Waltons 1.24: An Easter Story

Airdate: 4/19/73

The Waltons first season ends with this two-hour stunner in which Olivia contracts polio and collapses on her way home from church one February morning. Bedridden and paralyzed from the waist down, she and the family are terrified by the prospect that she may never walk again. John Boy resolves to learn as much as he can about the disease, and enlists the aid of a doctor at the University of Virginia to explore the work of an Australian nurse, whose controversial yet seemingly effective approach to Polio treatment uses compresses, not splints, to engage brain/nerve communication.

Meanwhile, Olivia’s changed state of mind has inspired other family members to go after their goals, especially Mary Ellen, who overcomes self-doubt to attend a dance formal with a boy, and Jason, who enters a talent competition with a song he had written on his guitar. But as the winter turns to spring, only John Boy seems to believe that, with enough willpower, Olivia can walk again, and, on Easter Sunday, she does.

This first season highlight truly showcases Miss Learned’s often overlooked acting talent. Her battle with what was then an extremely debilitating illness is punctuated with emotional highs and lows, and there is some great discussion toward the end about God’s will and justice in the world, exemplified notably by John and John-Boy’s intense final scene on the mountaintop, which may be the most emotional moment of the series thus far.

I’m still ambivalent about the ending, though; as the episode follows the theme of not fighting adversity but adapting to it, Olivia gets ready to use her wheelchair. But the very next morning, in a Little House on the Prarie-esque ending, she miraculously rises as if nothing happened. I’d call this having it both ways. Still, an exemplary finale to an auspicious first season.