Airdate: 12/16/76
Ep Bridges is up
for reelection as sheriff, but he’s got competition: a young, suave outsider
named Glen Oldfield, who beats Bridges in looks, personality, money and
connections. John-Boy intends to cover the campaign fairly in his newspaper,
but reluctantly takes a job from them printing out leaflets and publicity
material. As a result, he gets advertising offers from companies miles away,
and John Sr. gets a very profitable contract to build park benches. Are there
strings attached? You bet – John-Boy discovers that Oldfield is using this
election as a stepping-stone for the state senate, and reveals this on the
front page. Of course, John’s contract is cancelled, and the advertisers dry
up, but Oldfield loses – he visits John-Boy at his office, apologetic for the
way things turned out.
Side story: a
wild mustang romps through Waltons Mountain in all its mythical, majestic
glory, until a greedy local captures it, ties it up, ad tends to use it as a
sideshow attraction to drum up local revenue. Zeb’s dander is raised
–considerably, and he’s on a vendetta to free the animal. According to the law,
though, it’s finders keepers, so when the mustang breaks free, Zeb and the
others track it down to brand it, owning it legally but letting it run free so
others can’t capture it.
Lovely episode
with two parallel plots that ostensibly aren’t related but actually deal with
the integrity of the land and its denizens – brethren or bestial. The slick
talking campaign manager is the real heavy here; Oldfield himself just seems
like a young politico swept up in the business of the machine and the
assumptions that anyone can be bought or swayed. Zeb once again has a
beautiful, heartfelt speech about the mustang and all that it represents. Who
writes these speeches for him? He or she ought to do publicity for the National
Park Service.
Mary-Ellen’s
husband, Curt, is marginalized here -
he only shows up at the end. Let’s hope he’s more heavily featured in
episodes to come.
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