This week, I was catching up on the Little House on the Prairie 50th Anniversary Podcast. Two months ago, Dean Butler, Alison Arngrim, and host Pamela Bob recapped one of the most traumatic episodes in Little House on the Prairie history, "My Ellen." Though I have shared the episodes that I find hard to watch in this post, today, we are going to run down five I feel are the most traumatic.
Five Most Traumatic
Little House on the Prairie Episodes
BEWARE: Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen these episodes.
Number 5 - "My Ellen" (Season 4, Episode 3)
While skinny dipping with Laura and Mary on a hot summer day, their friend Ellen Taylor accidentally drowns. Her distraught mother blames Laura, and when Laura seeks to make amends, she finds herself held against her will by a delusional Mrs. Taylor. In their frantic search for Laura, the men in town think the intellectually challenged Busby might be to blame, especially when they find Laura's schoolbooks on his property.
Everything about this episode is traumatic. Ellen drowning. Mrs. Taylor blaming Laura. How Laura feels so guilty about Ellen's death that she tries to make it up to her friend's grieving mother. The men rushing to blame Busby because he is different. The tension between Mr. Taylor and Charles. How quickly Mrs. Taylor's grief leads to her delusions and the kidnapping of Laura. The thought of a young girl trapped in a root cellar, fearing she might never see her family again. I can't watch it.
Number 4 - "A Matter of Faith" (Season 2, Episode 15)
With Charles and the girls away on a camping trip, Caroline stays home to bake pies for a church fundraiser. An earlier cut on her leg soon develops a raging infection, and Caroline is forced to make a difficult choice in an effort to save her life.
Think about this scenario: you are all alone with a life-threatening injury; you have a farm and house to manage and a family who depends on you; and you're too weak when the only people you have seen in a day arrive to pick up the pies you made, so they don't hear your cries for help. At this point, you know no one is coming to save you, and you must make a drastic decision and pray it works out.
I am not quite sure I could ever have enough faith to open up an infectious wound with a hot knife. Well, not in the 1800s before penicillin anyway. The camera angles and the close-up of Caroline's face increase the intensity of this episode. Charles's face as he learns from the neighbor that Caroline never came by to pick up their escaped cow, how he rushes home to find her unconscious on the floor, and how the family keeps vigil as Caroline fights for her life are moments filled with fear and anxiety. There is one moment where Reverend Alden is rocking a sleeping Carrie in his arms as Charles walks back into the little house, where you wonder if Charles blames him for asking Caroline to bake. From Reverend Alden's face, you think he could feel guilty, too. People in despair believe odd things. At least the audience knew she had to survive. If they had read the books, they would have known Caroline was around to watch her daughters grow up.
Number 3 - "Rage" (Season 9, Episode 4)
When Thomas Stark's dark secrets catch up with him, the desperate man shoots his wife and daughter and runs off. Seeking shelter at the Wilder homestead while an unsuspecting Almanzo has joined the search for him, Thomas begins experiencing delusions, taking Laura, Rose, and Jenny hostage. Laura and Jenny must think quickly if they hope to survive this harrowing ordeal.
Robert Loggia plays the part of the angry, distraught, and then delusional Thomas Stark so well. This will be the third time in the series that Laura is held against her will ("My Ellen," "Darkness is My Friend" from Season 6, and "Rage"). This is such a dark Little House on the Prairie episode. The banker calls Mr. Stark a liar and threatens to prosecute him. Constance Stark, who is well aware of how desperate their situation is, tries to reason with him, only to be shot. Doc Baker, with the help of Hester Sue and Etta Plum, must save Constance's and Elizabeth Stark's lives, and the men, led by John Carter, Almanzo Wilder, and Isaiah Edwards, take off to hunt down Thomas and bring him to justice. Watching Stark's mental state deteriorate, seeing the fear on Laura's face, and then the final words of Thomas as he heads outside to face the posse are all terrifying.
Number 2 - "Plague" (Season 1, Episode 19)
When a typhus epidemic breaks out in Walnut Grove, Doc Baker struggles to treat everyone. Setting up the church as a hospital, Doctor Baker works around the clock as he and Charles desperately search for the source. An ill Mr. Edwards gives them their first clue to stop the plague in its tracks.
This episode has so many traumatic scenes. Doc Baker announcing to the congregation that he fears Sylvie Boulton has died of typhus and that her son has it too. The center of town looking ghostly empty after the church is turned into a hospital and Doc Baker instructs everyone to stay home. Charles stumbling upon Eric Boulton as he cradles his deceased son in his arms under a tree, pretending his son is sleeping. Charles, with tears in his eyes, standing outside his house days after the outbreak and his exposure to typhus, telling Caroline he buried an old man whose name he didn't even know, upset he had no name to put on the cross. Charles's discovery of Isaiah Edwards on the floor of the church because he has also come down with typhus. Doc Baker admitting to Charles that if they don't find the source, there will be no way to stop it. The fire that burned down the only new-looking building in all of town when mice were seen crawling all over the cornmeal that made everyone sick. Yuck!
Number 1 - "Sylvia" (Season 7, Episodes 17 & 18)
Sylvia Webb gets attention from all the school boys because she is new and has developed more than some of the others. Albert, however, steps in to protect her, eventually falling in love with Sylvia. Her religious zealot of a father accuses her of having the devil in her, just like her mother had. When she is raped by a masked assailant, her father blames her and tries to keep it a secret. But once that secret is discovered, Albert's motives are brought under suspicion. When Mr. Webb decides to move away, Sylvia runs off, and she and Albert make plans to run away and get married. Putting his trust in the wrong person, Albert heads over to meet Sylvia at an abandoned barn, only to discover the rapist has found her first.
This episode also made my hardest-to-watch episodes list. It is one of the most traumatic episodes of the series. It's harsh. It's sad. It tugs at every heartstring because you know so many young women are blamed for what has happened to them. Mr. Webb is so abusive, and the loss of Sylvia when she dies of the injuries sustained in a fall as she tries to escape her rapist further traumatizes the audience and leaves the chance for forgiveness between Sylvia and her father unattainable. Little House on the Prairie offers us so many wonderful lessons over nine years and three post-series movies, and while they don't all end on a high note, at least they aren't usually so final and miserable as "Sylvia" is. I have said it before and will also say it again: seeing that clown mask is enough to give you nightmares.
