Discuss - Ep #1203

[Watching Project]

Robservations #1203

[MagnusTrask]

Whatever that coat/robe Morgan's wearing is, he's wearing it with a bow tie, which seems a bit nuts, but I guess it's a robe.   He may have a job as an ice cream salesman on the side.  On the side of what?  He doesn't work!   Or does he sit in the PT equivalent of Roger's office?

[DarkLady]

Note for the musically curious: Melanie plays Chopin's Ballade no. 4 in F Minor, op. 52. Melanie is musically prescient: Chopin composed this ballade in 1842, AFTER the events in our story! But then again, we are in parallel time.

Why does Melanie, who so loved her adopted father, never wear black for him?

[Lydia]

My oh my oh my what an episode!  Nancy Barrett does the crazy deadly so well.  Oh, what a horrible house to live in!  Suddenly it's all so intense.  And Flora has said, and said again, that they tried going away from it, but it didn't do any good.

Whatever that coat/robe Morgan's wearing is, he's wearing it with a bow tie, which seems a bit nuts, but I guess it's a robe.

I say it's a robe, and golly it's something, isn't it?  It actually managed to distract me from the amazing scene between Morgan and Catherine.  I start out thinking what a sexist paternalistic jerk Morgan is, and next thing I know I'm feeling sorry for him as he says, “We knew when we looked at him that he would never be the same.”  Suddenly I'm imagining Justin before he went into the room – loving husband and loving father – and he comes out a different person.

I was feeling sorry for Catherine, thinking about all she had been through in the past 24 hours – first the business with Bramwell, and then being nearly murdered by Melanie, but she turns out to be every bit as stubborn a she says Bramwell is: insisting on marrying Morgan anyway – and declaring that the effect of the Room is all a delusion and she's going to fix everything!

Quentin continues to be interesting.  He killed a man who insulted his family, and if Catherine becomes part of his family, he may be willing to kill anybody who insults her - but if she's part of the family, he will not protect her from the lottery.

And then there's Julia, knowing all the secrets and dealing with them.  I sort of expect her to start twitching and tottering and finally to fall to the floor with smoke coming out of her ears.

Why does Melanie, who so loved her adopted father, never wear black for him?

Because her nursemaid never puts out black clothes for her to wear?

What would happen if there were no next generation of Collinses?  People insist on reproducing, especially in an age where contraceptives are not readily available - but what if all the Collinses saw to it that they had no children?  What would happen to the Room?

[DarkLady]

I've often wondered about that myself, Lydia. I suppose that for the Collinses, the laws of inheritance and the preservation of the family's wealth trump the curse of the Locked Room. After all, only one person in every generation has to spend the night there. And yes, it's a cruel predicament, but actually the more children the Collinses have, the less likely it is that any one individual will be chosen.

That is indeed some robe Morgan is wearing! I suppose that even in parallel time, the real curse may be that men have to wear long and cumbersome dressing gowns. But he does a nice job all the same with his story of how Melanie dared the Locked Room for her father's sake.

Julia offers the crazed Melanie some hot cocoa. I'm surprised that Julia doesn't have a stash of laudanum somewhere. Poor Melanie is the most innocent creature in the whole house and yet she has this terrible burden. I feel much sorrier for her than for Catherine, who is headstrong enough to declare, I’m going to come to this house, marry Morgan, live here, and do everything in my power to make this a happy, _sane_ place to live!

Meanwhile, Quentin covers up--what?--with an attitude of detached irony and even ruthlessness when he suggests putting Melanie away somewhere, a rather unsympathetic attitude, considering that he was locked up for far worse cause himself. Apparently they can't just lock Melanie up in the Tower Room, since it is already occupied....

[MagnusTrask]

Thank you for my word of the day, Lydia:

laudanum

Looked it up.

DL: Thanks, I'm musically curious but woefully ignorant.   You'd have your typing fingers full, trying to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, but any data are welcome.   That music seemed to punch a hole in the self-contained environment of DS for me, and open that world up for a moment.  I'm failing to explain that well.   Anyway, as for the year it was written, they were so close!

[Lydia]

Thank you for my word of the day, Lydia

No, no, I can't take credit for that; it was DarkLady.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Whatever that coat/robe Morgan's wearing is, he's wearing it with a bow tie, which seems a bit nuts, but I guess it's a robe.

That is a perfect example of a true gentleman's casual attire. And of course he's still wearing a tie. Perish the thought that he wouldn't be. Does Barnabas not wear a tie with his robe whenever he's seen in the present? And does he and Roger not wear ties or at least ascots when they wear their smoking jackets? It would be obscene not to! It would be like they were parading around the house half naked!

   I laugh. But at the same time everything that I just wrote is true. Or would have been considered true by someone like Morgan, Barnabas and Roger.

That is indeed some robe Morgan is wearing! I suppose that even in parallel time, the real curse may be that men have to wear long and cumbersome dressing gowns

Actually, I love long robes. For the winter I have a chenille one and a velour one. And if they have hoods, all the better for those really cold winter mornings when you first crawl out of bed, turn the heat up, and wait for the house to get warmer.    I, however, do not wear a tie with mine. In fact, I don't wear anything under them.    Morgan, Barnabas and Roger would be horrified by such flagrant impropriety!