Little House on the Prairie Episode Shows the Horrors of Morphine Addiction

I really enjoyed this show when I was young, Interestingly, there is one episode many don’t remember. For years I have told people about this episode and their response was Yeah Right, No Way and Are You Serious?

Season 9: A New Beginning (1982–83)

Home Again: Episodes 1 & 2

Original Air Date: February 7, 1983

Written and Directed by Michael Landon

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An7WGEAwgk4

The 1970’s family series Little House on the Prairie episode, Home Again, was ahead of its time, showing how an opioid addiction can start and how it was dealt with over 140 years ago. But more importantly, it showed what no other family series had before the reality of withdrawal. This episode shows us how addiction was prevalent even back then

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The withdrawal scenes are emotional to watch in a show where everything else was child friendly. This was one episode where parents were encouraged to watch with their children due to the horrifying nature of Albert going through the painful process of withdrawal. Morphine has been around since 1804 and many Civil War soldiers would develop an addiction known then as soldier's disease

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In the episodes, teenager Albert Ingalls and his father moved to the city where Albert felt pressure to use morphine in order to fit in with a new group of people. Albert has repeated run-ins with the law and is arrested for robbing a store with his friends. His father decides to have the both of them go back to Walnut Grove for a visit. Albert is angry that he has to go back to country life as he was starting to like the city

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Charles and Albert return to Walnut Grove to catch up with friends and family. Unfortunately, it isn't long before they realize something is off. Charles's demeanor is subdued and Albert is acting very strange and emotionally detached. Soon, Charles is forced to admit that Albert fell in with a bad crowd and is now suffering from an addiction to morphine that is destroying the sanctity of his life in the city and heavily straining his marriage

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When Albert is in Walnut Grove, he raids every place that carries morphine to feed his addiction and even steals from the town’s doctor. Doc Baker realizes that something is wrong with the morphine in his pouches and he tells Nels that the company is very responsible and loyal and so something had to happen to it when it came here to Walnut Grove. He says no one messed with in the store and he had Albert drop it off for him. Doc Baker realizes that Albert must have switched the morphine for powdered sugar. He tells Charles to watch for symptoms of addiction

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Charles finds the morphine in Albert’s shoe and gives it back to Doc Baker. When Albert goes looking for it, Charles confronts him but Albert says he only did it once and he’s sorry and it won’t happen again. After being discovered by the doctor and his father for stealing, his behavior increasingly becomes violent, which leads Charles to take drastic measures to help his son withdraw from the drug

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We see Albert suffer the withdrawal symptoms when he got into a fight with a boy who teased him in class and hitting his teacher. He lies to his father that he could not breathe and needed to go outside when really it was to run away to get more morphine. He was begging to his father for a little bit of morphine but his father would not allow it

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Will Charles be able to break Albert loose from this horrendous addiction, or is Albert too far gone to stop from tearing apart everything in sight, including his own family

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Some of this episode is quite graphic where we see Albert vomiting and having convulsions during the withdrawal. All his father could do was put a cold compress on his head and watch him

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Since this episode took place in the late 1800’s, there were no treatment centers back then. The only person that could help Albert was his father and a support system

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By the end of the episode, Albert got better but still admitted that if there was morphine near him, he felt he would take it. After apologizing to his class before heading back to the city with his father, he speaks to the class about his morphine addiction and that he took morphine to feel like an adult. Albert admits he considers himself lucky and knows he could have died

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At the end, it is stated by Melissa Gilbert in a voice-over that Albert would return to Walnut Grove years later as Dr. Albert Ingalls