10 Episodes That Prove "Little House On The Prairie" Is Even More Wild Than You Remember

Remember when they adopted the orangutan...

1. Laura climbs a mountain and meets God?

NBC

Episode(s): Season 1, Episodes 13-14: "The Lord is My Shepherd, Parts 1 and 2"

After the death of Laura’s brother, Charles Frederick Ingalls, Laura is overcome by grief and shame that she was jealous of the baby. She runs away from home and climbs a mountain to be closer to Heaven. The plan seems to work, as she is looked after by Jonathan, a heaven-sent stranger (Ernest Borgnine) who might be God? Or an angel? At any rate, it’s a pretty steep climb up that mountain for a 9-year-old girl, and where did they find that mountain in the middle of the flat prairie?

2. Everyone dies from the plague.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 1, Episode 18: "Plague"

A typhus outbreak hits Walnut Grove, so Doc Baker advises everyone to stay in isolation in their homes. While out hunting, Charles finds some more victims, so, having been exposed, he joins Doc Baker and Reverend Alden. They're all quarantined in the church, which is set up as a makeshift hospital. The disease was caused by a rat infestation. Mr. Edwards is sick. He lives, but nearly everyone else dies.

3. Caroline (Ma) nearly amputates her own leg.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 2, Episode 15: "A Matter of Faith"

Charles and the girls go on a camping trip, with Caroline planning to join them later. Previously, Caroline had scratched her leg on a piece of baling wire, and the minor scratch turns into a serious infection. Unable to summon help, she is about to succumb to her illness, but she is inspired by a passage in her Bible to find the courage to operate on herself. So, she sterilizes a knife by heating it in the fire and cuts into herself before passing out. Thankfully, Charles arrives and they are able to call the actual doctor.

4. Frank and Jesse James take Mary hostage.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 4, Episode 8: "The Aftermath"

Mary starts running errands for two mysterious newcomers who sided with the South in the Civil War. They are actually Frank and Jesse James. They kidnap Mary and then the whole town comes under siege when an overzealous posse rides in, prepared to capture them at any cost. There is also a bitter student at the school, Bobby Ford, and in a voiceover, Mary comments that 6 years later, Bobby killed Jesse James. If you watch the entire series, everything bad that can happen to Mary, happens to Mary.

5. Carrie flies away in a hot air balloon.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 4, Episode 11: "Meet Me at the Fair"

At the fair, Mary hopes to flirt with Patrick, but she falls for the flattery of his employer Cass, a balloonist. While in this love triangle with two boys we will never see again, her younger sister Carrie wanders into the hot-air balloon basket, falls asleep, and wakes up flying through the air. Mary’s crush Patrick saves the day. Where are Carrie’s parents? Oh, they’re busy having fun at the fair’s donkey-riding contest.

6. Nels’ sister is the circus “fat lady” and Laura becomes a clown.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 6, Episode 5: "Annabelle"

This was one of many circus-themed episodes, but quite possibly the wildest. Nels discovers that his sister is the "fat lady" in the circus, and tries to hide the fact from everyone in town. Meanwhile, Laura tells her romantic woes to a man who turns out to be the circus manager, so he lets her dress up as an unrecognizable clown. She dumps water on her romantic rival and kisses Almanzo while in full clown makeup! Finally, Nels dresses up as the ringmaster and announces to the entire circus that Annabelle is his sister and he is proud of her. It’s an interesting, wild ride, and we never see or hear about Annabelle ever again.

7. The school for the blind burns down.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 6, Episodes 18-19: "May We Make Them Proud, Parts 1 and 2"

During a charity picnic for the school for the blind, Albert and his friend Clay smoke a pipe in the basement and accidentally start a fire. In what can only be described as the most traumatizing sequences on television, the children are rushed out of the school. Mary leaves her baby behind for no reason whatsoever. Meanwhile, Alice Garvey goes back for Mary’s baby, but is trapped in the burning building. We literally see both Alice and the baby burn. While Alice’s husband Jonathan turns to alcohol, Mary refuses to believe her child is dead and cradles its charred remains. In the episode's second part, Albert also learns that his birth father has died recently. So, everyone dies. Fear not. In real life, Mary was never married and never had a child, and both Albert and Alice Garvey are completely fictional. Still, it’s a gruesome episode.

8. The Olesons adopt Nellie's clone.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 8, Episodes1-2: "The Reincarnation of Nellie, Parts 1 and 2"

Okay, so Nancy isn't exactly a clone, but still. After Nellie grows up, marries, and moves away with her husband Percival, her mother Harriet becomes depressed that she no longer has a child to take care of…even though she still has her younger son Willie. On the advice of Doc Baker, Harriet and Nels decide to adopt, and they choose Nancy, who looks exactly like Nellie, complete with blonde ringlets. In real life, this would be incredibly disturbing, and I would 100% question the placement of this child with this family.

9. Mr. Edwards is arrested and a gang tries to rob him in jail.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 9, Episode 14: "Older Brothers"

The Younger Gang is a group of less than intelligent brothers. They haven't been out of prison very long, when they try to rob a stagecoach. The coachman is packing heat. Seeing the coachman shooting at the brothers, Mr. Edwards believes they’re the injured party. He fires at the stagecoach to scare them away but is later arrested. When the Younger Gang learns that Mr. Edwards has $500, they attempt to break into the jail to rob him. The plan goes awry, so they decide to turn themselves in to collect the $500 reward offered for their capture. Along the way, Almanzo and his friend also accidentally end up in jail. I can’t even properly describe the plot here. It’s supposed to be a madcap adventure with lots of misunderstandings, but nothing makes any sense.

10. And Mr. Edwards adopts an orangutan.

NBC

Episode(s): Season 9, Episode 20: "For the Love of Blanche"

This is another wild Season 9 episode. Mr. Edwards promises to care for a dying traveler's "baby," only to discover it to be an orangutan named Blanche. She makes quick friends with everyone except Nancy, who tries to swat the animal, only for it to fight back. Mrs. Oleson wants Blanche killed, but in a bizarre Romeo and Juliet scheme, Mr. Edwards devises a plan to trick them into thinking Blanche is dead. Later, Blanche saves Rose from a potentially deadly house fire that Jenny puts out. When Jenny tells the story at school, Nancy and Mrs. Oleson demand that the sheriff make sure Blanche is dead this time. But the ape hides in a tree until the arrival of the zookeeper, who convinces the sheriff and Mrs. Oleson to let Blanche live in a zoo. This was not the only adoption on the series, but it was the wildest!