Airdate: 11/27/80
Conclusion to part 1 above finds John on a mission to clear
Harley’s name. After getting arrested for harboring a fugitive, he decides
there must be a higher power who can help: the president. Knowing that F.D.R.
is in Warm Springs, Georgia, he treks down to the deep South and takes his
appeal directly to the chief executive himself, who ultimately grants a
pardon... shortly before his death from a cerebral hemorrhage. The Waltons go
to Charlottesville to watch the funeral train go back, in the show’s final
scene.
Meantime Jason is located, Corabeth and Ike mend their
tussle, and Elizabeth runs back to Drew, whom she neglected in favor of her
horse, which she injured while riding and needed to be put down – by Cindy, who
shows her tough side when her sisters were too squeamish.
Fairly good resolution to part 1 is a bit undone by the
melodramatic, and ghoulish, plot thread involving Elizabeth’s horse. Not sure
that Cindy hoisting that rifle and blowing a horse’s brains out means she can milk
the cows like a true country girl, but hey, it's The Waltons. The pardon John gets at the end is also a
bit of a deux ex machina, but the depiction of F.D.R.’s death is handled with
the appropriate gravitas and sensitivity. The traditional family goodnights are
exchanged with John’s, and the show’s final, line: “Good night, Mr. President.”
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