Discuss - Ep #0792

[Watching Project]

Robservations #792

[Pansity]

Redux of the entrance from the day before.  Very Victorian formal, as the villain formally introduces himself.  “I want what you have”.   Oh the double entendre fun in THAT line!  

The Dancing Girl (Later lady.  I guess she came of age?) was made long ago by a Persian swordsmith we discover.   Oh that knife thing was well choreographed, once we got past Quentin’s ridiculously futile attempt to break away.  When they pivoted they were in perfect synch, like the knife had them physically attached.

Magda finds out about the hand being stolen, and she’s figuring she’s dead, that its King Johnny got the hand (which she now admits she stole).  But Quentin’s offhand remark about a YOUNG man throws her; it doesn’t fit with the gypsies.   Quentin’s all about Quentin again – she has to stay and help him find the hand.  

The scene as a whole shows  an interesting view of how their relationship is changing.  They keep working together, and he’s gotten over wanting to kill her; they work well together and it could be said even like each other.  And as much of an ass as Quentin can be, at least both he and Magda are being more mature about this than Barn is with Ang.    We never see any scenes or scenes showing how this happened, but apparently, at least on some level,  Magda and Quentin have both managed to forgive each other and move on.

Desperation strikes again, Quentin wants to summon Angelique to  get them out of this mess.   Nifty ceremony, not Evan quality, but quite good.  LMAO and what do we see next but Angie laughing at an Evan just now regaining consciousness.   She’s good, very convenient story and oh so sensible, just one more helpless dim female victim of Barnabas.  Slick move to try and get Evan to vouch for her, and it could very well work – IF they aren’t already suspicious of Evan because of one of his other nefarious activities.

LOL , Ang gets some great lines.  She gets the disjointed pieces about the hand and removing the curse on Quentin, and her reaction is: “You two HAVE been busy”.  So now she’s going to find out all about it,because neither Magda or Q will be stupid enough to get her mad after she specifically said she dislikes half truths.

Oh dear, now we find out that Angie will want a price, and it probably won’t be cheap.   But she does have a point: it would be hard to imagine him being worse off than he is at that moment.

Cut to the waterfront, with a flirty Angelique finding Aristede – and reeling him in like a prize codfish.  Another little poppet --- she does have this routine down pat – and he never saw it coming till she tightened the scarf around the neck.

Jeannie

[MagnusTrask]

With Aristede in town... Ang can really turn on a flood of spontaneous warmth and charm, and what kind of person must she really be, if she can be the way we know she is, and still be capable of that...   In that scene, the warmer she is, the colder she is...

[Midnite]

its King Johnny got the hand ... But Quentin’s offhand remark

NOW who's punning   

[Pansity]

Got me -- and I didn't even notice that one.

Then again, punning is an age honored fannish custom. 

Jeannie

[alwaysdavid]

The appearance of the Dancing Girl had slipped my memory. I had forgotten  what she looked like and that Aristede carried it. It was the knife flashing around that was very scary as a child, but now it looks kind of silly that Quentin could not escape it. 
Angelique seems to really enjoy that she has the upper hand with the Nickolas lookalike Evan.  The who's got the hand situation reminds me of the pen from the early days.
Angelique calls herself a puppeteer.  It would make one wonder, if she were not behind everything going on, if only the writers were that advanced in their storytelling as Sam Hall wants people to remember him.

[EmeraldRose]

Major Milestones:
1. The first time the "Dancing Girl" knife was used by Aristede.
2. The phone number to Collinwood was 332 - that's the number Evan asked for when he called Edward.
3. Angelique found out about the Hand and Quentin's face from Evan. She then told Evan to help her "smooth things over" with the Collins family for her by lying that he knew her before she knew Barnabas, so she could distance herself from Barnabas.
4. Angelique flirted with Aristede and made up a story that she was a puppeteer. She tricked him into giving her his handkerchief so she could "strangle" him with her poppet in order to get the Hand from him.
5. Quentin and Magda were getting along very well and appeared to have forgiven each other; they were working together. Quentin didn't want her to run away.

Michael Stroka delivered his opening line much better at the beginning of this episode. I like how Aristede said the word "very" as he was talking to Quentin. It was really neat when Quentin turned around when Aristede had the "dancing girl" at his throat. I agree with Jeannie - it did seem like the knife had them physically attached. It looked like a dance step!

I loved it when Quentin orgasmically called for Angelique!  He really got into it. The way he spoke gave me goosebumps! When he spoke, "You are needed... NOW!" Ooh! Great line! Even though he had that ugly face, he still had that really sexy voice.

Angelique looked beautiful when she met Aristede. Lovely dress and hair. It was cute to watch them flirting with each other. "Where are you from?" "Anywhere and everywhere." Great lines!

It was the knife flashing around that was very scary as a child, but now it looks kind of silly that Quentin could not escape it.

I agree, alwaysdavid. Very well put.

----- Sally -----

[Midnite]

Unlike Sally and Jeannie, I don't care at all for Quentin's recitation of the spell to summon Angelique.  We know he can capably handle an incantation-- his plea to Osiris ("Let her burn for your glory!") comes to mind.  But here... he just sounds asthmatic.

I do love how Petofi's hand was introduced into the conversation between Angelique and Evan-- by a mention of an ordinary hand via her line, "In no time at all, Reverend Trask will be eating out of my hand," by her arm gesture as she said it, and by Evan's stunned reaction to both.

Also love Angelique's fancy dress, which I'm guessing was conjured up because it's not the type usually found in an Old House trunk.  Unless it's a trunk that once belonged to Pansy Faye.

Angelique calls herself a puppeteer.  It would make one wonder, if she were not behind everything going on, if only the writers were that advanced in their storytelling as Sam Hall wants people to remember him.

Ooh, very interesting, alwaysdavid.  Angelique does seem to relish pulling other peoples' strings.

Another little poppet --- she does have this routine down pat

Indeed, as MB's screengrabs demonstrate from #370 and when the puppeteer scene is repeated #793:





She's even recycling Barnabas' toy soldier!

And we get one of ProfStokes' pet peeves-- a choking Aristede who can still speak.

[Lydia]

The appearance of the Dancing Girl had slipped my memory. I had forgotten  what she looked like and that Aristede carried it. It was the knife flashing around that was very scary as a child, but now it looks kind of silly that Quentin could not escape it.

Yes, I agree, both on the previous impression and on the current impression.  That knife didn't look very sharp to me.

2. The phone number to Collinwood was 332 - that's the number Evan asked for when he called Edward.

Yes, I was surprised that it wasn't 4099 - I think that's the number on the 20th century phone, but of course this isn't the 20th century.  Interesting that Collinwood had a three-digit number; I would have expected a two-digit number in a one-horse town like Collinsport.

Unlike Sally and Jeannie, I don't care at all for Quentin's recitation of the spell to summon Angelique.  We know he can capably handle an incantation-- his plea to Osiris ("Let her burn for your glory!") comes to mind.  But here... he just sounds asthmatic.

I was once again surprised by the enthusiasm of Quentin's incantationizing.  It always seems to turn Quentin into David Selby.  But when we cut to Quentin for our second look, after the scene between Evan and Angelique, for half a second there I felt this was something special - the Hunchback of Notre Dame (or something) doing his incantation in front of the black candles.  Incidentally, Magda was awfully casual about those black candles.  Did we know before that she had them?

Michael Stroka's perfect as Aristede.  But did Aristede really carry a bright pink handkerchief around?

[Midnite]

But did Aristede really carry a bright pink handkerchief around?

Unfortunately, yeah.