thre return of nellie

Well the definition of corny is :
mawkishly old-fashioned : tiresomely simple and sentimental
I guess it was at times, but not overall. They had way too much drama and bad things happening to be too corny.

I think they thought it would be funny to have a "second Nellie" but she wasn't close except in looks. Nellie was mean, lonely in many ways and spoiled rotten, made to think she was better than everyone else by her Mom. Nancy was different, she wasn't spoiled, she was just mean and lacked empathy. Without empathy, you can't feel anyone else's pain or emotions, you are void of that human part of you that make us able to work with each other and be kind.

In Tinker Jones, if she was there, she wouldn't give one toy of hers, not like Nellie and Willie and if she did, it would be something she hated and THEN she would have made it seem like she did more than anyone else. Sound a bit funny, but it's not.

I agree and I think that every time she said "You hate me" she should have had to add a chore or an amount of money to a jar. : )

When you really analyze it, in my opinion, Nancy gave Willie a vehicle to really emphasize the change he went through. He was able to play off her to demonstrate how he was becoming a descent human being. Don't forget, he did some nasty stuff when he was younger. I think having Nancy kind of emphasized how sweet of a guy Willie could be.

As awful as she was, and boy was she awful, she did serve a purpose for some stories. I'm just sorry Albert wasn't around more to straighten her out..............

I agree, but I also agree with Richard Bull, Willie was misunderstood at times, he was mischievous but also a follower...when Nellie had him help her record Laura, it was her idea, he wouldn't have done it on his own.
I thought Mr. Bull's comments in an interview were very nice, many just didn't mention him at all, and he said he was smart and a good little actor.

Nellie's hair in this one is so funny!

Praire Girl wrote:

Nancy had to be the worst idea the writers came up with in the entire run of the show. She creeped me out because they made her pretty close to a sociopath. How can you like someone that can't love, can't have empathy, has no redeeming qualities? She was incorrigable from birth it seems, not "spoiled" like Nellie, but given up by her grandmother because she couldn't handle her. She is mean, killed a rabbit, according to Nell's, shows no remorse and only wants attention to her. My detective hubby gave me some behaviors of a sociopath and I found some online, very scary how close they rode the line with her. She especially fits the shallow emotions, only doing what she has to do to get her way. I felt sorry for the actress, she must have been hated more than Nellie, who ended up seeming more saintly by comparison.  lol

Nellie's actions today would be considered hazing or just being a pain in the rear. Even Nellie did have some standards. Nancy locked a girl in the ice house with no issue whatsoever. Nancy is a classic textbook example of sociopath/psychopath.

Just finished this one. Nellie was a character sort of "fun to hate" but Nancy just drives me crazy.....her "you hate me" shtick gets real old real fast.....and just when you think maybe, just maybe, she has changed....no, she pulls the same old stunt with Willie at the end.

She even became the centerpiece of this episode, when I would much rather have it focus on Nellie much more than it even did. I would have enjoyed some flashbacks or something of Nellie and Laura, for example. Maybe they could have reminisced about how they were towards one another.

So for this episode, while I love Nellie returning, I don't like the general premise of the episode focusing on Nancy's intense jealousy. I don't care if she really sees herself as being hated....yep, she is probably hated because of her own behavior! The episode would have all been worth it if she truly had changed, even just a bit, at the end, instead of just being reset to being the same psychotic kid she's been ever since her arrival.

Parts of the episode I love though are those with Willie and those with Laura and Almanzo. I love how Willie offers his bed to Nellie. And I love the scene with Nellie and Laura and then with Laura talking to Almanzo while he is tying his tie....but did that stuff with the apples happen in an earlier episode? I don't remember it now.

littlehouselover wrote:

I agree and I think that every time she said "You hate me" she should have had to add a chore or an amount of money to a jar. : )

If she truly believed that people hated her, why doesn't she ever do anything to try to get people to like her? I think she just likes to use this line about everyone hating her to try to get Mrs. Oleson to buy her more stuff. I don't think Nancy even truly believes that everyone hates her, unless her definition of everyone hating her is that they don't bow down to her and grant her every desire and act like the world revolves around her.

Even Nellie didn't go around saying that everyone hated her.....in fact, quite the opposite - Nellie, when she was young, just seemed to assume that everyone thought as highly of her as she did of herself....I think that was one reason she had so many quarrels and fights with Laura - because Laura was blunt enough with Nellie for Nellie to realize that Laura did not think highly of Nellie. Kind of like how Caroline was sometimes pretty blunt with Harriet.

littlehouselover wrote:

I agree, but I also agree with Richard Bull, Willie was misunderstood at times, he was mischievous but also a follower...when Nellie had him help her record Laura, it was her idea, he wouldn't have done it on his own.
I thought Mr. Bull's comments in an interview were very nice, many just didn't mention him at all, and he said he was smart and a good little actor.

I agree with you. I don't think that Willie was so much a "bad kid" in and of himself. He did act up a lot in school, but I think he may have done that as a way to get attention, since at home it seemed like Nellie got most of the attention, especially from their mother. I also agree that when he did the really bad things, more often than not it seems like it was because he was having to go along with Nellie. But an exception to this was when he made fun of Gideon's stutter. That was Willie being a foolish and mean boy, and there was no Nellie to blame for that. However, with his mother being the way she was, I could see that Willie could have picked up a lot from her. I could see her making fun of someone for stuttering, like how she thought people who could not read English were illiterate and stupid.

I also agree that Jonathan Gilbert was a good actor....and he seemed to grow more as an actor throughout the run of the show. I do really like the Willie character and am glad he was in it for the whole series.

I watched this episode for the first time in a while and like pretty much every episode with Nancy, it reminded me why I do not like Nancy. She is so spoiled, selfish, and self-centered. I think Nellie was right when she said "I was never that bad."

I think it also showed how grown-up Willie had become. Offering to do Nancy's chores for her because she was being a little brat again, that is something younger Willie never would have done. Though I have to agree with the people who said Laura and Nellie's 'reunion' seemed a bit forced, after all they hated each other for so many years it didn't seem possible that they would be so joyful over seeing each other again!