In this particular "Bonanza" episode, there is a lot to make a viewer happy, but at the same time rather depressed. Personally, I think "mail-order-bride" marriages have had to have been ridiculous, at best.
In this particular episode John Doucette plays the part of a good friend of Hoss; Doucette is run over by a buckboard, and thus can't go see his bride-to-be who lives alone in the mountains. Therefore, Hoss whom Doucette trusts very much goes to see the girl to bring her back to Virginia City. The young, pretty red-haired girl is taken with Hoss, and reminds her of Middle Age knights she has read about. (Judy Meredith is excellent in this role of the lonely girl.) Because of her being strongly taken with Hoss, when she meets Doucette she is upset, and thus trouble ensues between the two men; the latter is so mad that he tries to shoot down Hoss in the streets, and later hires two gunmen to kill him.
A lesson, again, about male-order-bride marriages or some marriage in this day and age similar to that, can be learned. Hoss is his soft-hearted, warm self, but the story is definitely sad.
In this particular episode John Doucette plays the part of a good friend of Hoss; Doucette is run over by a buckboard, and thus can't go see his bride-to-be who lives alone in the mountains. Therefore, Hoss whom Doucette trusts very much goes to see the girl to bring her back to Virginia City. The young, pretty red-haired girl is taken with Hoss, and reminds her of Middle Age knights she has read about. (Judy Meredith is excellent in this role of the lonely girl.) Because of her being strongly taken with Hoss, when she meets Doucette she is upset, and thus trouble ensues between the two men; the latter is so mad that he tries to shoot down Hoss in the streets, and later hires two gunmen to kill him.
A lesson, again, about male-order-bride marriages or some marriage in this day and age similar to that, can be learned. Hoss is his soft-hearted, warm self, but the story is definitely sad.
