7: Promises, Promises
January 2, 1988
Connie makes a resolution to be more patient no matter what, which turns out to be far more difficult than she imagined.
Review ★★★★☆
By David
In this show we have another great example of the character of Connie being well utilized. She reintroduces us to Odyssey and her pushback against Whit only helps prove the truth of his Christian beliefs. This episode is all about Connie writing a letter to her friend in California. In pencil. She mentions that it was Whit’s idea to name her dog Kitty and so she did. This piece of information reminds us of Whit’s sense of humor and how he is influencing Connie.
Connie talks about Whit’s End and for the first time we hear someone explicitly clarify that the shop’s name is a pun. She says, “It almost makes sense.” Maybe it means when you’re at your wit’s end you’re supposed to go and ask Whit for advice. Either that or the commotion of kids at Whit’s End drives people crazy. Connie describes Tom as a farmer, a city councilman, and a little league coach and even brings up a funny conversation between Whit and Tom about Robert Louis Stevenson. We laugh at Tom’s expense and sympathize with Whit. Like Connie says, Whit has a lot of patience. Interestingly, patience is the very thing Connie strives to achieve in this episode. And throughout the rest of the series it seems she continues to strive for it, sometimes failing and making for comedic episodes.
She also describes Whit for the audience, calling him an inventor, businessman, writer and storehouse of information. According to Connie, “there’s just something about him that makes you want to open up to him.” But he’s also into religion. He takes his Christianity very seriously and that’s what leads us into the real story of this episode.
Connie is confused about all the evil and violence in the world and Whit of course goes straight to the Bible and says sin started in the Garden of Eden. Connie doesn’t agree. In an attempt to make the world a better place and prove that people are fundamentally good, Connie makes a promise to be more patient for a period of four weeks. Over the next few days Connie says people would come up to her and compliment her on how calm she was. That’s probably not a compliment she hears very often.
On the fourth day Whit is reading riddles to kids about someone who goes to St Ives and on the way meets a man who has seven wives. In other words, he’s a polygamist. I don’t know if the riddle is trying to imply that polygamists live in St Ives, but it seems like an odd thing to mention. The kids trying to figure out the riddle use absolute perfect math in record time. But of course the riddle has nothing to do with math and you’d think the kids would have learned that by now.
When the kids can’t figure out Connie’s riddle about an electric train she calls them “dense” and storms off. Not very patient of her. During her conversation with Whit you can tell she’s learned a bit from him because she tries to quote the Bible. Unfortunately she uses the infamous “the Lord helps those who helps themselves” line which doesn’t appear in the Bible but at least she tried.
At the end Whit proves his point about the fallen nature of mankind and Connie learns to not make promises she can’t keep. She tells her friend in California that there’s something different about these people and that they mean well and care about her. In Connie Comes to Town Whit told her that there are plenty of people just waiting to care and look out for her and now in Promises, Promises it appears she really believes it. She’s no longer looking out for number one. This episode gets 4 out of 5 stars.
By David
In this show we have another great example of the character of Connie being well utilized. She reintroduces us to Odyssey and her pushback against Whit only helps prove the truth of his Christian beliefs. This episode is all about Connie writing a letter to her friend in California. In pencil. She mentions that it was Whit’s idea to name her dog Kitty and so she did. This piece of information reminds us of Whit’s sense of humor and how he is influencing Connie.
Connie talks about Whit’s End and for the first time we hear someone explicitly clarify that the shop’s name is a pun. She says, “It almost makes sense.” Maybe it means when you’re at your wit’s end you’re supposed to go and ask Whit for advice. Either that or the commotion of kids at Whit’s End drives people crazy. Connie describes Tom as a farmer, a city councilman, and a little league coach and even brings up a funny conversation between Whit and Tom about Robert Louis Stevenson. We laugh at Tom’s expense and sympathize with Whit. Like Connie says, Whit has a lot of patience. Interestingly, patience is the very thing Connie strives to achieve in this episode. And throughout the rest of the series it seems she continues to strive for it, sometimes failing and making for comedic episodes.
She also describes Whit for the audience, calling him an inventor, businessman, writer and storehouse of information. According to Connie, “there’s just something about him that makes you want to open up to him.” But he’s also into religion. He takes his Christianity very seriously and that’s what leads us into the real story of this episode.
Connie is confused about all the evil and violence in the world and Whit of course goes straight to the Bible and says sin started in the Garden of Eden. Connie doesn’t agree. In an attempt to make the world a better place and prove that people are fundamentally good, Connie makes a promise to be more patient for a period of four weeks. Over the next few days Connie says people would come up to her and compliment her on how calm she was. That’s probably not a compliment she hears very often.
On the fourth day Whit is reading riddles to kids about someone who goes to St Ives and on the way meets a man who has seven wives. In other words, he’s a polygamist. I don’t know if the riddle is trying to imply that polygamists live in St Ives, but it seems like an odd thing to mention. The kids trying to figure out the riddle use absolute perfect math in record time. But of course the riddle has nothing to do with math and you’d think the kids would have learned that by now.
When the kids can’t figure out Connie’s riddle about an electric train she calls them “dense” and storms off. Not very patient of her. During her conversation with Whit you can tell she’s learned a bit from him because she tries to quote the Bible. Unfortunately she uses the infamous “the Lord helps those who helps themselves” line which doesn’t appear in the Bible but at least she tried.
At the end Whit proves his point about the fallen nature of mankind and Connie learns to not make promises she can’t keep. She tells her friend in California that there’s something different about these people and that they mean well and care about her. In Connie Comes to Town Whit told her that there are plenty of people just waiting to care and look out for her and now in Promises, Promises it appears she really believes it. She’s no longer looking out for number one. This episode gets 4 out of 5 stars.
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