Discuss - Ep #0724

[Watching Project]

Robservations #724

[alwaysdavid]

In the previous episode Barnabas says that the incense will return Quentin to the grave and then today he changes his tune and says that as long as Angelique controls him he will not rest which he should have realized from the beginning.  This episode really grossed me out as all I could see was the soup residue in Sandor's mustache.  There are some things that are better not seen on a larger TV screen.  I didn't notice it on the old 20 inch color set in 1969.

[Midnite]

In the previous episode Barnabas says that the incense will return Quentin to the grave and then today he changes his tune and says that as long as Angelique controls him he will not rest which he should have realized from the beginning.

The burning incense returned him to the coffin, but Barnabas knew it wouldn't be a permanent rest, so cement was added atop a deep grave to keep him in there (which seems cruel coming from someone who had a cross affixed to his coffin lid, but probably not since zombies have no feelings).  Big chunks of cement, like puzzle pieces, can be seen around the coffin while Quentin is placing Rachel in it, so I guess Barnabas underestimated Angelique's determination to use Quentin against him.

Who knew they had Quick Dry Cement in 1897?!

While Sandor and Quentin struggled in the graveyard, behind them are the tombstones of Laura Murdoch Radcliffe and Jeremiah.  The latter seems especially appropriate, since Jeremiah has some experience at tossing young ladies into his own grave. 

Does anyone else besides me *like* this zombie plot?

[alwaysdavid]

I too, noticed the gravestones and was wondering if this was intentional foreshadowing on someones part.  I seem to recall that the Laura's were buried in a crypt with the Murdocks and not in the cemetery where the Collins are buried.
I am enjoying the Zombie storyline.  I had forgotten about it until Angelique said she'd make Quentin rise and also had forgotten about Quentin's possession of Jamison which ties into why Quentin would have targeted David in the present time to possess. 

[Midnite]

alwaysdavid, I'm thrilled you're enjoying it too.

Spoilers for Laura's timeline:

Laura Murdoch Radcliffe was buried in the old part of the cemetery in 1867.  But Laura Murdoch Stockbridge (d. 1767) was buried in the Stockbridge crypt.  (The Laura who married Jeremiah not too long after this was, I believe, also a Stockbridge, but please don't ask me to explain THAT.)

I don't actually have the years of their death memorized, but I know they died 100 and 200 years, respectively, before the Laura Murdoch Collins who died in 1967.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I am enjoying the Zombie storyline.

I enjoy that part of 1897 too, particularly because it's different from anything the show had done prior to it.

[Gothick]

I love the zombie plot!  It has some of the creepiest moments.  And there's an air of genuine pathos in Sandor's telling of zombie lore.

G.

[Pansity]

I like the zombie plot too,but I'd forgotten just how short it was.  It's fun and creepy like something out of Chiller Theater.  One thing about 1897 is that they knew exactly where to steal from and how to use the stuff they stole to best advantage.  Its the same reaction I get from the original Star Wars and the Indiana Jones movies; the more you know about the source material, the more fun it is to spot and go along with the steals.

Oh, and in the scene were Barnabas opens the coffin to find Quentin sitting there, I think the camera moved in on Selby before he was ready.  He suddenly went into the zombie frozen eyed stare.

Sending Santor for the attic for letters in a trunk that he put there 100 years ago?  Isn't Barnabas assuming a lot that NO one would have touched the trunk in 100 years?

Jeannie

[Lydia]

Sending Santor for the attic for letters in a trunk that he put there 100 years ago?  Isn't Barnabas assuming a lot that NO one would have touched the trunk in 100 years?

What got me was the idea that there was only one old trunk in the attic.

I too like the zombie subplot, and David Selby is excellent as a zombie!  His eyes are wide open, and his arms and legs seem a mile long as they move mechanically around.

I wish we could have seen Carl mixing the Quick Dry Cement up and pouring it out while Judith stood over him telling him to hurry up.  By the way, when was concrete invented?  Would they have known about it in the boondocks of Martinique in the early 1790s?  What is the French for concrete?  And does anybody else think it unlikely that Anthony George's Jeremiah would be fascinated by Barnabas's account of the dezombification ritual?

Today I made Laura Murdoch Radcliffe's gravestone the beginning of a list of Various Gravestones, with a view to starting a Prop Project topic on them sometime in the future.  Of course, somebody else could beat me to it.

Golly, Rachel was thinking like me today!  Very scary, that.  "I like thinking about ghosts and witches and werewolves, but I don't believe in them.  Quentin can't be dead.  There must be another explanation."  Yup, that's how I'd be thinking in the same situation.  If a zombie picked me up and carried me to his grave, even with hands as cold as ice, I'd be looking for a non-supernatural explanation.  It's odd, though, that Rachel should have mentioned werewolves.

[Midnite]

By the way, when was concrete invented?  Would they have known about it in the boondocks of Martinique in the early 1790s?

According to The History of Concrete and Cement, ancient civilizations used concrete, but it was modernized into a basic cement in 1756 and something similar to the strong cement we use was invented in 1824.  So the zombies on Martinique could have been buried under something they couldn't dig through, especially since they didn't have the assistance of a powerful Angelique that wanted them to succeed.

As to the French word for concrete, you got me. 

[Pansity]

Thanks for the info on concrete, Midnight. So they got it right.  I always find it interesting that they get odd facts like that right, but drop the ball on character and plot consistancies. 

Lydia has a great point about Jeremiah -- he doesn't seem to me to be the type to write in full detail to make sure Barnabas knew ALL the details about a dezombifying ritual.  He seems too average and down to earth to be interested in such things.  Once again we get hints about a Barnabas who was interested in the occult, when we're shown no indication of this in 1795. 

Agreed about Selby's zombie turn. The degree to which he keeps his eyes open without blinking makes MINE hurt.  I think that's why I noticed that bit when the camera moved in on him.  The rest of the time he'd had the zombie goggle eyes bit from the second he was on camera.

Headstones would be a great addition to the Prop project.  I even spotted a DS prop in the most unexpected place when I was  in DC, but keep forgetting to make a topic about it.

And  on that being the ONLY trunk in the attic! 

Jeannie

[Midnite]

Once again we get hints about a Barnabas who was interested in the occult, when we're shown no indication of this in 1795.

Though pre-seance, we're told that human Barnabas had traveled to Barbados, where he dabbled in forbidden arts and learned Hurley's numbers from a whispering warlock.  Or something.  Unfortunately, the shock of learning his wife was a witch made him temporarily forget all this. 

[ProfStokes]

Though pre-seance, we're told that human Barnabas had traveled to Barbados, where he dabbled in forbidden arts and learned Hurley's numbers from a whispering warlock. 

 

ProfStokes

[Pansity]

OK, here we go. Barnabas as a numbers runner.   

Then again it would  be a form of time travel he hasn't tried before.  Think he knows what a polar bear is?

Jeannie

[Lydia]

I'm definitely missing an allusion here, but I do think that Barnabas probably read about polar bears one night in 1967 as a diversion from reading about late Victorian women's fashions.