Wakey wakey Quentinkins.
He’s transformed back, but finds himself prisoner, tied to a chair (with the obligatory torn shirt) in some unfamiliar place with stone walls. Footsteps come down the stairs to where he is. Aristede, again – who once again has lost track of the hand.
And down comes the pendulum (obligatory Poe mini plotline and, given the time it was shot, probably by way of a Batman cliffhanger). We fade into the credits with a nice shot of the horrified Quentin, who sees the pendulum descending over a table, and knows it doesn’t mean anything good.
Barn finds Ang in the drawing room, Risky. Oh LOL she tells him how risky it all is, and his reaction is that he can get away fast enough. She has to point out to him that it’s not HIM she’s worrying about, but herself. Doesn’t think of that, does he – only whether HE is in danger.
He wants the hand to give Julianka – but Angie won’t give it. Barn is in one of his “its all about ME” periods, and decides that the whole purpose of Ang’s deal with Quentin was to spite him – no concern for Quentin at all.
Interesting – she says she does care for Quentin , feels “strangely sorry for him”.
Barn and Ang are at it again – he always assumes the worst with her, accusing her of never having felt sorry for anyone in her life. She gives it right back, pointing out he never acknowledged she had feelings. (I would guess this includes him dumping her so coldly after their affair, which of course was the catalyst got the whole thing started.)
She’s making deals again. Now it’s she’ll give him the hand IF he doesn’t interfere in her plans for Quentin (makes you wonder what she knows about how the history originally played out, and how much a part she was in the original events. Is this HER way of trying to fix the damage Barnabas did to history, or is she just thinking of Quentin as a convenient way to keep her status with the family? )
A neat factoid to keep in mind with the pendulum scenes is that Mike Stroka claims (I thnk I saw this on one of the Anniversary tapes from a Fest), that both he and Selby went up on their lines somewhere in one of the scenes, then basically ad libbed it from whatever point that was, on. Story I remember is they knew the basics, but winged it on the actual dialog.
Funny, the way Selby played the terror before the credits, it gave the impression that he knew or suspected what Aristede intended. Now he asks questions that imply he doesn’t know what is up, and though, resisting, isn’t really fighting as you’d think he would had he pieced it all together. (Guess he didn’t read Poe any more than he read Dracula.
) Now Quentin gets to use the so far used by about every character statement : “you’re insane”. Yeah, telling him he’s insane is really going to change his mind about what he’s doing.
Note where on Quentin’s body the pendulum is positioned. I remember it moving at least once or twice as they cut back and forth to the scenes.
Barnabas has brought the hand and Julianka, not being stupid, insists on seeing it. JF made a nice blooper recovery here. He tripped over the words then got out the right dialog about curing the curse.
Interesting fact comes out here, Julianka says that she could count on one hand the number of people who understand the hand and know how to use it. Does that mean she isn’t the last hope after all, that there is another ?
So much for help. Julianka was there only for the hand. Barnabas keeps trying to talk her into it, but used everything but a reason that might have helped: the half gypsy children affected by the curse if it’s not removed. He keeps playing up the benefit to Quentin, whom Julianka has no reason to care about –but doesn’t even mention the children, whose plight might have moved her. He just goes straight to offering her money. Probably insulted her by doing that –but I don’t think that would occur to him. He doesn’t think much more of gypsies than Edward and Judith do. And to prove it, when she turns him down, he goes to his usual approach – scaring her with his vampire powers.
Aristede knocks on the French Windows, and whatever it is, Angie looks like the cat that ate the canary when she goes out to meet him. Ah, now we find out why Aristede came up with the elaborate plan for Quentin. Somehow he found out (must have been eavesdropping, since it’s not been told to anyone yet) that Ang is engaged to Quentin. So, he is using Q to get the hand from Ang. He is enjoying milking it out and tormenting her with the news that he has a half hour to live, and “he’s already started to die”. Cut to Quentin about to get cut by the pendulum, which now seems to be over his upper chest.
Anyone else wonder how Aristede set up such an elaborate mechanism in a few hours? He also doesn’t seem the type for so much manual labor.
Tune in next week, same Bat time, Same Bat channel.
Jeannie