User Reviews

This is a quintessential episode. We know that Maurice and Holling were inseparable buddies before Maurice brought Shelly to Cicely, and their feud began. But it wasn't revealed until this episode that there had been a third "running mate," Bob Planey. He had made them promise to take his body to No Name Point for burial.

They have a coffin built and take it to Bob's house, only to find that the coffin is too small. Bob had married Solvang (Joanna Cassidy), a sexy woman who fed him well, and now his corpse, lying outside because the temperature is below zero, won't fit. While they are building a bigger coffin, Solvang manages to seriously tempt both of them, but she wasn't successful in bedding either one of them.

Eventually, they complete the coffin and continue the mission. Solvang initially goes with them, but bails out after igniting sparks with the owner of a tavern at which the "boys" get into a fight with some younger locals over a bridge game.

Continuing their journey, and after a series of mishaps, they realize that aren't quite up to the physical challenge of completing the trek to No Name Point, besides which Bob's corpse is getting to smell kind of gamey. They eventually bury Bob's body in a place with a scenic view.

While all this is going on, we hear "Chris in the Morning" as a voice-over. When Maurice is the center of attention, Chris is reading from "The Call of the Wild," the story of a domesticated dog that joins a wolf pack. While Holling is the focus, Chris reads from "White Fang," the story of a wolf that becomes a pet. This counterpoint lifts this episode up to a special place among the already high standards of the show.

My mind harkens back to the Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service where a man agrees to cremate a guy he didn't even like, taking him into arctic winter. Maurice and Holling had a running mate with whom they were inseparable. When he dies, they realize they made a promise to him to bury him in the most remote of places, which could only be reached using pack horses. This is their story. The story is good enough, but the genius comes in Chris reading from "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang," paralleling events in those books with the exploits of the two long time friends. Throw in Willie Nelson at the end and what more could one ask for? Joel doesn't appear in this one. That's OK because it would have been a distraction.