Golly, Julia is cool. Twice today she was in the process of being strangled, and twice she managed to talk Barnabas out of it while he had his hands around her throat. What always gets me is the second time. Barnabas says, "Maggie Evans is dead!" If I were in Julia's shoes, I'd say, "No, she isn't!" But Julia, even with her windpipe under assault, can manage to come up with a more provocative answer: "Is she?"
The scene between Dr. Woodard, Sam Evans, and Joe Haskell was strategically placed. We haven't seen Sam and Joe in weeks, and now we get the reminder that Julia can't just drop Maggie like a hot potato now that she's found her vampire. I'm back to wondering what Julia had in mind when she first started looking for vampires. (There's a fan fiction story waiting to written about Julia's sabbatical in Transylvania.) She knows that vampires are killers. Is it her plan to cure the vampire, publish her earthshaking journal article, and end it with "The subject is currently paying his debt to society at the Shawshank Correctional Facility"?
Once again Robert Gerringer veered away from the traditional scene ending by looking away from the camera instead of staring into it, and doing something else. (I remember noticing him doing that before, weeks ago.) I can't remember what he did - but I like that about Gerringer. Somebody mentioned on this Forum that he played a rogue on some other soap. I wish I could see that.
I just love the way Jonathan Frid manages to bat away that fly in character as Barnabas: so imperiously! The rest of the time today, he was more melodramatic than imperious. Poor thing, what's a vampire to do when a certain doctor flat-out refuses to be scared of him?
