The Brady Bunch Episode #25

Welcome to my review of The Brady Bunch Episode #25. This is the finale of the first season. While the show had become popular in the teen magazines, their TV rating was never spectacular. It hung on for five seasons though and then seemed to gain popularity in syndication. Funny how that works. Anyway, this episode is called “Lost Locket, Found Locket” and it originally aired on March 20, 1970.

The show opens with Jan pouting on her messy bed on a Saturday morning. She has food, a text book, a record player, and I don’t know what else on her bed. It’s pretty gross. Alice walks in to put clothes away and Jan talks about how depressed she is because Mom took Marcia to an art class and Dad took Cindy to the playground. Boo hoo. Pity party.

Address

I guess Carol is back from art class because she suddenly pops in with a package that just came for Jan. She reads the address as “4222 Clinton Way. City.” City? Why would you say “city” unless that’s really the name of your city. That would be funny. Peter clears this up in the next scene when he says that you can just put “city” if you’re mailing something from the same city. That’s crazy. I never heard of that before. Was that a real thing back then? There was no state or zip listed on the package.

It turns out the package is a locket for Jan with no card or return address. How special is Jan now? I think my spidey senses would be activated if I were a parent. That’s kind of creepy.

The men are trying to figure out who sent the locket. Greg discovers that the typewriter that addressed the mailing label drops its y’s. Why did he need a magnifying glass to see this?

Carol thinks it’s Aunt Martha who sent the locket because she’s a ditz. Carol’s call to Aunt Martha is a disaster. Aunt Martha has been in Alaska for the last month so the locket couldn’t have come from her.

We find out in this episode that Carol has a sister and that her husband’s name is Roger. (Aunt Martha confused Mike with Roger on the phone.)

Sneaking Around

Carol and Alice lie to Mike and say they’re going shopping for a new coat for Alice. They instead sneak into Mike’s office because they think he may have sent the locket. They check out his typewriter to see if it drops its y’s. It does not. They get caught by security who thinks they’re typewriter thieves. Carol explains the entire situation about the locket. The security guard doesn’t want to hear Carol ramble on any longer so he lets her go.

While Carol and Alice are out shopping, Mike checks out Carol’s typewriter because he thinks Carol may have sent the locket. Her typewriter is in perfect condition and does not drops its y’s. Seems to be a lot of secrets and dishonesty happening in the Brady household. Why couldn’t Mike have just asked Carol? Why couldn’t Carol have just asked Mike? I don’t understand.  Why sneak around?

Cut to Jan tossing and turning in bed. She starts screaming, “Oh, no!” over and over. It was very annoying. It sounds like they just looped the sound clip. Jan went to bed with her locket on but now it’s gone. She’s being a bit of a drama queen. They should shoot her.

The next scene shows Greg eating breakfast at the kitchen counter. I don’t recall seeing anyone eat there before. I’ll have to keep my eye open as I review other episodes. (Shut up. It’s important to me.)

Reenactment

They decide to do a reenactment of the crime. It turns out that nobody was asleep except for Jan. Marcia was studying for her English test. She ain’t doing good in English. Peter and Greg were downstairs eating. Cindy was standing out in the hall because she heard something under her bed. Bobby was brushing his teeth. Alice was writing a letter to her sister.

During the reenactment, Jan starts screaming. Once again, it’s annoying. She remembers that she was hanging out the window to look at the little bear. She finds her precious locket hanging in the ivy outside her window. Alice seems most excited of all that the locket has been found.

The next morning Jan is having breakfast while Alice talks to her. She brings out her typewriter and has Jan type some y’s. It turns out that Alice is the one who sent the locket. Alice explains that being a middle child sucks but that it doesn’t really matter for Peter because he’s a boy. Turns out that Alice is also a middle child. She was born in between Emily and Myrtle. Alice’s aunt gave her that locket for the same reason. (That nobody loves you?)

Eve Plumb did a nice job with this episode. She was a good little actress.

The tag is Jan running into the den. A totem pole with no card just arrived from Alaska. Jan laughs because she’s the middle girl on the totem pole. She starts to say telephone pole but catches herself. I guess they didn’t want to do a retake. Mike, Carol, and Jan laugh uncontrollably. Okay. The end.