Maybe the writers were getting fed up with writing when they strained out this episode, but I think the actors must have hated it as much as I do. It offers nothing. (Okay. There is one saving grace, but it is so quick that Maurice's epiphany is almost lost). Even the music is bad - although I do not own this on VHS, but have the DVD, but the DVD transfer (with the substituted music - cheap bastids unwillings to pay ASCAP/BMI fees), has, of all things the Shaker song, 'Simple Gifts' as part of the polling place sequence.
It is as though the writers, *yes, you, Mr. Brand, et al), used their original conceptual character draft and stuck solely to those brief outlines of "type."
I find it hard to believe that the creators of 'Northern Exposure', wrote other than from some "cosmic=level" force, because the conceptualization and execution of this series seems to be so far above what the human imagination can conceive, and then put into action, is astonishing. (I know that when I paint, for example, it is not "of" me).
Not to sound like 'Chris', (who, starting with this episode becomes unbeatably prominent), but I've listened to the interviews with the writers and cannot believe otherwise; there isn't the remotest suggestion that these are people you would even want to have coffee with.
The episode is flat. It is annoying. It should have stayed in the can until the writers felt they could do justice to the theme.