Most Waltons episodes have two basic plots, including this one. While neither here was terrible, I believe they were both lacking anything to make this more than a marginally enjoyable episode.
The main plot was children of the women (and men) working at Pickett's plant having young children with nobody available to take care of them. Olivia is disturbed, rightly so, on a visit to the plant, seeing them roaming around the parking lot at the plant, unattended all day except for a few minutes during their parents' break times.
Olivia sets us a 1940s-style day-care at her home, without charging anyone, but the dangers of the mill cause her to need to find another solution. Where she found a place is the solution of the main plot, so I'll leave that for future viewers to discover.
I guess the day care for all sorts of young children we never saw before or after didn't really grip me. When there was a momentary fear of one child being hurt, I didn't get too concerned, figuring no tragedy would occur here, because the series did not go in for needless tragedies. If a character died, there was a serious and logical point to it.
The secondary plot was more interesting to me--and it was this plot that had a real negative. To discuss it, I really need to reveal something near the end, so if you might soon watch this--consider this a very clear SPOILER ALERT.
Ike and Corabeth's anniversary was approaching, and Elizabeth and Aimee plotted to get Ike to do something truly romantic. They planned a candlelight dinner at Godsey's Hall complete with the couple dancing to records. Ike was willing except for not feeling competent at dancing. Rose volunteered to teach him, and for several days she spent time teaching him how to dance at the Walton house.
Of course, Corabeth found a perfumed handkerchief (Rose's) in Ike's pocket and got suspicious of his daily "errands" away from the store. So far, so good.
Where they lost me was having Corabeth, like she did once or twice earlier, on believing Ike was seeing someone else, do everything wrong. To her loving husband who clearly was kind to her at all times, she planned to just leave a brief note saying she was leaving and move out. She planned to never even tell him what the problem was, let alone give him a chance to explain.
Keeping in mind that she had no confirmation of her suspicions, it bothers me greatly that she would leave him without confronting him. If it pained her too much to talk, she could write him, saying, "I believe you are having an affair. If you don't give me reason not to leave you, I'll be on tomorrow's bus out of town." She had attempted before to just up and leave him and luckily saw how much she had hurt him and had his love for her re-confirmed. By now, it just is not right for her to leave him so abruptly.
Of course, he revealed what was going on in time and they were both happy again before the show ended, in a nice scene of the two of them dancing the tango, complete with the rose in the teeth routine, I believe made popular in movies of the day.
Overall, not terrible, but definitely one of the weaker episodes of this season, and of the entire series.
The main plot was children of the women (and men) working at Pickett's plant having young children with nobody available to take care of them. Olivia is disturbed, rightly so, on a visit to the plant, seeing them roaming around the parking lot at the plant, unattended all day except for a few minutes during their parents' break times.
Olivia sets us a 1940s-style day-care at her home, without charging anyone, but the dangers of the mill cause her to need to find another solution. Where she found a place is the solution of the main plot, so I'll leave that for future viewers to discover.
I guess the day care for all sorts of young children we never saw before or after didn't really grip me. When there was a momentary fear of one child being hurt, I didn't get too concerned, figuring no tragedy would occur here, because the series did not go in for needless tragedies. If a character died, there was a serious and logical point to it.
The secondary plot was more interesting to me--and it was this plot that had a real negative. To discuss it, I really need to reveal something near the end, so if you might soon watch this--consider this a very clear SPOILER ALERT.
Ike and Corabeth's anniversary was approaching, and Elizabeth and Aimee plotted to get Ike to do something truly romantic. They planned a candlelight dinner at Godsey's Hall complete with the couple dancing to records. Ike was willing except for not feeling competent at dancing. Rose volunteered to teach him, and for several days she spent time teaching him how to dance at the Walton house.
Of course, Corabeth found a perfumed handkerchief (Rose's) in Ike's pocket and got suspicious of his daily "errands" away from the store. So far, so good.
Where they lost me was having Corabeth, like she did once or twice earlier, on believing Ike was seeing someone else, do everything wrong. To her loving husband who clearly was kind to her at all times, she planned to just leave a brief note saying she was leaving and move out. She planned to never even tell him what the problem was, let alone give him a chance to explain.
Keeping in mind that she had no confirmation of her suspicions, it bothers me greatly that she would leave him without confronting him. If it pained her too much to talk, she could write him, saying, "I believe you are having an affair. If you don't give me reason not to leave you, I'll be on tomorrow's bus out of town." She had attempted before to just up and leave him and luckily saw how much she had hurt him and had his love for her re-confirmed. By now, it just is not right for her to leave him so abruptly.
Of course, he revealed what was going on in time and they were both happy again before the show ended, in a nice scene of the two of them dancing the tango, complete with the rose in the teeth routine, I believe made popular in movies of the day.
Overall, not terrible, but definitely one of the weaker episodes of this season, and of the entire series.
