Deadly Hazing: There's a hazing ritual where the recruits have to have ice poured on their chests. Sonny has a heart attack when the ice touches him, and everyone believes the pledgers to be responsible. It turns out that Sonny actually had a congenital heart defect.
Fall Guy and The Scapegoat: Will Jamie and his friends let a vagabond drifter take the heat for kidnapping poor Sonny and killing him (perhaps on suspicion that he didn't get his way with him)?
Outliving One's Offspring: When Jamie tries sticking up for Ted, Sonny's father wants to turn on the youngest Cartwright and make him shed some blood. Ben tries talking sense into the man, telling him that he's "already buried one son," a reference to why Hoss (given Dan Blocker's death) was no longer around.
Street Urchin: Ron Howard's role of Ted, similar to a role he'd play in The Spikes Gang.
Would Hurt a Child: Once it is determined that the leader of the teenage gang, Ted, was the one responsible for Sonny's death, Sonny's father and several others want to brutally kill him.
