“I’ll Ride the Wind”

So today I watched “I”ll Ride the Wind,” the second episode of season 3, and it’s not really worthy of a full recap, but there’s one thing I find notable.

So, John Jr. and Mary want to get engaged, only that means that John can’t go to university to learn how to be a published poet.  And Ma gives Mary this whole speech that I guess is supposed to make her feel better, but.  I don’t know, it basically goes something like, “Well, I used to have all these dreams and things I wanted to do and places I wanted to go, but then I got married, and when you get married that’s all in the past and I can’t even remember that girl.”  And she tells Mary “It’s okay, it happens to everyone.”  And it’s REALLY WEIRD because for a hot second it kind of feels like Ma has some REGRETS about marrying Pa and giving up whatever dreams she may have had that she doesn’t even remember anymore because when you get married you sacrifice your individuality and your own hopes and desires.

But anyway, Mary goes to Mr. Edwards and cries and says she doesn’t want John this way, “with the life gone out of him,” so they send John away to university.  The boy’s like, fifteen though.  Man, the prairie was different.