Welcome to a certain ginormous portrait! And yes, also welcome to yet another music-box theme. Actually, I think we'll hear it only a few times more.
I believe that eventually people start referring to The Room as the Upstairs Parlor. Maybe it was intended to be a more private area for (part of) the family, as opposed to the downstairs drawing room, where they would receive guests.
Welcome back (again), Roger! I missed his stuffy blustering. He makes it plain to poor Elizabeth that he still detests Jeb.
Julia explains "Elliot"'s idea of Parallel Time in a nice bit of writing. Carrying a flashlight, Barnabas takes Julia to the East Wing and throws open the doors. [They were open at the end of the last episode, but they’re shut now!] The room is bare and dark. He starts to walk in, but Julia tries to stop him. I have a strange premonition, she warns him. Then she says it’s silly, and in the end they both go in. They are startled to hear a strange, repeated noise; when they turn around, they see that one of the casement windows is banging in the wind. As Barnabas shuts it, Julia speculates. How many lives have been lived in this room? How many moment of excitement and anger and pleasure? Barnabas replies, What frightens me is that what I saw here took place in the present; the Julia and Elizabeth in the brilliantly furnished room (as he too describes it) were wearing clothes of today. Then Julia speaks: I remember spending an evening at Professor Stokes’s last spring. Over after-dinner brandies, he talked about a theory he had been reading about parallel time. To explain, first Julia gets Barnabas to agree to the stipulation that they live in this universe in 1970. Then she recaps what Stokes told her: We accept the fact that our time is the only time that we can truly, truly know. Suppose time is like a road, and parallel to it there is another road. On one we live the lives we know, but on the other road our lives are different because we are in a different time band and we have made different choices. (At this word, Barnabas’s eyes light up.) For example, the oblivious Julia continues, in that other band of time, I could have made different choice when I was at college. Instead of being a doctor, I could have married and had children. (Barnabas’s eyes grow wide, as if he has never thought of his “dear friend” as a natural woman--shame on you, Barn!) Barnabas is absorbing this information as Julia continues: Barnabas! You don't think that through some warp in the time band that you have actually seen us living other lives? Then just as quickly she dismisses the idea: Oh, no, there has got to be a more rational explanation. Must there? Barnabas asks, his eyes shining.
Megan is all in black, but nobody has told her that her Naga brooch is so yesterday. Even as Barn tries to talk her out of her new existence--nice bit by Marie Wallace--Megan Disapparates, perhaps out of boredom.
Yet again, Roger browbeats "Loomis" for not knowing where Barnabas is. Now Willie is wearing a green sweater--was Orbach's having a sale? Later, Megan bites Roger.
Now, Sky is enough under Megan's spell that Barn and Julia rope Willie into staking Megan. But Sky is supposed to get in touch with Julia to tell her where Megan's coffin is. WTF?? It will all be over by dusk, Barnabas says. Julia prepares to leave. It won’t be safe for you to go through the woods alone, Barnabas frets. I have my proper protection, Julia assures him. She shows Barnabas a small silver cross on a chain, but he doesn’t even flinch or turn away or even throw his hands up in front of his eyes. [Thank goodness this storyline is almost done! The writers don’t even care how many stupid things they’re making the characters do!] Left alone, Barnabas wonders, What could be the secret of that room?
Julia distracts Elizabeth while Barn sneaks upstairs to the East Wing.
Barnabas returns to the room and opens the doors. This time he is rewarded. The furniture is still uncovered, and parallel Elizabeth (still in the pink sweater set and gray skirt) has brought a three-step wooden ladder (like the kind in fancy libraries). She seems unaware of Barnabas’s presence as she climbs up and starts to remove the still-draped painting from over the mantel. Hoffman arrives and objects. It should not be hanging here now, Elizabeth says. _She_ did not even want you in this room, Hoffman says with deepest contempt. How dare you come in here now? You will not take it down. _He_ is coming, Elizabeth argues. _He_ will not want it up. Then _he_ will tell us, Hoffman says smugly. Until then, let it hang. She smiles as she continues, Let everyone in this house see it. It has been covered long enough. She pulls the cloth away and uncovers an over-lifesize portrait of-- a beautiful blond woman with a self-absorbed, almost smug smile. She is wearing the blue sleeveless gown Elizabeth was removing from the wardrobe the first time Barnabas saw her, as well as matching over-the-elbow gloves. Angelique! he gasps in sheer amazement, but the others don’t seem aware of him. No, no! Elizabeth protests, climbing down the steps. No one must see it! Let everyone see it! Hoffman says defiantly--and let them remember her! How could anyone forget her? Elizabeth retorts in apparent disgust. Once again she shuts the doors in Barnabas’s face. Why can’t I get in? he laments. He pounds on the doors, calling, Let me in!....
