Part Deux:
Maybe Vicki should have told Barnabas the Dream before she herself actually had it.... could that throw the cycle off, or something? (I realize that what I just said doesn't actually mean anything.) In Doctor Who, I think we would call that a Chronic Historesis. Damn, I think that's a real word, so now I have to go off and find out how to spell it.....
While dictionary.com is dealing with that... I think Stokes did something similar when he had the Dream, trying to throw everything off by saying everything himself, before anyone else had a chance to....?
Joe apparently dead on the floor right there in the Old House foyer.... Barnabas has to instruct Julia to "look down there by the closet door"... as if she needed to be led by the nose to see a body stretched out at their feet!
Seems it's spelled "historesis" or "hysteresis" and it's a difficult concept but I think I have the right word. Not one of you cares, do you?
I didn't expect Barnabas's offer of marriage to Ang. Human motivations are at the center in these episodes, as opposed to endless simple plot in the rest of the story. Ang has to pass on the marriage because of Nick! Ow, to say the least!
Barnabas, contemplating the "end", says to Julia that if he dies, Angelique will have won... and that he'd rather die than have that happen. What??! Someone should have walked on from offstage at that moment, and handed Barnabas a special Convoluted-Logic award of some kind.
I made a note: "Good for VW!" I think I was referring to her determination to stick it out no matter what. I like her at this point. Eventually she crumbles suddenly for no apparent reason, though. It was much harder than she let on, maybe. I know sleeplessness.
At the start of an episode we get A Moltke's voiceover, and while it's still going on, we fade in to Vicki pacing, while we continue to hear her voice, talking about Vicki in the third person. Peculiar.
I could sense the Julia-on-Casselique slap action coming, and I was right. Still great and perfect, though. Perhaps Barnabas could tell Julia where those duelling pistols of his went to.... The characters and events matter a great deal at this point, as opposed to earlier and later where they plod along and spin their wheels, and we don't get any reflection from the characters on what's happening. That slap was very basically human and grounds the story and makes it matter on a gut-level.
And finally (for now)... Julia weasels out of staking Barnabas is an especially insane way. She knew burial would be the same as being chained in the coffin, but worse. She was burying him "alive" whether he becomes a vampire, or not. I think I may have yelled, "WHAT?" at the screen. What could possibly be worse than being buried and never being able to die? It's better for Julia, though, apparently just because she doesn't actually have to see herself pounding a stake into his chest.
Out of sight, out of mind!!
More watching, more posting, later.
