We leave Maggie basking in the compassionate care for which Windcliff is so justly famed, and we go back to Collinwood to give Joan Bennett a workout. She was in the whole of today's episode except for a minute or two, and she did an excellent job. Usually she comes across as slightly strident, so I wouldn't have believed she could be so subdued. Elizabeth was so submissive that she even had Jason worried. It didn't last long, though; he ended up smiling - the fool. This is the attitude that keeps landing him back in the poorhouse.
Once again, people aren't addressing issues. Vicky sees Elizabeth acting depressed. She knows perfectly well what the problem is. And what does she say? She says: "Do you want Mrs. Johnson to send up some lunch for you?" She says: "I think Carolyn and Buzz are really going to get married." She says: "Jason McGuire told me to buy a dress and charge it to you." She doesn't say: "You're the bravest person I've ever met and I support you in whatever you do." And she doesn't say: "Do you want me to brush your hair for you? Or maybe give you a back rub?" And she doesn't say: "Just say the word, Mrs. Stoddard, and I'll send Jason out for a drive in a car that has mysteriously lost its bleeder valve." But then, Vicky never was the warmest person on the face of the earth. Maybe it's the result of that foundling home upbringing.
I wonder where Jason picked up that brooch that he gave Liz. It sure didn't come from his dear departed mother. If it had, he would have sold it long ago. Maybe he found it on the beach and polished it up a bit, and went looking in the West Wing for a box for it.
