Sheepherders Garth and Virgil Fenton become baffled when a mysterious illness kills one of their sheep, and threatens the rest of the flock. To ensure their own survival, the sheepherders had to butcher the dead sheep and sell the meat at affordable prices. The disease could be anthrax, but apparently the needs of the few outweigh the needs of many, and sadly their first customers were Caroline Ingalls and Alice Garvey. As a result, Laura and Albert woke up the next morning very sick. Aches and pains all over. Not just them, but Adam and several students of the blind school were also contaminated by this strange disease. Doc Baker ordered all those ill to be confined to one area to better try and understand this outbreak, so Laura, Albert, Andrew, and Alice were all transported to the blind school, and the numbers kept rising. One by one more people showed up. Nellie, Willie, and even Nels Oleson fell ill. Doc Baker diagnosed this outbreak as anthrax, and although they had enough TLC to go around, medicine, supplies and room were another story. Come to find out, every person sick had eaten the mutton, so the next order of business was to destroy and bury the rest of the Fenton brothers' sheep, so Charles and Jonathan head out to do just that. While at the Fenton farm, they find the two sickly and unconscious. What goes around comes around, so now they were transported to the blind school to be among the chaos they created.
As conditions get no better, but not really worse, Doc Baker sent Charles and Jonathan to Springfield to pick up a load of medicine he'd ordered from the hospital in Rochester. After a considerable delay, the train arrived. Loading up the supplies, Charles and Jonathan turned around and headed back for Walnut Grove, mission accomplished. En route back, they stop to help a starving, stranded man. He holds them up at gunpoint and steals their wagon. With the lives of nearly everyone in Walnut Grove in their hands, the men headed off after the bandit and tracked him to a secluded farmhouse. Meanwhile back at the blind school, at least two children died, as did one of the Fentons, and Laura had gone temporarily blind with fever. Caroline and Hester Sue prayed for the return of Jonathan and Charles, wondering what was keeping them. Sad to say, they were both tied up at the moment...that crazy, gun-toting bandit caught them snooping around and was holding them hostage for no apparent reason. It seems this man, Hank, had a son who was horribly ill. It might very possibly be the anthrax what got him too. It took some keen persuasion from Mrs. Hank to get her inferior half to turn Charles and Jonathan loose to help her boy, and then let them get back on their way to the Grove. Well, the other Fenton croaked and Doc Baker was calling himself a funeral director by the time the Ingalls and Garvey patriarchs got back with the medicine. The ill quickly began down the road to recovery and Hester Sue regaled them with a spiritual hymn...whether they like it or not, Andrew Garvey. (Seriously, look at his face.)
This was a really good one, and one of the more darker episodes of the series. From start to finish, it is dark, and it's done extremely well. Props to the cinematographer, as well as the director, Bill Claxton; There was a similar episode to this one from Season 1: "Plague". Viewers may recognize Matt Clark, who lost a wife and son in that episode too. So for realistic drama and a gripping story, this episode comes strongly recommended. It may be difficult for some to watch, if the site of sick people and dead children offends you, but even though this is only a television show, things like this really can and do happen. We mustn't try to ignore it.
As conditions get no better, but not really worse, Doc Baker sent Charles and Jonathan to Springfield to pick up a load of medicine he'd ordered from the hospital in Rochester. After a considerable delay, the train arrived. Loading up the supplies, Charles and Jonathan turned around and headed back for Walnut Grove, mission accomplished. En route back, they stop to help a starving, stranded man. He holds them up at gunpoint and steals their wagon. With the lives of nearly everyone in Walnut Grove in their hands, the men headed off after the bandit and tracked him to a secluded farmhouse. Meanwhile back at the blind school, at least two children died, as did one of the Fentons, and Laura had gone temporarily blind with fever. Caroline and Hester Sue prayed for the return of Jonathan and Charles, wondering what was keeping them. Sad to say, they were both tied up at the moment...that crazy, gun-toting bandit caught them snooping around and was holding them hostage for no apparent reason. It seems this man, Hank, had a son who was horribly ill. It might very possibly be the anthrax what got him too. It took some keen persuasion from Mrs. Hank to get her inferior half to turn Charles and Jonathan loose to help her boy, and then let them get back on their way to the Grove. Well, the other Fenton croaked and Doc Baker was calling himself a funeral director by the time the Ingalls and Garvey patriarchs got back with the medicine. The ill quickly began down the road to recovery and Hester Sue regaled them with a spiritual hymn...whether they like it or not, Andrew Garvey. (Seriously, look at his face.)
This was a really good one, and one of the more darker episodes of the series. From start to finish, it is dark, and it's done extremely well. Props to the cinematographer, as well as the director, Bill Claxton; There was a similar episode to this one from Season 1: "Plague". Viewers may recognize Matt Clark, who lost a wife and son in that episode too. So for realistic drama and a gripping story, this episode comes strongly recommended. It may be difficult for some to watch, if the site of sick people and dead children offends you, but even though this is only a television show, things like this really can and do happen. We mustn't try to ignore it.
