Discuss - Ep #0910

[Watching Project]

Robservations #910

[Lydia]

Scenes between Julia and Olivia are interesting because these Julia and Amanda met in 1897.  Amanda was an overnight guest in Julia's home!  Surely there's some way Julia can know if Olivia is the woman she remembers.
　
The last time we saw a Tate portrait of Amanda, it was bricked up with Trask in Quentin's room.  I do not see how the portrait we saw today could be the same one, because even if Tim Shaw extracted the portrait of Amanda from Quentin's room when he was replacing bricks with panels, by that time Tate had left Collinsport and there would be no reason for him to come back again.  So maybe Tate painted multiple pictures of his ideal woman, and today's picture was originally painted before his stay in Collinsport, and put in storage.  I'm having trouble understanding why Tate painted a landscape over it.  After his disappointing experience with Amanda, I would think he'd be more likely to burn it.  And if he did paint multiple portraits of his ideal woman, does that mean that there are multiple Amandas? 

When Julia called Professor Stokes, she didn't say, "It's Julia," and she didn't need to.  Her voice is, I'm sure, unmistakable, but I wonder if Stokes has many other women who call him with the sorts of questions he gets from Julia.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The Robservations captures for this ep have finally been posted. 

[MagnusTrask]

VO: Thayer D.... without a character voice.   Julia calls ECS "Liz".   Q struggles to remember a song-- the Gilligan's Island theme, for all we know.   I'd decided that Julia must never have met Amanda Harris in 1897, but apparently I'm wrong.   Well, AH had plenty of time to forget, and Julia didn't.

Amanda's portrait is revealed, sans any Dorian Gray surrogate aging, but then no one on DS ever seemed to think that Amanda's Tate portrait should keep her young too.   Maybe it was silently assumed by some characters, but the writers seem to have overlooked this idea.   Anyway, moments after the portrait is revealed, we cut immediately to the room where it really ought to be, where we saw it last time, in Q's room and Greg Trask's getaway place!

[Lydia]

I'd decided that Julia must never have met Amanda Harris in 1897, but apparently I'm wrong.

As far as I can remember, we never saw a meeting between Julia and Amanda, but in episode 849 Julia tells Quentin that it's OK for Amanda to spend the night at the Old Rectory with her.  It's conceivable that Julia and Amanda never met when Amanda stayed there, but it would have been very odd.  And I don't remember Julia seeing a picture of Amanda in 1897, which would mean that Julia would have had to have seen Amanda in person in order to recognize Olivia.

[Midnite]

Chris:  "Julia, you and I have to discover whose portrait is under that landscape."
Julia:  "There's only one man to ask."
Oh my god!!!  Professor Stokes is an expert consultant on handwriting, paranormal activity, the I-Ching... and now art?  The man is practically a super hero!

Except for the addition of an open doorway next to the fireplace, Stokes' living room set is identical to the room we saw in Mrs. Fillmore's home in Collinsport.  It has the same front door, the same half-paneled back wall with shuttered windows (already used multiple times, including Seaview house, the 2nd Worthington Hall, and Frank Garner's office) and the same brick fireplace (once part of Rev. Trask's room).  But of course his home is in Rockport, so Stokes can't be living in the same house occupied by Mrs. Fillmore in 1897, and didn't Megan recently mention something about a Fillmore farm?

While Stokes is handling the so-called x-ray of the painting, you can get just enough of a very brief glimpse of it to make out a spine and a heart.

Professor Osmund was played by Ronald Dawson, who will later play the nervous records clerk in 1995.

The last time we saw a Tate portrait of Amanda, it was bricked up with Trask in Quentin's room.  I do not see how the portrait we saw today could be the same one, because even if Tim Shaw extracted the portrait of Amanda from Quentin's room when he was replacing bricks with panels, by that time Tate had left Collinsport and there would be no reason for him to come back again.  So maybe Tate painted multiple pictures of his ideal woman, and today's picture was originally painted before his stay in Collinsport, and put in storage.

Lydia, I know you got your answer after seeing a couple more eps, but it's information we did get before; this is from #820:

Oh, her, says Petofi, looking over Charles' shoulder at the sketch he's working on--I never understood why you persist in painting that same portrait over and over again.  I told you, says Tate, annoyed.  You're a grown man, says Petofi, only little boys invent "ideal women."  I don't want to go over this again, says Tate--I like to paint her because she's the only thing in this world that really belongs to me.

Amanda's portrait is revealed, sans any Dorian Gray surrogate aging, but then no one on DS ever seemed to think that Amanda's Tate portrait should keep her young too.   Maybe it was silently assumed by some characters, but the writers seem to have overlooked this idea.

The reason that Amanda didn't age has nothing to do with her portrait.  But I suppose that at this point, one could assume that she doesn't age because she was never born.

Anyway, moments after the portrait is revealed, we cut immediately to the room where it really ought to be, where we saw it last time, in Q's room and Greg Trask's getaway place!

Didn't Gregory destroy that one?

[Taeylor Collins]

JB looks so elegant in black with the string of pearls. Oh who am I kidding the women would look elegant in a trash bag! Wonder is she ever when to Studio 54 or Grayson?   Wouldn't that have been a hoot! I have no idea why that crossed my mind!???  I am off today! Or any DS stars for that matter....hmmm...any stories anyone may recall??

The camera men really knew to zoom in on Grayson's face, they knew she would register 100 hundred emotions a second! Her face was so beyond unique.  One doesn't see extreme closeups like this in daytime anymore!  Julia is workin the gloves again and I hope they roundly beat the hell out of Olivia Corey for stealing Grant!  Hmmmph....

There is a huge noise in the studio @ Olivia's apartment, did anyone notice it?  Wonder what was happening?

Wonder what song Grant is recalling??  Perhaps a Beatles tune?  

Per usual it is nice to see Thayer David as Professor Stokes the man who apparently knows everything about everything as Midnite pointed out!  

Oh look at Grant leaning against the door with hand in pocket...compelling me to come to him.  Darn that man!  

I love having David back but he is distracting!

[MagnusTrask]

Professor Stokes is an expert consultant on handwriting, paranormal activity, the I-Ching... and now art?  The man is practically a super hero!

This makes me think about the image many people have of "brainy" people:  they're sometimes thought to be of a different species from "regular" people almost, who just sort of know everything because they're so smart.   It's sort of like when a lot of C students assume the As come easily to A students without effort.

A poorly written sci-fi movie sometimes shows the scientist suddenly spouting the answers to the big mystery without giving reasons, without his having to go through much of any process to find those answers out.  It all seems just to come to him late in the movie... because he's a genius.   In 1968 I remember Stokes doing that with Eve's prior identity, etc..   I think attributing every kind of expertise on Earth to Stokes might be another example.   Them smart guys they knows everythin'!!

The writing I like respects our intelligence, shows us the logic behind the experts' thought process in case some of us might follow it.

The reason that Amanda didn't age has nothing to do with her portrait.

Exactly.  That's what I was talking about.   The DS reason for A Harris not aging wasn't her portrait(s).   They felt they had to make up an entirely different, totally unnecessary reason for it, even though since Tate painted her and some portraits still exist apparently, this automatically makes her immortal.  

[IluvBarnabas]

I always wondered why Olivia was reluctant at first to accept any help from Julia to help Grant regain his memory.  In a few episodes coming up [spoiler] we learned that she was granted a second chance at life IF she could find Quentin and get him to come back to her, willingly. [/spoiler] Of course his amnesia has kind of put a monkey-wrench on that, so it would be to her advantage to do anything or work with anyone like Julia who has offered her assistance to help him recover his memory. I guess she did come to this conclusion seeing as she finally agreed to work with Julia to help in the situation.

Professor Stokes CAN do just about anything doesn't he? It just occured to me he isn't featured very prominently in this storyline other than to offer assistance to Julia in regard to the paintings. I always said Quentin was the one who was mostly wasted during this period, but I see now that I was wrong, it was Stokes. Quentin at least got to play the amnesiac and had some great scenes with Julia and Barnabas (and some not-so-interesting ones with Olivia, but I digress).

Elizabeth is doing her damnest to discredit Paul with Julia. Julia may have a hard time swallowing the 8-year-old Carolyn running around bit, but I think she still wants to give Paul the benefit of the doubt.