Discuss - Ep #0774

[Watching Project]

Robservations #774

[alwaysdavid]

Well Vampire Dirk is sure on a rampage.  Tim, Judith and it looks like Rachel all in one night.   I'll bet Dan Curtis was in hog heaven over this episode.   Trask was once again his creepy self.  It was just gross as he was talking to Rachel and seemingly thinking of future plans for her now that Minerva is out of the way and then worming his way into Judiths life at the same time.   Maybe orphans just have to look in coffins for some reason. 

[Taeylor Collins]

VO: Joan Bennett

Recap from yesterday! Joan Bennett said there was “bizarre evil!”  I don’t think I would consider 1897 to be as BIZZARE as all that Adam stuff!  Talk about bizarre—now that was BIZZARE??

ICK!  Dirk! Blah!

I love how all the males bites are always aimed at the poor cameraman!  KLS piece (on that back of her head) is distracting me because it isn’t the same color as the front of her head! 

Boy, Gregory is laying it on thick.  Smarmy old ass! EWW Judith sure is getting a quivering in her spinster lions.
Dirk is one bloodthirsty vampire and RD is certainly guylined to Hades and back!  However, he disturbs me more than any other vamp, I think!

Joan looks like she drank 3 shots of espresso after being bitten while sitting in the Old House!

Are these people not scared of anything?  I wouldn’t not be opening a coffin in an old abandoned house underground!  What the hell?

Great episode though I had to deal with Dirk!  Crazy Vamp!

[Pansity]

Night is a wonderful thing – the mystery coffin is empty.  But along comes Dirk, and  has quite an interchange with Tim.  Tim just thinks he’s nuts, but  he’s about to find out the best part.

Oh they’re back to tormenting Rachel into confessing something that will convict her and Tim and get the real killers off scot free.  Wonder how they knew it was murder?  Isn’t it awfully fast even if someone did decide to do an autopsy?  DID they have enough forensic knowledge then  to pinpoint death by poison by whatever evidence there was?  It would have been easier for them to prove Jenny was murdered – if of course the Collins hadn’t probably managed to keep any doctor far away from looking at her neck for bruises.

YIKES here’s Judith being naieve and trusting. Ugh it doesn’t become her.  She’s too smart to be taken in this way.  That pretty green dress of hers apparently has a matching coat. 

Ok we have oblique reference to a servant, since Judith says she went to the school in a carriage and was taking it on to the Old House.  And here she is, going in the unlocked door (again) with no problem.  Oh oh here comes spooky Dirk right in behind her.  Interesting that no one comments on his changed appearance.  Guess they think we won’t understand he’s a vamp unless they overdo the creepy makeup.

And Judith gets chomped.  Futile, I know, but before he bared the fangs I kept hoping she’d grab something off the mantle and bop him with it and run.  One would think she has a coachman outside within screaming range for her to run to.

Oh wonderful, here’s our damsel in distress to complicate things even further.  Trask is talking to her, looking right at her, and doesn’t see the blood running down her neck?  OH, now he sees it.  And considering they already saw these with Charity, he should have a clue what’s going on.  Ok, Trask puts enough of it together.

But now we have the ingénue scared away from the Old House going to the old farmhouse, finding and (like Tim the dip) OPENING the coffin in the spooky abandoned cellar with a candle lit.    BOOGA BOOGA – HEEERE’S DIRK!

Jeannie

[MagnusTrask]

I think becoming one of the living dead did Dirk a world of good.   Some people only reach their full potential after they become a vampire.  Granted, not the best vampire in the world, but at least he's more interesting.   Someone somewhere asked how Laura's hold on him continued after Laura was gone.  Why not?   Apparently that's how Laura's hold works.   It's far more interesting this way.    I love the absurdity of Dirk dying, passing into this weird life after death, everything changes, he's not even human anymore, yet he's still pathetically pining for Laura!   

I also love the Dirk-Judith role-reversal scene, where Dirk gets to gloat his ass off.   

[Midnite]

Hmm, Tim had to feel around in the dark til he found the candle, but when the flame went out he could still see.  Then when the scene resumed after the opening title sequence, the red candle was relit.

The voiceover explained that Tim was under a spell, but nothing has been said about Dirk being under Laura's control.  So I'm still thinking that Dirk went insane all on his own.  In life he vowed to get revenge for what happened to Laura, so I think that explains his rampage.  Though... is it me?... or does his personality seem to not be all that different now that he's undead?

This was the only time a Joan Bennett character gets bitten on DS!!  Including HoDS!  

Dirk to Judith:  "I am be-going to become the master and you are going to become the servant."
LOL

You'd think Dirk would come to realize that the root cellar at Peabody Farm isn't the quiet, secret, out of the way spot he thought.

Maybe orphans just have to look in coffins for some reason.

Heh heh.  Maybe there's a contagious virus in Collinsport that causes its sufferers (you know, everybody) to peek inside any coffin they find?

Wonder how they knew it was murder?  Isn’t it awfully fast even if someone did decide to do an autopsy?  DID they have enough forensic knowledge then  to pinpoint death by poison by whatever evidence there was?

I'm thinking there's the teacup with nightshade residue for starters.  And then her symptoms.  Poisoning doesn't look anything like what we were shown, nor does it happen so quickly or resemble a heart attack.  Minerva would be quite ill, vomiting, cramping, lightheaded, weak, sweating, shocky, her pupils would dilate and body temp would drop, her breathing and pulse rate would slow, she'd start hallucinating-- in short, a mess.  DS made her demise look much more pleasant that it would actually be.

Interesting that no one comments on his changed appearance.  Guess they think we won’t understand he’s a vamp unless they overdo the creepy makeup.

I'm not sure if Tim noticed Dirk's appearance or not when he looked him over and asked if he was alright.  

[EmeraldRose]

Major Milestones:
1. This was the first time a Joan Bennett character was bitten on DS! Thanks, Midnite!
2. Dirk bit two people in this episode - Tim and Judith! Was this the first time there were two vampire victims in the same episode?
3. Tim and Rachel both opened Dirk's coffin when they found it! Dumb!
4. Evan's phone number was Collinsport 7453.
5. Trask found Judith and saw her bitemarks.

I knew that Tim would foolishly come out of hiding and say, "Dirk!"   It was amusing to hear Tim ask Dirk, "What's in it during the day?" Then Dirk said, "I am!" Shouldn't Tim have asked, "Who's in it..?" Grammatically incorrect.

Trask was such a scumbag. His wife was just murdered (essentially by him), and he was playing the grieving widower (when Judith offered her condolences) on the one hand and lusting for Rachel (as he was questioning her) on the other hand.

People should have known that Dirk was dead, because his eyes were so dark. He looked and acted very different.

It was fascinating that, even though Dirk had become a vampire, he was still obsessed with bring Laura back! RD really camped it up, baring those huge fangs like that. His speech sounded different, too, with those large fangs in his mouth.  

----- Sally -----

[Midnite]

Taeylor, I moved your post to here from the discussion for #775.  I just noticed it discusses events in this ep, and am surprised that all the comments in the other thread followed your post yet none of the posters mentioned the problem.

[Pansity]

I'm thinking there's the teacup with nightshade residue for starters.  And then her symptoms.  Poisoning doesn't look anything like what we were shown, nor does it happen so quickly or resemble a heart attack.  Minerva would be quite ill, vomiting, cramping, lightheaded, weak, sweating, shocky, her pupils would dilate and body temp would drop, her breathing and pulse rate would slow, she'd start hallucinating-- in short, a mess.  DS made her demise look much more pleasant that it would actually be.

Thanks, Midnite!  Interesting that they get so many obscure things right, but used a poison with symptoms so different from what they showed.  Something shifted in my brain when I was reading this, and obscure trivia popped out.   I realized that nightshade is also called belladonna, which was used as a beauty aide because of the way it dilates the pupils.

The teacup slipped my mind; though Gregory could have washed that out and gotten rid of it IF he'd chosen to just play it straight as presumed death for no known reason.

Jeannie

[alwaysdavid]

I would have to loved to see Clarice Blackburn act out what should have happened, but I suppose [spoiler]only the beautiful(Rachel) get murderously long death scenes[/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

I realized that nightshade is also called belladonna, which was used as a beauty aide because of the way it dilates the pupils.

It's also called atropine, and it caused my severe eye and neurological nightmare when I was given atropine ointment for a much less serious eye problem in 1983.   It's used to dilate pupils for eye tests.

[Taeylor Collins]

Thanks Midnite!

[Pansity]

I would have to loved to see Clarice Blackburn act out what should have happened, but I suppose [spoiler]only the beautiful(Rachel) get murderously long death scenes[/spoiler]

  alwaysdavid.  Also reminded me of one of Carol Burnett's classic movie parodies (do NOT remember which one, sorry) where the death scene went on and on, and every time you thought she was dead she came back to life for a few minutes, then almost died again.

Magnus, my sympathies of your horrible experience with the atropine!    Rather unnerving to know, since, as you point out, it's used every time someone gets an eye exam.

Jeannie

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks.... my life for the following quarter century has really been all about what happened to me from that one drug.

[ProfStokes]

alwaysdavid.  Also reminded me of one of Carol Burnett's classic movie parodies (do NOT remember which one, sorry) where the death scene went on and on, and every time you thought she was dead she came back to life for a few minutes, then almost died again.

Went with the Wind?

Speaking of too-lively dying people, it always bugs me when somebody who's being strangled on DS manages to release a bloodcurdling scream.  Where does the air for that come from? 

Magnus, I'm so sorry that atropine caused you so much suffering.  One's eyes are so delicate and so important; it's very scary to think about all the things that could go wrong with them, especially in the course of a routine procedure. 

ProfStokes