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Reviews
Highway to Heaven: The Source (1989)
This is one of the best of the series, period!
In our current era of #MeToo and fake news, this one shows up with a plot so good yet barely touched on media: I am talking about false accusations for male victims. There is a reason this episode is mentioned time and time again in the top 5 of the better ones of HtH and also called the swan song of the final season.
What would happen if we believe the supposed victim, no questions or proof asked, and just start pointing fingers? Elaine Newman (From Hart To Hart fame) along with Ed Burnham and Michael Landon do their best to answer this question in 40 minutes with a brilliant script. All the cast excels to make the audience feel the pathos and even if we find the logic of the conclusion questionable, the remark on the last minute of the episode (A voice over by Landon, of course, and the second one this season) sums it up: even if charges are dropped a lot of people will not accept the innocence of someone, because they have been manipulated by the media they consume. Also the supposed victim never faced any backlash at the end.
One could wonder what would happen if real life slanderers had the integrity that the evildoers of this story communicate in the conclusion...
Its really an episode that shows how mass mentality could hurt and destroy the life of a human being. As a side note, French barely appears on screen because he was already going to therapy for his cancer when this was getting filmed. A real shame.
Highway to Heaven: Plane Death (1985)
The first serious episode of the series
This is not a murder mystery. We know from the start who did it and why. Its more a commentary of the stuff that's wrong with our society, and the realization about how some things are just not fair. Also you will not find a single joke on this one. Written by Landon and directed by French, this is one of the highlights of the season, and the first real serious episode without any whimsical portrayal of the situation. Sadly it's not perfect by any means, because the outcome is resolved via plot armor, one full of the rage of God: but what we could expect?. That being said, Mark hugging the corpse of his friend (And coming from the dead of his wife a few episodes ago) it's heartbreaking. The development of both Michael and Mark, its very interesting, and also what will define this series as a classic.
Great stuff, and pretty obvious that this one and others of the season had at some point major pacing changes or even deleted scenes that got lost in the cutting room floor.