Season 1 Overview

Airdate: 05/08/1985

Directed By: Michael Landon

Here is the second part that follows the first part and concludes season one. This episode could have been a one part, but they wanted to tie up the season with a difficult assignment with many disparate turns, from sport to a tragedy, and the producers likely wanted to make a huge episode.

• Assignment

The assignment is largely the same: Lizzy, horse trainer (played by Helen Hunt in an early role), is in love with her spoiled employer, who is actually set to marry a girl of his same social level. Eventually, Jonathan and Mark help the young fella realize love can’t be bought, so he decides to get married with Lizzy and they elope without telling anything to anybody.

It could have been concluded like that; a love assignment that was carried out successfully. But Dan Gordon realized that, with all the tropes he put in the episode (father and son strained relationship, sport, doozy, troubled love), it still wasn’t enough: part one concluded with a doctor informing Lizzy’s father that she is sick, and needs urgent treatment. And now, from a love assignment (exemplified by One Winged Angels or A Match Made In Heaven), it becomes an illness one (To Touch The Moon, in part A Child Of God without the Bonanza reference), although this time, unlike those previous instance, there might be a chance for the ill character to live, seemingly.

• Background

Just like the previous episode, it’s mostly set around California, in the Hidden Valley (where production took place). But there’s more context now: at the beginning, when Jonathan and Mark report Mr. McGill where they’ve been looking for his daughter, Jonathan mentions he went all the way to “Buxton” to no avail.

Of course, it’s a fictional city, but likely not too far from Hidden Valley or those areas.

They even the “Memorial Hospital” where Lizzy receives her treatment, and that is likely in Los Angeles, even though it’s a fictional one.

Also, when Lizzy tells Garth she wants to write a letter to her father, Garth mentions Slater, which could be in California or Iowa, but likely the first one.

Of course, it couldn’t be Slater in Iowa, why move the production there.

Actually, there’s a problem with that: it’s unlikely Lizzy and Garth went all the way to Slater: the moment Jonathan and Mark find them, they’re staying at the “Big Oaks Lodge“, as revealed by the sign behind them.

The problem is that it’s in Santa Clarita, almost two hours drive from Slater. But maybe Garth purposely went all the way to Slater to pretend they were around those area and prevent their families from finding them. Or maybe they are in the same fictional California of Plane Death, where Tuolumne and Mentryille are actually the same town.

Instead, as for the time span, the first part lasted one month, as Lizzy reveals here when she tells her father how many things have changed in the past month, from her dream of winning the race to her marriage and illness now.

Instead, this second part likely span a couple of weeks, considering that it takes her one week to begin the treatment, and the episode concludes the day of the scheduled marriage between Garth and Lane, that should takes place the Saturday that follows Lizzy breakup with him, which adds another week.

Now, as a whole, this two part episodes lasts at least one month and a half, but considering that part one doesn’t begin with Lizzy already competing in the race but rather with her training, it’s likely two months long or more. Still, if it were chronologically the last episode of the season, then it should span from April to June, before the beginning of the next one that month.

• Production and Settings

The setting remains in California, with the production mostly around the Hidden Valley, just like part one.

But now, they also go to Santa Clarita, where Jonathan and Mark find Lizzy at the beginning of the episode.

Instead, the Hollywood United Methodist Church is the settings of Garth and Lane’s wedding at the conclusion.

As for the production, it’s unclear, but it likely took place by March or April 1985 for around a week. Usually, two part episodes are produced separately, and part two places is the last one of the season. That wasn’t the case for the previous two part episode, but it was an exception, considering that episode was originally meant to be a one part but was divided in two parts at a later time. Instead, this episode was already written as a two part show, set to air on two different weeks, and with a decisive conclusion.

Anyway, considering this was still the first season, maybe they still didn’t have a clear schedule. Still, it’s reasonable that they took a day break after production of part one.

• The “Stuff”

Now, this episode adds some more rules to the “Stuff“: towards the conclusion of the episode, when Jonathan tells Mark there’s nothing they can do to stop Garth and Lane’s impending marriage and Mark tells him to use the Stuff, Jonathan replies Garth is already in a church, and that’s apparently a restricted area for his power.

Now, it’s actually unclear whether Jonathan can’t possibly use the “Stuff” in a church no matter what (as if it were an unwritten rule about it, just like “Don’t use it to deliberately injure people”), or if he just believes he can’t do that, possibly because he has never done that or because he thinks it’s a holy place and takes it as obvious his powers are not allowed there. If it were a rule, it would be a weird one: I mean, Jonathan has used the “Stuff” to injure people for no reason in his assignments, like by making them fall off an horse and by beating them before the police got them, and he’s always been allowed to do that. So, just as long as he’s not in a church, he can do basically anything he wants to.

Anyway, it seems more like it’s just Jonathan’s belief, as in the episode he will actually use the power there — but only after seemingly praying for it, as if he had to ask for permission before doing that.

Either way, this idea will last the whole series, and Jonathan will never use the “Stuff” in a church, even in the future seasons.

Glossary

Little House Actors: there’s still Richard Bull as the nameless friendly doctor. But, just like in part one, he won’t have much relevance in the assignment.

Actors’ early appearances: it’s Helen Hunt as Lizzy, just like part one.

Quiet Quitters: during the final wedding between Garth and Lizzy, when Jonathan tells Mark it’s time to leave now.

Unlike other instances, now the audience actually see them walking out, but they do that without telling anything to Lizzy and Garth (who were involved in the assignment), so it’s still impolite of them. They didn’t even wait the conclusion of the wedding to tell them goodbye.

New “Stuff” Power: at the conclusion of the episode, Jonathan uses the “Stuff” to create smoke in a church. He won’t use this power again. Also, he uses some of the powers he had already boasted about in the season, like moving quickly from one place to another, when he has to get to the wedding,

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to get a ranch owner’s daughter to fall in love with the son of a wealthy businessman in spite of adversities, and her illness.

The following day (the conclusion of part 1, when the Doctor informed Lizzy’s father about her disease), Garth and Lizzy are enjoying pizza as breakfast, when Lizzy tells her husband she wants to let her father know that she’s fine and that there’s nothing to worry about. Instead, Garth would rather wait until he has a steady job to prove to his father that he can provide for himself.

So, he’s probably less qualified than her — she’s been running a ranch with her father while he’s been living off his own father’s wealth his whole life — yet he’s the one who has to get a job.

But they must’ve spent their first day as a married couple watching Bonanza, and Garth probably realized he didn’t want to be like Pernell Roberts and Landon as the Cartwrights—pushed around by their father for 14 seasons.

In the meantime, Mr. McGill is visited by Jonathan and Mark, who has been looking for Lizzy all over.

That would be impossible: production would never leave California, ever.

And that’s the case here: Mr. McGill receives a letter from her, and Jonathan tracks her down to her lodge which, according to Google Maps, is just one hour drive from there.

So, unless the ranch is not in Hidden Valley (where production took place), basically Garth and Lizzy went sixty miles away.

Jonathan and Mark head to her hideout, while Jonathan tells Mark that, for some unexplainable reason, his “Superior” didn’t tell him anything about Lizzy’s whereabouts until they got letter. Perhaps because the writers wanted to emphasize how people had to track each other down the old-fashioned way.

Eventually, they find her and inform her about her condition.

She decides to return home, though she doesn’t want to break the news to Garth just yet, who in the meantime has found a job as mechanic.

You might think you need some kind of qualification to have a job like that, and Garth is unlikely to have them, considering he’s been slacking off his whole life. But there he is, working. Again, this must have been Jonathan’s punchline from the Pilot that the world would be better without people asking for references.

Anyway, she lies that her father’s ill and she’s got to go back. So, he offers to go with her, and she tells him there’s no need, and adds the obvious.

You see, he’s clearly not used to working, yet he is the one who had to find a job.

Now, Lizzy starts her treatment, but the doctor isn’t very forthcoming about her condition. That night, she argues with her father, undecided whether to tell Garth about her disease or not, and vents out about the doctor.

Then, suddenly, Garth knocks on her door and asks why she hasn’t called him back. Now, considering Lizzy was basically shouting at her father, it’s hard to believe Garth didn’t hear her talking about her disease while he was behind the door. But that’s how the scene plays out, and Lizzy just tell him she married him for the money and now that his father cut him off, she doesn’t want him anymore.

Garth, of course, hasn’t learned any lessons and just gives up on her and walks away.

At home, Mr. Armstrong announces that he’s going to have the marriage annulled so Garth can go ahead and marry Lane.

Meanwhile, Lizzy heads to the hospital to start her treatment, and the doctor has some unexpected news: she’s going to have a baby.

Imagine kids watching this with their parents in the 80s and asking like: “Where do babies come from”.

Anyway, the treatment could result in losing the baby, so Lizzy must have an abortion. However, she tells the doctor to put off the treatment, returns to the ranch and informs her father she intends to keep the baby, even at the cost of dying herself, because it’s the only way for her to reclaim her existence.

The next day, Lizzy goes to the Armstrongs to tell Garth everything.

However, she finds Mr. Armstrong, who informs her Garth will be marrying Lane that very day and he is not home, so she just leaves. Of course, Garth is upstairs, but they do not see each other.

Back at the ranch, another spat is playing out, and a very unusual one: Jonathan has apparently given up on the assignment and tells Mark there’s nothing more he can do about it.

Just, wait a minute: for the first time in the series, Jonathan has given up on an assignment. Now, this moment is an unusual one, because Jonathan knows Garth’s marriage with Lane is bad, otherwise, if Garth were supposed to marry Lane, there wouldn’t have been this assignment of having him to fall in love with Lizzy in the first place. So, if he knows it’s a bad marriage, then he should do something about it.

Actually, on multiple times in the series, Jonathan told Mark that people have free will, and he can help them to see a different way but can’t force them to accept that as well. So, to some extent, they tried to help Garth fall in love with Lizzy, now Garth is marrying Lane and that’s his choice, so his job ends right here. The problem is that it’s unclear whether it’s just him that feels hopeless about the assignment, or if he was informed by his superior there’s nothing he can do anymore.

Anyway, Jonathan dismisses Mark, telling him that the marriage is too soon for any of them to do something about it.

So, this time, it’s Mark that stands up to Jonathan and tells him he will try to prevent the marriage nonetheless.

It took Mark a whole season to realize it doesn’t take an angel to act like one.

Anyway, Jonathan sighs and glances up, then tells his superior that he thinks Mark is right this time.

Now, wait a minute, that’s a problem: again Jonathan’s assignment is to get Garth and Lizzy together, so he should be actively trying to prevent Garth’s marriage with Lane to carry it out. However, Jonathan saying this line now makes it look like he’s defying some orders: as if his superior had told him there’s nothing he can do about the assignment anymore, and that Jonathan is going against that will by trying to keep working on it. Or maybe it’s because, according to his own belief, he shouldn’t be interfering with Garth’s own decision of marrying Lane, but now he will do that all the same.

At this point, it’s unclear whether the assignment is concluded or not, whether Jonathan is giving up or he was ordered to, and why he is saying that. This whole part was baffling: they probably wanted to put one of those “It’s getting bad” moment, being the season finale, but it’s very forced into this.

Also, it’s quite ridiculous that Jonathan talks to his superior by looking above, because they are in a stable, so there’s a roof.

Anyway, Mark does some reckless driving with his car and rushes to the wedding.

Now, two things are odd here: one is that it is quite unclear how Mark knew where the marriage was scheduled to take place. I mean, they could get married in any church. But he somehow knows it was the Hollywood United one.

Also, when he was arguing at the stable, Jonathan told him there’s nothing he can do, as Garth and Lane will be marrying in “half an hour”. However, according to Google maps, it takes more than that to get from the Hidden Valley there.

Of course, it could be that time was just indicative.

Anyway, Mark knew the church and got there somehow, and Jonathan uses the power to get there as well, as priest.

This marks the first time in the series Jonathan dresses up as priest, and it won’t be the last.

Curiously, this also marks the second time in the series Jonathan and Mark go to a church (the first one was in A Child Of God, though for different reasons).

Now, they are at the wedding, and Jonathan seemingly prays for something to happen.

Eventually, Jonathan is allowed to use the “Stuff” to create some threatening haze creeping all over the room and leading to everyone panicking away.

Except these two random bodyguards, just stand there still.

Mark takes advantage of the chaos and pulls Garth off to tell him the truth about Lizzy’s condition, so Garth immediately breaks up with Lane — who gets what she deserves, again.

There was really no need for the firefighter to shoot at her, unless it was Jonathan secretly using the “Stuff” to do that, because in this series they laugh at soaked people (as he had done on One Winged Angels and on The Brightest Star).

Anyway, Garth reconciles with Lizzy and asks her father for his permission to marry her, legit this time.

Instead, Garth’s father refuses and cuts off his son, but then Jonathan persuades him to change his mind.

So, they all go to a justice of peace and get married once more.

Not in a church this time, Jonathan surely didn’t like that.

Eventually, before the vows, they hear Garth’s father arriving, and he joins them as well.

To make up for all the years you neglected your son, probably.

Then, as the ceremony goes on, Jonathan nods at Mark, implying they have to go now. While they are out, Mark is reasonably puzzled by Jonathan’s behavior, as Lizzy’s still ill and he thought they would have had to stay at least long enough to ensure she carries the baby safely.

And why did you follow him then, as if you couldn’t go anywhere without Jonathan around.

So, Jonathan tells Mark the assignment is concluded now.

And Jonathan knows Lizzy doesn’t need them.

So, he was probably told by his superior it’s time to move on. It could be: it has already been implied on some earlier episode that Jonathan is actually told by his superior when he has to stop working on an assignment, even though it’s not concluded.

Or maybe this time it was Landon’s producers who told him they were running late on the schedule of the network, given it’s already 45 minutes into this, and they have to wrap things up.

So, triumphant music, and they drive off — ready for a new assignment, and a new season.

There they go now, but not anywhere else other than California, of course.

It seems all ready for the closing credit to roll any moment now. Yet, against the audience anticipation, in all this blend of things and features from the previous episodes, there is actually something unique: an epilogue, where there is a patio, then Lizzy watching from a distance her son playing with Garth, and finally running towards them — while her son falls down like Carrie the Little House opening, and it was likely improvised here as it was there.

Now, what on Earth was that, really: a flash forward some years later revealing Lizzy survived and successfully had her baby, or maybe she died and it just reveals she’s watching over her family from Heaven. Or, again, it’s someone’s hallucination, and whose one: is it Garth’s, dreaming about what his life would look like if Lizzy survived — or rather Lizzy’s, imagining what her life would have been like if she were to live long enough. But maybe it’s not even a flash forward, and it’s just how Lizzy pictures Heaven to be like to her: a lush meadow, a kid running toward her, and her family gathered around. It could be anything, and it’s unclear, but surely fitting nonetheless, especially to close the season. Probably the only distinctive features in such a blend of stuff already used over the season.

Anyway, with this episode, they threw in everything they had. Curiously, this will be the only season finale with this kind of approach, as later finales will be more like random assignment that don’t necessarily tie up the story in anyway — unlike this episode, that tried to encompass many features of the season: family issues, parents and son strained relationship, illness, impossible love, Jonathan feeling hopeless for the first time (as if this were the hardest assignment of the season and they kept it as the concluding one). Instead, future seasons finale will be more like a single assignment, without being sprawling like here — not that it was a bad move for this episode, just a different way to see the series. But, for now, this is the episode people are left with.

Anyway, this was a successful conclusion for the season matching the ratings of part one which, again, considering the time of the year, they were already quite impressive. Now, the series would begin rerun from this season, while Landon and French and the productions would be getting ready to the next. Of course, there would have been no holiday for Jonathan and Mark, as the second season picks up by this episode. But that’s what it takes to work for an angel. And it was Mark in the Pilot that wanted this job in the first place, so he can’t complain now.