Remembering Little House on the Prairie’s Utterly Bonkers Series Finale

With a new Netflix adaptation of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House novels on the way, television fans are bound to recall the beloved series that aired 200 episodes and five movie specials between 1974 and 1983. The series starred Michael Landon and Karen Grassle as Charles and Caroline Ingalls, homesteaders in the late 1800s who raise their three daughters—Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson), Laura (Melissa Gilbert), and Carrie (Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush)—on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

From the French horn strains in the opening theme to the life lessons Pa lovingly imparted on his daughters, Little House on the Prairie was a gentle, optimistic look at the American experiment. That is, until the final movie, in which all the characters gathered together and blew the entire town to smithereens.

An Off-Beat Reunion

The explosion happens in the 1984 TV movie Little House: The Last Farewell, which was shot to be the series finale but ended up airing a few months before the Christmas-focused penultimate film, Little House: Bless All the Dear Children.

Written and directed by Landon, who also directed the original 1974 TV movie and several episodes, The Last Farewell plays much like one would expect from a final episode. By the last season, Landon and Grassle had become guest stars in the series and Gilbert took the lead, with the show now focusing on Laura and her husband Almanzo Wilder (Dean Butler). The Last Farewell finds Charles and Caroline returning to Walnut Grove, only to learn that robber baron Nathan Lassiter (James Karen) has bought the line and plans to run a railroad through the town.

Most of the movie follows expected reunion episode tropes and plays to the show’s sentimentality. We get lots of scenes of Charles and Caroline catching up with old friends, familiar characters such as shopkeeper Nels Oleson (Richard Bull), jovial mountain man Mr. Edwards (Victor French), as well as Dr. Baker (Kevin Hagen) and Rev. Alden (Dabbs Greer). The couple spends time praising their daughter and son-in-law for their good work, and playing with the grandkids (one of whom is played by a young Shannen Doherty). And, of course, two generations of men share some wise words for their families.

Yet, even within the wholesome sheen of the movie, something feels off. Most obviously, there are the missing regulars from the show. Oldest daughter Mary had, by this point, moved on to become a teacher for the blind, but the movie only makes passing reference to Carrie and Albert (Matthew Labyorteaux), the troubled orphan adopted by the Ingalls. Nels explains that his wife Harriet (Katherine MacGregor) is ill and in the hospital, while daughter Nellie’s (Alison Arngrim) absence hardly gets that much explanation.

Little House, Big Boom

Even more strange is the mean-spirited tone of the entire thing. By this point, most viewers knew that Landon was far more unpleasant than the character he played on TV, but he gave Charles more bitterness than he ever had before. The entire story begins when Charles learns that Caroline’s Aunt Tess is coming to visit, news that makes him so angry that he gets into a fist fight. Later, he bullies himself back into his old house when he learns that the current owners, John and Sarah Carter (Stan Ivar and Pamela Roylance) are going out of town.

To be clear, the movie plays each bit of bad behavior as a joke, and the movie knows that Charles is out of line. But it also positions him as a lovable guy, someone whose manners haven’t quite caught up with society, but who still means well in the end.

That mixed messaging comes to a fore in the movie’s final moments. The townspeople have tried and failed to prevent Lassiter from holding to his claim on Walnut Grove. He had gone so far as to get help from the U.S. Cavalry (who were, of course, big fans of removing people from their land). So the citizens take the one option left to them: they blow Walnut Grove sky high.

The actual final sequence is not at all as glib as that sentence makes it sound. As a director, Landon takes his time showing the citizens wiring the buildings with dynamite and saying solemn goodbyes to one another. Before the first explosion, Rev. Robert Alden gathers them together to say a prayer. “Dear Lord, we bury a friend today,” he says through tears. “This town has been our friend.” And, of course, when all is done, the townspeople walk out together, singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

But until then, we have to watch as each character explodes their respective home. A weeping Mr. Edwards, not expressing a single concern for Old Man Tucker, destroys the mill. Nels grimaces as he makes the General Store explode. Dr. Baker stares stoically before blasting his house to pieces.

The Absolute Farewell

Adding to the shock of the final scene is the fact that the production did indeed blow up the actual buildings used to shoot the series. According to some reports, Landon wanted to put a definitive end on the series and prevent others from using the sets. According to others, he had struck a deal with the owners of the actual land and this allowed them to clear the space when they finished shooting.

Whatever the reason, the movie made us watch as actual settings were reduced to rubble, with only the chapel and the little house still standing.

In the days before the internet and pop culture news outlets like Den of Geek, The Last Farewell felt like a half-remembered dream or something a cruel boy made up to tease the girls who loved the show. Other shows had shockingly bleak endings: Sam never gets home in Quantum Leap, ALF ends with Gordon Shumway getting captured by the government, and the Ice Age kills everyone in Dinosaurs. But Little House on the Prairie presented itself as so pure, so wholesome, that the explosive ending couldn’t be real.

Yet, it absolutely was. And, like the rest of The Last Farewell, the explosion reminds us that nothing is as simple and pure as we remember, not even Little House on the Prairie.