Petofi's enemy is dispatched at the last possible moment, and we get fine performances as Angelique ignores Petofi's threats and Quentin reacts to learning that his body will be sealed inside his room-- all in one ep!

Angelique attempts to remove the spell on Jamison with only her outside voice, and Petofi prepares to deal with Angelique using red candles and a West Indian parchment.  But isn't it Angelique whose spells often require props and ritual, whereas Petofi usually just holds up his hand and says what he wants?

Petofi senses that Angelique planned to mess with the spells he has in place-- even before she has begun!-- and Angelique can sense Petofi's presence at Collinwood (or did he summon her?).  I can't decide who is the more powerful of the two at this point.  Both are at their height of their powers, yet each is vulnerable in some way.

Petofi wants to go the future to escape from the gypsies, and since Barnabas has refused to take him, Petofi is ready to hurt, even kill the Collins family if Barnabas doesn't give him what he wants. Petofi is like any evil schemer, (except Petofi has more powers at his command), he's willing to hurt innocent people if he doesn't get his way.

Well said!

But (no spoilers) if Angelique is successful at removing Petofi's spells, thus preventing Jamison's death, Petofi can kill the kid in a myriad of other ways.  And do something else to Edward.  So why should he need to stop her?  Ego?  Sexism?  Bad writing?

Aristede:  "Are you all right?"
Petofi:  "I am now, thanks to your providential right."
I thought the only god Petofi acknowledged was Petofi.

Aristede:  "King Johnny Romano is now sovereign of the worms."
lol

Why bother to check the top of the tall cabinet for the golden scimitar?  Who the hell would put it up there?  It's not like their housekeeper dropped by to tidy up while they were out burying Johnny and decided hmm, it looks sharp so I'll hide it from the boys just as soon as I get that nasty red stain off the area rug.    Couldn't we have figured out that Johnny's spirit returned for it without having Petofi spell it out for us?

Istvan and Johnny are now dead as a result of Barnabas' actions in 1897.  Surely, in the original timeline they had some impact on future events somewhere?


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The voiceover tells us that Sandor's ghost was sent to destroy Magda, which was news to me.  I thought he sounded sincere when he appeared to her on Widow's Hill and offered to help her, saying that he missed her and wanted them to be together again.  Granted, hiding her from her pursuers meant she would have to die too, but how powerful would King Johnny have to be to turn a dead Sandor, whom he tortured and murdered, against his wife?  And if Johnny really did have the ghost of Sandor under his control, then the corruption of her sole witness means that Magda did not receive even a modicum of justice during her trial.  

Hmm, couldn't Johnny have realized just a few seconds earlier that the stranger who had Istvan under his control was none other than Barnabas Collins?  But nooo, Johnny didn't pull out the cross until after Istvan was over the cliff.  

Johnny to Barnabas:  "Alright, I forgive everything. Now tell me who has the hand."
Everything?  Really?  He said this before Petofi's name even came up.  Before he found out that Magda was under a spell.  Before he learned that Magda was innocent of Julianka's murder.  

Apparently, the spell on Magda prevented her from saying, writing, or talking about Petofi, but in this ep she openly admits to Johnny that she couldn't talk about Petofi because he put a spell on her.  Then while she was captive, why didn't she say, "I can't answer your questions about where the hand is or who killed Julianka because THERE IS A SPELL ON ME THAT PREVENTS ME FROM TELLING YOU??!!!"  

I loved her incantation for Sandor:  "Oh death, who makes the earth grow..."

I realized during the redo of that scene that she was not calling to death; it sounds like she was saying, "O Dell."  Not Terra or Tellus, but Dell.  She may as well have incanted "Oh Intel" because there is no god or goddess named Dell, at least not that I've ever heard of.  Why didn't the writer (VW) use the name of an actual pagan earth goddess?  

This ep was one big eye roll from start to finish.

The '91 series is airing on the Chiller channel in October and November.  Check their Schedule for dates and times.

Happy Birthday, Jackie!

Is "Curse of the Vampire" only 1795?

I thought hemlock acted more slowly than that.  Socrates took a while to die, and if I remember correctly the usual progress of the poison was described to him beforehand as numbing the toes first and then gradually numbing up through the rest of the body.

There are different types of hemlock; it's believed that Socrates drank poison hemlock but I doubt that anyone can be sure.  Poison hemlock can cause the ascending motor paralysis you described, but it can merely have a sedative effect on the motor system.  It's all about the dosage, but because there are several unknowns (the part of the plant used, freshness, etc.), we can't possibly know how much poison Beth ingested.  Or even if was hemlock at all because I was just guessing.  

I suppose that in the over 2,000 years between the death of Socrates and 1897, somebody might have learned how to cook hemlock up into a faster-acting poison.

Oh no, don't cook it.  

The plastic champagne glass was cheesy.  I know Petofi was to crush it, but with all the pretty cognac glasses available, he looked like he was about to see Barnabas off with a wedding toast.

Speaking of drinks, I could swear that Beth polished hers off in the last ep, but I guess there needed to be some brandy left in her glass so that Magda could smell it.  But I can't say I found Magda's discovery "curious" or magical as EmeraldRose did because some poisons, such as the narcotic hemlock, do have distinctive odors, and herbal antidotes and/or emetics were used effectively back then-- provided, in the example of poison hemlock, not enough of the poison had been absorbed to affect the victim's respiratory system.

Unfortunately there is another Tate sighting and he is going on and on about his dream girl.  Will he paw her to death when he actually meets her?

Snort.  Wow, he got uncomfortably close to the stand with the pretty clock.

Petofi seemed to intimate very, very strongly to him that Amanda was a prostitute.

What was the harm in Tate letting Petofi keep the sketch of Amanda? After all, there were thousands of others. 

Because Petofi is evil and powerful, and Tate both hates and fears him, and he witnessed Petofi doing something to the painting of Quentin?

That leaves only the oily Reverend Trask and I hardly think he poses much of a threat to Barnabas

I think Trask plus a crucifix would be anathema to a Barnabas who can't disappear, and the odds of Trask having a cross handy are probably really good.

Thank you, Quentin, for clarifying Petofi's spell for us!  He said it prevents Magda from talking about Petofi as well as saying his name.

Beth is putting some stitches in the earth-toned afghan, which isn't surprising when you consider how often it's loaned out in 1897.

Petofi: "I could kill you in quite a number of other ways, couldn't I?"
Quentin:  "But the gypsies would still find you."
Advantage Quentin!

I was a little confused.  I thought that Pansy had totally taken over Charity, but it seems that she is still interested in Quentin.  The original Pansy didn't come across as being a murderer.

I agree the real Pansy didn't strike me as being a cold-blooded killer either. I also don't recall the real Pansy having even met Quentin either. Yet she's ready to kill to win him. Hmm...

I had an opposite reaction-- I thought the writers seemed to be working overtime to give us Pansy's motivations.  Her interest in Quentin was explained in #819 when she told him that her spirit has been hanging around because of him (and therefore, Magnus, she does know she's dead).  So it doesn't matter that she and Quentin never met in life because it was as a ghost that she became obsessed with him (and who can blame her?).

In this ep, Pansy's inner voice tells us:  "Let's face it, luv, you never really were a headliner, and no one to blame but yourself. When push came to shove you were just too soft, but you're not gonna be soft now, not unless you're ready to lose Quentin the way you lost Carl."  Then she smiles at her image in the mirror and says, "You really are pretty, luv. Far prettier than that whiny little item under the stairs. Well, she won't be whiny much longer, and what a relief that will be for Quentin."  She's deluded in thinking that eliminating Beth will be "a happy surprise"-- er, sorry, make that "an appy surprise"-- for Quentin.

Her monologue presents us with a newly empowered Pansy, but also one who has gone round the bend because of jealousy, and her singing at the end as she drags her scarf over Beth's unconscious face lets us know, if we haven't already guessed, that she is deranged.

The standoff between Quentin and Petofi was amusing.  I thought Petofi had him and then Quentin dropped the Angelique bomb and blew Petofi out of the water.  Great fun.

It was great seeing Quentin get one over on that bloated megalomaniac.

Major Milestones: ...
3. Quentin and Count Petofi had a standoff

Sally, are we no longer getting milestones not already mentioned?

That poison sure acted quickly on Beth! She collapsed as soon as she finished the glass.

It made me think of the boyfriend collapsing immediately after downing his tainted drink in the "Paparazzi" video.  (And Lady Gaga used a poison ring.  Who does she think she is-- Cassandra?)

Anyway, I wonder if Charity used hemlock.  If so, they may have taken "the blood of Socrates" nickname a bit too literally by making it red.

Apparently, Quentin has the ability to walk through locked doors.  When Magda asks him to let her in, he doesn't use a key but simply turns the knob.

LOL  It's no wonder that his werewolf never met a door he couldn't open.

A suspenseful ep!