10 More Crazy Episodes From Little House On The Prairie

For what was supposed to be a family-friendly show, Little House on the Prairie had some insane, traumatizing episodes. Here are 10 more of the most bizarre moments from the series!

1. Laura Adopts a Possibly Rabid Racoon

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Season 1, Episode 10: The Racoon

Mary gives Laura an abandoned, baby raccoon. After Pa reluctantly agrees to let her keep him, Laura names him "Jasper", teaches him tricks. One day, Jasper bites their dog and Laura before disappearing into the woods. When Charles later shoots a snarling, rabid raccoon who is killing the chickens and begins to watch Jack and Laura for signs of rabies. It’s finally revealed that there are 2 racoons, and that Jasper is not rabid… but in an age where there is no rabies vaccine, why would you keep a racoon as a pet?

2. Nellie Pretends to Be Paralyzed

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Season 3, Episode 2: Bunny
Bunny is a horse that used to belong to Laura. She sold it to the Olesons, and now Nellie has been mistreating Bunny. When Nellie falls off the horse and appears to be seriously injured, Mrs. Oleson blames Laura. Soaking up the sympathy, Nellie pretends to be paralyzed and uses a wheelchair while exploiting Laura’s guilt. After becoming a servant and nursemaid to Nellie, Laura discovers her nemesis dancing in secret. In revenge, she pushes Nellie in her wheelchair down a hill… which could have actually paralyzed her?

3. Laura Believes Nels Decapitated Harriet

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Season 3, Episode 5: Monster of Walnut Grove
Like some kind of strange homage to Alfred Hitchcock, Laura's imagination runs wild on Halloween when she sees Nels apparently cutting off his wife’s head, but only Carl will believe her. Up until this point, Nels has been a beloved family friend, but suddenly on Halloween, Laura imagines he is a murderer and everyone else thinks Laura has gone insane. To be fair, she has nightmares of Harriet Oleson’s head floating on a platter. The misunderstanding is corrected, but the episode ends with a visit from the Headless Horseman... with literally no context or explanation.

4. Laura is Kidnapped by a Grieving Mother

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Season 4, Episode 3: My Ellen
11-year-old Ellen Taylor accidentally drowns while swimming on a hot summer day with the Ingalls girls. Even though the girls were trying to hide from some perverted Peeping-Tom boys at the pond when Ellen drowned, the girl's grief-stricken mother, Eloise, for some reason blames Laura for the tragedy. Then, unable to accept the reality of her daughter's death, Eloise kidnaps Laura and tries to raise her as her new Ellen. Laura manages to escape, and while running after her, Eloise sees Ellen’s grave and realizes Ellen is dead. We never see Eloise again, but hopefully, she gets the mental health help she needs.

5. Carrie Has a Fever Dream, Conjures a Twin, and Visits Heaven

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Season 5, Episode14: The Godsister
Charles is away, which causes more work for everyone else. Feeling neglected, Carrie wanders off for a few naps. In this dream world, she conjures up a twin… imaginary friend… godsister Alyssa, and they travel through a magical land where there are strawberries as large as Carrie! She wakes up and begins searching for Alyssa, believing the girl to be real. She screams “Alyssa” about 300 times before being sent off to take another nap. This time, Alyssa takes Carrie to Heaven, where she meets St. Peter and is reunited with her deceased dog, Jack. A subplot involves telephones and moonshine. The entire episode is like one long acid trip, but at least we got to see both Lindsey and Sydney Greenbush, the twins who shared the role of Carrie.

6. Adam is Cured of Blindness

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Season 7, Episodes10-11: To See the Light, Parts 1 and 2
Mary's fictitious, blind husband Adam knocks over a crate of blasting oil and nearly blows himself up. In the explosion, he suffers a concussion. Mary hopes that her husband will recover, but in a miracle that makes no biological sense, the explosion and concussion have suddenly allowed Adam to regain his sight. Now, he can go to picnics and parties and become a lawyer! Sadly, in a much more realistic subplot, Mrs. Oleson is fat- shamed and goes on a diet.

7. Nels is Kidnapped and Becomes an Outlaw When Harriet Refuses to Pay the Ransom

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Season 8, Episode 7: The Legend of Black Jake
Apparently, in Walnut Grove most criminals are idiots. A pair of bumbling crooks kidnap Nels and hold him for ransom. However, Harriet faints upon hearing the ransom fee and refuses to pay the $100 fee required to free her husband TWICE. Shocked and angry, Nels decides to work with the gang to get his revenge. The plan goes awry, ending with 6 hostages and no money. After the crooks run away, Harriet learns that Nels is alive and faints again… hopefully because she loves him? Maybe because she hoped she was single? TBH, we can’t really be sure.

8. Laura Teaches Sign Language to a Feral Child

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Season 9, Episodes 6-7: Wild Boy, Parts 1 and 2
A medicine man visiting town has a “wild boy” Matthew in a cage as a sideshow attraction. When the boy escapes, the townspeople realize he was only mute and has been tortured by the medicine man, who beats him and makes him drink morphine elixir. Mr. Edwards takes the boy in, and Laura teaches them sign language to communicate, even though we’ve never heard or seen Laura using sign language before. There is a custody hearing with a crooked judge, but eventually, Mr. Edwards gives a speech about what it means to be “normal,” and Matthew is allowed to go home with him. We do see Matthew again once or twice, but there’s no sign of him a few episodes later when Mr. Edwards also adopts… an orangutan.

9. Out of Nowhere, Albert Develops a Morphine Addiction

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Season 9, Episodes16-17: Home Again, Parts 1 and 2
Speaking of morphine elixirs, Albert gets hooked on morphine, which causes violent outbursts. There’s no real explanation as to how this bright, aspiring doctor suddenly has a serious drug addiction, or why Albert goes from being the golden child to a thief. In any case, Charles brings him out of the city and back to Walnut Grove. There, he stages an intervention and helps Albert withdraw from the drug. At the end, Laura has a voice-over, stating that Albert returns to Walnut Grove later as "Doctor Albert Ingalls”… but in "Little House: Look Back to Yesterday" Albert is diagnosed with a fatal blood disease (likely leukemia) and the audience is told that he died without being able to achieve a degree in medicine. Basically, toward the end of the series, no one cared about continuity errors or the fate of a fictional character who had no real part in the life of the real Laura Ingalls.

10. They Blow Up the Town

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Season 9, the TV Movie: The Last Farewell
Charles and Caroline come back to visit Walnut Grove, but the townspeople learn that a land development tycoon has acquired title to all the land in Hero Township, which they had believed to be homesteading land. After failing to defeat him on legal grounds and even with guns against an army cavalry unit, the townspeople are inspired by Laura to vent their anger at what they see as an injustice, and they decide upon a drastic plan of action. So, they blow up the town! The tycoon goes off in defeat, and the Reverend Alden proclaims the town did not die in vain. Everyone celebrates! This was a way for the sets to be destroyed at the end of filming, but it’s a crazy choice, given that the real Walnut Grove is still very much in existence today.