Going to write my comments after just finishing this two-parter tonight (recorded from COZI-TV, which unfortunately means that some parts are cut out).
While I love it that Laura and Almanzo finally get married, I admit that I don't think I like this episode as much as SWEET SIXTEEN, and if I could re-make it somehow, I think that I would do things differently.
I like the subplot of Nellie's pregnancy. I do think Harriet is quite funny in the doctor's office, especially when she thinks Nellie is going to die in 6 months. I also thought it was nice of Percival to be in church with Nellie, since he's not even a Christian. I don't remember if he normally goes to church with her, just out of respect for her or what. (By the way, I missed part one of "HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT" on COZI-TV because I accidentally erased it, and then they jumped clear up to "LAURA INGALLS WILDER" without even showing part 2, so maybe I can catch that one another time.)
I have sort of mixed feelings about the whole rest of the episode. I do think Almanzo was unwise in making that deal for the farmland. But I also think the guy he bought it from was a jerk as well to dam up the stream. In any case, I think Almanzo was being more unreasonable about Laura and the teaching. When he gets her off the stagecoach, he indicates that it wasn't really about the teaching but was about them being apart. However, that's not the impression we get at all earlier in the episode, when it seems to be more about his pride than anything else. So I don't know if we are to believe he had a change of heart or if he really was more upset earlier that Laura would be away from him.
And then a part of me wants to kick Harv Miller - is he truly so dense he cannot see that Eliza Jane has romantic feelings for him? And even if he could not see that, doesn't he see anything wrong with the whole way he told her he was going to go back to Sleepy Eye and try to win over Miss Mabel (or whatever his beloved's name was)??? Why on earth would he take Eliza Jane out to the nice restaurant and start talking about how he had never told a woman he loved her, etc. etc.? Okay, maybe he just really was that dense, but I feel so bad for Eliza Jane when she just was convinced Harv was going to tell her he loved her.
Then I also have mixed feelings about what Eliza Jane did, in lying to Almanzo about Harv and her. I know she did it because she loves Almanzo and wanted him to be with Laura, but I kind of feel like Almanzo and Laura needed to work out their differences without this "easy out."
Also, wondering about Laura's bag. Wouldn't she have had some important things in that bag that she left on the stagecoach?
I wish we had a private scene between Mary and Laura before Laura got married....seemed almost a waste to even have Mary and Adam in this episode since we barely got to see them.
But perhaps the thing that bothers me most of all is that neither Mary nor Laura were married by Revd. Alden in the Walnut Grove church!! Why couldn't Laura and Almanzo wait and get married in front of all their friends in Walnut Grove? I hate that the wedding just seemed kind of tacked on to the episode and would have like to have much more time devoted to it. Carrie, Albert, and Grace weren't even at their own sister's wedding. I would so much have preferred this be a celebration for all of Walnut Grove.
But of course I am happy that we now have "Laura Ingalls Wilder." I just think it didn't need to be rushed like that.
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