The Captive

The addition of Corabeth Godsey to the cast of The Waltons was a major mistake. She was useful for some occasional humor but any episode that took her seriously made me want to gag. I can only assume that the writer of this episode had a relative who was the same kind of pretentious phony as Corabeth and this was his or her way of expressing their disgust with the person. Ronnie clair edwards was a fine actress, otherwise she would not have been able to portray this deeply flawed person as well as she did, but as a viewer who simply wanted entertainment, the character was so aggravating that it was painful to watch.

Now I remember how my interest in this series was rekindled, while watching episodes from Season 7. Sure it's an uneven point in the show's evolution. Still there are some watchable movies to see here. This entry almost moves into soap opera. It can even be considered melodrama. Still Corabeth's struggle with drinking works as drama. What comedy on display mainly comes from Elizabeth trying to drive. The third act redeems the whole thing. John gets a good episode. It's up to him to come up with a solution or at least get a turnaround started.

While Cora Beth is certainly a bit much, Ronnie and Ellen's characters showed people that could counter the syrupy sweetness of it favorite TV classic family!

I thought Ronnie Claire had a marvelous performance. Crying, laughing, screaming, it's all in this episode. I think Cora Beth is a wonderful character.

There was a lot to cover in one episode, but I think that this was a fine episode that was extremely frank about alcoholism for its time, but still keeping it entertaining. (50 years ago, Cora Beth told Olivia that "Ike was not satisfying her romantically") Wow, yup on the Walton's!

It was a good episode for Kami, also. Was really good to see an arc for her.

All in all, not my favorite episode, but a fine episode it is! Def my favorite episode concerning Cora Beth.

Also noteworthy, Ralph Waite directed this episode. This was when he had recently taken action on his own alcoholism.