Season 2, Episode 21: Just One Lullaby

At long last, Colorado Springs gets its very own schoolteacher. But not for long.

The Gist:
 Louise Chambers is chosen as the new teacher at the Colorado Springs school.  She turns out to be more than strict, but actually abusive.    Michaela, who was initially quite taken with her as a fellow independent career gal, then campaigns for her dismissal (or at least formalized policy on corporal punishment).

Meanwhile, the Reverend and Miss Chambers rekindle a former romance.  The relationship becomes strained over the discipline issue but is killed when Louise reveals that she doesn't ever want children of her own.

Commentary:
1.  I often feel bad for the Reverend.  He seems so lonely so much of the time. And then he proposes to Michaela and she turns him down ... at their engagement party.  And then Louise shows up and they're happy and in love ... and she turns out to be a terrible human being. And then he goes blind. Poor guy.

2.  Brian is really excellent in this episode.  He is frightened and angry and really ... real.  And then he stands up to her, saying "You're not supposed to hit people. Don't you do it." And is beaten himself.

3.  One of the great motifs throughout this episode is how survivors of physical address their demons.  Dorothy redeems herself somewhat from her bad behavior in the previous episode. As a physical abuse survivor herself, she is part of the few adults who take a firm stand against corporal punishment. Jake sinks back into darkness as he recalls how his mother would beat him with a barber strap; he reiterates to Loren that beating children is unconscionable.  And then Benjamin (a student played by a young Eric Balfour!) retaliates and beats up Louise, doing serious damage.

4. I do not condone violence of any kind, but a huge part of me was hoping that Michaela would throw down with Louise.  Particularly after Brian showed the welts on his legs from Louise's cane.  If Benjamin hadn't done it ...


5.  The Reverend delivers a wonderful story in a closing scene:

Once there was a shabby town where all the people were unhappy, poor, and ignorant and one day a king came to visit and he told them that he had secretly switched a baby in the town with one of his own. Now, after the king left, the people were afraid. They were worried that, when the king returned again, he would punish them if the royal child was unhappy. But since they had no idea which baby it was, the whole town began to treat each child as though that child were royalty. Many years later, the king did return. By then these children had all grown up and had children of their own and the town was very different. There were libraries and schools and hospitals and churches. All of the families were hard working and happy. You see, these grown up children had no idea. They’d never heard the story of the king. They had no idea that there was a prince or princess among them. They were productive, creative, happy, and kind simply because they had been loved and educated and protected, treated as if each child were royalty. An old woman on her deathbed, she asked the king, she said “I know my wonderful grown up daughter, she’s the princess, isn’t she?” and the king told her “They are all the one.”