Discuss - Ep #0005

[Watching Project]

Robservations #5

[MagnusTrask]

                  WELCOME, SAM EVANS!
                          (Mark Allen)

Nancy Barrett hovers in corridor, pacing around, while they do snappy director's slate thing.    Did DH mis-read, "Mother. Mother."?   They probably meant it to be emotional, but he just stated it matter-of-factly.  ***   That's where the name "Winters" came from?   Good thing she wasn't dropped off in the Fall, or else it would have been confusing.... http://www.travlang.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/victoria-falls_22.jpg

[spoiler]Though David Ford grew into the role, I prefer this actor, Mark Allen.   He seems like one of those old golden-age-of-television actors, and helped make the first storyline of DS like a film rather than a soap opera.

In the "real", re-written story now, does Sam Evans say that Josette poisoned herself?   And I can't help thinking about Barnabas in his coffin while all this is going on... or not, since after two time jaunts, he never got back in![/spoiler] Sorry Lydia, I hope future discussion in spoiler brackets is okay... for you, the WP, etc...  If not, I can easily stop.

If the 18 years means anything, VW and Carolyn would be the same age, and non-identical twins...

[Midnite]

Sorry Lydia, I hope future discussion in spoiler brackets is okay... for you, the WP, etc...  If not, I can easily stop.

Magnus,

Discussion of future events is probably inevitable, especially this early in the series, so the mods surely appreciate that spoilers be inside the spoiler tags, or we'll add them eventually.

[DarkLady]

I also liked Mark Allen as Sam Evans. He seems much more philosophical, and it would have been interesting to see that aspect of his character develop. I like the way he tells this earliest version of Josette's story, too.

Carolyn does ironing. Maybe she should do it more often--it seems to make her think more deeply than usual. She must be very lonely indeed to try to find a connection to an orphaned governess. Not that that's a bad thing. 

The kitchen! I love the kitchen set!

I forgot what a little brat David is in these earliest episodes. Henesy must have had fun!

[Lydia]

Magnus, I got a comment of mine spoilerized in a previous Watching Project topic by the mods (thank you, mods!), because I had forgotten that the comment to which I was responding was itself spoilerized.  So I can't carp too much.  Still, although discussion of the future may be inevitable, I like to enjoy the possibilities of the story at this point.

Elizabeth's husband disappeared eighteen years ago.  Carolyn assumes that he is alive, and that the reason Elizabeth never leaves the house is so that she'll be there whenever he decides to return.  If the husband is alive and returns, then it could be that they'll live happily ever after.  Or maybe he'll bring a mistress with him and be looking for a divorce.  Or maybe he'll want a reunion but Elizabeth will have suddenly found a new love (the man they have at Collinwood for the heavy work, perhaps) and want a divorce.

Or the husband may be in a coma somewhere in the house, waking up occasionally to cry in a rather feminine fashion.

Or the husband may be dead, having been murdered by Elizabeth during the fight that ensued when he discovered that the baby Elizabeth was carrying - i.e. Carolyn - wasn't his.  Or maybe Roger murdered the husband when the husband propositioned Roger or vice versa.  If so, then maybe Burke Devlin knows more about it than Roger likes.

We got further mention of Carolyn's infatuation with her Uncle Roger today.  Surely Roger won't let that go to waste.

DarkLady, I too like Sam's version of the Josette story, and wondered what he had actually heard and what he was embroidering into it.  And to what extent was the part that he heard true, and to what extent was it other people's embroideries or lies?

[DarkLady]

DarkLady, I too like Sam's version of the Josette story, and wondered what he had actually heard and what he was embroidering into it.  And to what extent was the part that he heard true, and to what extent was it other people's embroideries or lies?

Interesting point, Lydia! After all, Sam is an artist and probably feels entitled to take artistic license.

I also liked your speculations on Carolyn's father, the sobbing, etc.

[Midnite]

How did the initials VW get back on Vicki's red bag after we saw David pick at and pound on them til they fell off?

Is ALL of this Alexandra's real hair?

I prefer Mark Allen too.
Sam:  "[Tell] not another soul in that ghost-ridden house of tears."
Beautiful!

If the 18 years means anything, VW and Carolyn would be the same age, and non-identical twins...

It would make them more like 2 1/2 years apart, give or take.  When her father left 18 years before, Carolyn wouldn't be born for another 6 months. Vicki said her monthly support didn't start until she was 2 years old, which (according to Carolyn) was also 18 years ago.

According to Wallace's Shadows on the Wall, Vicki and Carolyn are 3 years apart (20 and 17 respectively).

[michael c]

alexandra wore a "fall" in alot of the 1966 episodes and in some, including this one, she looks like she's actually wearing TWO.

during the 1795 storyline vicki tells the countess dupres that's she's 22. so she's definitely 20-ish at the time of her arrival in collinsport.

[Midnite]

Thanks, michael c.  That makes sense, cuz there's just SO MUCH hair.

[EmeraldRose]

Alexandra wore a "fall" in alot of the 1966 episodes and in some, including this one, she looks like she's actually wearing TWO.

WOW! I did not know that AM wore a fall when she was on DS. I never realized before that Vicki had TOO MUCH HAIR!

This was the first appearance of Mark Allen as Sam Evans. Also, the first of only a few times that we see the Collinwood kitchen.

Although I like Mark Allen in the role, I like David Ford better. DF is the one that I remember. But I must admit that THIS Sam Evans was more philosophical. I wonder why the role was recast. Does anybody know?

I sure was relieved that David didn't tear up Vicki's precious note! David sure was out of control in those days.

[alwaysdavid]

There really is a morning at Collinwood.  David and Vickie were up until  2 AM.  I was wondering how much of the housework Carolyn did and she at least makes weak coffee and irons. 
Vickie is certainly a busy person going out for a walk on the cliffs after her late and eventful night.  It makes a person wonder is she was on pep pills like everyone seemed to be back then.  The meeting with Sam had a haunting quality to it, as if, he himself were haunted and as lonely as the hated bride of Collinwood. 
History often has many interpretations depending on who is telling the story and who told it to them.  There are two versions of a tragic romance in my family on that she died and the other that she went off with her father in exile so that now when I tell it, I give both versions.

[loril54]

Vicki is so much stronger.  I do really like all the outside scenes.

David is so much a mixed up kid.  You wonder if he was kicked out of school? You wonder where the truant officer was?

They are still not through one hole day yet. Is this how slow Soaps really were?

[Lydia]

Is this how slow Soaps really were?

My mother's put-down of soaps (already mentioned, a few years back): Three days to get through a revolving door.

I like all the outside scenes, too.

[MagnusTrask]

Fictional time is passing very slowly in this storyline, but events aren't.   There's a lot crowded into these days.   I don't get any sense of DS spinning its wheels or killing time here, as I do in some other stretches of storyline, or worse yet, other soaps.