Thank you, Quentin, for clarifying Petofi's spell for us!  He said it prevents Magda from talking about Petofi as well as saying his name.

Beth is putting some stitches in the earth-toned afghan, which isn't surprising when you consider how often it's loaned out in 1897.

Petofi: "I could kill you in quite a number of other ways, couldn't I?"
Quentin:  "But the gypsies would still find you."
Advantage Quentin!

I was a little confused.  I thought that Pansy had totally taken over Charity, but it seems that she is still interested in Quentin.  The original Pansy didn't come across as being a murderer.

I agree the real Pansy didn't strike me as being a cold-blooded killer either. I also don't recall the real Pansy having even met Quentin either. Yet she's ready to kill to win him. Hmm...

I had an opposite reaction-- I thought the writers seemed to be working overtime to give us Pansy's motivations.  Her interest in Quentin was explained in #819 when she told him that her spirit has been hanging around because of him (and therefore, Magnus, she does know she's dead).  So it doesn't matter that she and Quentin never met in life because it was as a ghost that she became obsessed with him (and who can blame her?).

In this ep, Pansy's inner voice tells us:  "Let's face it, luv, you never really were a headliner, and no one to blame but yourself. When push came to shove you were just too soft, but you're not gonna be soft now, not unless you're ready to lose Quentin the way you lost Carl."  Then she smiles at her image in the mirror and says, "You really are pretty, luv. Far prettier than that whiny little item under the stairs. Well, she won't be whiny much longer, and what a relief that will be for Quentin."  She's deluded in thinking that eliminating Beth will be "a happy surprise"-- er, sorry, make that "an appy surprise"-- for Quentin.

Her monologue presents us with a newly empowered Pansy, but also one who has gone round the bend because of jealousy, and her singing at the end as she drags her scarf over Beth's unconscious face lets us know, if we haven't already guessed, that she is deranged.

The standoff between Quentin and Petofi was amusing.  I thought Petofi had him and then Quentin dropped the Angelique bomb and blew Petofi out of the water.  Great fun.

It was great seeing Quentin get one over on that bloated megalomaniac.

Major Milestones: ...
3. Quentin and Count Petofi had a standoff

Sally, are we no longer getting milestones not already mentioned?

That poison sure acted quickly on Beth! She collapsed as soon as she finished the glass.

It made me think of the boyfriend collapsing immediately after downing his tainted drink in the "Paparazzi" video.  (And Lady Gaga used a poison ring.  Who does she think she is-- Cassandra?)

Anyway, I wonder if Charity used hemlock.  If so, they may have taken "the blood of Socrates" nickname a bit too literally by making it red.

Apparently, Quentin has the ability to walk through locked doors.  When Magda asks him to let her in, he doesn't use a key but simply turns the knob.

LOL  It's no wonder that his werewolf never met a door he couldn't open.

A suspenseful ep!

And Sky is wooden.

The problem with extreme closeups of pretend painting by an artist is that viewers can see that the brush strokes aren't changing the picture one bit.  Same thing when the artist lets his smock brush against his palette and there's no paint transfer.  

Charity/Pansy to Gregory:  "Are you angin'?  No, you are not angin'."
I love cockney speech.

Charles is in love with the ideal woman he painted?  How weird is he?

How much time do you have?  

Tied in a room alone where no one can hear him.

Just how many incorrect prophecies are we given in 1897?

Magnus, Tim does mention that Amanda would become a widow soon after becoming a bride.  I suppose that as Tim sees it, Gregory has already killed his first wife, and if he murders Judith or however else he gets her out of the way, killing him would be a justified penalty-- an eye for an eye and all that.  Though if you ask me, Tim would be no better than Gregory.

Wasn't the reason Rachel turned up in Dirk's hideout that she was bringing aid and sustenance to escaped murder suspect Tim?  So if Trask hadn't had Evan make Tim kill Minerva, Rachel would have been home sleeping safely in her bed...although it's debatable how safe her bed was with Trask in the vicinity.  At any rate, it's a stretch to blame Rachel's death on Trask, but it can be done.

I'd guess that's it, but wouldn't that rationale also make it as much Tim's fault, because he made the decision to run (which, of course, brought unwanted attention to Rachel) and asked her to fund his escape?

Why should an artist (especially one like Tate) know how to preserve human remains?

But he wasn't preserving it; he was disguising it to look like Petofi's withered hand.

I imagine that Magda felt there was simply no escape from the wrath of King Johnny once Petofi wouldn't help her, so there was no point in trying.

Yet, in the following ep...  

DARK SHADOWS A View of Collinsport by Shelly Weiss Losty and Richard Boissonneau

Though she didn't buy it; it was given to her [spoiler]as a wedding present from Sky.[/spoiler]

I never bought that Angelique loved Quentin, but she had a very good reason for wanting him (quite badly!) that won't be revealed for another 30 eps.

Petofi to Tate, when he checks to see what masterpiece the artist is preparing:  "Oh, her."
What a coincidence!  That's my reaction when I see Amanda's face too.

Hmm, while she tries to convince Petofi to lend Tim the hand, in the background is... a gesticulating stage hand.

Why does Tim blame Gregory for Rachel's death?

It seems to me that Magda should have been able to tell King Johnny that the original owner of the hand had it without saying Count Petofi's name.  

I wondered why she didn't hide or escape when she had the chance using one of the secret passageways or panels.