Discuss - Ep #0438

[Watching Project]

Robservations #438

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0438

[dom]

Interesting episode. I feel like I should've liked it a whole lot more than I did. It was like sex without climax. I expected Trask's demise and it didn't happen and on some level I was disappointed.

The vengeance plot begins - with Ben explaining to Barnabas the guilty verdict and why it was so. Annoyed and disappointed, Barn decides he will go after Trask, and gets his chance the very next dusk while Trask is there to cleanse the Old House of 'the witches' presence. For some reason I wasn't impressed with Barn's mental torture of Trask. I think I would have enjoyed it more on paper. And I'd hate to admit it but I am wondering if Trask really deserves it. This goes back to me wondering if he really believes Vicki is a witch or not. I had the same feeling about Abigail - and I think perhaps that Abigail was a victim of the times and that's why they had her die of 'natural causes' as opposed to being murdered. Don't get me wrong, there is a big part of me that hates Trask but there is also a part of me that wonders if he too is not just a victim of the times as well - meaning if he really thought he was right, then to what degree does he deserve to be victimized. Perhaps this conversation is premature.

Naomi has her day with Trask and it was a fantastic moment. It's like she was speaking for all of us who know Vicki is innocent - including the slap - I've been wanting someone to punch him in the face - a slap from Naomi is perhaps even better - like she said - what can he do about it - she's not a helpless frightened young girl - she's the mistress of Collinwood - how do you like THAT you punk MF?! It's too bad Bennett had so much trouble with her lines.

Random thoughts - I am glad Thayer was in this episode, Frid did well also IIRC. And I had to giggle thinking that when Barn was psyching out Trask, his delivery reminded me of an adult telling kids ghost stories around a campfire. I didn't care for the visuals but I liked that Trask was getting his comeuppance - I know; I am contradicting myself. I am conflicted, lol.

[DarkLady]

Naomi rules! Nice work by both actors, if I remember.

When a vampire is enjoying himself, everybody else had better look out. Nice scary job by JF, and TD was excellent as always.

Trask's room has the fireplace that we first saw in the cottage, and then in Angelique's attic room at the Old House. It has some sort of little warming oven built into the side. The fireplace smokes but that doesn't detract from the scary element.

[dom]

Is that Trask's place!? I thought he was in Angelique's room at the Old House. How stupid of me.

[DarkLady]

Yeah, he's staying at a rooming house in Collinsport. [spoiler]In a couple of episodes, Nathan will visit him, which he couldn't have done if Trask were still at Collinwood.[/spoiler]

Presumably Trask had to leave Collinwood after Abigail died, since he was her particular guest. Maybe Naomi threw him out after the scene they just had, but if she did, it's too bad it happened off camera!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

In all the times I've seen this storyline, I've never gotten the impression that Trask was asked to stay at Collinwood when he was summoned to Collinsport. I've always presumed that even from the outset he stayed in that room at the Three Bells. Have I always missed something that specifically said he was a guest at the Old House and then the new house? 

[DarkLady]

Now that I think of it, you are probably right, and Trask probably has stayed at the Three Bells since his arrival. Joshua wouldn't have wanted Trask at Collinwood (Old or New) because of the (all together now) scandal that would arise if the town knew that a witch finder was a guest at Collinwood.

[MagnusTrask]

Way to confirm all of Trask's ideas, Barnabas.  You're a fraud, you see witches where they don't exist, now the Devil will smite you for that!

I think Trask always rented a room, though I've missed all mentions of "The Three Bells".  If that was where Natalie and Josette stayed on the way out of town, it's out on the road, not in town.

With the old fireplaces, I'm always interested in the hatch on hinges by it, and whether that's a hole in the wall, that someone piles firewood in, from the outside.

[DarkLady]

I think the hatch is an oven for baking bread or whatever. They would have piled more wood directly onto the fire.

[alwaysdavid]

The best part for me was when Barnabas said that Trask would die in a horrible and slow way. Trask deserves every bit of it for his persecution of the innocent.  "your pressence here disgusts me" slap. Another win for Naomi. Later Trask begins to get the Julia treatment. "Soon you will die!"

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I think Trask always rented a room, though I've missed all mentions of "The Three Bells".

I haven't been rewatching all the eps lately, so I don't honestly recall if it's been established yet - but I've already rewatched Ep #442, and in that one it's established that Trask lives at The Three Bells. 

If that was where Natalie and Josette stayed

Yes, that's where they stayed. 

[MagnusTrask]

Yes, that's where they stayed. 

Then it shifted location like Eagle Hill did.  Didn't Josette and Natalie travel as far as they could before stopping at an inn?  Why would they leave Collinwood only to stop closeby in Collinsport?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I don't honestly remember them saying that they traveled as far as they could, but in Ep #405 Barnabas tells Josette that's he's made arrangements for her to stay at an inn just outside of Portsmouth, and in Ep #406, while she's already at the inn, Josette says that it has been three hours since she's seen Barnabas, so The Three Bells has to be less than a three hour carriage ride away. And presumably the Portsmouth Barnabas referred to is Portsmouth, NH because there is no other Portsmouth that would have been on the way from Collinsport to Boston. And considering that Collinsport is supposed to be around Frenchman's Bay, that would mean that they traveled something like at least 175 miles from Collinsport to Portsmouth, which was obviously one very fast carriage ride to have made the trip in under three hours!    But nonetheless, that's what was established the first time we saw The Three Bells. (And, hey, if people can walk from Windcliff to Collinsport when Windcliff is supposed to be 200 miles away, what's a 175 mile carriage ride in under three hours?!  )

Of course, the truth of the matter is most probably that the person who decided to use a shot to establish Trask's residence at The Three Bells (which might have very well been John Sedwick, who directed Ep #442) didn't even remember the history that had already been established concerning its location.