Discuss - Ep #0011

[Watching Project]

Robservations #11

[Midnite]

Carolyn:  "It was all very proper, mother. I called him on the house phone and invited myself up."

Regardless of who initiated it, I can't imagine anything less proper than an older man entertaining a 17-year-old female in his hotel room for an hour or more.  But at least it will give Maggie something to gossip about.

[DarkLady]

Proper, indeed! Carolyn's mix of boldness and naivete is alarming.

Poor Sam freaks out when he phones Collinwood and realizes Burke is there.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth sends Carolyn to get cream for Burke's drink (a White Russian?), but she comes back with ice.

That's all I have for now.

[Janet the Wicked]

Carolyn:  "It was all very proper, mother. I called him on the house phone and invited myself up."

Regardless of who initiated it, I can't imagine anything less proper than an older man entertaining a 17-year-old female in his hotel room for an hour or more.  But at least it will give Maggie something to gossip about.

Maggie??? What about the hotel innkeeper? What a blabbermouth he is!

I'd have to say though, that this was one of the most incredibly boring episodes I have ever seen. You got the hotel clerk drowning Sam with coffee, an extended shot of the telephone ringing, and the door upstairs in Collinwood mysteriously opening and closing. I guess we're supposed to surmise that it's Roger.

[Lydia]

I thought we'd see Maggie today, but all we saw was Sam getting a shock when he learned that Burke was at Collinwood.  It's a very old fashioned soap opera at the moment, because I really think that was the only plot movement in the entire episode.  But, unlike Janet, I didn't mind.  I enjoyed watching Mr. Wells, and once again I had thoughts about how different this show could have been.  Mr. Wells could have become the center of it - the kind, fussy little man always trying to help the people passing through.  Of course, we learned from Mrs. Mitchell in the first episode that not many people pass through Collinsport, but that could have been conveniently forgotten.  And then there were some details that caught my attention.

First detail (in my order of thought, if not chronologically): Sam mentioned the bar, and my impression was that he meant a bar inside the inn, and not the Blue Whale.  Two bars in Collinsport!

Second detail: Burke started me wondering exactly what the terms were of his release from prison.  Specifically, he must have served his full term, because if he got out on probation he would never have been allowed to go to Montevideo.

And the last detail that interested me: Elizabeth asked Carolyn to get Burke a drink.  Carolyn's 17.  Elizabeth doesn't strike me as the kind of woman who would be comfortable with having her seventeen-year-old daughter serving drinks.

[DarkLady]

Do ever learn what sort of drink Elizabeth intended to serve to Burke? (Presumably not strychnine!) If it was only coffee, that would have been okay--but Carolyn does return from the kitchen with ice. But then again, the Collinses generally consider themselves above the law.

[Janet the Wicked]

I think JB just messed up her line, said cream instead of ice.

[MagnusTrask]

Very weird blooper, with the empty foyer, probably due to the fact that we encounter the empty foyer twice in the episode, in the middle somewhere, and at the end.   Someone behind the scenes mixed up the two scenes I think.   Two false starts for background music that isn't supposed to come till the second foyer scene...?   We might have seen the mysterious door opening both times too, I can't remember.

Burke loves tricking people into not suspecting him, then basically telling them to their faces that he just pulled one over on them, but in away that they won't "get", or so he hopes.   He talks Carolyn out of her suspicions, then turns to her and announces that he might be tricking her, which he is.   He's as pleasant and reassuring as he can be with Liz, then turns right around and asks how much Collinwood would cost.   It's an interesting way to express contempt.  "I'm still fooling you, and you'll never realize it!"   That's how it is with Carolyn, anyway.   Liz does get it of course.... he's just jerking her around.

[loril54]

I have been having thoughts in the early days, one you can hear knocks on the door in Vicki's room, and you can also hear the phone. The phone I can understand.

Why is there no phone up stairs. Did they run out or wire. Did Jamison, or Liz not want to spend the money.

Carolyn wants to grow up faster, than her mother wanted her to.