Discuss - Ep #0182

[Lydia]

Robservations #182

[Lydia]

Louis Edmonds brought David Radcliff of 1867 to life for me, and I thought: If only this storyline hadn't come so early in the show (not to mention Diana Millay being pregnant), we could have had a flashback to 1867, or 1767, or both!  The correct thing to do would be to travel back to the Phoenix's beginnings in Ancient Egypt, where of course everybody would have thought the name Laura Murdoch was very strange.  But I would really like to see David Radcliff, who apparently didn't have David Collins's doubts but instead welcomed the flames.  What role did Mr. Radcliff play in this?

Suddenly Roger seems to care about David, after declaring time and time again that David is a little monster and that all he (Roger) wants is to send him away to school or with Laura or with anybody else who will take him.  All I can figure is that the time spent with Laura has made Roger take another look at David, and see him in a different light.

[DarkLady]

Josette finally realizes that it's up to her to give Roger that extra nudge, so she opens the ledger from the cemetery to just the right page. And what really horrifies Roger is what Dr. Guthrie DIDN'T tell him about David Radcliffe, perhaps out of kindness--that David R. actually chose to join his mother and be immolated along with her.

Finally, Roger's on the team! 

[Janet the Wicked]

Finally, Roger's on the team!

Finally, is right!

Pretty cool how the scenes go back and forth from Roger and Guthrie to Burke and Vicki, where one leaves off, the other picks up.

[DarkLady]

Thank you, Ron Sproat! 

[MagnusTrask]

Thank you, Ron Sproat! 

Thanks from me too.   Lydia-- I think that old David had all of new David's doubts, to start with,  how could he not have... and that we're now looking at a gradual mesmerization of new David so that he welcomes the flames too, in the end.   That's certainly what's going through Roger's mind, as he thinks back on David's decision to go with his mother, just before this.   David's getting less and less skeptical.   Roger sees the same pattern forming.   (David did express some doubts in the same conversation, but it's as if his own doubts don't matter to him, and won't affect what he does.)

I also think that we're seeing Roger's attitude toward his son transform suddenly and permanently, on camera, as we watch, because of his reading of the 1867 article.   He did express reluctance to have David leave for the first time, earlier in this episode, but his heart wasn't in it.   He had wanted David to go, but safely.   So he grumbled and cursed to himself, probably, but had to delay his moving away with Laura.

It was very different, though, when the 1867 article created in his mind the very real, very possible (even likely) image of his son being lured into being burned alive soon ... preceded immediately by Josette having opened the book.   Knowing it's all real drives it all home for him, and his humanity, buried under layers of accumulated cynical crud, shakes those layers off in an instant and remembers it can care.    This is just the kind of jolt that can do this.   Ron Sproat's been giving us some very unexpected DS character development.

[Watching Project]

The Robservations caps have been posted for this ep. 

[alwaysdavid]

David telling his Dad that he was almost ready to go wirh his mother and he saw himself in the fire and then Roger not quite believing was nerve wracking. We must be coming to some kind of climax soon.  Burke seems to be coming around from Laura's thrall.