Thursday, July 19, 2012

Waltons 5.6: “The Night Walker”


Airdate: 10/28/76

There’s a prowler on the loose in the woods of Waltons Mountain. Everyone’s now a bit skittish, and a lot more vigilant. Talk about bad timing: Jason decides to rent a social hall from Ike with which to host a dance with live music, but with a mystery menace out and about, selling tickets to this thing is like offering swimming lessons in a pool of piranhas! John and Zeb snoop around the area to find new neighbors: a hostile backwoods woman and her son, who never seems to be there. You guessed it: it’s him; while practicing, Jason tackles him to the ground to find that he’s a mute, harmless young man with a talent for weaving. John helps him get a job repairing wicker furniture, and dance is a huge success!

OK episode is a good Halloween yarn, but little more. Ending is satisfying, if a little tidy. Peggy Webber is good as the mute man’s mother, and maybe more about why she’s so overprotective could make this more of a character study than the equivalent of “Bigfoot Meets the Waltons.”

A lot of terrific camerawork this season, especially more handheld work. Good stuff!

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