Marcia Woolery is back in town, and John-Boy, who still has feelings for her, is none to pleased to pick her up at the station, especially after he discovers she is engaged to be married. When she brings her fiancé to meet the Walton family, everyone finds him to be an insufferable boor, and discover his interest in her is based solely on the money he would stand to get were she to sell her property on Walton’s Mountain. When the fiancé withdraws his proposal after discovering the house is no longer hers, John-Boy tries to get her a job, and financial independence, so she need not rely on a sugar daddy to get by.
Olivia, meantime, returns to being a substitute teacher, and discovers that one pupil, “Simple” Sam Miller, is not learning impaired but in need of glasses. Fighting his family and the school board, she finds and buys him a pair, to his delight and reinvigorated interest in learning.
Another John Waite-less episode (his character is working in Norfolk again) makes good use of frequent guest star Tammi Bula as Marcia. Her finding financial autonomy to achieve freedom from male subservience, one of the tenets of modern femininism, predates the movement by about 30 years – you go, girl!
None-to-subtle symbolism alert: when newly engaged Marcia plays chaste and alluringly flirtatious with John-Boy at their reunion, she offers him a bite of her apple.
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