Discuss - Ep #0239

[Watching Project]

Robservations - #239

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0239

[Janet the Wicked]

Sam and Joe so close, so close.
 
Don't ask me anymore Willie questions. Is that what Barn said??? I played it a couple times and that's what it sounds like. Lol!

[Lydia]

Barnabas pretty much bares his soul to Maggie today, when he talks to her in the living room.  He tells her she must never be frightened of him again, the way she was before, when she took her own life.  It's foolish of him to talk to her that way.  Maggie is barely accustomed to being Josette right now; she shouldn't be burdened yet with dealing with the past actions of Josette.  But apparently he couldn't wait any longer.  He just had to talk to whatever Josette was available.

It may have been that honesty from Barnabas that made the lies he told to Sam and Joe so disturbing to me.  I'm not sure.  I tried to find a common core between, on the one hand, the Barnabas who simply had to talk to Josette and, on the other hand, the Barnabas pretending to be so very concerned about Maggie, and I couldn't find one.  I thought about what Jonathan Frid said about Barnabas’s lies, and I tried again, and still I couldn't find the common core.  Barnabas had completely isolated his true self from the persona he was showing to Sam and Joe.

[DarkLady]

They reshot the teaser, evidently because somebody realized Maggie should be carrying the music box. What Barn tells her is a little different from what we will find out later:

[spoiler]He recalls that the music box was the only gift she ever accepted from him and that she had to keep it hidden--because there were those who were against their love. He reminisces about how they always used to dine by candlelight. Pointing out the candelabra on the table, he recalls that they were part of her dowry and were brought over from France--and that they were made according to her own design. He also remembers that when she came to America as an eighteen-year-old girl, she knew not a word of English--it was his job to teach her.[/spoiler]

I think Barn's impatience got the better of him. I've never thought of what he tells Maggie as being the truth--it was all a lie, designed to indoctrinate her, destroy her real identity, and bend her to his will. It made the lies he tells Joe and Sam that much worse.

Willie serves Maggie a rather modern fruit cocktail.

What I found strangest of all is that throughout the series, for all Barnabas's power over him, Willie never addresses him formally but always calls him Barnabas--and Barn never corrects him. Anyone have any ideas as to why?

[Janet the Wicked]

What I found strangest of all is that throughout the series, for all Barnabas's power over him, Willie never addresses him formally but always calls him Barnabas--and Barn never corrects him. Anyone have any ideas as to why?

Yes. I was thinking about this yesterday. When Willie's around somebody, he usually addresses his master as Mr. Collins. But it does seem strange (as rigid and stolid as Barnabas is), that he allows Willie to call him by his first name.

And you know Barnabas is off his nut anyway. He's got a table set for two, but he sure ain't eating.

[DarkLady]

The table is set for two, but I think it's just to keep Maggie from suspecting anything. Barn could just pretend to eat and drink.

[alwaysdavid]

It is interesting that Willie is so submissive and Maggie is at times able to fight against The control of Barnabas.  Now Josette comes from France at age 18 and he was her English tutor. It would be interesting if Jeremiah and Josettes child that the present day family was descended from was actually the child of Barnabas