Yes indeed, great episode!
Surprise, surprise, Cassandra shilly-shallied herself out of killing Barnabas. Does she never learn?
The four people other than Cassandra in this episode reacted to Cassandra's troubles in ways that fit them. Vicky was passive: she just sat and waited for Julia to find out what was going on. Come to think of it, that's not completely typical for Vicky: it seems to me that she was much more likely to do something silly that would put her into series-heroine-style jeopardy. Maybe Vicky is getting smarter after all. Julia, meanwhile, was active: all ready to kill Cassandra. Less than a year ago, Julia was half-crazy because she had helped Barnabas kill Dave Woodard, but now she's all set to do some killing of her own. I suppose she figures that killing a killer is OK - but did she think that a year ago? Next we have Barnabas, who is certain that he knows exactly what's going on: all he has to do is sit and wait, and Angelique will die without his having to lift a finger. Jonathan Frid really drew my eyes to him today - so taut and commanding, even though, not for the first time, Barnabas is not quite the master of the situation that he believes himself to be. And Roger was, as usual, clueless. What an interesting night for him! First Cassandra tells him their marriage is dead, then Angelique's portrait does something that no portrait should do on its own, and finally a dying woman, a stranger to him, turns up on his doorstep. Three events, which Barnabas and Julia know to be all part of a single course of events - but for Roger it's just an unfortunate but entirely unrelated series of events.
