Nancy Barrett voiceover. Oh Joy, that means Charity the twit is in this ep.
Back to the graveyard, where Laura and her Renfield are doing their Pinky and the Brain routine at Ben’s coffin. (And what, do you think possessed him to have his diary with THE SECRET buried in his coffin. And who put it there, without reading it and letting THE SECRET get out. If it was family, you’d a thunk that some oral tradition, no matter how garbled by time, would have been passed down – but if so, Elliot sure is keeping it to himself in 1969.)
“Robbing a grave is a bizarre activity for a beautiful woman”... that’s our Barnabas, seeing Laura as a beautiful woman first, with her danger and threat only an afterthought.
Wonder why she didn’t try to use her powers on Barnabas? We should have seen some evidence of it, even if she tried and failed. But she stands there, even after Dirk is overpowered. Even if she wanted to find out more about him, it’s at the price of leaving an enemy alive. Interesting leap she makes there, connecting the dots of Barnabas with unusual powers, “not human” automatically meaning he’s the ORIGINAL Barnabas.
Laura’s dress is starting to bother me. Why does she get all gussied up in something that looks like a ballgown – just to go to Collinwood to check on her sick son? Ramse Mostoller usually gets the costuming spot on, even if you don’t particularly care for an outfit, so this is weird. Though a line of Laura’s later in may explain this as she tells Charity how she “always surprised her (Nora) on festive occasions”. This could explain the fancy dress – she is planning to go to Ra dressed in her finest.
Nora and the fire again, but Barnabas keeps her from getting hypnotized by it just in time. Charity is even halfway human in this scene, being kind and helpful to Nora. But now he’s the one hypnotizing Nora. Denise Nickerson does a really good hypnotized/entranced kid. And as long as Barnabas is there, he’s decided to get himself his midnight snack.
You can almost feel sorry for Charity in this scene with Laura. Barn has obviously just left, and she has to deal with a nosy Laura as she tries desperately to hide the marks on her neck. But Laura isn’t destined to get the easy victory she’s assuming. Whatever Barnabas did to Nora worked very well, as the child is refusing to go with her mother, and says she’s afraid of her. Nora is immune to every argument Laura presents. Laura knows it was Barnabas, but does she know what was done and how to combat it?
And the plotters meet once again in the graveyard, where Dirk explains that when he searched the Old House, he found an empty coffin. Again, Laura seems to have made some interesting logical leap to get “Barnabas is a vampire” from the disconnected evidence that the audience is shown she has. Dirk, being Dirk, doesn’t believe it (he’s dealing with Laura and her supernatural doings and he doesn’t believe in the supernatural? Not very bright, is our Dirk?)
OK, where’s Magda and Sandor when Laura and Dirk go sneaking into the Old House? Isn’t the whole idea that they’re there to protect him? Yet everyone from Jenny through Quentin and Beth, then Dirk are traipsing through the place, unchallenged, like it’s a tourist attraction. Laura and Dirk have no problem getting to the basement (and as little trouble as Jenny getting in what should have been a LOCKED basement). Laura gets to open the coffin then stand over Barnabas, gloating as she positions the stake and raises the hammer…..
Jeannie