User Reviews

Though not as traumatic as the first part of this episode, I've chosen not to watch the second part either. I'm writing this review from memory of the last time I watched it - several years ago. Like I said in the previous review, this episode did not appear on television reruns - that's how controversial it was!

This is a harsh episode. There's no feel good - not "and they all lived happily ever after" - no laughter. The entire two-part episode is very dark.

After Alice dies in the fire, Andy is trying to come to terms. He needs his father more than ever but Jonathan is drowning his sorrows in the bottle so he won't have to feel. Andy is so stricken with his father's actions that he comes to the Ingalls. He doesn't want to go home - he begs to stay with them. Charles, of course, goes to give Jonathan some tough love. He cannot stand how Andy's being treated. Alice is dead but Andy is very much alive and needs his father more now than ever before!

Mary is in a sort of trance merely living and humming the lullaby she always hummed to her baby. But when Albert brings in a music box, she goes crazy. Adam cannot control her. She throws her arm through a window and tears her arm up pretty bad. There's even a point when Adam doesn't think their marriage can stay together.

I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to have your child taken away in such a horrible way. You can hear his cries as you sit there helplessly not being able to help him. I can't say that I wouldn't go crazy too. I respect how the writer's wrote Mary's part. I believe it is truly close to how some of us would behave if the same thing happened to us. I feel sorry for Mary - why she got all the difficult things - blindness, miscarriage, and her baby taken in a fire in front of her "eyes" are only a few things. Laura later looses a baby, but it's not nearly as dramatic.

Albert is overcome by guilt and runs away to go live with his father. upon learning of it, Charles takes off to go after him. Jonathan goes with him.

My favorite part is the scene between Jonathan - the man who lost his wife in the fire, and Albert - the one who caused the fire. Jonathan could have hated Albert for what happened. Instead, a heart-wrenching, tear-jerking scene of sorrow and forgiveness is beautifully written.

The episode ends in complete silence.

I'm a big crybaby anyway lol, and this series' music always gets to me, but the ABSENCE of music at the end of part two of this episode just about tore my heart out. Every time I watch this episode, I'm always shouting at Alice "You don't have to take time to wrap the baby up, just GRAB HIM!" and "Just go through the fire! Better to be burned than DEAD!" and "You broke the window out, now drop the baby! It's only the second floor! Then just JUMP! Better two broken legs than death!" But of course it's always the same gut-wrenching scene. I think Albert should have said he was sorry though, even if it WAS an accident.

Somehow I don't remember seeing the second part of this. I had hoped for a forgiveness scene between Albert and Mary ... but what's sad is that this tragedy is actually the fault of the other kid. He stole that pipe, and he threw it into the box ... I know something about guilt, and I still couldn't imagine having to live with that.

Burdened with unimaginable guilt, Albert unwittingly holds the key to helping Mary deal with the denial of the loss of her baby. Reluctantly taken on a trip with Charles, he finds a music box in the store that plays the same tune that Mary has been humming to herself. Instead of a rifle, which Charles offers to buy for him, he asks for the music box instead.

The effect of the music box on Mary is powerful and dramatic as the horror of what has happened brings Mary out of her denial. Of course, this also brings Albert face-to-face with the realization of what has happened, and so he flees.

Meanwhile, Charles talks to Jonathan after Andy tells him about his father's behavior. Charles is able to help Jonathan realize what he's being to his son as well as himself. Father and son are finally reconciled.

The second half of the episode deals with Charles finally learning the truth about Albert, and understanding the enormous burden of guilt that he's been shouldering all of this time.

Charles and Jonathan set out to find Albert and help him understand that all is forgiven and that, no matter how terrible a thing that he did, he's always loved and always will be. The ending of this episode is likely to bring tears to your eyes, so make sure to have some tissues handy!

Overall, this is a powerful episode that demonstrates that parents will forgive their children for their mistakes, no matter how big. It demonstrates that forgiveness is, indeed, the ultimate healer.

This is a riveting conclusion of the 2 part story. Albert is feeling massive guilt and grief over killing Mary's baby. (well he did) and while in a store he spots a music box that plays the same haunting lullaby that Mary was humming over and over in her catatonic grief over the loss of her baby and Albert thinks this would be the perfect thing to give to her. Why?!

The song would only remind her of the loss even more. It's like shoving it in her face and is actually the worst thing in the world to give to her in her state.

When he brings it to her and opens the box to play the music, the memory of that night washed over and she completely loses it and becomes unhinged. Idiot Albert can't understand why she doesn't love it and starts crying and yelling how he's sorry and he didn't mean it. It was such a heartless gift to give her, but seeing her lose it makes him run away like a typical Ingalls child. You know he learned that from Laura lol.

The other nitpick is Mary. We get a lingering close up of her in bed during her freak out, and are treated to her eyelashes that are heavily made up with mascara. This character would certainly not care about putting on mascara in the state she was in.

Those lashes are so full of the gunk that it's difficult to ignore. The makeup department should've kept her face clear of obvious makeup to stay true to the character's immense grief.

Mary would not have put that on herself, and I highly doubt someone else would have put it on her while she was sleeping. Caroline was another one because we also get treated to a close up of her beautifully manicured fingernails and a farmer's wife like Caroline would not have nails like that. With all her work on the farm and cooking and cleaning, manicured nails like that would be a big hindrance.

It's still a great episode even though I forever hated Albert after this. I never liked him to begin with, but killing Mary's baby was unforgivable and I was glad that he died himself by the end of the series. I hope Alice and the baby were the first to greet his murdering butt at the pearly gates.

I comment on both parts in one place. - Beyond the details that there always are (It is difficult for Charles to occur by chance that Albert could have run away with Quinn, difficult for Quinn's folder to be outside of his filing cabinet, difficult that the Judge's coachman catches up with Charles and Jonathan who had just stopped to rest their horses) the truth is that the emotion is present throughout the chapter, especially in the second part. We already know that LHOP is the house of miracles. It is also strange that Jonathan changes his mood so quickly just because he has listened to Charles, who has taken his grandson's death with astonishing naturalness. And even more strange that he does not feel resentment towards Albert knowing that, with or without fault, he was the one who caused the fire that cost his wife her life.

Was it necessary to hear Ester Sue singing Rock of Ages at the funeral? And was it necessary for the money to appear quickly again to create the new school for the blind with a plate included?

Despite all this, I liked it.

Previously on Little House...a lot of terrible things happened. Now, we begin with Charles buying Albert a $2.55 rifle to try and cheer him up. Seems the boy has been awful quiet and withdrawn lately. You know, because of the tragedy. But while in the store, Albert discovered a music box that plays Brahm's Lullaby, similar to the one Mary had before the fire, so in lieu of the rifle, Albert wanted the music box as a present for Mary...somehow I don't think that's a very good idea; so while Charles went to comfort Andrew on account of his abusive, alcoholic father, Albert went to see Mary. The poor Kendall woman was all but dead to the world, until Albert played the new music box for her, and boy did that get her going! She screamed for her baby at the top of her lungs. Albert shouted he didn't mean it and ran off just as Laura and Nellie came racing up to Mary's aid. You're batting a thousand and one, Albert. So while the drama raged on at Nellie's, Charles went to have a man-to-man talk with Jonathan and manages to make him see the true error of his ways and that his harsh treatment towards Andrew was not only hurting him, but in effect hurting Alice as well as himself. Well Jonathan's dark clouds have a silver lining, but as for Mary, her recovery was long and bleak. Amidst her earlier screaming fit, she recalled Albert screaming he 'didn't mean it' and 'it was an accident'. That's when Hester Sue told Charles about catching Albert and Clay in the basement the day of the fire. He went to find Albert, only to learn the boy had flown the coop. So together with Jonathan, they began their search.

They stop at the Mays residence to speak with Clay, who confesses to smoking in the basement with Albert the day of the fire, and then he ran away to dramatic music. Charles' worst fear was realized: Albert might have had something to do with that fire. So while Charles, Jonathan and Caroline sit around worrying about Albert, the little bugger had run away to the city to try and locate his biological father. Charles and Jonathan hurried to town because on a hunch, they figured he might try to do that for some reason. Well, Albert remained one step ahead of the men and located the farm of his old man. Guy by the name of Jeremy Quinn. Well, he does find Mr. Quinn, but...well, take a guess what happened to him. Yep, Albert finds an abandoned farm and a grave in the corner of the yard with 'J. Quinn' written on the cross. Now he felt truly alone in the world; Albert slept in the barn and by morning, he heard Charles and Jonathan, having discovered the boy's possible whereabouts from the judge, and quickly took off running. Thankfully, Jonathan somehow managed to get ahead of the boy, who apologized profusely and swore he couldn't go back, but Jonathan assured him the fire was nobody's fault and sometimes in life, a little rain must fall, but you must go on regardless and other such nonsense he'd learned from this experience. Charles proclaims his love for his son and they all go back to Walnut Grove. As for the future of the blind school, Adam's father agreed to help fund the rebuilding and even insisted on naming it, and this is the name he chose: "The Alice Garvey/ Adam Kendall Jr. School for the Blind." May we make them proud.

I honestly don't know what to say about this one. There was a horrible tragedy in which a woman and a small baby lose their lives, it pushes Mary nearly over the brink of insanity, Adam becomes an emotional wreck, Jonathan becomes a widow and an alcoholic and hurts what little family he has left, and instead of just confessing to the whole matter, Albert just runs away, adding to everybody's worry, but then when they catch him, they just let it go as if it was all no big deal. Oh yeah, people died, people were hurt, but hey, no big thing. This episode is one of the reasons I hate Albert, I think he was just a waste from the day he came to the very end. Charles should have left him in Winoka to rot; anyway, "May We Make Them Proud", I still don't see why this episode needed to be made. Just to add on the drama? They didn't already have enough? I say skip it and watch some of the far better episodes produced for Little House.

In the beginning, Albert devotes all his time to watch over Mary. She is still catatonic. Charles convinces Albert to go to the city with him to keep him company on long trip. When there, Charles finishes up business and stares out the door to see a depressed Albert. Charles offers Albert a hunting rifle as a gift for having good grades in school. Albert sees a music box which played the lullaby tune in the window. He asks Charles if he can have that instead and that he wanted to give it to Mary. Charles agreed. Once back, Albert asks Caroline if he can go visit Mary instead because he had a present for her. She agreed. For the 1st time in a long time, Albert cracks a smile. Once at MAry's, Albert gives Mary the music box. After listening to it for a little bit, may began screaming "My baby!" over and over again, shocking Albert. Be busts out in tears and pleads with her that he didnt mean it and that it was an accident. Then ran out. At this point, Albert goes looking for his real father, getting the location for the lawyer that handled his adoption. After Charles found out through Mary that Albert's guilt was the cause of his depression, he asked Jonathan to help him find Albert. Earlier, Charles helped Jonathan get through his depression. Anyway, they Tracked down Albert at his real father's farm, where he had passed away and was buried at. Jonthan convinced Albert that it wasn't his fault. They went back to Walnut grove, where Adam told every one his father agreed to finance the new school and sent a plaque which read The Alice Garvey Adam Kendall Jr. School for the blind.