{My spoiler below concerns what happened about the middle of the show. The real resolutions to the conflicts are not revealed.} This early first-season episode presents John Boy's conflict in the early minutes. He is preparing to go on a turkey hunt the next day with his father and two of John's friends. But, as he writes in his journal, we learn that he is conflicted because he has never intentionally killed any animal in his life. He wants to kill a turkey, for food, as a rite of passage, (Jason is promised a chance to hunt for a turkey next year) but John Boy fears he won't be able to kill an animal that seeks life the same as he does.
Out on the hunt, the others agree to let John Boy have the first shot when they encounter a large turkey, but he freezes and cannot pull the trigger. After a talk with John, the others go on to hunt, while John Boy plans to hike home. En route, he comes upon tracks of a bear that has been recently wounded while raiding chickens at the Baldwins'.
We switch to John, walking along alone, finding the family dog Reckless, lying, apparently hurt—we don't learn anymore about this. He carries Reckless a few feet away to put him on a softer spot of bush to examine him and hears the bear. He turns and sees that the bear is close, too close for him to retrieve the shotgun he put down to pick up the dog.
In the lesser plot, Mary Ellen has almost saved enough money to buy the catcher's mitt from Ike's, but is miffed when G.W. Haines shows up at the store accompanied by her rival, Martha Rose, who seems to have G.W. convinced that a certain dress in Ike's store is a thing of beauty. If you consider the title "The Hunt" to apply to both parts of the plot, you can consider Mary Ellen to be "hunting" for a boyfriend, trying to find the right type of lure to get G.W. interested in her instead of Martha Rose. Deciding between the dress or the mitt is her conflict, and I thought the resolution was more of a surprise than how John Boy's conflict was resolved.
The little things that happen are what make this such a special series. In this one, we see how Mary Ellen "commissioned" Jim Bob and Elizabeth to help her find scrap iron to sell to the junk dealer who comes around with a rickety truck full of stuff. She tells Olivia how she gets so many things going on at once because "I'm a good organizer." The junk dealer questions whether he'd do better making Mary Ellen a partner instead of dickering with her over how much to pay for her junk.
There is an early scene where all six younger children wind up in John Boy's room while he is trying to write—all for different reasons, none of them thinking that they are bothering him in any way. I laughed at Elizabeth's line, telling her brother to go ahead and write, "you're not bothering us." I think the only people who would not find this an excellent episode of the series, are people who just don't find the series very interesting.
Out on the hunt, the others agree to let John Boy have the first shot when they encounter a large turkey, but he freezes and cannot pull the trigger. After a talk with John, the others go on to hunt, while John Boy plans to hike home. En route, he comes upon tracks of a bear that has been recently wounded while raiding chickens at the Baldwins'.
We switch to John, walking along alone, finding the family dog Reckless, lying, apparently hurt—we don't learn anymore about this. He carries Reckless a few feet away to put him on a softer spot of bush to examine him and hears the bear. He turns and sees that the bear is close, too close for him to retrieve the shotgun he put down to pick up the dog.
In the lesser plot, Mary Ellen has almost saved enough money to buy the catcher's mitt from Ike's, but is miffed when G.W. Haines shows up at the store accompanied by her rival, Martha Rose, who seems to have G.W. convinced that a certain dress in Ike's store is a thing of beauty. If you consider the title "The Hunt" to apply to both parts of the plot, you can consider Mary Ellen to be "hunting" for a boyfriend, trying to find the right type of lure to get G.W. interested in her instead of Martha Rose. Deciding between the dress or the mitt is her conflict, and I thought the resolution was more of a surprise than how John Boy's conflict was resolved.
The little things that happen are what make this such a special series. In this one, we see how Mary Ellen "commissioned" Jim Bob and Elizabeth to help her find scrap iron to sell to the junk dealer who comes around with a rickety truck full of stuff. She tells Olivia how she gets so many things going on at once because "I'm a good organizer." The junk dealer questions whether he'd do better making Mary Ellen a partner instead of dickering with her over how much to pay for her junk.
There is an early scene where all six younger children wind up in John Boy's room while he is trying to write—all for different reasons, none of them thinking that they are bothering him in any way. I laughed at Elizabeth's line, telling her brother to go ahead and write, "you're not bothering us." I think the only people who would not find this an excellent episode of the series, are people who just don't find the series very interesting.
