Rewatch Adventures of Indiana Jones Part VI

Image credit: IMDB.com

We begin the journey into Young Indy's teenage and young adult life with the final two episodes of Volume I of the DVD set, and the first two episodes of teenage Indy's life.

Young Indy is now played by Sean Patrick Flanery, who is excellent throughout the whole series. There is enough close resemblance to the young River Phoenix in Last Crusade to make it a reasonable jump from young teen River Phoenix to older teen Sean Patrick Flanery.

The two episodes covered here are Spring Break Adventure and Love's Sweet Song and include some very pivotal moments in Young Indy's life. Let's jump into the action!

---

Spring Break Adventure, 1916
The adventure starts in Princeton, NJ with Indy and his girlfriend planning to go to Prom. Of course, Indy's girlfriend is Nancy Stratemeyer, who was the inspiration for the Nancy Drew character. Because of the Nancy Drew connection, this episode was primarily a mystery involving one of Thomas Edison's assistants and stolen plans for an electric car. The mystery was entertaining, and the Germans even made their first appearance in the Indiana Jones timeline as potential villains. There was also a great moment where Indy found a bullwhip and used it to escape a situation, and it was clear he had used it before (a nice callback to the prologue of Last Crusade). You also cannot go wrong with the first appearance of the classic fedora!

Following this adventure Indy heads to New Mexico to visit his cousin where they take a trip across the border to visit a brothel (somewhat surprising choice for a show on in the 90s). While there Indy gets caught by Pancho Villa and his army and meets one of the most underrated sidekicks in all Indiana Jones storytelling, Remy Baudouin. Remy is a Belgian who ended up in Mexico and was allured by the idealism of the revolution. He and Indy bond quickly. I liked how this part of the episode tackled some of the difficult questions about revolutions and how they affect everyday citizens. You saw both the romanticism of joining a revolution but also the toll it takes on the people it is supposed to help. In a surprising move, Indy decides to join the Belgian army with his new friend Remy and leave his home and high school career behind. Thus begins the core of the Young Indiana Jones series, World War I.

Image credit: IMDB. com

Love's Sweet Song, 1916
Indy's first adventure on his way to join the Belgian army and ultimately the war takes place in Ireland, followed by England. Both parts of this episode relate Indy's experience with young love. In Ireland he meets a girl whose brother is connected with the revolutionaries fighting for Irish independence, and in England he has a more serious relationship with a suffragette who gives him firsthand experience with the challenges of the fight for women's rights. Indy's relationships with women are a common theme throughout the show, but the story in England stands out for its genuine sweetness and feeling of true love. The impending war also casts a gloomy pall over Indy's story and functions as a stand-in for all the relationships that were, and still are, affected by war.

We can be thankful for the sweet tone of this episode, however, because the next episode, Trenches of Hell, takes the series in a very dark direction.

---