Discuss - Ep #0041

[Watching Project]

Robservations #41

[MagnusTrask]

Maggie makes with non sequitur regarding going into the blackmail business.   ECS still likes Joe?   I have in my notes, I think, that someone refers to the diner as a "fancy restaurant".   Sam at Collinwood, bum bum bum.  Though have we ever heard a "bum bum BUM" up to this point?

[DarkLady]

Sam tears up his nice sketch for Burke's portrait. 

We catch what I think is our only glimpse of Joe's small, cluttered office. Now that Elizabeth has promoted her hand-picked choice for Carolyn’s beau, evidently he will stay safe and dry on land. However, being a checker doesn’t require business dress, so Joe is still comfy in one of those plaid shirts, which is unbuttoned all the way down to reveal-- alas, nothing more than his ordinary white undershirt!

Does anyone know what a checker checks?

I have in my notes that when Maggie tells her father that she called Roger but he wouldn't talk to her, Sam screams at her something like, You may well have signed my death warrant! Go back to your fancy restaurant and leave me in peace!

Sam and Roger exchange threats, but each has a hold on the other, so the threat display is a draw.

Sam Evans at Collinwood indeed! If there isn't a "bum, bum, BUM" here there certainly should be.

[MagnusTrask]

I think Roger's death threat against Sam was taken very seriously, and I think that eats away at Sam the most now.  However, I think Roger was expressing contempt and nothing more.

[Janet the Wicked]

Does anyone know what a checker checks?

I would imagine the checker checks on the boats going out and coming in, that the crews are all accounted for, pounds of sardines they brought in and maybe he goes out into the cannery and checks on the workers and the machinery.

Man, there is a lot going on in this episode.

[Joeytrom]

I think this is the episode where for years, it was thought Joan Bennett said "Welcome to Hollywood" when Sam arrives.

[DarkLady]

I couldn't find anything in my own notes or the Robservations about "Welcome to Hollywood," but I could be wrong.

The scene where Roger and Elizabeth talk about their inheritances is very telling. Roger freely admits that he spent all of his, "but at least I had fun doing it." Elizabeth reveals--for the first time?--that she bought his shares in the company when he put them up for sale on the open market. No doubt this is how she kept Collins Enterprises in the family and secured David's and Carolyn's future financial security.

I understand why Elizabeth is in charge of Collins Enterprises, but not why everyone is treating Roger’s son as the heir apparent. Perhaps long ago Carolyn made it clear she wasn’t interested. She certainly doesn't act interested now.

Then Roger changes the subject by reminding her that at least he hasn't spent the past eighteen years never leaving Collinwood. We hear for the first time that Elizabeth's husband's name was Paul.

Good ideas on what a checker checks, Janet the Probably Not at All Wicked.

[alwaysdavid]

Frances Swain is the credited writer and I noticed he included more backstory in his script than Art Wallace. 
Roger calling Sam and then Sam putting the phone down while he rambles and then hangs up was a fun touch.
Sam becomes enraged at Maggies prying.  It appears that  Sam has reached a breaking point.

[Janet the Wicked]

Janet the Probably Not at All Wicked.

Boy, are you mistaken!

[MagnusTrask]

How Wicked is Janet?  Diabolos mans the reception desk for her!!

[DarkLady]

 

[Lydia]

I got a weird feeling when Roger asked Sam over the phone, "Are you alone?"  As if they were in an illicit sexual relationship.  And Louis Edmonds being Louis Edmonds, I wonder if that sort of thought was going through his head as he said the line.  I checked to see if Luciaphile had any Idle Thoughts on the subject.  If she did, she kept them to herself, alas, but it was fun reading what she had to say about the episode anyway.

The conversation between Elizabeth and Vicky was weird because they both just stood there, awkwardly.  No movement around the drawing room.  I daresay that's how such things happen in real life, but it looked strange.

Was that a map of Michigan in Joe's office?

[Midnite]

Vicki to Liz (when asked how she's getting to Collinsport):  "Walk. The exercise will do me good. I don't understand why you don't get out more... I'm sorry."
The other benefit of Vicki walking to town-- it will require her to take her foot out of her mouth. 

I checked to see if Luciaphile had any Idle Thoughts on the subject. ... it was fun reading what she had to say about the episode anyway.

If anyone would like to check out the Idle Thoughts for this and the next episode:

Say It with Flowers - Episodes 41 & 42

Thanks for the recommendation, Lydia-- they were indeed fun, and insightful, particularly her comments about the Collins' finances.  Totally agree with Luciahpile that Vicki's dress makes her look dumpy, and that Joe looks damn good.

Was that a map of Michigan in Joe's office?

Yep, and all areas bordering the Great Lakes.

[Midnite]

I think this is the episode where for years, it was thought Joan Bennett said "Welcome to Hollywood" when Sam arrives.

In a Nancy Barrett interview on the MPI videotapes, she reveals that Joan Bennett greeted one of her characters that way.  But she also admits that she may be misremembering it.  I believe that was the source of the rumor/myth that attributed it to Joan, though we know it didn't happen, at least not on tape.  I know you've mentioned before that you thought it involved David Ford, but that was the only other time I'd heard that detail.

Other actors do replace Collinwood with Hollywood-- Lara Parker, for one, during the 1840 storyline.