I find the Vicki's trial sequences and Vicki/Peter romance to be among the most snooze-worthy moments in DS history.
Totally in agreement with you on this, Gothick! Although 1795/96 overall is just magic, the trial and the romance are sooooo boring. But then the other time travel (1897, 1840) sequences suffer from the same problem. They start off with a bunch of really great and interesting ideas, but once they've peaked they just kind of peter (pun intended) out.
I have also kind of wondered why the Countess stayed on so long. Particularly after Josette's death, there doesn't seem to be any purpose to her being there. Perhaps like her lookalike Dr. Julia Hoffman, she's the house guest that just never leaves.
And just what the hell happened to Andre DuPres? He wasn't even around much after the wedding got cancelled. I certainly don't remember seeing him any time immediately prior to or after Josette's header off Widow's Hill.
It IS very strange that with all the deaths at Collinwood, nobody seems to be in mourning for more than an episode or two. Seems totally inappropriate for a rich family of the time.
I think that part of the reason nobody from later generations ever thought it was weird that so many family members died so close together was that Joshua rewrote the family history so that posterity wouldn't see how freakish the events of that time appeared.
With Millicent gone nuts, Daniel only a child and Ben slavishly devoted to the good memory of "Mr. Barnabas," there pretty much wasn't anybody around to contradict Joshua's version of events. If you'll remember, Naomi's headstone claims a much later date of death for her than 1796, as it must have been.
Makes you wonder how much of what we learn about history has a similar subjective spin on events.