The Beginning of 1795

[Joeytrom]

The first time I watched DS, I missed the episode with the seance, so when I saw DS in 1795 it was really jarring.  Despite the constant repetition of the opening voiceover, I was still confused for a while, as I'm sure others who missed the seance episode were too.  They needed to clarify the Vicky/Phyllis connection and the situation at the seance.

At first I thought Vicky had taken over the body of Phyllis Wick, while the audience sees Vicky, the characters see Phyllis.  Then when Vicky talks with Jeremiah, it appears that Burke has also traveled back in time and taken over Jeremiah's body without realizing it.  This is when Jeremiah tells Vicky he feels as though he knows her somehow.

It looked there was going to be a storyline with a Vicky/Burke/Jeremiah twist but then that suddenly was dropped.

The Vicky/Phyllis connection was spoiled by a fanzine at the time so I finally understood it, but just missing that one episode was so confusing!

[morlock]

That sounds rather jarring to say the least! I feel luckier having more leverage with being able to replay something I might not have caught initially. Phyllis Wick often made me completely curious how her own story had played out without Victoria switching places in time with her.

Otherwise when I first watched 1795 I thought, "Finally! We're going to get some answers!" and we sure did. As well as a lot of soap-opera filler, but that is part of the deal, isn't it?

[Patti Feinberg]

....yeah, but, I still don't get the Phyllis Wick.

"It's not logical Spock"

They could have at least shown PW @ RT Collinwood (and put her to work!)

Patti

[Gerard]

I always figured, before Vicki went back in time and exchanged places with Phyllis Wick, Angelique had framed her as the witch.  Regardless of this wrinkle in time, the poor girl ended up at the end of a noose.  Her fate was sealed.

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   Yes, That's what we're supposed to believe. Though things would have had to be different with the Phyllis frame-up because she didn't have any odd clothes or Vicki's "symbol of the devil" charm bracelet or the Collins Family History book, and she wouldn't have made any claims about being from the future...


As for your original point, Joeytrom, I can see where it would have been very confusing to have missed the seance...

[Uncle Roger]

No doubt that Phyllis would have been hanged. But I do wonder what, if anything, would have been the catalyst to bring Angelique into the present.

[Joeytrom]

When Cassandra showed up in the present, she tells Barnabas' portrait "Had it not been for Victoria Winters going into the past, I never would have known you were released from your chains".

[Patti Feinberg]

 

Hmmm...don't recall this.

Anyone know which ep this is on? (It makes complete sense though.)

Patti

[morlock]

I wish I could find the line and which episode for Cassandralique expressing Victoria going into the past giving her the clue. I did look about but I realised it was definitely "needle in a haystack" work.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Au contraire.    A quick search of the Robservations board with the forum's search feature revealed the ep in question is Ep #474:

474 - ...

... It's 1:45AM. Cassandra comes downstairs, walking without difficulty, and stares at Barnabas' portrait. "So many years, Barnabas, and I would never have known that you're free from your chains if Victoria Winters had not come from the past. You think you have escaped me even now. You may walk in the sunlight today, but you have not escaped! No, Barnabas, in time, in time you will find the curse back with you again!"

[morlock]

Oh ho ho! Ya got me! I was using a different web-log. That Robservations is good! I should try that more. 

[Gerard]

I thought about that, too, MB, that Phyllis didn't have the clothes and charm bracelets and wild stories like Vicki did.  But Angelique, being a witch, would turn the attention to the new girl in town, using her powers, spells and wiles to plant things and thoughts.  The odd-girl-out, although totally innocent, had no defense against that.

What I always hated against the story was the convoluted plot of some obscure law from Massachusetts against witchcraft still in force.  All anti-witchcraft laws were repealed 100 years earlier after the Salem horror.  What the writers could've gone with is that while witchcraft is no longer illegal, using it to kill is.  It would be like saying having and using guns is legal, but using them to murder someone is.  And then they did the same faux pas with the 1840/41 plot,'

Gerard

[Uncle Roger]

I was willing to accept the 1795 witchcraft trial as a bit of dramatic license. But Vicki is her own worst enemy. Her Ohrbach's fashions and her continued babbling about coming from another century did her no favors. That probably caused people to regard her with suspicion even though she seemed harmless enough. Witchcraft was probably easier to accept than time travel.
The 1840 trial is a completely different scenario. It should never have gone to trial in the first place and stretches credibility way too far

[Gothick]

Aunt Abigail (a fabulous character, so brilliantly played by Clarice Blackburn) was the kind of person who must have suspected witchcraft every time the cook burned the scones or her bed was not properly made by the household help. It would have been child's play to manipulate the mind of somebody like Abigail into thinking Phyllis Wick was a witch; Wick would, in any event, have been the first to be suspected by Abigail and anyone who thought like her, since Wick was a stranger.

Once Abigail called in Trask, the professional witch-hunter, I'm sure the situation escalated quickly.

They gave Barnabas a moment early in the return to 1968 period where he reflected to Julia his perception that "the past is constantly reworking itself." I can't recall the exact words, but they were cool lines. Even if they were basically a case of the writers telling the audience that we shouldn't hold them to any expectations when it came to story continuity.

G.