She was always concerned that the sin of her (then) old life would contaminate the domestic virtue of her (then) new life. This, we are told, is something that Marie herself was aware of. If her virtue is commingled with her sin, inseparable from it, then there is the concern that the sin may contaminate the virtue. And so the question becomes one of rescuing her virtue. We cannot separate her virtue from her sin, because they are both iterations of the dead Marie, which is exactly the problem Little Joe runs into when confronted with the truth about his mother. This complicates the representation of Marie. But, she is deceased, so what we have is not past and present, but past and past. If Marie were still alive, we might be able to separate her experience into Marie's past and her repentant present. Her past is both nothing to be ashamed of and something to hide. When it comes to Marie, the Bonanza-verse wants to have its cake and eat it, too. We are to identify her strongly with New Orleans, a town almost literally synonymous with decadence (Mardi Gras, anyone?). Marie is, at once, the sainted mother of Little Joe, and also the fallen woman. One thing that's really interesting about this episode is the way it addresses (or refuses to address) the moral status of Marie Cartwright. I really enjoyed captain_corky's reading of 'The Stranger,' and wanted to add some thoughts about that episode. I'll post my exact thoughts after I see yall taking part. These two eps are somewhat similiar in my opinion and bring to light a ton of thoughts about revenge and raw human emotion. In 'The Crucible' Adam is held hostage in the wilderness and made to work until he 'breaks'. In 'The Legacy' Ben is believed dead and all three of the boys struggle with what kind of action to take.

This episode teaches a lot about faith, love and human sacrafice.Īlrighty, I want to open Discussion on 'The Legacy' and 'The Cricible' Tulsa finally conceeds to Ben's argumentative claim and prays.īack at the Ranch Hoss has managed to save the little girl and we see the rain has arrived at last. He tries and tries, yelling at the devil he has created in his mind and after complete failure Ben tells him that he should be looking to a different power. He tries despertly to save the little girl all the while Ben is arguing with Weems and the man agrees to fighting this draught because of Hoss' sacrafice. Hoss comes across them and taking the risk because of the big heart he has, locks himself alone in the house with the Typhoid Fever sick child.

Meanwhile the Weems family has fled and taken refuge on the Ponderosa. When Ben refuses to buy into the guys nonesense Tulsa becomes upset and tries to shoot Ben. The man, Tulsa Weems believes that the drought is being caused by the devil himself and that the devil is also the cause for his daughter being so sick. He firmly believes that he can bring rain to the city and of course Ben doesn't believe any of the nonesense. In this episode it opens with a rainmaker and his family riding into drought ridden Virginia City. Here's a fine episode that displays a man's faith in God being restored. I'll give this a shot if you don't mind that is ).Įpisode #137 from Season #5.

Bonanza the hostage