That’s a simple yet peculiar assignment—though not as peculiar as other episodes, or at least in a different way. In particular, the most peculiar feature of this episode is probably the opening, which is basically an entire different episode of its own.
And here’s the background: on TV, a program must run either 30 minutes (usually sitcoms are like that) or one hour, like Highway. When the program airs in primetime TV on the original network, there’s a slight variability: most Highway shows run between 46 to 50 minutes, rarely getting to 51 minutes. However, when they air in syndication, rules are stricter: the show has to be 44 or 45 minutes, not a single minute more than that. Or less, as in this case.
Every episode of Highway is written in order to fit that timespan. If an episode turns out longer, they just edit some parts out. But there are a couple of occasions in which the episodes turned out to be shorter than originally anticipated. In those cases, to solve the problem, they usually insert in the episode a scene that wasn’t necessarily made for one assignment, but that can be attached to any episode. Usually it revolves around Jonathan and Mark driving to a place and discussing something that is partially related to the assignment without making any specific reference to it (for instance, the beginning of Heaven On Earth was like that). Of course, there are other cases where the scene in which Jonathan and Mark are driving to the next assignment is actually part of the episode (and it’s included in the script, like Change Of Life), but that’s not the point here.
Instead, the point is that in case an episode turned out shorter than 45 minutes, Landon had a bunch of improvised scenes (usually cold open), that he could select from to insert at the beginning of those short episodes. However, that’s in the case the episode is 45 minute long. In this case, though, For The Love Of Larry is not even 40 minute long. And to make up, Landon decided to improvise an entirely new cold open. Something similar occurred certainly for the episode Love And Marriage later this season, and in the Holiday Special of the next— and it’s very plausible it has occurred for this episode as well.
Considering this episode has a cold open that has nothing to do with the actual episode (which is here), and which was probably added at some later point after the rest of the episode had been produced and put together, it basically constitutes a sort of bonus assignment. And it’s the first long prologue of the series — although, more accurately, it’s a cold open (similarly to the Bonanza one, because the credits roll after this prologue is over). There has already been a bunch of episodes with a weird prologue (for instance, in Hotel Of Dreams, when Jonathan and Mark are at some motel waiting for an assignment). But there are some important differences between those and this episode: for one thing, every prologue to date still played out after the head credits of the episode; which is not the case in this episode. The most important difference, though, is that those other prologues only last a couple of minutes and are somehow tied or related to the actual assignment of their episode. But this cold open is an independent assignment with no relation whatsoever to what happens in the actual episode. And, of course, Landon decided to make this special cold open a drug episode, one of his obsessions.
Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are “assigned” to work on a drug smuggling operation.
The episode starts off, and something feels immediately off.
And it’s not Landon’s new summer pink outfit, at least not just that.
There’s no title.
Of course, there’s still the same opening with the Little House recycle, but in every episode the introduction is followed by the title of the episode and the guest actor credits — shown while Jonathan and Mark are driving somewhere and discussing their next assignment.
By contrast, now, the episode begins right away, without displaying any credit nor showing the title. Actually, they didn’t skip that part: the credits will start once this cold opening concludes and the actual episode begins (the episode For The Love Of Larry). Considering that a similar feature (showing the credit ten minutes into the episode, after the prelude) would occur for the cold open of the episode Love And Marriage for which it has been confirmed the opening was added later for the syndication version, that might further suggest this cold open wasn’t originally meant to be part of the episode.
Either way, that’s the first time in the series an episode doesn’t begin with the head credits (there are some others later on, thought they won’t be this peculiar). That makes it the first, actual cold open of the series.
It just opens so abruptly. Jonathan and Mark are not even in their car driving somewhere and discussing the next assignment: instead, they are on foot, discussing the “Stuff” (and not the angelic kind).
It is apparent their “assignment” involves investigating an illegal smuggling operation, which suggests it’s not going to be some random prologue where Jonathan causally drops his personal background story. Now they do have an assignment after all.
So, Mark basically complains that young’uns are all doozies because they know dope is bad yet continue to buy it all the same.
Then, Jonathan responds that it is important to teach young people about the dangers of drugs.
He’s getting to the point.
When Mark asks what happens if young people are too stubborn to heed those warnings, Jonathan drops a punchline — that striking punchline—one that Landon had probably been waiting to use since season one, or maybe even before: Jonathan states that history shows all great civilizations were destroyed from within, not by external threats.
And Mark, who is quick on the uptake, asks whether Jonathan is suggesting that the country is headed toward its extinction because of dope.
This is a massive claim, and it pushes Landon’s recurring obsession very far. In fact, this is not the first time Jonathan has expressed this idea: in the first season episode Plane Death—when Jonathan and Mark investigate the disappearance of Mark’s friend and discover he was killed by drug smugglers—they attended the funeral, and Mark wondered aloud when the country will finally eliminate drugs. Then, Jonathan replied that if it does not happen soon, there may be no country left at all.
It seems that Landon originally wrote the line for that episode, and simply recycled it two seasons later.
What makes this especially strange is that the speech is delivered during a seemingly random prologue in an episode that eventually has nothing to do with drugs or country extinctions (it’s actually about a dog rescuing people). Again, it’s likely because Landon wrote this entire prologue later on and added it in the episode to pad it out to the required runtime to fill its one-hour timeslot. Even though this cold open has nothing to do with the actual assignment of the rest of the episode.
What is happening here.
Anyway, as Jonathan and Mark walk along, they notice a group of men awaiting by a car.
The men turn toward them, seemingly ready to make a deal, while random bystanders watch and nod from all around.
And there are bins everywhere: just another of Landon’s obsessions.
But it is entirely unclear what is happening: whether these bystanders are undercover cops, criminals, or something else entirely—and even what Jonathan and Mark’s role is supposed to be. Are they meant to bust drug pushers and dealers? If so, why not leave that to the police? Their assignments are usually about helping people, not playing the heroes and beat the hell out of criminals. Unless this is one of the cases where they are working as cops—as happened in a season two episode— without any clear assignment except having that job and helping whoever is in distress and needs them.
But then, why involve Mark, who has no powers, in what appears to be a dangerous operation.
Mark is like: “Do I have to go too?”.
Eventually, they approach the thugs and ask to see “the Stuff”.
But the thug demands to see the money.
It feels like a throwback to As Difficult As ABC in season one.
Anyway, Mark reaches into his coat, and the thugs immediately stop him. But the odd part is that Mark reassures the thugs by explaining that he doesn’t have a gun.
Sure.
It’s probably a lie to reassure the thug, because if he really doesn’t have one, he’s a fool. There’s no other way to put it, trying to deal dope with thugs and not having a gun there.
Because, of course, they have it.
That was obvious.
So, the thugs take the money from Mark’s pocket, but a group of cops suddenly jumps out behind Jonathan and Mark and holds everyone at gunpoint.
And one of the thugs jumps on Mark and holds him hostage.
Now, what exactly is going on here? If this was supposed to be some kind of police secret operation, then these are the worst cops imaginable. It was obvious the thugs were armed, and it was equally obvious that they would take either Mark or Jonathan hostage the moment something went wrong. So why jump out of nowhere and yell at them the moment Jonathan and Mark were handing an envelope to the thugs instead of waiting for Jonathan and Mark to move away first? Unless, of course, Jonathan and Mark were not actually working with the cops, but were on a mission of their own and the police just happened to be there. But in that case, they would be fools, dealing with dangerous criminals without involving the actual cops.
There’s also the question of why Mark was the one carrying the money: Jonathan is an angel—he can’t die (or at least he can come back to life, apparently)—it would have been much safer if Jonathan had handed over the money, while Mark stayed a step behind.
Maybe Jonathan is really trying hard to get his friend killed someday, and have him come back as angel. That way he won’t have to keep him safe from dangerous operations like this. Maybe this entire cold open is like a long Friendly Jonathan instance.
Anyway, things quickly get increasingly ridiculous: as the cops move closer, Jonathan suddenly and agitatedly orders them to stop and do as the thugs say.
But, hold on there: why is Jonathan so worried? He has the Stuff, he could easily use his powers to jam the thug’s gun and give Mark time to escape (which is precisely what would happen in the fifth season, for that matter). Or he could temporarily give Mark the Stuff and make him bullet-proof (the way Jonathan was on multiple occasions in season one, like Catch A Falling Star and Plane Death too). But none of it happens.
Maybe he assumes the thug is just a plain fool and, after backing up a little, he’ll just clumsily throw Mark over some trash bins and run off. Yet it would be so unexpectedly foolish: you have a hostage, the cops are closing in, that hostage is the only reason the police are holding their fire— if you throw the hostage away and try to escape, it’s obvious the cops will absolutely shoot you. Isn’t it.
That’s ridiculous.
The thug throws Mark away, runs in an open street, and the cops just start chasing him. They don’t even attempt to fire, even though the criminal is running down the middle of an empty street.
As if the situation weren’t implausibly surreal enough already, Mark decides to chase the criminal too. What on earth is he doing? That man is armed, and Mark has no protection—not even a bulletproof vest.
He has forgotten every lesson he has ever learned as cop.
And, of course, the thug is lurking behind some bins, and shoots Mark.
However, Mark appears immune to bullets, and assumes he must have the Stuff.
Maybe Jonathan doesn’t really want to see his friend die — yet.
Even though it’s unclear how could Mark know it’s a possibility: so far, it has never happened that Jonathan gave Mark his powers (except when he allowed him to enter someone’s dream, but that’s different because Mark is being manipulated to do so, and doesn’t remember the dream when he wakes up). So, how could he know that it’s allowed by the mysterious “rules” of the Stuff to give the power to someone else. He implied he knew that in the season one finale, when Jonathan told Mark he gave the Stuff to a horse, but that never happened again.
Also, another mystery: what’s Jonathan doing in the meantime? He could use the Stuff to disappear and catch the criminal instantly (he has already used the power of vanishing and appearing somewhere else). Instead, he seems to wait for Mark to handle this, and supposedly gave him the Stuff for it. Supposedly, because seeing how recklessly Mark is unarmedly chasing that thug, it’s entirely plausible that Mark is under the effect of the Stuff — just not the angelic one.
What Stuff is that, the angelic one or the thugs’ one?
Anyway, Mark corners the thug.
It’s either the second Stuff, or French was drunk here.
And tries to cook him on a barbecue.
But then the cops finally arrive and arrest the criminal.
That looks familiar.
That’s Junkie from Catch A Falling Star after trying to rob Mark and experiencing an angel playing tricks on him.
Anyway, Jonathan is there too, and scolds Mark for his recklessness. But Mark laughs it off, convinced he has the Stuff.
At this point, Jonathan makes a revelation that just goes to show how friendly he is — and further confirms Mark was using a different Stuff than the angelic one.
He’d better not tell him.
This revelation simply doesn’t work. Unless Jonathan secretly wanted to see his friend killed so Mark would become an angel and they’d stop worrying about dangerous assignments (like As Difficult As ABC, again). Or maybe Jonathan deliberately withheld the Stuff because he knew the gun was loaded with blanks. Either way, it’s impossible that Mark didn’t have any power, because that guy was actually shooting him.
Again, maybe Jonathan knew the thugs was so foolish Mark was never in any real danger, or maybe he knew the gun wasn’t loaded. Or Mark actually had the Stuff, given by his superior, and Jonathan was unaware of it. But it feels random all the same.
Anyway, Mark realizes he got the wrong stuff, and feels unwell.
That’s a side effect.
Next, they arrive at a hospital.
And here’s something very peculiar: Mark puts a suitcase in the back of the car.
It’s not just any suitcase—it’s the bag: the same bag from One Winged Angels on season one, the bag Jonathan was packing before leaving the motel at the conclusion of that episode (more details about it at the “Highway Of Mysteries” entry of that episode).
It was also the same bag Mark had in the episode The Monster and Keep Smiling on season two
At this point, it’s possible that when Jonathan was shown packing in One Winged Angels, he was actually packing Mark’s bag.
Eventually, Mark says that after this assignment he wants to take some time off, and Jonathan replies that they don’t have any assignment.
Don’t trust him.
When Jonathan tells Mark they can take some time off, they always get caught up in something (like that time in One Winged Angels or The Secret or Heaven On Earth, just to name a few). Nevertheless, after all these years Mark still believes in Jonathan’s lie.
After three seasons, he still thinks they can finally have some holidays (of course they won’t). This job gives them any.
But with that intention, they drive away.
And Mark shows off his singing skill, like he did in season one, and sings Ridin’ Down The Canyon, a 1935 Gene Autry’s ol’ goody (which is gonna be played again later on this season). He’s probably tuned in to the same station of the 1922 tune from the season one To Touch the Moon episode. Because Mark likes old station, and the producers like to have old songs they don’t have to pay the rights for.
And French is such a good actor he can convincingly sing badly.
Then, ten minutes into the episode, the title appears and the opening credits finally roll—leading into the actual assignment.
This was random for countless reasons; most importantly: everything that happens in this prologue is completely unrelated to the rest of the episode. The most likely explanation is that the episode was originally too short: without this prologue, it would run only about 39 minutes instead of the usual 45 minutes. Realizing this, Landon may have written a random introduction to pad the runtime—and, of course, he decided to make it about drugs, one of his three obsessions. Another explanation is that the prologue could be a recycled idea from an abandoned episode: perhaps Landon initially planned to make a drug-related story, realized it wasn’t working, and abruptly changed course.
But the most likely possibility is that this scene was unscripted: they just realized the episode was too short and wanted extra material to fill the time slot, and hastily produced this entire prologue—possibly in a single day.
So, what it all boils down to is that it was a random cold opening which teaches impressionable kids in the audience that dope is bad — as if it weren’t obvious to the Highway audience already. Either way, the prologue is over, and Jonathan and Mark can go to the mountains, and work on the actual assignment of the episode.
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