark that had already talked to somebody — without even mentioning Leslie in the episode.

Anyway, Mark tells Jonathan his friend live in Deter, “A town about 200 miles from here”, where they are by the phone booth now.

So, it is possible to try and point the current station Jonathan and Mark are in right now: it couldn’t possibly be L.A. because Tuolumne (the backdrop for Deter) is actually norther; but also because, according to Google Maps, they are around 350 miles one another.

Neither is Oakland, where Mark was born and grew up in, as Tuolumne is East of it and too close anyway.

Instead, keeping Google Maps as a point of reference and excluding all the lakes and parks, one suitable place is likely around Crystal Bay which is about 160 miles norther, depending on the route.

So, Mark (who must have known Bonanza, as he’ll admit in a future season) probably wanted to go to the Ponderosa Ranch Amusement Park — you know, just for the Christmas holiday. And he got the chance to go there with a Cartwright as well.

Anyway, Jonathan agrees, since they don’t have an assignment at the moment.

Of course Jonathan will go there uninvited as well. I mean, he won’t leave his friend alone just a minute.

Still, Mark is glad about this, and they head off immediately. Finally, he has the chance to introduce one of his real friends, unlike Jonathan, who only has a “Friend” that only he knows, apparently.

Now, they head to Charlie’s place.

And hold on: earlier Mark said his friend lived in “a town called Dieter”, and the episode was produced in Tuolumne City (supposedly Dieter here). Yet, this place is in Mentryville, not Tuolumne — and those places are 300 miles away. Like, imagine when they have to go to town to buy something, or when they have to send their kid to school.

Of course, the audience has to suppose Charlie lives just outside town, not all the way to Mentryville, also because there is not such town as “Dieter” in the first place. But, whatever.

Anyway, when they arrive at Charlie’s place, they only find his wife, who distressedly reports that her husband just disappeared without any prior head ups earlier on.

And then Charlie’s son just bursts in.

Sure, kid, but don’t disappear like your father did, alright.

That’s Robbie, played by David Faustino — the first Little House Actor of the episode.

Anyway, suspicious, Mark and Jonathan head to the local sheriff (and he’s Ramon Bieri, second Little House Actor), who tells them the same thing he told Mrs. Down: that nobody found Charlie’s car nor anything. But now he adds something new.

The sheriff also informs him that somebody reportedly spotted Charlie drinking alone.

And then the sheriff walks away and leaves them, like alone. Now Mark could actually take some papers off the desk and uncover some big conspiration.

Anyway, when the sheriff leaves them alone, Mark expresses Jonathan some doubts about the sheriff’s assessment, claiming he knew Charlie wouldn’t disappear without any prior head up. When Jonathan correctly points out that Charlie might have changed over the years, Mark dismisses himansd tells him that his friend was a teetotaler.

The basis this assumption is unclear, though, as they still haven’t seen each other for years. I mean, the last time they worked together, Mark was an alcoholic, but years later here he is, a reformed man helping out an angel with various assignments from their mysterious “Friend”; and who could have thought about that before. People change over the years, and Mark should know that better than anyone else.

But apparently, wherever Mark goes, he’s always surrounded by teetotalers: whether as a cop in Oakland, a sheriff in Carter Country, or even as a farmer in the 1800s. I mean, a country farmer.

Now back to Highway. After the interrogation, Mark and Jonathan head to a diner for something to eat, but they’re interrupted by the thug named Bubba, who randomly mocks them by calling them “hippies” and pours beer over Mark’s cake.

Seriously, just because.

Curiously enough, this won’t be the last time Jonathan and Mark are called as “hippie” in the series. That’s weird, it seems like they wanted to make it a recurring joke—like the “Cute” catchphrase—but they didn’t include it in enough episodes for it to catch on. Maybe they just do actually look like “hippie,” sort of.

So, Mark stands up to confront Bubba, but before he gets himself into an awkward situation, he turns to Jonathan to make sure he’ll back him up.

Apparently, Mark has learned his lesson: Jonathan won’t use his power against the will of the “superior”.

But Jonathan, doesn’t want to take sides (you see how good of a friend he is, really). Fortunately, their confrontation is interrupted by somebody who quiets Bubba up.

And then he desperately tries to show Jonathan and Mark that he’s their friend and they can trust him.

But as they talk, notice that there’s a guy in the background that stares directly and ominously at them.

He’s probbaly related to the driver whow as bothering Jonatahn and Mark a few episode ago while on the street of L.A.

Anyway, the next day, Mark starts playing the cop and visits a local store and inquires about Jack, the son’s sheriff.

The owner says he doesn’t know about it.

Exactly because you’re “small-town folks” you should know everything of everybody.

Butr he makes a disquieting expression as he observes Mark walking away.

Anyway, later that day, Jonathan and Charlie’s son go “rock hunting” in the woods.

Because apparently Jonathan has nothing better to do than picking up rocks instead of, you know, maybe helping Mark find his missing friend.

It’s kind of amusing, though—a chance to see how kids in rural area spent their spare time in the 80s, those great old times before games and modern diversions. Not like kids today. Or that’s what Jonathan would say, isn’t it.

That’s a rare sample of a random rock in Deter, somewhere between Tuolumne and Mentryville, or whatever.

Suddenly, Jack arrives with his motorbike and informs Jonathan the whole town wants to help him with his investigation.

Anyway, Jack tells him that Bubba allegedly found Charlie’s car quite far from there, and invites him to go check that out later.

But as soon as he drives off, a strong wind picks up.

And it grows stroger.

And stronger.

And shout out to Landon for not blinking a single time, really.

How could he do that? I mean, he’s not even wearing sunglasses.

Eventually, he spots a buried car.

And he starts digging it.

It could actually be anyone’s, but Jonathan’s very serious face seems pretty sure it’s Charlie’s and no one else’s. And it was not that far from there, as Jack had told him.

Not sure if he’s agitated about Charlie’s whereabouts, or if he’s just annoyed by Jack who told him a lie. Somebody must teach that kid a lesson: never mess up with angels.

Anyway, Jonathan returns to Charlie’s home. There, he finds Mark and tells him that, apparently, their investigation has now become their official new assignment.

Which means that Jonathan has now received permission to instantly break and repair cars or machineries and show otherworldy strenght, or whatever he can do with the “Stuff“, basically

Finally, halfway in the episode, they have an assignment — even though everything they’ve done up to that point isn’t entirely unrelated to it.

Now, they immediately head to town, but it’s like a desert, and neither the sheriff is there, apparently.

And where the sheriff might be now: maybe he’s sitting at his home watching Highway To Heaven somehow — which apparently existed within the series (at least the introduction, in some ways). Or maybe he went getting drunk like Mark used to do a lot, and sometimes French did too.

So, the sheriff dismissed Jonathan and Mark saying he had some works to do when they asked him about Charlie at the beginning — and now turs out he’s gone fishing. This series features an impressive number of characters who says something in a scene and then acts totally different the next: Mrs. Gould in the Pilot, Mark who had his mind on pancakes and forgot them, now the sheriff.

Now, Jonathan and Mark decide to take it upon themselves: first, they try to rent a backhoe from the suspiciously reluctant mechanic Arnie — who tries to dissuade them.

But Jonathan knows better, of course, and turns it on.

Yet another instance of Landon the mechanic.

So, Arnie improvises a different strategy.

It didn’t work, either.

So, Arnie gives up and lets them borrow the backhoe.

Then, Mark drives to the spot where Jonathan found the car and successfully digs it up.

Now, I’m not sure it’s that easy to use a backhoe. I mean, maybe it’s not doing the driving the gard part, but using that mechanic arm to move dirt — I thought you needed a certificate, or some training in advance. The weird part is that they could have just get Jonathan to do it, you know, he’s an angel. But probably Mark has some aces up his sleeves as well. Maybe he already had some similar job in the five years between the suspension from the police and the beginning of the show in the Pilot (as he told Jonathan).

Anyway, they confirm it is Charlie’s indeed, but he’s not in there — and the mystery gets serious.

The real mystery, though, is why the dice that were hanging in the car are no longer there.

Anyway, Mark grows increasingly worried about his friend.

But Jonathan is mysterious.

Otherwise, it would all be pointless. I mean, if he knew already, there would be no need for the police anymore, as there’d be angels all around Earth that could solve any crime. Also, this episode wouldn’t have lasted so long.

Now, Jonathan and Mark takes the car back to Charlie’s wife.

And remember this place is 300 miles from Tuolumne city. And they drove with a backhoe.

In the meantime, Arnie the mechanic spies on them, and later warns Jack about the recovery of the car. So, Jack gives him new instructions.

And he gives him a gun.

It should be a family show, they never went that far before.

That night, Arnie executes the orders: he breaks into the Charlie’s house and shoots at Jonathan.

But the angel appears to be immune to the bullets, that just passe over his body as if he were a ghost or something.

Now, wait a sec: there’s already been one episode of Jonathan against bullets, and on that occasion he actually stopped them and caught them with his bare hand (it was the “Junkie” scene from earlier in the series).

Instead, now they simply pass over him. I mean, it’s not that they hit him and he’s bulletproof: they actually can’t hit him at all, like he were a reflection and not actually standing there. Maybe the Junkie scene was just comical, and somebody thought it wouldn’t be fitting for a more serious episode. It’s still dangerous: they could glance back.

Anyway, Mark then disarms Arnie from behind and, once again, he plays the cop to extort the truth from him.

Instead, Jonathan tries a calmer approach.

At this point, it’s unclear whether Jonathan actually knows the truth by now and he’s just waiting for Arnie to confess it, or if he’s actually oblivious despite his powers. But, again, mind reading has not been unlocked yet.

Eventually, Arnie confesses everything.

Apparently, the whole town, led by Jack, has been using their model airplanes to smuggle illegal stuff (not the angelic Stuff), but Jack found out Charlie was after them.

Now, two things seem odd here: first, during the prologue, it almost seemed like Charlie enjoyed what he found in the plane rather than conducting a private investigation.

Just look at him. Actually, it seemed like he wanted to join them in their criminal activity or something.

Or maybe he was just pleased he was about to solve the case.

Secondly, even assuming Charlie was actually investigating, why would he call Mark — a suspended cop he hasn’t heard from in years — to help him instead of, you know, contacting the actual police? I assume he didn’t trust the town’s sheriff because his son was involved, but what about some other colleague. This was one Mystery of the Highway, among the many of this episode.

But, apparently, this show has problems with alerting the police when it should be the best thing to do.

Now, Arnie drives Jonathan and Mark to the spot where they shot Charlie, and they eventually find his corpse there.

As Mark cries over his friend, Jonathan mysteriously vanishes and leaves him and Arnie there.

In the meantime, Jack is with his friends.

Suddenly, they lights turn off and a mysterious figure is at the door wide.

He’s Jonathan, anyway.

So, he exposes their illegal operations and their involvement in Charlie’s murder.

That’s not fair if he knows it for the Stuff.

Now, the final confrontation begins: Jonathan has been supposedly allowed to use the Stuff and beat the hell (or heaven) out of them. Except that it’s all random and with no justifications.

Now, blooper warning here: right at the beginning, while a guy is wielding a chair to strike Jonathan, there is a a glass panel standing on his way that protects Landon, and it gets visible as it seems that it’s about to shatter to pieces. Maybe that’s Jonathan’s new power with the “Stuff”: placing a shard of glass before him to protect himself from a flying chair. It’s so obvious as a mistake that it must have been left visible on purpose—definitely. Or maybe the stunt went too hard on it and it almost shattered it, but Landon got so frightened (see that he briefly closes his eyes) that he refused to do it again. In that case, they actually put Landon’s life at risk for this one. Or French just wanted to startle his friend a little: they were known for playing these (and more dangerous) tricks to each other (like the firework inside Landon’s house mentioned earlier). Anything is possible at this point.

But that’s not all of it: somebody takes a gun now.

This time, Landon was quite startled when the windows all shatters from the bullets, as he slightly tilts back a upon hearing the broken shards.

There’s a problem here: it is not that Jonathan was allowed to use his power to injure somebody (it’s mostly to defend himself, now), but rather how Jonathan is going to justify that. Like, fighting with incredible strength is one thing, but diverting shotgun bullets is another. Now, everybody in that room must think he’s some kind of entity or whatever, and they’ll have to talk to somebody like the cops about it. So, Jonathan basically just gave away his mysterious identity just to teach some kids a lesson.

However, the encounter is cut short when the sheriff arrives (somehow alerted by an unknown source), revealing that he was actually unaware of his son’s activities.

Anyway, Jack pushes his father away and takes off on his motorbike, but the police surround the place.

Now, wait a minute, there’s yet another mystery here: if the police was out there waiting for Jack and his friend, then basically the whole confrontation was pointless. Think about it: why would Jonathan want to get into a fight with them (and dangerously showing off his powers) if the cops were already on their way. I mean, it could have worked if somebody there were about to walk away — in that case, Jonathan would have had to hold them busy until the cops surround the place — but nobody was going to. It seems more like Jonathan wanted to give some payoff to the audience like in a crime show. Though now Jack and his friend may tell the cops what they saw and expose Jonathan’s powers to the world.

Anyway, they proceed to arrest everyone.

In that very moment, Mark arrives as well, and thanks Jonathan for handling those criminals before he could, otherwise he admits he would have done something worse to them.

In the epilogue, Jonathan and Mark wear their best Sunday suits to attend Charlie’s funeral, alongside Charlie’s wife and son, and a bunch of other people.

So, Charlie actually had other friends, yet he asked Mark to help him all the same.

Anyway, before leaving, Jonathan and Mark realize they haven’t dropped a single punchline for the episode, so they make one up at the last minute: Mark randomly asks Jonathan when the country will address the drug problem for good.

And there it is: Jonathan (presumably, Landon) has voiced his opinion on drugs and their impact. And similar episode will come in the future.

The ratings of this episode actually improve over the previous one, but it couldn’t get on the 30 most watched episode of the week. However, this was the last episode of the season to end this way, as the rest will surge in ratings and with the audience, somehow.