Little House on the Prairie (TV Series) Journey in the Spring: Part II (1976) User Reviews

Grandpas are people too

[mitchrmp · 9/10 · 6 May 2013]

This episode picked up where the previous one let off. Grandpa Ingalls is now living in the soddy with his son and family. He recently lost his wife and is still trying to adjust with being alone. Laura takes her grandpa under her wings and tries to make him happy.

The first thing she does is tell her grandpa about her problem with Carri and the turkey. She had told her father earlier, but he'd said it was no big deal. Laura knew differently. Grandpa did something about it.

She then helped grandpa fix up the soddy. They were happy. She decided to show grandpa how well she could ride Bunny. But a tragic turn of events causes a rift between her and her grandfather. Their relationship just may be severed forever! It's pretty sad when a little girl looses her best friend - especially to something she cannot understand. I remember as a little girl befriending a couple pigs that my dad had bought. He told me one day he was going to shoot them and take them to market. I was horrified and he sent me up to the house.

The hardest part of this episode was that Laura's running through the field was the exact picture of me that day. Tears streaming down my face, then freezing in my steps when the first shot rang out. My heart broke in that moment. I think that's why this episode is so hard for me to watch.

I won't reveal what happened after that, but Laura's true character of getting people to do what they need to do shines through in this episode. We see this character trait grow over the next few seasons, even to the point where we know who wears the pants in the Wilder household!

Laura = Problem Child

[XXniteXX · 7/10 · 15 October 2023]

This is just one of many major messed up things Laura has done, I will also mention from an earlier episode and future episodes.

She recklessly rides her horse and hits barbed wire, mortally injuring it. Then her Grandfather makes a half promise about the horse going to be OK, which Laura takes to heart. When Charles shoots the horse, Laura blames her grandfather, even though it's Laura who killed the horse indirectly. The next scene is when Charles and Grandpa get home, Laura has smashed all the plants they put up out of spite and anger. This wasn't the first or last time that shows Laura needs serious psychiatric help.

To name a few other instances, in Season 1, she pretty much wished her new baby brother was dead, wouldn't pray with everyone else for him to get better and hated him out of jealousy. Later as a young teen, she's obsessed with a grown man, she stalks him with every chance she gets, she sabotages every possible relationship he ever has and laughs about it. In Season 9, when her son dies as a baby, she blames Dr Baker for his death, she has everyone turn on this caring Dr and almost runs him out of town.

I'm sure there's more instances, besides the many freak outs, like smashing all the windows in her home. I can't believe no one has ever said anything about Laura's actions and the help she needs.

Sad but excellent episode.

[bigwhiskers-12170 · 10/10 · 23 October 2023]

Arthur Hill shines as Charles's heartbroken father in the 2nd part of a 2 part story.

In this episode he ends up living with the family and gets to know his grandkids better especially Laura. Laura and he eventually end up fixing up the small soddy he lives in with some plants and a patio. However the happiness doesn't last long ,when Laura goes out riding she is rather ignorant to a barbed wire fence and her pet horse crashes through it and gets mortally injured while the grandfather runs up in terror thinking Laura has been hurt badly. When they discover her horse has been mortally wounded, he promises her that he will try to make it better and mend the horse ,when deep down he does realize that the horse is mortally wounded and will need to be put down.

When Charles arrives at first he agrees that the horse needs to be put down but then when Laura says you promised he goes back and tells Charles that he'll mend the horse to which Charles looks at him saying you can't do that, you know this horse is mortally wounded and when he tells Laura there is no other way, she accuses her grandpa of being a liar and runs off. Later on the grandfather returns to where he is living and discovers that all the pots have been smashed on the patio he immediately realizes Laura has done it and it breaks his heart. Laura has a nice conversation with Mr Edwards who explains to her the gist of things and she realizes how wrong she had been to call her grandfather a liar and to hate him so she runs back to find him only to discover he is gone with a note left behind.

At the end of the episode they do catch him before he boards a train and he does stay with the family but eventually he does want to go back to his old home. There is a voiceover from Laura at the end of the episode about that even though he left and eventually passed on, that he knew they loved him especially her.

Promises, Promises.

[ExplorerDS6789 · 6/10 · 7 April 2012]

Previously on Little House, Charles' mother passed away suddenly, so he went back to the big woods to see the family, and discovered that his father Lansford had lost the will to live. After trying to burn himself alive, he was whisked back to Walnut Grove with his son. Plus, Carrie got to pick out the Thanksgiving turkey and was now set on keeping it as a pet. This started to bug Laura and since Charles was too busy to confide in, she went to see Lansford, and when he heard about the turkey troubles, he presented a solution: take him back to Brewster's farm to be reunited with his turkey family. That did solve one problem, but there are still two: what are the Ingalls supposed to eat for Thanksgiving now, and the turkey they brought back will most definitely be bought, shot and eaten by someone else. But at least Carrie was happy and that's all that mattered in the world, I guess. Lansford seemed to be adjusting to his new life, as he fixed up that soddy to better resemble a house, and Laura helped him. The two of them really bonded. After that, she introduced Grandpa to her horse, Bunny. They had a great afternoon, until Bunny galloped right into a barb wire fence, throwing Laura and was badly injured. Lansford sent Laura to get her pa, making the mistake of promising that Bunny would be alright. I hope that doesn't come back to bite him in the ass later.

Charles arrived on the scene with his rifle, sadly knowing there was no other alternative but to end Bunny's pain. But wait, Laura brings up that promise Lansford made her (when are kids ever going to learn that the word 'promise' isn't a literal and concrete oath?) and determined not to let his bond be broken, he wanted to try and help the horse. Charles snapped him back into reality and forced him to tell Laura the truth. She called him a liar and ran away. So, Charles plugged the horse, and I guess they now have something for Thanksgiving dinner. That's horrible, I know. I'm sorry. Anyway, after church on Sunday, the Ingalls go on a picnic, but Laura sat by herself in a tree, still mourning her loss. But it was Isaiah Edwards that put everything into perspective for her: some promises simply cannot be kept and it hurts especially when it happens to someone you love, so now Laura was ready to make amends with her grandfather. When she got to the soddy, she didn't find Lansford, but rather a very apologetic note. Charles and Edwards searched all day for him, but there was not a trace. That's when Charles decided to just give up on his father, let him do what he wants. Laura couldn't help but feel that in some small way this was her fault... ya don't say? Next morning, Laura had run away too. The kids' Christmas money was gone, so Charles and Edwards assumed she was taking the train to find Lansford and raced to Springfield. While she hadn't boarded a train yet, Laura managed to find her grandfather resting at the station after unsuccessfully trying to hop on an outgoing freight. She couldn't convince him to come home, so she used one of his own tricks against him (you remember how he got stopped Charles from running away from home?) and so Lansford and Laura were happily reunited with their family, and when spring came around, Lansford decided to go back to Wisconsin. Why was he leaving? No real reason, just so he could be close to his wife, even though she's always with him in spirit, but he left anyway, leaving an everlasting impression.

And so ends Journey in the Spring, an incredibly sad two-parter. This was definitely among the series' most tragic episodes, and while Part I was full of sadness and grief, Part II had all that, plus angry feelings. Laura being angry at Lansford over Bunny, Charles giving up on his old man, it was all very tragic, but well played out. Arthur Hill was fantastic once again as Lansford Ingalls. Melissa Gilbert really shined as Laura. Michael Landon was great, and Victor French was great in his cameo, thankfully Edwards was there to talk sense into Half Pint. And finally, Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush...what can I say except they still can't act. I did enjoy the turkey subplot, but I think it was resolved too quickly. So except for getting to know Charles' father and seeing him get a new lease on life, there wasn't much else to this one. It does bid a tearful farewell to Bunny, that poor horse had been through hell, but at least now she's in heaven. Wonderfully acted, written and directed, Journey in the Spring is a good episode, albeit very sad and a bit depressing.