Discuss - Ep #0845

[Watching Project]

Robservations #845

[alwaysdavid]

Will Quentin think only of himself and betray Barnabas?   Will Barnabas think only of himself and give up his plans to save the family?   Barnabas reveals to Julia that all plans must change so he can spend every minute with Josette. How will he do this when he is a hunted Vampire?   Julia reminds him how his last plan with Josette went awry, but as usual when it comes to Josette or one of his other women, he can only think of himself.   I don't particularly like when the hero of the story has secret plans.  It puts a distance between him and the audience and how can a person root for something when they do not know what it is they are supposed to be rooting for. 
Barnabas tells Quentin his plans for Lady Hampshire and appears oblivious to Quentin's tormented state.  It was what I had been thinking when Quentin called himself Judas.
It was quite like Julia was the much put upon wife when she says, " I've been through this before."   At least she realizes he will never forget Josette and always be hunting her.   Does she really think that sending Lady Hampshire away will stop Barnabas? 
Charity is back and Quentin is drunk again.   He almost betrayed Barnabas to her, but then decides to do the deed himself and can't.   Crazy Charity stakes Barnabas herself and then fade to black with no credits.   What a cliffhanger!   

[IluvBarnabas]

I agree that Barnabas was very selfish in this episode, wanting to drop his plans for saving the family so he can obsess over winning the latest 'Josette' look-alive that has arrived on the scene.. He is losing focus on his priorities here.

As usual, Julia has to be the sensible one here. I'm sure she has to be sick of it by now.

I honestly couldn't believe that Quentin would even think of killing Barnabas, no matter how much Petofi threatened him...if he had I think I would have hated Quentin forever. He and Barnabas had grown to be good friends at this point. However, he couldn't go through with it, and I was so happy. Unfortunately, he aroused Charity/Pansy's suspicions, so she followed him to the cave and staked Barnabas herself. I still remember how devastated I was as a child, watching this episode, thinking Barnabas was gone forever. [spoiler] Fortunately, that wasn't the case. [/spoiler]

I tip my hats to the writers for coming up with THE cliffhanger of the entire series.

[Lydia]

Barnabas says Josette is the one woman he has ever loved.  Has he forgotten Vicky?

The conversation between Quentin and Julia was interesting because this is, I think, the first time Quentin has had to think about Barnabas himself.  He has thought about Barnabas as a helper, and he has thought about Barnabas as a vampire – but here he’s got to think about what Barnabas does in his spare time.  And, as Julia knows, what Barnabas does in his spare time is to look for Josette while Julia tries to keep him from disaster.  Does Quentin still like Barnabas?

I find Quentin's conversations with Barnabas and Julia troublesome in light of what we learn in future episodes.[spoiler]I assume the idea is to get the Barnabas doppelganger staked as soon as possible so that people won't continue looking for Barnabas and also so that there will be a clear separation between the staking of vampire Barnabas and the appearance of human Barnabas.  That would suggest that when Barnabas was going all emotional with Quentin about Josette, he was in fact coldly calculating that this was the way to make Quentin believe that he really was being careless.  And Julia was making sure that Quentin believed it.  But that's pretty coldhearted of Barnabas and Julia, and Julia likes to smile when she lies.[/spoiler]So I don't know what to make of it, except that I find it troublesome.

We condemn Barnabas for dropping everything and running after the latest Josette, but if it were Julia he was searching for, would we be so quick to condemn?

[IluvBarnabas]

Actually, I think it was wise, not coldhearted, that Barnabas and Julia [spoiler] kept Quentin in the dark about their plans with the doppelganger. [/spoiler] As much as I like to believe Quentin wouldn't have betrayed them to Petofi, his betraying Julia to Petofi a few episodes ago makes me doubt that he wouldn't.

Barnabas knows or at least suspects that Quentin (unwillingly to be sure) has become Petofi's slave...so letting him in on their plans and run the risk of him telling Petofi about it would have been very foolish.

[Lydia]

What was coldhearted was that apparently Barnabas and Julia[spoiler]were setting Quentin up to stake the doppelganger, or at least cause the doppelganger to be staked, and they were going to leave Quentin believing that he had caused the destruction of his friend Barnabas.  We don't know if they're ever planning to tell him the truth.[/spoiler]

Note: I dislike carrying on a spoilerized discussion, but the events I'm talking about did happen in this episode.  I thought about creating a new topic for this, but I don't know if there's enough interest to warrant it.

[IluvBarnabas]

I see your point, Lydia, and since you pointed that out, it DOES sound cold-hearted and harsh. All I can say is that maybe they figured when push came to shove, Quentin wouldn't have been able to do it. But on the other hand, who else could they have gotten to do it? Obviously, they needed to have someone [spoiler] stake the Barnabas doppelganger. [/spoiler]

[Lydia]

I think an anonymous letter to a concerned person would have done the trick.

[EmeraldRose]

LOL, Lydia!

Major Milestone: Charity staked Barnabas! This was an excellent episode! As I mentioned before, when discussing other episodes which ended in this way, I particularly loved the end, with the "Bum... Bum... Buuuuum" echo and the Dan Curtis Productions screen. No credits. When an episode ends in this way, it is among my favorites! I just love the echoing music! Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it! One of the best Friday endings on DS!

I felt sorry for Quentin, feeling like he had no choice and calling himself a "Judas". Quentin was stuck, being forced by Count Petofi into doing something he did not want to do! I'm so glad that he chickened out! Unfortunately, Charity followed him because, even though Quentin did not reveal anything concrete, Charity knew something was up. It was fortuitous that this happened on the three month anniversary of Carl's death. 

I loved it when Julia's voice echoed in Quentin's mind. "Do you...Do you... Do you?" Eerie!

----- Sally -----