maggie's memories

[michael c]

this storyline was brought up on another topic but i wanted to mention it again.
the whole story of maggie being trapped in the mausoleum and her memory of her missing weeks returning.i found it to be ultimately unsatisfying.i liked the idea of the story(it certainly was inevitable)and elements of it,especially the flashbacks,were very well done.
but i felt that the whole thing took place in the shadow of the eve plotline.it didn't really seem as if everyone was throwing themselves behind what should have been the focal story.maggie's "missing weeks" were what kicked-off the whole barnabas era of the show after all.there were too few characters involved.it was as if maggie being missing during this part of the story went unnoticed by almost everyone(except when it applied to eve).
and then how her memories were just as quickly erased was such a cop out.this particular "memory erasing" device was used alot during this time(vicki,carolyn,jeff)and it just seemed like a way that the writers could move the action foreward without resolving fundamental issues.it was too easy.any thoughts?

that said,as much as i hated the adam story,i was surprised that i really liked marie wallace's portrayal of eve.

[Raineypark]

I loved the scenes of Maggie and Willie in the crypt.  It was one of the best chances Karlen had to show off his considerable talents.  But as a plot device, it made no sense.

Barnabas was not a vampire at the time.  If Maggie had gone straight to the police and told them her story, they'd have shipped her off to Wyndcliff in a hurry. She already had a history of psychiatric treatment.  And he was a member of the most powerful family in town.  When Barnbas showed up for questioning (in the bright light of day) what could she say or point to as evidence of what he had been? Who would have taken her crazy story seriously?


They used the crypt scenes for dramatic purposes.....but once they moved the story to the next stage they wanted, they had no choice but to erase Maggie's memories once again.

[Barnabas'sBride]

I think they took the easy way out, maybe because the Adam and Eve (yuck) stuff was going on so they didn't want to deal with a bigger storyline (which Maggie remembering for a longer period of time would certainly be considered). I do think they could've come up with ways to keep the storyline going for a little bit. I felt her memory erase scene was so weak, and when I watched it the first time I had no clue what was going to happen, so that made it even more disappointing for me. They didn't even try to work with what could've easily been a much better storyline than their Frankenstein stuff. It was just a cop out. I think a little creative writing could've kept it going for a time. But that's just my opinion.

Like it was stated above,  Maggie would have no way to prove that Barnabas was ever really a vampire. She wouldn't have any worthwhile evidence. I would've had her realize that and have to deal with remembering, knowing what he was - and not being able to really do anything about it. She'd be torn between telling someone and keeping silent for fear they wouldn't believe her. She'd see Barnabas and know everything. I would've played that out a bit, instead of throwing it all away in one, IMHO stupid, scene.

[Maybellique]

Rainey, you're giving Willie too much credit there. Even though you, as the viewer, have the chance to sit there and reason what would have been right or wrong to do, Willie was thinking on his toes. And even though I love the guy, he wasn't always the brightest bulb in the box. He was thinking with his heart, not his head, in this case. For all he knew, Barnabas was about to use the one he loved in an (imo) inane experiment which in effect could very well have cost her her life. So, he panicked! He did the only thing he felt he could do in this situation and stole her away. Although the mausoleums secret room was the last place anyone should have taken her who was trying their damndest to keep her memories from resurfacing, Willie merely thought of it as the best hiding place to keep her away from Barnabas. His fears had him constantly paranoid, so high-tailing it out of town was certainly out of the question. He was too afraid Barnabas would track them down.

The issue wasn't whether Barn was still a vampire or not. It was that Willie felt that Maggie's life was threatened. Even though he did the wrong thing in taking her to the mausoleum, that was still a noble gesture, imo.

Maggie could have told the police. Willie also could have gone with her and reported all the other crimes Barn committed. Why didn't he let her? Because Barnabas was his "friend".  As he told Maggie, "Friends are very important to me." I think it's b/c he didn't have anyone he could call a true friend. In his minds eye, I think he fancied thinking that he and Barnabas had grown close. In essense, he was making excuses for his tormentor/abuser. Nothing says it better than "stockholm's syndrome". Look it up. A friend mentioned that a while back on the Willie Loomis List and I think it fits Willie to a "t".

I do totally agree, though, that they should have dragged this on a bit more. This was, after all, what started DS's upward climb to greater recognition, so why just drop it? I guess b/c the writers didn't want any one of the main good characters to dislike Barnabas. Maybe they felt it would ruin the image they were trying to present to the audience of him. Bad writing, I tell ya. Never much cared for the way they handled this, myself.

And what happened during this so called more prominent story with Eve? I wouldn't know. I couldn't keep my finger off the fast-forward button. ~DJ

[Maybellique]

BB, THAT is what I've been trying to explore in a fan fiction. ~DJ

[Raineypark]

I don't think I've made myself clear here.  My comments were not a criticism of what WILLIE did, but rather a criticism of what the WRITERS chose to do.

I have no problem with their choice of Maggie as the sacrificial lamb for the Eve experiment.  Nor do I think it was a mistake on the writers' part to have Willie respond the way he did.  He loved Maggie and of course he would attempt to protect her.

My criticism is of the use of Maggie's returned memory.  It didn't make sense.  There was no way for her to prove what had really happened.  No matter what she told the police, all Barnabas had to do was show up in daylight and be his usual imperious self.  What small town cop would take her seriously?

But the writers didn't write it that way.  They had Barnabas in a panic, as though HE was too stupid to say "wait a minute....who CARES what she tells the police?  Here I am!  I'm not a vampire!  Tell her to publish and be damned!!"

I usually forgive the characters their foibles......it's the writers I frequently want to throttle!!

[Maybellique]

My criticism is of the use of Maggie's returned memory.  It didn't make sense.  There was no way for her to prove what had really happened.  No matter what she told the police, all Barnabas had to do was show up in daylight and be his usual imperious self.  What small town cop would take her seriously?

Sad to say that even you, me and a lot of other fans can think of a million other ways to extend what could have been a great storyline while the real writers of the show seemed to just want to get the whole maggie's memory ordeal over with. :shakes head: ~DJ

[Joeytrom]

The writers made it even worse when they had Magie and Barnabas be romantically involved during the Leviathan storyline.  I was like "huh?".  Before 1897, when Maggie was the governess, neither of them had any attraction to the other.

Especially after all Barnabas had done to her when he first apeared, this was a horrible idea to have her be interested in him.

They should have gotten a new character to romance her.

[michael c]

i agree with you guys that this storyline could and should have been drawn out longer and given more prominence.if they knew that they couldn't give it 100% then they should have waited until another time to tell it.there was no reason why they needed to get into it at this exact moment when other storylines would overshadow it.willie needed to get maggie out of harms way during the experiment but to just drop the whole thing immediately afterwards was so lame.

even though barnabas wasn't technically a vampire at this moment that doesn't mean that maggie wouldn't have had signifigant evidence against him had she gone to the police.they probably would have thought that the vampire element was insane but they would at least have had to investigate her claim that barnabas and willie were indeed her captors.she was missing for weeks after all and if she gave accurate descriptions of the basement cell,the mausoleum,josette's room,etc. she could at least proven that she had been held in these rooms.vampire or not b. would have had some explaining to do.

as for this weak "memory erasing" device it was much too easy:

[spoiler]vicki is kidnapped by adam,held captive for days,visited by angelique.
carolyn lies on the slab,ready to give her "life force" to create an artificial woman,dies and comes back to life.
jeff is attacked by a vampiress and becomes her servant.

and with a few words slick nicky erases everyone's memories of these rather remarkable events[/spoiler] because to deal with the enormous implications of them was too much and it was just easier to pretend they never happened and move foreward with more silliness.that is such a cop out on the part of the writers.

[michael c]

i thought i might get spoilered for this...apologies all around .

[Midnite]

apologies all around .

No apologies needed.  

[Maybellique]

Seriously, the mod took care of it. No worries. ~DJ

[Misa]

This would have been the better story. The writers Adam and Eve story took the spotlight away from the characters that we had grown to love. The writers never returned to the same attention they had given to Roger, Elizabeth, Maggie, or any of the others.

I think that they could have  had Maggie remember that Barnabas was a vampire, she would have remembered that Willie tried to help her, this could have been used to bring the two of them together. ( I would have loved to see her fall in love with Willie.) She could have helped Willie get over the residual effects of being under Barnabas' control. Together they could have realized they didn't need to be afraid of Barnabas in that way anymore.(After all he wasn't a vampire anymore.) Then they could have decided that going to the police wouldn't help anything.

Misa

[Maybellique]

Maggie seemed very opposed to a relationship with Willie. It was almost as if she thought she was better than him. I can't see her giving in to him. She'd maybe give it a whirl, but I don't see them in a long-term relationship. I do love the hell out of the idea of MAWI, though. They'd have been cute together. ~DJ

[dom]

I do love the hell out of the idea of MAWI, though. They'd have been cute together. ~DJ

MAWI

Who or what is MAWI?