(20 October 1977)
Writer: W. Marion Hargrove.
Director: Lawrence Dobkin.
Music: Alexander Courage.
"In the late
spring of 1940 our world on Waltons Mountain was very quiet and uneasy. For the
first time ever, people stopped work in the daytime to turn on the radio. The
war in Europe had seemed to be hibernating until suddenly on the
10th of May the Germans invaded Belgium and the Netherlands and
Luxembourg. By the 10th of June they had enslaved all
three and driven the British and French forces into the sea, and were marching
into Paris. To all purposes the free world in Europe
now consisted only of the British Isles. And just as
suddenly, at least it seemed so here at home there were no more pacifists, no
isolationists. The little ocean between us and the Nazi
terror was not very wide any more. People were beginning to feel that
the time had come to help whatever allies we had and to be ready when the
attack turned on ourselves".
The Baldwin sisters call
on the Waltons to discuss how they can contribute to the war effort. With
numerous military personnel at Norfolk and their seaside cottage standing
vacant, Miss Mamie and Miss Emily ask John to remodel it. John does not want to
be away from the family so Olivia decides everyone will go. Elizabeth suggests
that the children will perform all the housework so Olivia can have a vacation.
Ben tells the family he will stay behind because someone needs to feed the
livestock and keep an eye on the house. Everyone thinks Ben is acting grown-up
except for Grandpa who believes he has an ulterior motive.
The Waltons arrive at
the cottage excited by the sand and surf. When they approach the house they notice how well the outside looks for being
vacant so long. Elizabeth watches an U.S. Coast Guard ship patrol the waters
but becomes suspicious of a girl looking at the same boat with binoculars. With
food in the icebox and a bed that has been slept in, the Waltons
continue to be wary. Then, as Jason walks around the porch, he catches someone
trying to enter the side door. The intruder tells the family her name is Lisa
Cooper and she attends the College of William and Mary. She says she will leave
immediately but Olivia knows she has no place to go. Olivia invites her to stay
after her instincts tell her the girl is troubled by
something.
The next morning, Jason
tells Olivia that Lisa is studying music. When Olivia mentions the dreadful
news about the war Lisa suddenly looks uneasy. Lisa mentions her father is a
doctor but then very abruptly leaves. While talking with Elizabeth about how
her father will have plenty of exciting nooks and crannies to visit when she
returns to England, she tells Elizabeth to ‘treasure your father’. As Grandpa
describes the battle of Dunkirk to the family Lisa turns away after hearing the
words of Winston Churchill. Jason follows her to a café where she is playing
‘The Trout’ by Schubert on the piano. Jason listens to her say
how she feels uneasy when people are too kind to her. After leaving
they find Jim Bob’s rowboat that they take out for a ride. When an oar floats
up on the beach, Jim Bob tells John he can’t find the
pair.
Back at the house, Ben
splashes after-shave on his bachelor-face preparing to go out on the town. But when he stops at Ike’s to make a call, Corabeth insists
he will have dinner with them tonight. And the next
day the Baldwin sisters drive to the house to ask Ben to take them to
Charlottesville. Ben has Darlene over to the house so they suggest they all can
go and stop for a dish of ice cream afterwards. Ben is finding it very
difficult being on his own when everyone interrupts his single lifestyle. The
final straw falls while Ben is entertaining Darlene. Corabeth glares at Darlene
while she approaches the house and, then, Curt and Mary Ellen interrupt the
couple while they sit on the couch drinking lemonade.
While searching the
beach for Jason and Lisa, Chief of Police Moresdale arrives looking for the
young woman. Finding her must be very important because the search, he says, if being conducted by the F.B.I. At this moment, two
officers from the U.S. Coast Guard interrogate Jason and Lisa after rescuing
their dingy from the ocean. Dittenberger and Flaherty
suspect Lisa because of a slight German accent hidden underneath her strong
English accent. The pair answers all of their questions so are released and
driven to the cottage. The police chief returns and tells Lisa how worried her
mother was when she disappeared from college. She tells the officer she is
twenty-one years old tomorrow and is able to take care of herself.
Ben shows up at the
cottage still furious about all the people stopping by to interrupt him with
apparently nothing better to do. While John and Olivia enjoy themselves on the
beach, Jason and Lisa return to the café. Lisa describes how Schubert would
stop by a brook to watch trout swimming about; resulting in his musical
composition and its title. She then describes the delightful evenings with her
father and his famous musical friends playing their instruments. However, Jason
realizes that one of the men has retired and now lives in California and the
other was killed over two years ago in an airplane
crash. Lisa breaks down and tells Jason how well she is able to ‘muddy the
waters’.
Upon returning to the
seaside cottage, Lisa finds a birthday party waiting for her complete with
lemonade and chocolate cake and candles. She admits that she has been running
away these past few weeks trying to remember past memories of her father. She
recounts how they came to England from Austria so her father could practice his
medicine. She proudly declares they became loyal subjects of
the British Crown two years ago and how her father was at the Battle of Dunkirk
in one of the tiny boats darting back and forth. As the Waltons now know
her father was drown during that fight in the service
of his island country. Resolving her emotions about the death of her dear
father, she states she is returning to England because she will also defend her
adopted country at any cost.
Lisa and Jason say their
good-byes. She gives Jason a gift, to be opened after
she has left, and kisses him before leaving on the bus. Jason has been given a music box filled with memories of his
English friend.
"Lisa
returned to her mother in England, and when the furies of war were spent she
came back to America and finished her studies at William & Mary. In the
letters my brother received from her in later years she spoke often of that
turning point in her life, their meeting on the seashore".
Elizabeth: You know something?
Grandpa: What is it Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: I saw a sail in my hair.
Jim Bob: My car will never be the same...
Erin: Jim Bob your car never was the same...
Jim Bob: All the way to the seashore with the choke on?
Ben you're never going to drive my car again.
Ben: You're breaking my heart.
Elizabeth: You bet that's what Darlene said...
Ben: You're full of salt water taffy.
John: That's enough! Goodnight
everybody.
Notes:
Lisa is specializing in theory and harmony for
her studies at the College of William and Mary.
Lisa had stayed at the cottage two years earlier
when her mother and father brought her over to the United States for college.
Also appearing:
Ike Godsey (Joe Conley);
Corabeth Godsey (Ronnie Claire Edwards); Emily Baldwin (Mary Jackson); Mamie
Baldwin (Helen Kleeb); Lisa Cooper (Vickery Turner); Darlene Jarvis (Melody
Thomas); Police Chief Moresdale (Arthur Franz); U.S.
Coast Guard Officer Dittenberger (Michael Richardson); U.S. Coast Guard Officer
Flaherty (Robert Gooden); Curtis Willard (Tom Bower); The Radio Announcer (John
Hiestand).