Previously on Little House, Charles was nearly killed by a run away caveman wheel, breaking both his arm and his confidence. Laura helps out at the restaurant and pulls the old Cayenne Pepper trick on Nellie, and Almanzo Wilder, the man she has the hots for...oops. So as we begin, Laura was forced to apologize to Nellie, which she didn't mean, but when told she has to write a letter of apology to Almanzo, she flat out refuses and runs away to dramatic music. See, Laura doesn't consider herself a little girl anymore and is upset because everybody treats her as one. Maybe if she didn't act like a child, they wouldn't treat her as such. Logical, isn't it? In fact, Laura is so desperate to be recognized as an adult, that she's ready to take the school certificate exam to graduate and work her way to becoming a certified teacher, and with no hard feelings from Almanzo over the whole pepper gag, things really started looking up for Laura Ingalls. But could she possibly be getting in way over her head? She was basically a high school junior and had a whole year's worth of knowledge yet to learn, so she goes to Nellie to borrow the senior books, literally begging for her forgiveness. Nellie accepts, but tells Laura a fib about the certificate exam not having history. Like a fool, Laura believes Nellie over Miss Wilder, but like most things in life, you learn the hard way. And so, Laura commenced to cramming.
Surprise, surprise, the test was 90% history. Laura failed and ran away to the creek to sob, absolutely devastated, and then along came Nellie to rub it in. Well, the result was both girls getting into a mud fight. Yes, they did that back then too. So as the childishness continued, Almanzo happened by and rescued Laura, soaked from head to toe, leaving a mud-caked Nellie to fend for herself...quite the gentleman, but who could blame him? So in her anger, Nellie went and told Charles about Almanzo, every vicious lie she could conjure up and like a moron, he believed her, so he set out with Jonathan to Almanzo's place where the good man had taken Laura in to dry by the fire. So in bursts Charles, throwing his one good fist around, and quickly learns the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. Almanzo proves to be a much bigger man than Charles by accepting his apology and not fighting back, while Laura claims she's a grown up woman, she hates them all and runs away crying. Yeah, that's telling them, Laura. Good lord; So she goes home, up to the loft and cries like the little girl she is. But thankfully Caroline intervenes to calm everybody down and give Laura a good talking to on what being a grown up is really like. So, Laura goes down to talk with her Pa, they agree this was all Nellie's fault, and they go fishing.
So, "Back to School Part 2". I didn't like it. Not a very good episode in my opinion. For one, Laura still has A LOT of growing up to do, which she never fully does. Second, Charles acting the way he did. He's just a big jerk who hits first and asks questions later. Sure he has good intentions and he will protect his family no matter what the cost, which is very noble of him, but here, he went too far. Finally, the ending sucked. They just shook it all off and went about their lives. Very weak; But on the positive side, we get to meet Laura's future husband, Almanzo Wilder, who has already proved to be twice the man Charles Ingalls is, and if you've read Laura's books, you'll see that Almanzo is truly a hero; Alison Arngrim really brings it home as Nellie, as evil here as ever. Thankfully Percival will soon come to set her straight; anyway, I don't like this episode and I wouldn't recommend it, unless you're a die-hard Prairie fan and if this storyline resembles something in your own life, as most young women do, who have overprotective jackass fathers who take immediate dislikes to their lovers. Don't you hate that? But I digress. 'Back to School'. Go back to the vault.