We get over-the-top performances thanks to Henry Kaplan, and some crisp Violet Welles dialogue.
How did Maggie find her way out of the "maze" when she couldn't before? And how bizarre is it that there would be a storage room in there? Anyway, I guess we got confirmation (?) that the secret corridor to the West Wing connects to the one that opens into Josette's/Maggie's room since Michael exited through the drawing room panel after siccing Maggie on Philip-THE-TRAITOR-Todd. But I don't get why Megan went from hysterical (after hearing that Philip was dead) to party line mode (after learning he wasn't) in the blink of an eye.
Philip: "In this house, you're just a little boy who I'm responsible for."
Michael: "I'm not just a little boy
everywhere in this house."
Philip: "You're not going to get to that room until I'm finished!"
I think that was the first indication that the transformation to inhuman form can only occur in the upstairs room. Though I'm not sure what the explanation is for the breathing that Maggie heard at Collinwood.
Michael ♥ Carolyn, scribbled on a mirror. What a waste of lipstick!
I guess Michael is being put through the actual physical (and emotional) process of dying, the pain and deterioration, with the exception of the actual death part at the end. (Alright, when I said that just now, it reminded me of why I love DS!) Dying hurts...
Hmm, I'm not sure that we can compare Michael's finish to any human experience of death and dying since his was a [spoiler]supernatural[/spoiler] death.
Yet at this point, Julia had no reason to suspect that he wasn't human. She checked him but couldn't find a pulse, so she quickly prepared an injection in an attempt to "shock him back to life." The episode ends with her holding the needle over Michael's arm. Let's think about this for a second. The absence of a pulse pulse indicates that her patient's heart is not adequately circulating blood, and in the absence of CPR, any medication entering his bloodstream through his arm is just going to sit there. <sigh>