Episode Guide - A Stranger Passed This Way
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Title A Stranger Passed This Way
Episode No: 123 Season: 4
Summary: A nasty thunk on the head leaves Hoss with a bad case of amnesia, no memory of his father or brothers and a new futures beckoning in Michigan. Will tragedy hit the Ponderosa? Or will Hoss regain his wits in the nick of time?
You’ll like this if: Good old heart-wrenching drama, plus Ben willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Synopsis: Hoss is returning from a horse-buying trip, making his way to Placerville, when he is attacked and robbed. Tellingly, he keeps his temper until the robbers discover Inger’s photograph in his saddlebags. However, Hoss is outnumbered and gets hit on the head. When he wakes up, Hoss realises that he doesn’t know who he is. Luckily, a kindly old Dutch couple, the Vandervoorts, find him and take him home. Unable to remember his name, Mrs Vandervoort suggests several possibilities, including “Erik”, but none of them ring any bells. Finally, she decides to call him after her dead son, Hendrick. It is clear that she is still grieving for him and that Hoss has become a substitute child in her eyes.
Ben realises that Hoss is missing and start to retrace his steps. Coming across the campsite, he finds the picture of Inger that Hoss was trying to protect and realises something is wrong. He arrives at the Vandervoorts, and asks Mrs Vandervoort if she has seen his son. Mrs Vandervoort calmly lies to him and that evening, persuades her husband that they should return to a Dutch community in Michigan. Hoss is persuaded to go with them and preparations are quickly put into place.
Ben keeps looking for his son and with the help of the inept Doc Hickman, he discovers Hoss was at the Vandervoorts. His suspicions aroused, Ben goes back there and confronts them, discovering that they are in the process of loading the wagon for their move to Michigan. Doc Hickman tells Ben that it could be very dangerous to tell Hoss the truth. Mr Vandervoort realises his wife has been rather duplicitous and agrees to go to the Ponderosa, so that Joe and Adam can see their brother for one last time.
There are some very awkward and heart-breaking scenes, as Adam and Joe struggle to accept their brother has no memory of them and their hurt and grief shines out. But Ben is very firm, insisting that they do nothing to disturb Hoss. All seems lost, especially when Ben shows Hoss to his bedroom and Hoss casually looks at the photo of Inger, announcing calmly that she is a pretty lady. He looks admiringly at the large bed, but there is no reaction when Ben tells him it was specially made in San Francisco.
The next morning, Ben visits Hoss in the bedroom and is saddened to see that his son still does not remember him. However – Inger’s photo gets knocked over – and hey presto! Hoss gets his memory back!! The only thing is that he has no recollection of the Vandervoorts, who sadly continue their journey. Neither does Hoss have any idea of the trauma his family have been going through. But the viewer knows that not only are things back to normal on the Ponderosa, but also that Mrs Vandervoort has finally let go of the memory of her dead son and can start to live again.
Clothes: basically the same old, same old. However, there are a few exciting variations for Hoss, who is popped into a white nightshirt while in bed at the Vandervoorts and then later sports a very silly knitted hat that the costume department fondly imagines is indicative of the Dutch…
Mrs Vandervoort appeared to have a large wardrobe, with several changes of clothes. Most are cunningly accessorised with a little lacy “Dutch” cap
JPM: none. Shame – it really shouldn’t be allowed. And there isn’t a HPM either, although Ben is obviously affected. Hoss, however, is impervious to the dramatic tension and fondly looking forward to a slap-up breakfast.
Token Female Interest: None.
Where am I? Hoss has clearly usurped Joe’s bedroom, for the set is perfectly recognisable from such episodes as Stillness Within, The Deadly Ones and First Born. It even has the same pictures on the wall. No wonder it isn’t familiar to him! Still, at least it doesn’t have the girly red gingham bed linen he is subjected to at the Vandervoorts
Continuity; what continuity?:
The Vandervoorts horses change completely from one scene to the next, from black to chestnut.
Klaus Vandervoort and Hoss do look remarkably like father and son. They even wear similar clothes.
Joe is not wearing his green jacket when Ben is telling Joe and Adam about Hoss, but he is when he comes back out of the house a few minutes later. Was the poor poppet cold?
Why did Adam feel the need to put on his hat when he was only going out to the barn? He’d been eating only seconds before.
Have you been following the plot?
Nice backward shadow to Inger, My Love and Journey Remembered with Inger’s photograph.
Does that doctor look familiar? He should do – for Doc Hickman pops up five episodes later in the supreme My Brother’s Keeper. Funnily enough, he doesn’t recognise Hoss at all. He had also been at the Ponderosa in The Horse Breaker, too. Perhaps he had selective amnesia? He’s still quite inept, struggling to close his ridiculously small Gladstone bag.
Ben explains that “Hoss” is an old mountain expression meaning friend. It was also mentioned that it means a ‘big friendly man’, although quite why Adam should attribute this name to the infant Hoss is anyone’s guess…
The Crucial questions no-one asks:
How the heck did Chubb get home all by himself? It appeared from the remains of the campsite that he had been pinched. Either that or he knows how to saddle himself! Clever horse!
And how on earth did the elderly Vandervoorts manage to get Hoss into the wagon and then back home? Why didn’t they wonder about Hoss’ appearance? Or did everyone in the neighbourhood go around wearing such filthy clothes?
Exactly why was Hoss carrying his Mother’s photo around in his saddlebags?
Why was Hoss on a horse-buying trip? Surely this should have been left to Joe, who is the horse expert in the family. And is it really feasible that he would trust this Don Escobar to deliver the horses in ten days time, when he appears to be a complete stranger to the Cartwrights? He had a remarkably short memory. Could you forget someone of Hoss’ size so soon? Makes you wonder if he would remember to deliver those horses Hoss so conveniently paid for in advance.
Had Ben never told his sons about the dangers of flashing their money around? Hoss appeared to be carrying a huge amount of cash, thrust casually into his shirt pocket, waistcoat pocket and trouser pocket.
Guest Stars
Signe Hasso, sometimes known as Signe Larsson was born in Stockholm in 1910. She was tipped to be the next Garbo, but her career never took off in the States. Her only son was killed in 1954 and she never entirely recovered. She had a later connection to Bonanza, appearing in an episode of ‘Trapper John MD’. She died in 2002 at the age of 91 of pneumonia related to lung cancer.
Robert Emhardt was born in 1914. He was also in the episodes ‘A Lawman’s Lot is Not a Happy One’, playing Paul Forbes and ‘The Last Vote’, playing Judge Clampton. He died in 1994.
Addison Richards was a well-known face to Bonanza fans as the hard-hearted Doc Hickman in MBK. As mentioned, he was in The Horse Breaker as well. Born in 1887, he was in 291 movies and had 116 guest starring roles in his distinguished career. He died in 1964.
Robert Carricart was born in Bordeaux, France in 1917. He appeared in the episode ‘The Deserter’ as Myoka. He died in 1993.
You Can Quote Me On That
“I knew that one day my son would come back to me.” Mrs Vandervoort.
“When he gets here, treat him as a stranger.” Ben
“You will not call him brother and I will not call him son.” Ben
“If I had a dozen sons, he would still be as important to me!” Ben.
“His name is Chubby.” Adam.