The Reincarnation of Nellie

littlehouselover wrote:

I never thought she loved Harriet, just used her for her own needs. She pretty much told her at the orphanage she understood her and it was "okay". "Maybe" if the story about her abuse was true you could find some sympathy, but it wasn't.

I agree with you that she used Mrs.Oleson. She didn't want anything to do with her until Mrs.Oleson promised to spoil her with dresses, dolls and candy. She should have been puinished for lying about bering abused by her mother when her mother died giving birth to her. Strange that they never mentioned her father.

That's true, re the Dad...I guess a not useful bit of info they felt. Nellie was a pretty good student also, lazy, but a good student. I don't think Nancy is that either.
It would have been interesting to see how everyone would have dealt with things if the show continued.

After Nancy threw mud on her dress and ripped her sleeve and lied and said Cassandra did it, Mrs.Oleson accused Laura of siding with Cassandra because of Cassandra being Laura's adopted sister, yet Mrs.Oleson took Nancy's side.

Vanesa wrote:

amyk wrote:

Maybe you could make her into a real tomboy!

Interesting idea, Amyk!

But even if it IS creepy, I think that it was pretty common back then that if a son or a daughter would marry and go far from home, or died, their parents would act with one of their other children as if this one was the belved one that wasn't with them any more. My great-great grandma had had a girl named America and when she died at age of three, the next girl close to her was named America too, and dressed exactly the same way than her died sister. I know it sounds not nice for nowadays ideas...But yeah, people DID this kind of things back then.

Vanesa.

Actually, the Quiner family had a little girl named Martha who died when she was four. A year later they named their new baby girl Martha. I always thought it was kinda sweet to name her after her older sister, but, yea, a little creepy.

I think this is the episode where Nancy is playing the piano and is really terrible at it. When Nels gets up to leave the room Harriet says "Nels, where are you going?" and Nels responds with "Crazy, Harriet! I'm going crazy!" I'm not sure if this was the episode, but that was one of my favorite Nels/ Harriet moments

Yes that is a funny bit!

I've been watching the episodes on Vudu and am a few episodes into season 8 and this is the first time I've really got to watch the whole series in order without missing episodes here and there. I really enjoyed season 7 and thought the series had a good flow to it, but then by the time The Lost Ones and The Reincarnation of Nellie are done, Jonathan, Andy, Nellie, Percival, Adam, and Mary are gone and have essentially been replaced by Nancy, James and Cassandra. I think that was the beginning of the end, and then the Ingalls leaving after season 8 was the final nail in the coffin. There are still a few episodes in season 8 that I really like, but it wasn't the same. I think the series would have lasted a few more seasons if they would have kept Jonathan, Andy, Nellie, Percival, Adam, and Mary around and aged Laura and Nellie's children to school age for season 9, but I guess I shouldn't be greedy since we did get 9 seasons and over 200 episodes.

From locking Belinda Stevens in the ice house in "The Reincarnation of Nellie" to kicking Willie in the leg before a foot race in "Gambini the Great", Nancy was a genuine brat all the way and was an awesome asset to the show. Although episodes such as "A Wiser Heart" and "He Was Only Twelve" in which she was not involved were tolerable, I view the presence of Nancy Oleson as a positive despite her @$!*&iness. Super job by Allison Balson.

Normally, I dislike when a character on a show is "replaced". (Dick York, Dick Sargent). But this was perfectly done, I always enjoyed hating the Nancy character. It was very well done in replacing a "character". The title of the episode says it all. Here she is today, simply stunning:

bethandmanly wrote:

amyk wrote:

Didn't Nellie also make fun of an overweight boy when they lived in Mankato?

They made fun of Mr. Bevins, Amelia's father. He worked at the blind school.

It was Laura, Albert and Andy who made fun of Mr. Bevins. I don't think Nellie and Willie saw him. At least Nellie did seem sorry for some things she did. Nancy was never sorry for anything she did.

I know what you mean, MikeIn FLa about Dick Sargent replacing Dick York on Bewitched. I think it's weird they had a different Grace and Carl in the episode, A Promise To Keep and a different Royal Wilder. In the Nephews, Woody Eney played Royal, then when he came back, Nicholas Pryer was Royal.

While there are some scenes in the first part of this two-parter that I do think are fun, in general I really don't like this episode. I wish we had a real send-off for Nellie and Percival (and their kids). At least we get a send-off for Mary and Adam. And hey that's "Trudy" from MONK playing Belinda!

What I love most about this episode is the adorable relationship between Nels and Harriet pre-Nancy. I love how concerned Nels is for Harriet, and I love the "bathtub scene." So sweet how Nels is kissing Harriet there and how happy he is when she is back to yelling at him since he knows this means she is more like her old self.

But here are some of the things I dislike about this episode:
1) Nancy! Need I say more? No disrespect to Allison Balson (and I think she did a fine job playing the role), but I have never found anything I liked about the addition of this character to the show.
2) I don't think Willie should have reacted as he did the first moment he met Nancy. He was very rude and unwelcoming. At this point he did not know she was going to be the most evil person he may have ever met. He could have at least been somewhat nice to her.
3) If they had to "reincarnate" Nellie, I wish they had made her and Carrie rivals. Then it would have been like Nellie and Laura.
4) I just think it is beyond belief that even Mrs. Oleson would want to adopt some kid who both bit her and punched her.
5) I think it is stupid that they would not have a way to open the ice house door from the inside, especially if Willie had once been trapped in there.
6) While Nancy deserved some severe punishment, I actually don't like what they did to her at the mermaid booth. I think this kind of proved her point, that the whole town was against her. And I don't really like public ridicule as punishment, especially for a child. But I'm not opposed to a spanking and in Nancy's case, I think this would have perhaps done more for her than the mermaid booth. Nancy probably ended up enjoying being the center of attention as the mermaid, even if it was that people were trying to knock her into the water! Is being dunked in the water really going to teach Nancy any kind of lesson? She also never apologizes to Belinda or anyone for that matter about what she did. I think she should have been made to apologize to Belinda, although I'm sure she would have lied her way through that.
7) Oh, have to add this - I think maybe COZI-TV cut something out which would have explained this, but I find it strange that Cassandra goes over to visit Mrs. Oleson and read her a book. Does she even know Mrs. Oleson? Wouldn't it have made more sense for Carrie, who has at least known Mrs. Oleson almost her whole life, to do that, if any of the Ingalls kids had to do it? Of course it just serves as a plot point for Cassandra to share about being adopted and loving Ma and Pa as much as her biological parents. But I think it is strange that Mrs. Oleson is all loving towards Cassandra in this scene, and yet she is so quick to turn on Cassandra once Nancy stages the fight with Cassandra.
8) Mrs. Oleson is also always the one so concerned about people's "breeding" and I don't know that she would be so keen to adopt a child without investigating the background of the child.

Here's my idea for what could have been......if they really thought they needed to bring in a new daughter for the Olesons, I think it would have been fun if they went to the orphanage looking. There could have been Nancy, even wearing one of the same dresses Nellie once had. (They could say that they had received the second-hand clothes from the Olesons.) And Mrs. Oleson just had to have that particular child. Once they adopt her, they find out that she actually is a tomboy kind of like Laura once was). Mrs. Oleson always is trying to turn her into another Nellie, but Nancy is more interested in fishing and playing baseball with the boys! I don't know.....just seemed to me that they needed to do something rather than trying to recreate the whole Nellie thing. I find that actually pretty disturbing....kind of reminds me of MY ELLEN.

P.S. Nancy is really evil.....just look at the way she twisted that doll's head around like that. Or she may truly be seriously mentally ill. If that is the case, I don't think that Harriet Oleson is the right person to help her. And did she truly have no guilt at all about getting Willie to lock Belinda in the ice house? Oh, by the way, why would Belinda have gone down by the ice and collapsed there? Why wouldn't she at least be up at the door area?

Praire Girl wrote:

I don't think the writers realized how scary Nancy was. She wasn't spoiled, she was incorrigible. She made her grandmother's life hell, she had to give her up, she broke things, set things on fire, couldn't relate to the other children or adults. She manipulates and never shows compassion. Nellie would at times be good and help out, Nancy never says a kind word and has a blank face when other students are showing compassion to someone.
She lies, uses her parents and knows what buttons to press.
She let a rabbit die as stated above in another post, from not feeding it, almost killed someone without thought because she was jealous, used an admirer to do her homework, the list goes on and on.

To have Harriet see her as "Nellie" is hard to swallow, she is not like Nellie, even my 12 year old daughter saw that. She is more like a child I saw on Criminal Minds once.

I agree. I don't think Nancy is really like Nellie. Nellie was a mean bully. Nellie may have been a bit mean to Bunny, but I can't really imagine Nellie purposely starving an animal by not caring for it when she was supposed to. (I think Nellie would have manipulated things to get someone else to take care of an animal for her if she really didn't want to, though!) And I can't really imagine even Nellie trying to kill someone. In writing that, though, I do wonder - did Nancy intend for Belinda to die in the icehouse or did she just think Belinda would get too sick to sing in the pageant? Did Nancy ever have any intention of telling people Belinda was in the icehouse? Did Nancy know someone would go into the ice house and find Belinda? Even if Nancy did not intend for Belinda to freeze to death, I do think Nancy was old enough to understand the seriousness of someone being locked in there, especially after Willie shared how he was after he was locked in there.

littlehouselover wrote:

I never thought she loved Harriet, just used her for her own needs.  She pretty much told her at the orphanage she understood her and it was "okay".  "Maybe" if the story about her abuse was true you could find some sympathy, but it wasn't.

Yes, to me they could have elicited some sympathy and understanding for Nancy if that story about her being abused as a child had been true. I also don't think Nancy even loved Harriet. I think she just lied and said that because she knew Harriet was her gravy train. I feel like Nancy would have stabbed both Harriet and Nels in their sleep if she thought that she was no longer going to get anything like nice dresses or candy from them. And then felt absolutely no remorse.

But when the people did think she had been abused, it would have been nice for Albert to try to have a talk with Nancy. He could have told her about the abuse he endured in the orphanage and tried to befriend her as one former orphan to another. Of course, Nancy liked Albert so she would have probably continued in her lies....but Albert was street smart, and I think he could have seen through her lies.

Toby wrote:

I've been watching the episodes on Vudu and am a few episodes into season 8 and this is the first time I've really got to watch the whole series in order without missing episodes here and there.  I really enjoyed season 7 and thought the series had a good flow to it, but then by the time The Lost Ones and The Reincarnation of Nellie are done, Jonathan, Andy, Nellie, Percival, Adam, and Mary are gone and have essentially been replaced by Nancy, James and Cassandra.  I think that was the beginning of the end, and then the Ingalls leaving after season 8 was the final nail in the coffin.  There are still a few episodes in season 8 that I really like, but it wasn't the same.  I think the series would have lasted a few more seasons if they would have kept Jonathan, Andy, Nellie, Percival, Adam, and Mary around and aged Laura and Nellie's children to school age for season 9, but I guess I shouldn't be greedy since we did get 9 seasons and over 200 episodes.  

I don't think they needed to age Laura and Nellie's children, but I do think they needed to involve Carrie a lot more in the story lines. And they could have kept the blind school in Walnut Grove and had lots of interesting stories with children from there. They would not always have to be about them being blind, i.e. that would not have to be the major focus. Blind people have similar joys and challenges as sighted people, in addition to the challenge of being blind. I would have still liked to see more stories featuring Mary and Adam. And Hester Sue. If they had married her off to Joe Kagan, that could have provided some storylines. Also just still dealing with the issues of African-Americans living in a small town and being part of the community in that time period. They also could have had Jonathan eventually start courting a new woman and dealt with Andy trying to accept a stepmother. Or maybe Andy could have been plotting to get his dad married off again. And if they really wanted a natural way to bring in some newer children, there could have been a widow with young children who caught Jonathan's fancy! She could even have been the mother of James and Cassandra and then we could have had them in the show without adding them to the Ingalls family.

Anyway, I think there were still plenty of fresh and unexplored story lines that could have been incorporated into the show.