Airdate: 02/10/1988

Directed By: Michael Landon

And there it goes: the entire season has led up to this moment. It’s a two-part episode, one of the most impactful in the entire series — a crucial point for the characters. Get ready for a deeply emotional assignment. And plenty of moonlights.

Complete show available here.

Assignment: Mark is “assigned” to help Jonathan restore his faith.

This “assignment” is not really an official one. Sounds similar to Heaven on Earth from season two, and it partially is: it’s the first episode of the series to be centered on Jonathan exclusively (like that one was on Mark), but there’s more to it.

One thing: this episode brings back two old recurring characters, Jane from Keep Smiling (Jonathan’s wife, season two), and Caz from All The Colors Of The Heart (Mark’s colleague running a summer camp for blind children, early in season four). It might be useful to go back to those two episodes—especially Jane’s one—before getting on this.

It all starts the same way: Jonathan and Mark driving somewhere late at night, discussing a topic that will later connect directly to the assignment: this time, how money and power change people.

Suddenly, Jonathan gives Mark order to turn around.

And then he hears a voice.

And Jane is in a hospital, crying out for him.

This part is somewhat ambiguous. It is unclear whether Jonathan is directly informed by his superior that Jane is dying and that he must visit her, or whether he somehow hears the voices of those praying and calling for him. Or maybe Jonathan can only hear Jane specifically because of their unique bond.

Either way, he’s there assisting her on her deathbed, trying to reassure her that Heaven exists. And Jane passes away. While their moonlight song on the piano plays.

It’s been five minutes into this. You’ve no idea what you’re in for.

When he gets out of the hospital, it turns out that Jonathan has become somehow convinced that his probation is finally about to end after forty years, and that he will soon ascend to Heaven and spend eternity reunited with his wife.

And Mark is happy for him.

Like the way this series is going to end.

To spend the last night together, they go down to the beach.

After three seasons, they have that waterfront cookout. (It’s something Mark has been asking for years).

And they start talking.

So that’s what this is all about.

Really sounds like the Love And Marriage cold open: they are going to look back to some of the series’ episode.

But before any flashback from old episodes can begin, Jonathan stands up and walks away, and Mark is left upset.

And then something happens.

Apparently, Jonathan is being denied entry because his probation is still incomplete.

And he doesn’t take this well.

He snaps, breaks ties with Mark and walks away.

So he’s arrested for disorderly conduct after getting angry at a theater which was showing something with a religious title, and Mark bails him out.

“To see the world”

You may think that Jonathan wants to spend time with his daughter Mandy—the one who thinks he’s a drummer. Or maybe turn to Jonathan’s enemy, the one who wanted to steal Mark’s soul.

Rather, he goes getting drunk. And then it hits.

Things are getting serious.

They are going separate ways.

This strongly echoes Heaven on Earth from season two, where Mark spiraled emotionally after feeling responsible for the death of a young girl. So he sent Jonathan on his way and the episode revolved around Mark processing grief, guilt, and resentment toward Heaven for allowing terrible things to happen to good people. Then, Jonathan invaded his mind and successfully helped him get over his guilt.

This time, the same things are happening to Jonathan — but Mark is unable to help him.

Actually, Mark virtually disappears for the remainder of the episode.

From this point onward, there’s no assignment whatsoever: it’s just Jonathan—a former probationary angel wandering the Earth aimlessly. And maybe now it’s up to the rest of the world to show him a way.

So, it’s the only episode of the series to be entirely about Jonathan: there has been a few episodes where Mark was the assignment (Going Home, Going Home in season one, Heaven On Earth in season two and partially Oh Lucky Man in season three), but not Jonathan. Of course, as Mark argued in season one, all assignments involve them both as much as the people they have to help—so they can’t solve them without becoming part of them and learn from them. (And that assignment was partially about Jonathan too). But this time, Jonathan is the person to help directly, and he’s not willing to help himself right now.

At least, that is how the first half of the episode unfolds.

Later, Jonathan notices a lonely woman standing by the sea.

He believes she’s Jane.

She looks drunk.

This mysterious woman is Jennifer, and she’s about to drown herself in the ocean.

So Jonathan saves her and she unexpectedly becomes his unofficial assignment, as human.

Even stripped of his powers, Jonathan has to play hero.

It does not take an angel to understand that.

But then she seemingly attempts suicide a second time when he crosses the street.

That’s impossible.

Disclaimer: this is a TV series; don’t try this at home—especially if you’re in L.A. like her. Drivers won’t be that tolerant.

• Background

The only clue related to the setting is at the beginning: shortly before dying, Jane mentions that her daughter Mandy is stuck in Boston in a snowstorm and won’t make it to the hospital.

That makes it seem as if this episode is set in Winter, plausibly around the same time as it was shot (December). However, season four already had a Christmas Special episode (the one with the third Santa Claus). So, this episode must be set after Christmas; otherwise, it means the Christmas Special took place in 1986, during season three (it was an unlikely possibility; more about it at the “Background” entry of that episode). Otherwise, it may be set in early 1988 too.

This episode was divided into two parts: this lasts a few days. The first one is when Jonathan goes mad, gets drunk, is locked in jail and sends Mark on his way. Then, it’s unclear how long it passes after that and before Jonathan saves the woman Jennifer, but the rest of part one is one day from that.

The setting is Los Angeles, in many familiar places. For example, Jonathan goes get drunk in Culver City, and it’s far from being the first time.

It’s the same place where they hired a man to cheat the Devil in the Halloween show season two; it was also the place where the groom went to get drunk in Love And Marriage upon realizing the marriage was off; as well as the place where Joe secretly went to get drunk after his shift in The Hero in season three. And now Jonathan is added to the list of drunken men there.

The beach where the argument takes place is Westward beach instead.

And it’s the most recurring beach of the series.

• Characters

Now, there’s a lot going on, particularly for Jonathan. The assignment brings back Jane from season two, and it is important for the audience to understand who she is: Jonathan’s wife. Or Arthur’s, precisely.

In the season two episode Keep Smiling, it was revealed that Jonathan’s real human name was Arthur Thompson, that he was married to a woman named Jane and had a daughter as well. In 1948, at the age of 31, he died of a lung disease, and immediately became a probationary angel. He was given a new identity — Jonathan — along with a new body, Landon’s, and began his travel in the Highway To Heaven.

In that episode, he was assigned to help his lonely, grieving wife Jane cope with the death of her friend and overcome her isolation; Jonathan successfully completed the assignment, and Jane never discovered his true identity, neither as her late husband nor as a probationary angel.

However, she unexpectedly grew attached to him and seemingly fell in love with him again. Eventually, he left her, but also promised that they would meet again someday.

That becomes extremely important here. Unlike Oh Lucky Man did with Help Wanted: Angel, this episode does not overlook Jonathan’s past (the way those episodes overlooked Mark’s). In fact, it becomes central to the episode from the very beginning.

In this episode, Jane returns to the series, making her the fourth recurring character after Leslie (Mark’s sister), Diane (Mark’s cousin), and Scotty (Diane’s husband). And she passes away at the beginning of the episode.

So, Jonathan grows resentful for being denied entry to Heaven and turns against his superior. As a result, he’s stripped of the Stuff, and is left alone the whole time.

First thing he does is sending Mark away.

And then wanders alone.

Cute.

Then, he also goes get drunk.

This is literally the only time Jonathan is shown drinking, and now Mark is the one trying, unsuccessfully, to cheer him up. It plays out like the Pilot exactly, when Jonathan found Mark drunk in a seedy bar, except now the roles are reversed and Mark is the one helping him.

He’s remarkable playing drunken characters.

And then he saves Jennifer, and introduces himself as Jonathan.

At this point, he could just use Arthur, even though it’s not Arthur’s body.

Then, he starts live with her. And prepares her breakfast.

That’s the same expletive Mark used in season one when Jonathan ruined his castle.

Anyway, there are many important things about Mark as well. The episode begins with Jonathan and Mark discussing how power changes people. And Mark confidently says that if he would never change — he would only use it to help others.

He clearly has unresolved issues.

In the season three episode Oh Lucky Man, he actually won some money that he intended to donate entirely to a single boys’ club. And reckless as that already was, he was then seduced by a woman who attempted to steal the money, and Mark completely fell for it: he delayed the donation, pushed Jonathan away, and even broke ties with him when Jonathan tried to warn him about her — albeit rather inefficiently.

So yeah, Mark actually had the money, but that clouded his judgement. Maybe he means that money itself does not change him — only love does. Or maybe he just forgot about that episode, the same way he forgot about Stella in season one.

Jonathan clearly remembers, from the way he looks at him.

He knows better.

Later on, they face separation.

As they are by the beach, Mark tells Jonathan he has spent the years of his life.

He’s overlooking friendly Jonathan. He probably won’t miss that.

Then, Jonathan stands up to leave. Like in A Mother And A Daughter, it’s time for Jonathan to leave.

But just like that episode, he doesn’t.

Still, Jonathan breaks ties and leaves Mark alone.

The chance he’s going back the drinking way are growing higher.

Then, when Mark is aimlessly driving, he believes he spots Jonathan.

It was all the convicted felony coat.

And then he runs into Caz, his old colleague.

He was already introduced early on in season four, in the Summer Camp No. 2 episode. There, it was explained that he was Mark’s old colleague, then he quit the force to become head of a summer camp for blind children.

Now he’s back, and offers Mark a job back at the camp.

But Mark refuses.

And Caz offers to help.

He’s not walking away from Mark.

Finally, his only friend. Maybe if he had known that Mark was suspended, he wouldn’t have abandoned him.

Anyway, Caz has now become the fifth recurring character of the series. And probably Mark’s only friend.

• On Angels And Probation

Important: it’s useful to read the entry in the other episodes here (a summary at the guidelines).

More details about Jonathan’s probation are added to the episode. When Jane passes away, Jonathan is convinced that his probation is about to conclude now.

Did you read that in your handy “Probationary Angel” guidebook?

It’s probably the same book explaining how the Stuff works (which makes it a totally useless book), plus a bunch of entries with words such as “Preemptive redemption” and other very useful points an probationary angel uses every day.

Anyway, the basis for Jonathan’s assumption is somewhat unclear and problematic, though. The series has already shown that angels who complete their probation and ascend to Heaven do not simply spend eternity resting there. Instead, they continue working as angels: for example, Petros Hadiar in season one was an angel who was still working. Same with Harold after the end of his probation in season two, and something similar happens in A Mother and a Daughter, which introduces a “field supervisor” angel. In that same episode, it is implied that Jonathan is eventually going to receive a promotion, meaning he will likely be sent to Heaven — but not necessarily remain there forever. More likely, he would simply take on a different role.

This is important: contrary to what many people assume, Jonathan’s probation is not tied to earning wings to ascend to Heaven — he is not working toward becoming worthy of Heaven. Actually, the series strongly suggests that everyone can ascend to Heaven,just that not everyone becomes an angel (that was revealed in Love At Second Sight). The only episode in which the series openly connected wings to Heaven is the season two Halloween Special; as for the rest, that’s somewhat misleading: wings are not actually required for someone to be an angel. Jonathan is serving his probation simply because that is what he has been instructed to do.

At this point, if Jonathan really believes that he’s going to be called to Heaven, it means that probation lasts 40 years, or that the figure is realistic. It’s important to point out that the series never specifies how long Jonathan is supposed to be working, and actually gives contradicting details: in the Pilot, Jonathan was “new at this”, but A Child Of God began with Jonathan saying that he’s been on probation for almost 40 years. If now he believes that his probation can end after 40 years, then it means that he wasn’t “new at this” by the pilot. It’s more likely that, by the time he wrote the Pilot episode, he still had no idea what Jonathan’s background was.

So, it’s unclear if this probation is really tied to Jane’s death, or if Jonathan was just convinced without clear reason.

And if she had died 35 years ago, would that mean that Jonathan would have concluded his probation after five years or what.

Also, Jonathan is assuming that Jane is up there waiting for him, not that she was turned into a probationary angel and sent on her way traveling California and helping people.

Maybe he believes his wife wasn’t worth becoming an angel. Or maybe it confirms that only people who didn’t lead a good life become probationary angel, and those who did can ascend to Heaven directly. It’s no surprise that being an angel in this series is an enslaved job delaying eternity. Or maybe it implies that people can choose to become angel after their death: he (Arthur) chose to, and he believes Jane won’t. If he’s wrong, though, he’d ascend for nothing.

Either way, it doesn’t happen: Jonathan’s probation is incomplete. When he lashes out, he’s stripped of his powers.

This is not entirely unprecedented: Love at Second Sight in season three had already implied that when a probationary angel disobeys the superior’s orders, that angel can lose the powers and be condemned to walk the Earth indefinitely — or at least until reconciliation becomes possible, as happened in that episode.

So Jonathan already knew what he was putting himself into when he turned against his superior’s orders.

But he also knew that being an angel is an enslaved job that you can’t even quit.

Lastly, thorough the episode, he glances up when he has to talk to his superior.

That’s something he’s been doing for many seasons.

• Production and Setting

As for the production, the episode was filmed in early December, and production lasted one week, shared with Part Two as well. At least part of it. Basically, all the episodes divided into two parts and running 90 minutes can fall into two categories: in some cases, the episode was already intended to be 90 minute long (it was written as a two part episode and it was produced the same way). In other cases, however, the episode was originally intended to be a single, 45-minute episode, and it became a two part episode later on, either in additional writing prior filming, or when production is already on. This episode falls into this second category: as revealed by the script and later confirmed in an interview with the actress playing Jennifer, it was originally envisioned as a single forty-five-minute installment, the usual runtime for the series.

However, during production they realized it was running much longer than anticipated, and eventually decided to add new scenes and expand it into a ninety-minute, two-part episode. The same thing had happened with One Fresh Batch of Lemonade in season one as well: it was originally written as a single installment, during production they realized it was becoming too long, so instead of cutting material to fit the intended forty-five minutes, they wrote and added new scenes until it reached ninety minutes. Something similar also occurred with Love and Marriage in season three, although for that episode they only added a new cold open for its syndicated broadcast.

So, parts of this episode were filmed in early December, but they made additional portions in January to make it a two-part episode.

One curious thing: this was not the first time an episode written by Landon couldn’t match its intended runtime; it was the fourth case. Before this, it happened with For the Love of Larry in season three, which wound up ten minutes shorter than expected and Landon had to add a ten-minute cold open unrelated to the rest of the episode. Something similar occurred with the season four Halloween Special this season, which initially ran only forty minutes, so Landon made a new cold open featuring Mark reminiscing about the season two Halloween Special. And there was Man’s Best Friend, this season’s opening episode: Part One originally came in five minutes short, leading production to move the first five minutes of Part Two to the end of Part One instead, and giving Part Two a longer introductory recap to make up.

And now this episode comes: it was shot in December 1987 and initially intended to run forty-five minutes, but it turned out much longer, so they had to schedule a new production filming the next month to turn it into a full two part episode.

Despite over twenty years of experience on TV, it seems that Landon still has to get the hang of this.

At this point, it was definitely possible that they’d add a flashback at the beginning when Jonathan and Mark remember their time together, as they did with Love And Marriage when it fell shorter than anticipated and made a new cold open entirely about that.

Anyway, the setting is Los Angeles, particularly Malibu Road, which is supposedly where Jennifer lives. The beach where he meets her is Westward, the fourth time they went there in the series. Although the hospital doesn’t exist.

Meanwhile, the place where Jonathan gets drunk is the same location where they meet the conman in the Halloween Special, a set that was reused several times throughout the series (The Hero and Love And Marriage).

And that’s Culver City instead.

And the vet is a new one.

Not a recycle from Man’s Best Friend and For The Love Of Larry this time.

Glossary:

Beach: the confrontation in which Jonathan defies his superior takes place at Westward. Once again, the beach curse.

References: at the beginning of the episode, Jonathan and Mark are at the beach talking about their friendship. While they are there, Mark confesses that he is grateful to Jonathan for the four years they have spent together, and admits that he does not know what he will do afterward.

You get a life and don’t get drunk.

After four years in which he couldn’t do anything without Jonathan, he should get a move.

Anyway, this part is important: it may shed light on what Mark is going to be doing after the end of the series. So, he says that he’d like to go on helping people, and Jonathan tells him that he can do it without being an angel.

That’s an old punchline dating back to the Pilot, when he refused to let Mark join him and told him that it didn’t take an angel to do the angel’s job.

This time, Mark adds something new, though.

And you can fool around.

Highway Actors: the episode also features two veteran Highway actors for the two new recurring characters. One is Jane, Arthur’s late wife.

She had already appeared as Jane back in season two, becoming the fourth recurring character in the series.

Then, she won’t appear in part two, so this episode marks her final appearance in the series.

Instead, the second Highway actor is the one playing Caz, Mark’s former colleague, who had already appeared in the episode set at the summer camp for blind children.

Now, he has effectively become the fifth recurring character as well. He’ll be coming back in part two, and his character will also be featured in season five, although Andy won’t be there to play him.

Curiously, the character of Jennifer is played by Leann Hunley, who had never appeared in the series before.

However, six years later, Hunley would make a guest appearance in Heaven Help Us, the TV series about a couple of probationary angels helping people ascend to Heaven — no coincidence. She also appeared in a show sharing the same title as Highway’s episode.

As she revealed in a 1988 interview with the Chicago Tribune, one day she was contacted about reading for a role in Highway: she auditioned in the morning, and that same afternoon Landon personally called her to say he wanted her for the part. As Hunley admitted in the interview, she did it right.

Around the same time this episode was produced, she also had a recurring role on a soap for ABC. In the interview, she revealed that when the episode was expanded into a two-part, Landon decided to shoot additional material on Saturday in order to avoid scheduling conflicts with her other series.

Real Score: this episode has many moonlights, the 20th century piano song that Arthur can play.

Highway Of Mysteries: this episode has many mysteries, and more will be added in part two. Beyond the unclear mechanics of probation and the question of how Jonathan could hear his wife’s voice calling him from the hospital (something he has never displayed before) there is one mystery about the bags and the Stuff. When Jonathan leaves Mark, he doesn’t have anything. And when he saves a dog with Jane, he doesn’t have anything either.

He’s a bum.

However, he should have the bag with him (the one he carries in the opening of each episode). Perhaps Mark took it away.

Another mystery is about the first assignment: when they are driving and talking about power, it’s apparent that Jonathan and Mark have one.

But then Jonathan hears his wife and diverts everything. What it will be of the assignment they were supposed to take care of in the first place remains a mystery.

Perhaps it was given to some other angel. Or maybe it was just had to wait. Even though the series made it clear that Jonathan and Mark can work on an assignment on a specific time, after which they have to move on (as in Time In A Bottle). That means there’s a person somewhere waiting for an angel to save the day, but that doesn’t happen.

The biggest mystery, though, is Jennifer’s identity: it will be partially explained — and further complicated — in the next part. But there are some details about her that don’t quite figure: she says that she comes from the East, and that she has been in love with a man.

However, as soon as she moved, he disappeared from her life.

Did you go to the cops?

Apparently, she had a better idea: she attempted suicide out of despair. At least that’s what she tells Jonathan.

She further explains this.

Like any wife in Landon’s series.

Then, Jonathan gets her to vent out.

They couldn’t drop anything worse.

Two things to point out here. One, how this series tries so hard to use soft expletives just for young impressionable people watching, although realistically no adult would ever use them.

Second, about this entire thing: this mysterious man’s identity is unknown alright, but he may be dead; she explains that he seemingly vanished from her life six months ago, when she moved out West, and that nobody knows where he is. But really: if a man disappears from your life, and nobody knows where to find (not eve his friends, as she admits), then the most reasonable thing to do is alerting the cops and report him being missing. It may sound far-fetched, but these are the 1980s, a time when you had to write letters to your friends to ask them how things were going, and you had to wait weeks to get a reply, if any. If she wants to track him down, the only thing she could do is going to the cops, just to make sure he’s alive and has not become a bum or something.

I wouldn’t be so sure of that: he might be dead, you know.

Anyway, when she promises Jonathan she won’t attempt suicide anymore, he leaves; at some point later on, she passes by with her car.

That plays out exactly like the Pilot, when Mark found Jonathan in the middle of a desert road. And Jonathan had left one day earlier, and Mark had no idea where to go.

So, either this Jennifer has been following him, or she had some help.

The Stuff: In this episode, Jonathan is stripped of his powers. That’s the second time in the series this happens (the first time was the cops episode in season two). And he explains that, without the Stuff, he’s basically like any man: so he has to eat and sleep, essentially.

However, one odd detail is that he says he has no money. That implies that he always used the Stuff to make them. But if can, then there was no point in the Pilot to gamble. Unless he can use money for himself.

Also, he has been working real jobs for four years now. So, he should have some — unless it were to imply he has never received any pay.

The job: there’s no job in this peculiar episode. But there’s one important detail: toward the conclusion, when Jennifer asks Jonathan about his profession, he replies with a familiar title.

It’s exactly the same term used earlier in the season’s Christmas special as part of Mark’s references while applying for a job.

It is curious: in four years, the series had never officially named Jonathan’s occupation, and now this is the second time it is mentioned. That episode was written by Gordon: maybe Landon had never thought of an official name for Jonathan’s job, and liked that so much he couldn’t help it.

Also, it turns out that Mark has never really been on the job.

Ratings: 26 million audience. 25th weekly TV programs, 6th TV genre show.

This unintended first part aired in February 1988 and proved quite successful in the ratings that week. Of course, that success has to be viewed within the context of the season: it was still watched by fewer people than Man’s Best Friend earlier in the season. However, it did outperform several episodes from the first half of the season, and remained stable around the same ratings as last week show. Perhaps, as more people realized where the story was heading, even more will tune in for part two. If that were the case, it may helped the season recover some of the ratings strength the series had enjoyed in previous years.