1795 Part Deux

[MagnusTrask]

Someone who shall be considered nameless just sent me a veritable .....load of tapes covering the gap in my DS from mid-1795 through early 1897.    I feel like waiting for permission to say thanks by name here, why I'm not sure.   Maybe there's a good reason in the back of my head that hasn't made its way to the front yet.   Anyway, Groucho wrote a song about this individual.

I've been marathoning the new bit of 1795.  Remarks so far...

Barnabas to Abigail: "Why does the Devil always want to touch you?  Why do you think that?"

Naomi: "It's not like you."
Joshua: "Nonsense.  Anything I do is like me."

Great moments:  Victoria trying to wake herself up, just before the conclusion of the trial, as she did as a child with nightmares.  This made things very real.

Millicent by herself with the tarot cards, talking to the camera.

Trask had an interesting time-share dream, with two ghosts using it to tell him two different things.

Barnabas is just full of supernatural powers, isn't he?  He can do everything a witch can do, seemingly.

Nathan Forbes=Tim Shaw.

Great Barnabas/Joshua discussions when B is found.

[spoiler]I didn't know Angelique died!  They may be starting to undo that at this point, though.    Pretty edgy thing, to have BC just throttle the life out of her, abruptly, with Lara falling like a sack of potatoes onto the floor, closeup on her face, dead eyes open.   All in one shot, so LP had great self-control, and may have been hurt.  And I didn't think any TV shows were allowed to show dead people with their eyes open back then.[/spoiler]

I may not be able to appreciate atmosphere with my neurological state as it is, but the plot is gripping me.   It's possible I never saw this storyline even as a child.    Nothing's familiar.

[Midnite]

Someone who shall be considered nameless just sent me a veritable .....load of tapes covering the gap in my DS from mid-1795 through early 1897.    I feel like waiting for permission to say thanks by name here, why I'm not sure.   Maybe there's a good reason in the back of my head that hasn't made its way to the front yet.   Anyway, Groucho wrote a song about this individual.

I think I understand.  In addition to benevolent, she has eyes that folks adore so and a torso even moreso? 

Nathan Forbes=Tim Shaw.

Yes!, I hadn't thought about that.

[adamsgirl]

1795 is probably my favorite storyline. As for [spoiler]Angelique getting strangled, at that point, I thought she deserved it, even as a kid watching for the first time. Of course, it takes a lot for a witch to TRULY be dead, so Angelique came back, thank goodness![/spoiler]

I, too, never thought about the Tim Shaw connection, but it sure is a parallel!

[MagnusTrask]

Midnite... well, it could be Captain Spaulding, but what are the chances of that, really?

As I've moved on in the tapes, Forbes is going beyond just marrying for money, and is getting murderous, so the Shaw comparison is going from my head a bit.   At this point I don't buy it, Forbes as a villain.    I have just noticed that they're in a stretch with few if any outright heroes or villains.    Angelique is a vague presence that isn't even mentioned for long periods.   We didn't see Victoria/Peter at all for ages, after the conviction.   Barnabas had given up on her, and was focusing on revenge, for something that was about to happen, but hadn't yet.   Trask wasn't a murderer yet, and Barnabas could have been trying to break VW out or something, so who's the hero or villain here?

Joshua is doing admirable things finally.    No good Barnabas, no bad Barnabas, really.    No Trask.    So they may have felt they had to throw in a traditional villain, so Forbes became one.   Artificial?

Does Angelique have to personally hang around for eternity making each person BC loves die, etc.?    That's no curse to me.  Curses are supposed to work on their own.    Otherwise, it's just a threat.

I'm glad the Gaslighting was only briefly touched on, or else I'd never be able to look on Judith/Gregory the same way.  So many stolen elements from this storyline.    I didn't realize that 1795 too had this later phase, where they seem to be throwing in the kitchen sink.   I mean, it works, but Natalie just happens to be able to psychically summon a witch to the front door?     And she was hounding VW earlier? 

Why do they never flee from the house, with all their relatives dropping like flies every day?    I'd at least have hired some protection.

Sorry my observations are all sort of negative just now.    Actually, I'm consumed with this 'new' DS at the moment.

[IluvBarnabas]

I think Trask got what he deserved.

[spoiler]I mean he resorted to unscrupulous methods to get Vicki convicted....not something a true man of God would do. He would rely on the truth. After all he had Abigail and Natalie (while they were both wrong about Vicki, they at least honestly believed her to be the witch and testified honestly. He didn't need to coerce a witness (Forbes) into perjuring himself on the stand.

And I really doubt Vicki was the first woman he tried as a witch and see convicted and hanged. I wonder how many innocent woman he mercilessly tortured, persecuted and saw them executed.

However I do think rather than killing him outright, Barnabas should have bit Trask, put him under his spell, and have him exonerate Vicki. Then once Vicki was free, THEN he could have done away with him. Same thing with Nathan Forbes, Barnabas should have bit him and force him to go recant his testimony against Vicki (though that is ultimately what he did do the first time he went back to 1796 to stop Vicki from hanging a second time).[/spoiler]

[Willie]

That same thing bothered me about the 1897 storyline:

[spoiler]Why didn't Barnabas just bite Trask the first chance he got?  He knew from past experience that the guy was, well, can't think of a non four-letter word to describe him.  But instead he bites Charity.  Sure, that had some benefit, but if he would have just bitten "reverand" Trask in the first place almost all of his problems would have been solved.  Surely there couldn't be any sort of religious reason, like priests holding some special powers over vampires, considering Trask had his own wife killed and set about driving his next wife insane and tried to hop on Amanda Harris as soon as she came in the door.  Not to mention that he tortured the children at his school and blackmailed innocent people into working for him.[/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

Obviously Trask was nasty.  I only meant that the lines were blurred at this point.

[Midnite]

Midnite... well, it could be Captain Spaulding, but what are the chances of that, really?

Hmm, I'd guess zero since there's no one here with that name, and the same pretty much goes for Farewell Killarney. 

Obviously Trask was nasty.  I only meant that the lines were blurred at this point.

I understand what you meant.  And the line is blurred again when [spoiler]his ghost is hot on the heels of the real witch in 1968 and he becomes the lesser of two evils.  As much as I despised and even feared 1795 Trask as a kid, I actually enjoy seeing him victorious over Cassandra.[/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

AAA!   I caught myself in time to miss most of the spoiler.    I'm right where Prof. Stokes appears for the first time.

In 1795 you can see the Tower Room from everywhere in the house!

Joshua putting B in the mausoleum... he'a an everything-in-its-place guy, very literal and concrete-minded... so putting him in a crypt and making him stay there, as if he were really "dead", would be a neat way of wrapping up the situation for him, relatively.

Did I see the Petofi box, or just the box I keep mistaking for the Petofi box?

Too bad about the necessity for the crudely edited-in line "It didn't hit my heart." to explain why Forbes didn't kill B.

That is one ugly, ugly painting of Angelique that Roger loves.

An old spoiler informed me that we haven't finished yet with 1795, so i'll keep posting here.

[Lydia]

Anyway, Groucho wrote a song about this individual.

That didn't sound right, so I checked, and the song was in fact written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, the same dynamic duo who wrote Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Too bad Groucho never sang that.

Does Angelique have to personally hang around for eternity making each person BC loves die, etc.?    That's no curse to me.  Curses are supposed to work on their own.    Otherwise, it's just a threat.

My idea is that the curse took on a life of its own and dragged Angelique along with it.  She may have looked like a free agent pushing the curse, but really it was the other way around.  She was a markedly meaner witch after
[spoiler]Barnabas killed her
[/spoiler]
and I think her Master was cracking the whip.  Please note: I'm not making excuses for Angelique.  She made her bed, and then she had to lie in it.

I'm right where Prof. Stokes appears for the first time.

Gosh, when you do a marathon, you don't fool around, do you?

[adamsgirl]

Did I see the Petofi box, or just the box I keep mistaking for the Petofi box?

Great catch, Magnus -- yes, that is the Petofi box, and it will be popping up pretty often in all sorts of places before it officially becomes the repository for his hand. It's kind of like that awfully ugly, "traveling" afghan that wound up all over the place!

[MagnusTrask]

Anyway, Groucho wrote a song about this individual.

That didn't sound right, so I checked, and the song was in fact written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, the same dynamic duo who wrote Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Too bad Groucho never sang that.

Gosh, when you do a marathon, you don't fool around, do you?

Now I'm right where Lang's told Julia everything, and she's phoning the police!

I was just winging it on Groucho.   I'm not exactly under oath here, as Letterman would say.     I always enjoy bits of history though.

It's Lydia who sent the tapes, and while most people may look upon VHSs as useless antiques, I think sending a huge boxful of tapes of DS is a very cool thing to do, and thanks very much to Lydia.    They were needed very badly.   

Interesting bit on Ang and maintaining the curse, that I'll remember.

I'm assuming this thread is all spoilers to anyone who hasn't seen late 1795 or early 1968, and am counting on the thread title to indicate that to people.



Forbes in VWs dream: "To death... the best of all possible worlds!"   Nice to know you can still get an ale in the afterlife.

JF is very good at portraying agony.  Grayson was awful at conveying fear or as Julia she was told to ham it up, perhaps.   My ideal image of Julia Hoffman doesn't have her doing that.   She should be collected.

1968:

All I could think is, God, do I need a Dr. Lang.    I was right there with Barnabas, when the curtains were being thrown open.... that's my own fantasy, right there-- that some doctor would come along, solve my entire problem while I'm asleep, and suddenly throw open the windows and show me a world of sunlight I can live in without pain and hell from it.    My own severe light sensitivity was shouting out that they've got to give Barnabas a safe dark place to get to at a moment's notice, in case anything goes wrong, because that's one of my survival tactics.    If I'm out in the light at all, I have to always be aware of a place to duck into the second it gets damaging and unbearable.

Barnabas's sudden openness with Lang was great.    Some starved part of you gets fed, and you can recover some innocence very fast, I think.

Roger channelling Joshua--- I hadn't realized LE was doing a "voice" for Joshua really, until Roger started doing it.

I'm going to post this and come back... sometimes there's this "timing out" business I don't understand.

[Lydia]

It's Lydia who sent the tapes

This was pretty cool; I didn't need the tapes and they were cluttering up my house (well, anyway, contributing to the clutter in my house), and selling them was not an option.  Magnus provided me with an environmentally responsible way of disposing of them.  When I registered on this forum, I thought it would be fun.  I never thought it would turn out to be actually useful!

Great catch, Magnus -- yes, that is the Petofi box, and it will be popping up pretty often in all sorts of places before it officially becomes the repository for his hand.

And Magda talks about the magical qualities of box (or some such rigmarole) and I think:  "Yeah, right."  Incidentally, I keep trying, in vain so far, to get a good look at what's on the very top of the box - it almost looks like Arabic script, but that seems unlikely.

[adamsgirl]

I keep trying, in vain so far, to get a good look at what's on the very top of the box - it almost looks like Arabic script, but that seems unlikely.

I've been puzzling over that myself -- what kind of script was that. I suppose they deliberately didn't show it so as not to destroy the "mystery" of it.

[Pansity]

1795 is probably my favorite storyline. As for [spoiler]Angelique getting strangled, at that point, I thought she deserved it, even as a kid watching for the first time. Of course, it takes a lot for a witch to TRULY be dead, so Angelique came back, thank goodness![/spoiler]

Waves to Adamsgirl!


Angelique never IS really most sincerely dead (ask Judy) 

I, too, never thought about the Tim Shaw connection, but it sure is a parallel!

Yes, that was a very good parallel -- and a good catch!