Awesome episode (at least on paper, it is).
LOL...
Vicki is so upset when she finds Barnabas that her hairstyle has changed since the end of the previous episode.
Good one...
Barnabas manages to interrupt Grayson's voiceover. Vicki finds Barn, he gets to do a fake out death scene, recover, and be taken by Vicki to precisely the same West Wing room Adam hid in, apparently, the one Adam held Vicki in. Vicki forgot all that, so she got "lucky", I guess.
Julia becomes the Julia I always thought of Julia as being, from my childhood viewing days. Heart-on-her-sleeve, gasping and straightforwardly panicky and sympathetic Julia is foreign to me. For me, she was the smart, nervy, cool, calculating (in a good cause) woman we see her as, in this episode. She cuts through the BS and roadblocks admirably and efficiently, first with Joe, and then with Nicholas. Good for Joe, finding a way to protect Julia even though he couldn't betray Angelique. Good for Julia, counting on Joe's decency, despite everything, knowing he'd start talking even if very very indirectly, if he knew Julia was going into danger with Nicholas.
Julia's showdown with Blair (referred to by her as such!) is a very popular scene amongst fans, I think. Just when you think DS has skidded off the rails into childish melodrama, they keep bringing us back to the core of DS, with a clever or genuinely dramatic scene. The sparring is believable, and well handled. I wonder if Grayson mis-played the end though, over-emphasizing any confusion on Julia's part about Nick's remark about her courage in coming there. One, of course Nick's a dangerous guy, so of course it would take courage to confront him. An unsurprising statement. Two, Julia was playing it cool up until then, why wouldn't she be able to maintain that to the end?
Nick slaps Ang! So Barn was in "a hut between Collinwood and the Old House"? How many useless, obsolete structures are placed along that brief walk through the woods, anyway? Why on Earth would that be a place to "hide" anyone looking for a missing man on the estate?
It's strange and awkward, Julia's cliffhanger statement indicating she's just seen "Angelique
Collins!" This is her first glimpse of her as Angelique ever, so something like "It's Angelique! From the painting!" might have been appropriate...