Discuss - Ep #0468

[Watching Project]

Robservations #468

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

Re: Discuss - Ep #0468

[MagnusTrask]

I like how Carolyn's memories were selectively edited and rationalized post-Barnabas.  I wonder if Barnabas ever started to wonder at his good fortune from this point on.   It's as if some higher power is enabling him to make his way back into the light, against all probability... 

Did Vicki ever mention the mausoleum to Julia before this conversation, or did Julia's blurting out of the word "mausoleum" reveal that Julia knew more than she was supposed to?   If the latter, Vicki didn't pick up on it.

It's almost funny, Clark popping up in the shadows in the mausoleum.

[DarkLady]

I don't remember if Vicki mentioned the mausoleum to Julia before this episode, but she must have done a fair amount of raving when she first returned from the past, having so nearly been hanged and all.

Vicki and Jeff are getting along just fine until Lang walks in and the atmosphere suddenly changes. The tension between Jeff and Lang is all but visible, but the oblivious Vicki thinks they've never met. What happened to the "little governess" who told Burke Devlin that she could stand on her own two feet? Sheesh.

Lang seems glad to hear that Vicki is a foundling with no family. Hmm…

Barnabas's vampire spell seems to result in a lot of confused thinking, so maybe now that Carolyn is free of him, her memories would be vague anyway, even without the intervention of the writers. Just a thought.

Jeff pops out out of the darkness (yep, pretty funny as I remember) and pulls the ring in the lion's mouth. The secret panel swings open to reveal the hidden room, complete with a coffin on a plinth. This must be Julia's worst nightmare come true.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

What happened to the "little governess" who told Burke Devlin that she could stand on her own two feet? Sheesh.

Sadly, she is practically gone forever. And as things progress from this point, it's easy to see why Alexandra became increasing dissatisfied with playing Vicki. 

[dom]

Barn is cured and both Vicki and Carolyn are released from the vampire’s thrall. Thank goodness – out with the old and in with the new – but then again…
 
By chance, JClark visits in time to help Vicki leave the hospital. He and Lang have it out and we learn that there is a sinister aspect to their relationship. We also learn that JClark has a secret, it sounds like he doesn’t know who he really is. He is very protective of Vicki and Lang warns him of it. Lang questions Vicki and we’ve seen enough thrillers to know that he’s got something up his sleeve – some sinister plan for Vicki? Carolyn and Julia both look fresh & fabulous in this episode – so does Vicky for that matter. I like the scene with Carolyn & Vicki on the landing. I liked Barrett’s dialogue convincing Vicki that her trip to the past is all the proof she needs for JClark possibly and actually being Peter Bradford – if one is true, then why not the other? Vicki once again tries to convince herself that she was in the past by locating the secret room in the mausoleum and Julia accompanies her there. We see an unknown male figure lurking there before their arrival. My guess is that it is Peter, I mean, JClark. Yep, it’s him. He states he was on a walk but didn’t know why he ended up there. As Vicki recounts to Julia about being there and knowing where the room is but not remembering how to get in, JClark goes to the secret panel and opens it to reveal a coffin inside. Totally groovy ending – I loved it.
 
Afterthought: I also thought Julia knew about the secret room in the mausoleum. Didn't she and Barn discuss finding David's pocket knife in there? Maybe that was Willie. It's interesting to think that if the writers would have made it obvious by having Julia do something unrealistic to imply to the audience she already knows about the secret room, we, okay, I, would have probably criticized it as being stupid but if the whole thing plays out as it would realistically, Julia should not give us or Vicki any indication that she knows the room is there. I guess there are two coffins, one at the Old House and one in the secret room? I know this has been discussed recently but I don’t remember if it was in the context of the present or 1795, I imagine it was 1795, and now, I can’t remember just where Barn is residing in the future/present. Of course, it matters not, being he is 'cured' - there's no worry about him being found in one or the other.

[MagnusTrask]

dom - There was a scene in 1967 in which Barnabas took Julia to the secret room.  It may have been the same one in which he relates to her his woefully-mistaken account of Uncle Jerimiah bringing Josette home as his bride.   In fact, the two of them were trapped in there for awhile when a couple of characters came by.  What I wonder is if Vicki knew that Julia knew about it... Vicki may have brought it up earlier, but I've forgotten.

DL--  I think that given a murky enough memory, people might re-order their memories as Carolyn did.   She seemed sharp as a tack while being controlled by Barnabas, and afterward too, though, so that makes it seem far-fetched to me.

[DarkLady]

Thanks, MT. I guess we'll have to put Carolyn's selective memory alongside Barnabas's unconscious state as writer goofs.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I don't know if either are really goofs. On other shows I've seen vamps knocked unconscious from one type of physical trauma or another - and I've seen victims behave like Carolyn does. It's just the way things worked on those shows. And it's the way things work on DS. And as I've said before, I honestly don't have a problem with the way the supernaturally related elements work on DS because the show, just like those others, was free to make up its own rules. My only problem comes when shows violate the supernatural rules that they've previously set.  [spoiler]And, sadly, DS will be guilty of that in abundance when it comes to Leviathans.    But we have a long time before that storyline.[/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

I think Barnabas as a vampire was incredibly powerful, sturdy, strong, but hardly totally invulnerable to physical attack as if he were Superman.   We know he can only be destroyed by certain things, silver bullets etc., but that doesn't mean he can't be hurt at all, to a lesser extent, by other things.  Maybe this was a very bad car crash, in which a non-vampire would have died, in the position he was in, in the car.

[DarkLady]

True, MT. Barnabas is powerful, but not all powerful, so it would be plausible for him to be at least stunned by the impact alone of the car crash.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

While reading through the posts from last time around, I noticed that there was some bit of discussion about the strange storms that occur on DS. Well, not much can be stranger than what's really going on right now where I live. We're currently having a raging thunderstorm. The full nine yards - windswept and torrential rain and deafening thunder. And ordinarily in and of itself that wouldn't be strange - but get this: no one can see the lightning because the sun is shining nearly as bright as it ever shines! No pitch blackness that normally accompanies a storm like what we're getting. No - you need sunglasses! That's the sort of strange storms New England gets. So trust me, weather-wise, quite possibly nothing that happens in Collinsport is as strange as what really happens in New England! 

[MagnusTrask]

That's very odd, MB.  Where's it all coming from, the lightning and thunder, if it's sunny?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

There were very dark clouds overhead, and they produced the storm. But the sun was far enough down in the sky that the clouds overhead didn't block the sun. I can't say I've ever seen such a sky pattern before that's produced such a wild storm.    Normally a similar set up will produce a few passing sprinkles and that's about it.

So, it just goes to show that we should never discount the freakish Collinsport weather.

[dom]

Thanx for refreshing my memory Magnus.

[alwaysdavid]

The scene between Lange and Jeff is excruciating. They seem to have gone to the school of loud acting. Another noticeable dramatic fade out. I had to turn up the volume on the Vickie and Carolyn scene on the landing. Not sure if it was their scene or fallout from listening to the prior scene. Vickie once again thinks Jeff is Peter in the mausoleum and he magically opens the door to the secret room.  The gilded mirror that floats around the house in the present time is now on the wall where the liquor cabinet usually resides.